Automated BCF Data Extraction For BIM QC Communication Antonio J. Romero Requejo Bachelor’s Thesis Civil and Construction Engineering, Raasepori 2019 BACHELOR’S THESIS Author: Antonio J. Romero Requejo Degree Programme: Civil and Construction Engineering, Raasepori Specialization: Structural Engineering Supervisors: Mats Lindholm, Max Levander Title: Automated BCF Data Extraction for BIM QC Communication _________________________________________________________________________ Date 28.10.2019 Number of pages 53 Appendices 3 _________________________________________________________________________ Abstract According to multiple studies, communication in the AEC industry is a large, evident problem that should be addressed in order to minimize errors and maximize overall quality. Simultaneously, the AEC industry is taking a disruptive step by highly integrating Information Technologies and Automatization in its workflows to accelerate efficiency and provide better suited solutions. How industry members adopt and change to integrate this new work approach, will define how the industry will develop and who will emerge as leader in the next decades. BIM coordination is now an essential part of the modern construction process, both consuming and generating large amounts of information that result in the digital model that will be used to physically build and maintain the object. These large amounts of data result in an “information overload” situation, leading to dense fragmented data, lack of accountability, and failure to address problems among other, being this problem particularly acute as multiple disciplines join the model. This thesis tries to solve this problem by developing the implementation for an automated issue (topic) tracking and quality control dashboard reporting system that would, if not necessarily solve, help to mitigate this problem by turning the current issue tracking trough single files into a more manageable and integrated way of storing, sharing and presenting BCF information. _________________________________________________________________________ Language: English Key words: BIM coordination, Issue (topic) tracking, BCF, Automation, QA, QC _________________________________________________________________________ EXAMENSARBETE Författare: Antonio J. Romero Requejo Utbildning och ort: Ingenjör (YH), byggnads- och samhällsteknik, Raseborg. Inriktningsalternativ/Fördjupning: Projektering och byggnadskonstruktion Handledare: Mats Lindholm, Max Levander Titel: Automatiserad BCF-datautvinning för BIM QC-kommunikation _________________________________________________________________________ Datum 28.10.2019 Sidantal 53 Bilagor 3 _________________________________________________________________________ Abstrakt Enligt flera studier är kommunikation inom AEC-industrin ett stort uppenbart problem som bör lösas för att minimera fel och maximera den totala kvaliteten. Samtidigt tar AEC- industrin ett upplösande steg genom att i hög grad integrera informationsteknologier och automatisering i sina arbetsflöden för att öka effektiviteten och bjuda på mer lämpliga lösningar. Hur företag i branschen anpassar sig och förändras för att integrera denna nya arbetsmetod, kommer att definiera hur branschen kommer att utvecklas och vem som kommer att leda under de kommande decennierna. BIM-samordning är en väsentlig del av den moderna byggprocessen. Det både förbrukar och producerar stora mängder information som resulterar i den digitala modellen som kommer att användas för att ”fysiskt” bygga och underhålla objektet. Dessa stora mängder data resulterar i "informationsöverbelastning", vilket leder bland annat, till täta fragmenterade data, otydligt ansvar och misslyckanden med att lösa problem. Detta problem är särskilt akut när flera discipliner ansluter sig till modellen. Det här examensarbetet försöker lösa detta problem genom att utveckla ett automatiskt spårnings- och kvalitetskontrollrapportsystem som skulle, om inte nödvändigtvis lösa, åtminstone hjälpa till att minimera detta problem. Detta genom att göra det aktuella problemet att spåra enskilda filer till ett mer hanterbart och integrerat sätt att lagra, dela och presentera BCF-information. _________________________________________________________________________ Språk: Engelska Nyckelord: BIM-samordning, Ämne spårning, BCF, Automatisering, QA, QC _________________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements I would like to thank Max Levander and Ramboll for the opportunity to write this thesis for the BIM and Digi Center. To my colleagues in Ramboll for all the encouragement and collaboration. Likewise, I would like to thank Novia UAS and its faculty members, and staff for the support and encouragement received during all the years...Tack! To my parents, sisters and extended family To Jennie, Filip and Julian…for everything. Abbreviations • AEC: Architecture, Engineering and Construction • BIM: Building Information Modelling. Building Information Model. • IFC, .ifc: Industry Foundation Classes. File format extension for IFC files. • BCF, BCF: BIM Collaboration Format. File format for BCF files. • CDE: Common data environment • dB, DB: Database • URI: Uniform resource identifier • SaaS: Software as a service • PaaS: Platform as a service • IaaS: Infrastructure as a service • RFI: Request for Information • XML: Extensible Markup Language • JSON: JavaScript Object Notation • GUID: Globally Unique Identifier • DAX: Data Analysis Expression language 0 Table of Contents 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The BIM Coordination Case ............................................................................................ 1 1.3 Thesis Objectives .......................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Research Constraints ..................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Research approach ........................................................................................................ 4 2 Regarding BIM ...................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Collaboration in BIM Coordination ................................................................................. 5 2.2 The BIM Coordination process ...................................................................................... 6 2.3 Communication in the AEC industry ............................................................................. 8 2.4 The need for a BIM information manager ..................................................................... 10 2.5 BIM coordination data extraction ................................................................................. 10 2.5.1 BIM coordination data flow .................................................................................. 11 3 File Formats and Tools ........................................................................................................ 17 3.1 The BCF File Format ..................................................................................................... 17 3.2 The JSON file format .................................................................................................... 18 3.3 MS Azure and Cosmo DB .............................................................................................20 3.3.1 Data separation and security ................................................................................ 21 3.3.2 Creating a service ................................................................................................. 21 3.4 FME.............................................................................................................................. 23 3.4.1 Uploading to the server ........................................................................................24 3.4.2 Downloading from the server ............................................................................... 27 3.4.3 Current situation with Cosmo DB and FME ........................................................... 27 3.5 PowerBI .......................................................................................................................28 3.5.1 Reading Cosmo DB data ...................................................................................... 29 3.5.2 Data presentation and analysis ............................................................................. 31 3.5.3 Accessing BCF data directly from PowerBI ........................................................... 36 4 Technical Solutions ............................................................................................................. 38 4.1 The OpenBIM initiative ................................................................................................ 38 4.2 Parsing and data extraction.......................................................................................... 38 4.3 Data wrangling and code ............................................................................................. 39 5 Presentation of Results .......................................................................................................42 5.1 Data Mining BCF Files ..................................................................................................42