Introduction to BIM for the AECO industry

Before you move forward with the course, download the course resources.

• Course overview
• Get the software

Understand the fundamentals of BIM, its advantages over traditional workflows, and its applications across multiple industries. Explore Autodesk tools such as Revit, Forma, and Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) to see how they fit into the BIM process.

• What is BIM?
• Incorporate BIM in the planning and design stage
• Use BIM in construction and handover stages

In this section, you’ll explore the key differences between 2D drafting and 3D modeling and understand how BIM workflows provide significant advantages in architectural design. Starting with a simple room layout, you’ll transition from 2D lines in AutoCAD to intelligent 3D objects in Revit, demonstrating the benefits of parametric modeling and improved design communication.

• Shift from a 2D to 3D BIM workflow
• Convert 2D drawings to 3D information models
• Use 2D plans to create 3D multi-story models
• Navigate and enhance 3D views
• Generate 2D construction documentation from 3D models
• Practice exercise

A key focus of this course is the setup and management of a common data environment (CDE) using platforms like Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). In this section, you’ll gain hands-on experience in working with project folders and using Autodesk Docs for effective collaboration. You’ll explore how BIM enables multi-disciplinary coordination, clash detection, and early issue identification—crucial for minimizing errors and improving project efficiency.

Note: To work along with the video lessons in this module, students will need access to ACC. Some lessons require students to have project administrator access level to follow along with the video lessons hands-on, however, watching the video lesson alone will give students the knowledge and understanding so that they can describe the process and explain the benefits of the steps in the lesson.

In the Teaching Supplements for this course, instructors have access to step-by-step instructions on the following:

• Providing product licenses to students.
• The creation of an ACC project.
• Inviting students to a project.
• Assigning permissions, products, and access levels.

• Access Autodesk Construction Cloud
• Create folders for organizing content
• Assign permissions for project integrity
• Create attributes to communicate BIM details
• Create and assign naming standards for ISO standards compliance
• Collaborate a Revit project model in the cloud
• Create and manage coordination
• Perform a clash detection
• Share a project model with other disciplines
• Consume a package and link a shared Revit model
• Practice exercise

This section introduces outcome-based BIM, emphasizing how modern tools like Autodesk Forma and Autodesk Insight enable data-driven decision-making for improved sustainability, efficiency, and long-term asset performance. You will explore how BIM is evolving beyond traditional deliverables into an AI-supported methodology that optimizes energy efficiency, daylighting, carbon impact, and user comfort, right from the early design stages.

• Integrate outcome-based BIM
• Use Forma for outcome-based BIM
• Use Autodesk Insight to analyze carbon
• Practice exercise
• Challenge exercise

This section highlights the key role of information requirements in the building Iinformation modeling (BIM) process, ensuring efficient collaboration, compliance, and structured data management across the project lifecycle. You’ll learn how key documents, including the BIM execution plan (BEP) and asset information requirements (AIR), guide the creation, organization, and exchange of structured project data.

To work along with some of the video lessons in this module, students will need access to Interoperability Tools for Revit. The interoperability tools are add-ins for Revit designed to help architects, engineers, contractors and owners with their BIM workflows. The guide provided in the Teaching Supplements details the installation of the Revit extension. 

• Incorporate BIM information requirements
• Read and extract information from a BEP
• Apply information from a BEP to a Revit model
• Read and extract information from an AIR
• Apply information from an AIR to a Revit model
• Export asset information from a Revit project
• Practice exercise

Now that you've completed the learning material in this course, you can take the challenge exercise to measure your skills on the topics covered in this course.

• Course challenge

Ready to test your knowledge? Pass this required test with a score of 75% or more to complete the course and earn a certificate of completion.

• Final test