Our extensive BIM modeling capabilities earn PrecisionPoint prestigious job

It’s been called the Carnegie Hall of basketball arenas and is known as one of the great meccas of college hoops. Assembly Hall is home to Indiana basketball and has been since it opened in 1971. This is the same year that legendary coach Bobby Knight took over.

Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., has also been made famous among sports fans of the Indiana University men’s NCAA basketball team. Considered sacred ground by many Hoosier enthusiasts, the massive field house is now wrapping up a $40 million renovation. The purpose was to add many of the amenities for which modern arenas are known – box seats, fancy concessions, and a jumbo video scoreboard.

BIM modeling for this project would be integral to its success.

Photo Credit: http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/10/14/indiana-dedicates-simon-skjodt-assembly-hall/

PrecisionPoint was honored to be awarded the contract to generate an existing conditions BIM model of the entire building. This BIM modeling process included interior and exterior architectural and structural features. Additionally, it encompasseds the mechanical, electric, plumbing (MEP) and HVAC systems throughout.

We received the BIM modeling contract from CSO Architects, an Indiana firm creating the designs for the renovation work.

Normally, a renovation project like this wouldn’t require a 3D BIM model the entire facility. However, the University Facilities Department lacked sufficient as-built record drawings for the arena. Therefore, they requested the entire arena be 3D laser scanned and a complete 3D BIM model be created. The results would contain all the renovations and changes that have taken place since the buildings inception.

“Modeling both interior and exterior of buildings is common for our team,” said Mark Hanna. “What made this a challenge was the sheer size of the arena. Consequently, this meant maintaining survey dimensional control became crucial to ensuring laser scans would have accurate fit and alignment.”

Our crews divided the BIM modeling scanning work into three phases.

First, we focused on the southern portion of the building where most of the renovations were planned. Over a period of several weeks, we captured more than 500 laser scans. These covered every inch of the arena.

Most of the outdoor scans – including the roof and facades – were collected with the long-range FARO Focus3D X330. On the other hand, the Focus3D 120 was used inside in the tighter spaces, including three basement mechanical rooms.

“Even during the summer, the field house was in continual use. Consequently, that really kept our crews on their toes, working around the athletic activities inside,” Mark said.

Once the laser scans were completed, we stitched them together. Then, we registered the resultant point cloud to the survey dimensional control using FARO Scene.

As always, one of the toughest modeling aspects in a building like Assembly Hall involved the MEP features. We broke the point cloud into smaller segments, each including one of the basement mechanical rooms. There we used the EdgeWise MEP software and its new ducting tool to automatically model the HVAC duct runs and other electrical and plumbing elements.

“The entire mechanical and HVAC system were to be upgraded in the renovation. The MEP designers needed to know precisely where the existing as-built ducting was with all its bends and turns,” said Mark. “Each of those mechanical rooms was crammed with ducts, pipes and conduit. Getting this data would have taken months to hand measure and model manually.”

Ultimately, we delivered Revit as-built BIM modeling results that included the architecture, structure and MEP. CSO Architects is already using the models in the early phases of design work on the renovation, and the University will archive the entire as-built scan data and BIM model for future remodeling and additions to the House that Bobby Knight Built.