Construction & BIM glossary
The vocabulary you meet on a construction project and in BIM, defined in a sentence or two, without jargon to explain the jargon. The "In Bimpack" notes give the exact meaning a term takes inside the platform.
33 terms defined
The end client: the one who commissions and pays for the building, a developer, a public body, an industrial group. Their standing question: where is my project, and what is it really costing me.
The one who designs and directs the works: architect, engineering practice, consultancy. They coordinate the parties and report to the client.
The firm that carries out the works and manages its subcontractors. It is the one that feels cascading delays and quantity errors hardest.
A works speciality: structure, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, facade, painting. A project is split into packages, often given to different firms.
In Bimpack: permission groups mirror the trades, so each one sees its package.
The one who prices: they compute the quantities (the take-off) and the costs, before and during the works.
The person running the site day to day: crews, orders, schedule, surprises. Bimpack's central user.
The role that sequences and synchronises every party on a project, often a dedicated consultancy.
The person responsible for the digital model and for everyone using it properly. Today, often the only one who can open it: which is precisely what Bimpack changes.
The load-bearing structure (foundations, walls, slabs), then everything that comes after (partitions, finishes, services).
The services packages: mechanical, electrical, plumbing; heating, ventilation, air conditioning. In a model these are the runs that cross, and sometimes collide.
At handover the client inspects: the defects found are the snags, which the contractor has to correct.
The "as constructed" documentation handed to the client at completion: updated drawings, manuals, technical sheets.
Request For Information: a formal query between parties ("which finish here?"). Its answer often gates a task.
Building Information Modeling: the building's digital twin. Instead of flat drawings, the building is first built in 3D on a computer; every wall, door or duct is an object that knows its dimensions, its material, its storey, and therefore its quantities. The model does not just show the building: it knows things about it.
The open standard file format for exchanging BIM models, whatever software produced them. Think of it as the PDF of the building's 3D.
In Bimpack: IFC files are read natively, in the browser, with no licence.
A component of the model: a wall, a slab, a beam, a door.
In Bimpack: every element carries its properties, its quantities, a progress figure from 0 to 100%, and can be linked to a task and a budget article.
Several models assembled on one project: architecture, structure and services overlaid in the same 3D scene.
The maturity ladder: flat drawings (2D), the model with its data (3D), the model linked to time so every element has its task (4D), then linked to money so every element has its budget line (5D).
In Bimpack: 4D and 5D are the heart of the product, without carrying the jargon.
Finding collisions between trades in the model (a duct running through a beam) before discovering them on site.
That is the job of dedicated coordination tools: Bimpack checks, measures and links, but does not replace them.
The formats of 2D drawings coming out of CAD.
In Bimpack: they open in a dedicated viewer, with layers and measurements.
The schedule as a timeline: one bar per task, arrows for dependencies. The common language of construction planning.
A key date with no duration (handover, inspection), shown as a diamond on the Gantt.
In Bimpack: a milestone can complete itself automatically when its predecessors finish.
The link "task B cannot start until task A is done", painting after partitions. Delay propagates along these links, which is also how you see it coming.
Work Breakdown Structure: the schedule's hierarchy, phases, packages, tasks, subtasks.
In Bimpack: the WBS structure of your MS Project or Primavera file is preserved on import.
How far a task or an element has been completed, from 0 to 100%.
In Bimpack: task progress can colour the model, so the zones running late are visible in 3D.
A Bimpack term. The status a task takes automatically when a supplier order it depends on runs late. Nobody makes the connection by hand: it is already made.
Computing the quantities to be built: m³ of concrete, m² of partitions, metres of cable.
In Bimpack: quantities are read from the IFC model, embedded quantities where they exist and geometry where they do not, and every quantity stays attached to the element that produces it.
The document listing the works with quantities and unit prices, the backbone of pricing.
In Bimpack: a PDF or Excel bill imports in seconds thanks to AI and becomes a structured article list.
A Bimpack term. A budget line: code, description, unit, unit price, quantities. An article can be "manual" (quantity typed in) or "model" (quantity read from the 3D).
The amount allowed in the contract for a line.
In Bimpack: when an article's committed cost passes its contract budget, the line is flagged, before the end of the project rather than at the year-end.
What is already committed from the budget (orders placed), and what is left.
In Bimpack: updated in real time by the orders.
The request to buy an article from a supplier, with an expected delivery date.
In Bimpack: every order is linked to a budget article, follows an approval flow, and its delivery, on time or late, is recorded.
The reviewer's sign-off before an order commits the firm, or before a task counts as done.
In Bimpack: who approved what, and when, is recorded.
Thirty days of free trial, no card, on a real project, or fifteen minutes on the Features page to see how these words fit together.