As always, it depends. If you're building a cookie-cutter high rise residential building, it's kind of well known and easy. The price has already been reduced

As always, it depends. If you're building a cookie-cutter high rise residential building, it's kind of well known and easy. The price has already been reduced to about where it is going to be. Typical floors mean typical documentation. However, as soon as you start talking about complex building structures and services, BIM easily pays itself off. Think automated finite element analysis. The key is to plan far ahead of time, and design far ahead of time. There is no automation today, it is all done by hand. But I believe someday, BIM automation will dominant the market. A few architects out there use procedurally generated shapes for architecture. A few engineers out there use AutoCAD plugins to streamline engineering services. BIM automation is already on the way...