Providing innovative engineering services for the world’s most ambitious building project

For over 20 years, Pinnacle Infotech has been delivering innovative BIM engineering services to architects, engineers, and contractors around the world.

With over 5,051 landmark BIM projects under its belt - including the world’s tallest skyscraper in Jeddah and the 80,000-seater 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer stadium in Doha, Qatar - the company has become an industry leader in the adoption of BIM for seamless collaboration, integrated analysis and detailing, resulting in better-engineered solutions.

Bimal Patwari, Founder & CEO of Pinnacle Infotech, knows first-hand that with more demanding projects, tighter timelines, and budgets, there is increased pressure on project delivery and even less room for mistakes.

For Bimal’s firm, projects like the World Cup stadium in Doha – with its 80,000 air-conditioned seats at enormous cooling capacity of 884.5 m3/sec and the world’s largest membrane roof structure – and the record-breaking Kingdom Tower were ideal for accelerating the implementation of its BIM expertise and integrated engineering workflows.

Using Revit to perform and integrate over 18 different types of analysis and simulation has put Pinnacle Infotech head and shoulders above its competitors.

Doing calculations in Revit, then working in Autodesk^® BIM 360^® on a consistent model with all the latest data, gives everyone working on the project immediate access to accurate information. This enables the optimization of material quantities and equipment selection and sizing, resulting in a huge pay off during the construction phase.

On recent projects, Pinnacle Infotech has found that Revit calculations for quantities of concrete are significantly more accurate using BIM 5D modeling, rather than relying on traditional estimating techniques. In fact, its target is to bring down the industry standard of 10% to 15% of change orders required on all aspects of a typical project to just 1% to 2%.

“The beauty of this technology is that now you’re bringing certainty into the construction,” says Patwari. “What we’re producing is a much more constructible model which is value-engineered, so your construction will be so much faster, you’ll actually be ahead of schedule.”

What’s more, if engineers can use the Revit model to help a building owner understand their options, and cost implications of different engineering decisions, they’ll be less likely to request last-minute changes in the build, avoiding costly rework that can have a knock-on effect on the mechanical, electrical and structural systems.

Helping to inform design decisions, engineers are beginning to displace the more traditional designer/technician role, as firms like Pinnacle Infotech look beyond merely delivering documentation. Integration at the design stage allows engineers to engage earlier in the process together with architects and consultants working on these large and complex projects.

When it comes to recruitment, by embracing innovative engineering workflows the firm is finding it easier to attract the next generation of top engineering talent. “I think the younger engineers are very into the technology, and appreciate the bells and whistles of Revit,” says Chip Branscum P.E., Director of Engineering, Pinnacle Infotech. “If you can educate the young engineers with these innovative tools of the trade, you’ve got them hooked for life.”

So, what about the future?

As far as Pinnacle Infotech is concerned, it’s about using Revit and BIM 360 to break down silos completely, and applying end-to-end BIM with integrated engineering across every project.

“I think it’s getting all of the design teams, structural, civil, MEP and architecture to share a common model instead of working in their silos” says Branscum. “Collaborating in that single BIM 360 model and then handing it over to the general contractor to build is already bringing huge benefits. Everybody working in one model from end-to-end BIM, I believe that’s really the future.”