Benefits of BIM Digital Twins - What it is, and how to get started

In today's built environment, digital twins are redefining how facilities are operated and maintained. While BIM provides the foundation for structured asset information, the real leap in value comes when that static model is extended into a living, breathing digital twin. This shift unlocks new opportunities to optimise performance, lower costs, and enable data-driven facility management across the asset lifecycle.

What is a digital twin?

A digital twin is a dynamic virtual replica of a physical asset, enriched with real-time data from IoT sensors and building systems. With this live connection, facility managers can monitor conditions, gain insights from historical data, and proactively address issues before they escalate.

The visual twin

The foundation of any digital twin is the digital representation of the asset. There are a variety of ways asset owners and operators can obtain this. Historically, buildings were designed with 2D CAD files. These records are stored as physical copies in storage rooms or in electronic document management systems. In our projects, we have worked with such clients to digitise these copies to develop a BIM model.

The limitation of this approach is that the design documents are rarely up-to-date with the current condition of the assets (due to incremental works over the years). This leads to a visual model that is not as accurate.

In such scenarios, we typically propose to engage a surveyor to capture the existing conditions of the asset using LiDAR scanners. These precise instruments create an accurate digital model as a dense point cloud that can be measured. A Building Information Model (BIM) can be traced by specialists to create a precise, up-to-date BIM model through our scan to BIM services.

Why use BIM?

A BIM model is more than just a visual model. BIM is a structured data model that comprises both geometry (what you see) and data (what you cannot see). BIM allows asset owners to store plenty of information related to the asset, such as its manufacturer, installation date, or even sustainability metrics like its energy consumption or fire rating. Rebuilding the BIM model would be an essential part of any strategy that seeks to put useful data in the hands of contractors that are interacting with the asset.

The data layer

A BIM model has no awareness of the real world. It is stored as pixels in a computer. To bridge that gap with the real world, sensors need to be put in place to monitor the condition of the asset. This may include a variety of sensors that monitor heat, sound, gas, or humidity. These sensors are ultimately connected to the visual twin via internet-connected gateways that are placed on site.

With modern solutions like AWS IoT, it is now possible for asset owners to create this live data stream of information that feeds into their digital twin. At Bimeco, our AWS-certified cloud practitioners are trained to work with BIM specialists to marry the visual and data layer of an asset to create a BIM digital twin.

Access & monitoring

Once the BIM Digital Twin is set up, it is typically accessible via a web-based dashboard. There are a variety of existing solutions, such as Autodesk Tandem or Bentley Systems' iTwin Experience. These solutions will allow teams of facility managers to monitor the condition of their assets in real-time. When connected with modern document management systems, asset owners put the data in the hands of their contractors, allowing them to assess the condition and create precise cost estimates.

Outstanding issues can also be logged directly in the digital environment. By linking tasks and their resolution status to specific assets in the model, facility managers gain a clear, visual method of tracking maintenance workflows, ensuring accountability and improving overall efficiency.

Achieving sustainability goals

Asset owners and operators are typically backed by institutional investors to manage a large portfolio of assets. As the number of such projects under their portfolio expands, it becomes increasingly complex to manage the upkeep of their assets across metrics such as energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and sustainability metrics. Given the Greenmark requirements for energy efficiency in Singapore, a growing number of asset operators like CapitaLand, JTC, and Frasers Property are increasingly looking into the adoption of digital twin technologies to achieve these kinds of sustainability goals.

Managing ambient environment

Hospitals & Healthcare facilities are highly regulated environments due to the sensitivity of immunocompromised individuals and the potential for viral transmission. Air changes in operating rooms must meet minimum standards of 15-20 ACH, and the relative humidity of common spaces is typically kept at between 30-50%. Sensors can be placed in a variety of spaces to monitor the unique operating conditions of different types of spaces (i.e. operating theatres, pharmacy rooms, common areas, MRI facilities), and thereby reducing the need for any manual measurements which lead to increased operating costs.

Ensuring equipment uptime

Critical infrastructure facilities like data centres can rarely afford to have any equipment downtime. A typical tier 1 data centre is required to have a 99.67% equipment uptime, with any equipment failure resulting in hefty fines. To maintain equipment uptime, power, cooling, and maintenance schedules need to be monitored to ensure the health of their equipment. Given the extensive routing and cabling in such facilities, locating equipment for maintenance is an essential part of any maintenance workflow.

This is where the BIM integration comes in handy, as it allows contractors to easily locate a problematic component in massive facilities that can reach up to 20,000 sqm in size.

Bringing it all together

No single software solution can fully build and manage a digital twin on its own. A functioning twin relies on multiple layers working together: hardware to capture real-world conditions, connectivity to transmit the data, and software to process, analyse, and display insights through an accessible interface. Sensors and IoT devices gather inputs from the physical environment, while gateways and networks ensure these streams are delivered securely to cloud or on-premise platforms.

A Common Data Environment (CDE) often serves as the central hub for bringing this information together. It consolidates live sensor data, asset details from BIM models, and even static documents like PDF specifications into a single environment. By unifying these inputs, the CDE provides a reliable foundation for managing digital twins—supporting collaboration, decision-making, and long-term facility operations.

Digital twin services

As the cost of associated technology decreases due to advances in chip design, there is growing awareness of using cost-effective digital twins to improve the operational performance of physical assets. With rising energy-efficiency and sustainability mandates, more asset operators are engaging service providers to embark on their digital twin implementation strategy.

If you’re exploring how to implement digital twins in your operations, our team can help you chart the path. Get in touch with us to start your journey.