According to National Building Specification surveys, the percentage of companies using BIM has jumped from 28% in 2007 to 62% in 2017. By 2020, the number of companies using BIM is expected to increase to nearly 97%.
While the rate of escalation may be staggering, getting an industry to adopt the concept has been more than six decades in the making.
Dr. Patrick J Hanratty developed the first commercial software computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) way back in 1957. What began as a numerical control machining technology would soon evolve into computer-aided manufacturing. In 1961, Hanrattty developed Design Automated by Computer (DAC) which would become the first CAM/CAD software.
In 1975, Charles Eastman published a paper that would basically described BIM as we know it when he discussed ideas of parametric design, high quality computable 3D representations, with a “single integrated database for visual and quantitative analysis.” Eastman even designed a program that gave users a sortable database. And then in 1977 Eastman created GLIDE (Graphical Language of Interactive Design) which exhibited many characteristics of the modern BIM platform.