BIM-Based Automated Drafting System in Cabinet Manufacturing

Building information modeling (BIM) has become an important tool during the planning, designing, and construction phases in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Implementing manufacturing-centric BIM can improve the efficiency of communication, the interaction and the data flow between the builder and the contractor that manufactures the building components. In the construction industry, the information gap between builder and cabinet manufacturer causes cabinet rework and material waste, which leads to construction delays and cost increases. To address this issue, extending manufacturing-centric BIM applications into cabinet design and manufacturing can enhance the information exchange as well as enrich the information within the BIM model. Thus, this paper presents an automated approach based on BIM for cabinet layout design and planning in order to optimize the design and improve the drafting efficiency. An application prototype is developed in the BIM environment to achieve the objectives through the automation of drafting and planning with the support of Autodesk Revit. A case study of cabinet design and production for a residential building is subsequently presented to prove the feasibility of this application. As the main contribution of the proposed research, the in-depth integration of BIM model with the automated drafting system achieves full automation of cabinet layout design.