BIM) Interoperability Focusing on Data Not Tools
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36th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2019) Optimizing the Usage of Building Information Model (BIM) Interoperability Focusing on Data Not Tools E. K. Amoaha and T. V. Nguyenb abDepartment of Mechanical & Civil Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901 USA E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract – representation of physical and functional characteristics Architectural, Engineering, Construction (AEC) of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for and Facility Management (FM) industry rely on information about a facility forming a reliable basis for varied expertise to achieve a highly successful decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from project. The industry professionals in these fields earliest conception to demolition” [1]. A basic premise require greater level of collaboration in managing of BIM is collaboration by different stakeholders at the expectation of a project success. When every different phases of the lifecycle of a facility to insert, individual in the team uses different BIM software, it extract, update or modify information in the BIM to becomes stressful, time consuming and an excessive support and reflect the roles of that stakeholder. Use of use of budgeted funds to maintain accurate design BIM goes beyond the planning and design phase of the model version. It also becomes virtually impossible project, extending throughout the building lifecycle, to controls users, compare versions and analyze supporting processes including cost management, different models and data. Consider a large-scale construction management, project management and project for example, there are several teams and facility operation. different professional specializations coming Participants in the building process are constantly together, all using different BIM software’s they challenged to deliver successful projects despite tight have been tasked and making all those interoperate, budgets, limited manpower, accelerated schedules, and multiplying the challenges in several folds. limited or conflicting information. The significant Overall, data is extremely important, and no disciplines such as architectural, structural and MEP single firm would want to be held back by the tools designs should be well coordinated, as two things can’t they use, nor do they want to maintain various take place at the same place and time. Building disparate software packages. This paper seeks to Information Modeling aids in collision detection at the find optimal ways in addressing BIM initial stage, identifying the exact location of interoperability with emphasis on data exchange not discrepancies. the tools. The study reviews number of top vendors The BIM concept envisages virtual construction of a and manufacturers website and solicit their views on facility prior to its actual physical construction, in order BIM interoperability and how those companies deal to reduce uncertainty, improve safety, work out with the challenges of providing a product that problems, simulate and analyze potential impacts [2]. integrate well with competing industry software Sub-contractors from every trade can input critical packages. information into the model before beginning construction, with opportunities to pre-fabricate or pre- Keywords – assemble some systems off-site. Waste can be Building Information Modelling (BIM); BIM minimized on-site, and products delivered on a just-in- Software; Interoperability; BIM Collaboration; Data time basis rather than being stock-piled on-site [2]. exchange BIM can bridge the information loss associated with handling a project from design team, to construction team and to building owner/operator, by allowing each 1 Introduction group to add to and reference back to all information they acquire during their period of contribution to the 1.1. Building Information Modeling (BIM) BIM model. This can yield benefits to the facility owner or operator. For example, a building owner may find The National Building Information Model Standard evidence of a leak in his building. Rather than exploring Project Committee defines BIM as “a digital the physical building, he may turn to the model and see 1081 36th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2019) that a water valve is located in the suspect location. He are assembled across different organizations, disciplines could also have in the model the specific valve size, and phases you want the different discipline tools to manufacturer, part number, and any other information share information with each other and you want data ever researched in the past, pending adequate computing generated in one phase to be usable without re-entry for power [3]. Dynamic information about the building, the next phase. This is the foundation for openBIM. such as sensor measurements and control signals from You cannot have a true openBIM workflow without the building systems, can also be incorporated within interoperable software. Interoperability is about freedom BIM software to support analysis of building operation to work with the best in any discipline and for them to and maintenance [4]. use the tools they are most comfortable and productive BIM technology is receiving great attention in the with. architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) To communicate with each other systems, need to industry, and since it contains a complete set of use common data formats and communication protocols. information of the lifecycle of a structure in the form of Examples of formats are IFC, XML, JSON, SQL, a digital model, it is widely projected to be the ASCII and Unicode. Examples of protocols are HTTP, technology of tomorrow. By being a comprehensive TCP, FTP and IMAP. When systems are able to digital database, it is rapidly gaining acceptance as the communicate with each other using these standards they preferred method of communicating the design exhibit syntactic interoperability. professional’s intent to the owner and project builders For BIM tools to work together we need more than [5]. BIM has been traditionally used for design and its just the ability to transfer information. We need the use in the construction phase has also been increasing ability to transfer meaning. What is sent must be the recently. However, nowadays owners have realized the same as what is understood. To achieve this both sides potential of BIM and insist on inheriting the BIM must refer to a common information exchange reference models for further use. The owner can benefit from the model. We need semantic interoperability. BIM model as an archive of as-built information, for Interoperability between various software applications purposes such as Facility Management (FM) decision can be achieved in a number of ways such as: Using making tool or repository of materials. software that directly reads the proprietary file format contained in the BIM software application, which will 1.2. BIM Interoperability be the case for a suite of software applications developed by one software vendor; using software that Architecture, engineering, construction, and incorporates an Application Programming Interface facilities management are information intensive (API), providing a well-developed interface between industries, and are highly dependent upon effective software from different providers; and using software information technologies. Various software and tools that supports data exchange standards such as Industry are used to help with the AEC/FM design and Foundation Classes (IFC) format [8]. management tasks. However, currently the information 2 Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is passed from one project member to the next by producing paper based or electronic documents which BuildingSMART developed Industry Foundation can only be interpreted by people. These members must Classes (IFCs) as the open and neutral data format for also re-enter relevant information into their own openBIM with the aim of improving information professional tool. This manual data entry is a non-value exchange between software applications [14]. The adding activity, can often introduce errors into the specification of the IFC standard includes for each project, and inhibits the use of better computational major and minor edition: tools [6]. the IFC Specification html documentation With respect to software, the term interoperability is (including all definitions, schemas, libraries) used to describe the capability of different programs to the URL for the IFC EXPRESS long form schema exchange data via a common set of exchange formats, to the URL for the ifcXML XSD schema read and write the same file formats, and to use the The IFC specification is written using the EXPRESS same protocols [7]. One common use case for software data definition language, defined as ISO10303-11 by the interoperability is for the customers freedom to switch ISO TC184/SC4 committee. It has the advantage of from one product to another while keeping the data being compact and well suited to include data validation intact after the transfer. This is especially important for rules within the data specification. use cases where the data will stay in one system for a The ifcXML spec is provided as an XML schema long time (e.g. in Computer Aided Facility Management 1.0, as defined by W3C. The ifcXML exchange file - CAFM systems or cloud) to prevent vendor lock-in. structure (the syntax of the IFC data file with suffix “. In the AEC industry where,