standard

A move to Building Information Modelling (BIM) should include the setting of data standards and a library of reusable components

Setting the BIM standard

Thinking about investing in Building Information Modelling (BIM)? Consider including a shared data standard, writes Nick Harris from UK technology service provider CADline.

In my previous article I talked about the confusion we are encountering from small and medium sized organisations as they consider their options for adopting Building Information Modelling (BIM). Many companies are finding themselves under increasing pressure to develop a BIM strategy in response to client and competitive pressures.

CADline continues to field enquiries from customers wishing to buy BIM, but the type of organisation contacting us in this way is widening. Significantly, an increasing number of component manufacturers in the construction industry supply chain, which traditionally use software such as Autodesk Inventor to create product designs, are being asked if they can provide BIM data by their customers.

I have talked about our approach to simplifying the adoption of BIM within an organisation by deconstructing the process and focusing on the aspects that have the most impact on developing an effective BIM capability. In most cases the company will have identified the BIM toolsets that will deliver improved productivity to the organisation and will have given training requirements some serious consideration and decided on a comprehensive training and support programme.

The third piece of this jigsaw is process: how to create, manage and communicate this new BIM data. More importantly what data will be shared? To what extent is collaboration with customers and partners using BIM data necessary?

Whatever the answer is to these questions a BIM standard is advisable — as well as a library of reusable components that conform to a quality and format specified by the standard.

The complexity of the standard and how far reaching it is in guiding BIM activity depends on the extent to which BIM data is shared.

Companies that continue to deliver ‘lonely BIM’, which is mainly concerned with

adopting 3D modelling tools to streamline a is belief that some of the information will company’s own processes and whose out- be added directly using Excel. However, in put is not consumed by other parties, have anything but the smallest project informaless need for a shared data standard. tion it will be too complex and change too

The question we ask then is: What BIM regularly to maintain the dataset using deliverable do you anticipate your custom- anything other than BIM workflows. So the ers will require of you? requirement for COBie drives the need to

The problem in the past has been that it use BIM through the government’s new has not been clear what is expected of a procurement process. BIM deliverable. Is it a subset of the source It is not unreasonable to expect that model in Revit format, is it published data many of the organisations winning governsuch as a Navisworks file or a PDF or ment tenders will be the big name main DWF? What exactly is your BIM data going contractors that regularly have their names to be used for? Will it be used to continue to on the side of roads and buildings as they develop the design of the asset — in which are constructed and that they are well on case there needs to be a robust standard for the way to developing their BIM capability. co-ordinates, grids and levels? However, to deliver a complete COBie data-

Alternatively it may be used for estimat- set in the detail required, they will need ing or construction planning activities their supply chain including consultants where the consistency and quality of com- and component suppliers to be delivering ponent data is important. information in a similar format.

What about your existing standard? A The relevance of BIM to the component firm may have made some investment in manufacturer becomes more obvious as a introducing BS1192:2007, which provides detailed guidance about file naming and layer names in an effort to aid the consistent collaboration of traditional CAD data, as well as proposing the Common Theproblem ‘‘ inthepasthasbeen Data Environment based upon a thatithasnotbeenclearwhatis definition for a consistent shared data structure. expectedofaBIMdeliverable The answer, it appears, is coming from the UK Government. It has been well publicised as part of the ’’ government’s 2011 Construction Strategy that most, if not all, centrally pro- result of COBie and, arguably, a manufaccured projects will use BIM by end 2016. turer which provides models of its compo-

Of course, if BIM is going to be mandat- nents with COBie compatible data attached ed, then it needs to be well defined in terms may find its products used in preference to of expected deliverables. That is exactly those that do not. what the BIM Task Group, a government COBie has a detailed schema for the data initiative, has been looking to achieve over that may need to be produced from a BIM the last couple of years. project and so the basis for identifying a

Early on the task group established that standard that will inevitably become a the Construction Operations Building requirement for most public projects proInformation Exchange (COBie) asset data cured in future. schema would play an important part in For many of our customers COBie is reldelivering value to owners and operators as evant and processes should be developed a result of using BIM. Go to COBie at to support the delivery of the dataset in bimtaskgroup.org/cobie-uk-2012. anticipation that it is adopted across the

The COBie dataset is a readable format of industry as a whole, regardless of project structured asset data that builds as the type and customer. project is delivered, with the ultimate aim of delivering a complete register of compo- Construction nent and structure data about the asset. COBie is only one aspect of the standardisaThis should enable the owner to under- tion of BIM workflows that the BIM Task stand how they will operate and maintain Group is delivering to support the the asset to a very fine level of detail. Construction Strategy. The group has also

The standard is loosely based on a worked closely with BSI to produce the Microsoft Excel workbook with individual Publicly Accessible Standard (PAS) 1192worksheets for recording data as compre- 2:2012, which builds on BS1192:2007 to hensive as the original instruction, spaces, provide guidance on the project delivery zones, components and systems, and there aspect of the asset lifecycle. It also introduces a new term — Project Information Model (PIM) — to represent the data produced through BIM workflows through design and construction.

Later this year PAS1192-3 will provide guidance on the use of the Asset Information Model (AIM), the BIM data that is ‘handed over’ to clients.

These two standards provide comprehensive guidance on the collaborative aspects of BIM and clearly define important aspects of information sharing, such as the Employer’s Information Requirement (EIR) document where the employer is the client, and the Supply Chain Information Execution Plan (SCIEP) document, where suppliers will be expected to provide details explaining how the information modelling aspects of their part of the project will be carried out.

Any company expecting to work on a government project will have to ensure its processes and standards documents are aligned with some, or all, of these topics. Standards PAS1192:2 and PAS1192:3 are designed to plug straight into processes that adhere to BS1192:2007. However, if like many organisations looking to adopt BIM your standards may be of the ‘light touch’ variety and may have deviated from the spirit of the original, we have templates which can be adapted to your workflows while maintaining compliancy with the official standards developed by the BSI.

A BIM standard from many organisations goes beyond ensuring quality and collaboration compliance and actually provides detailed guidance for operating specific BIM toolsets. Companies considering adopting an Autodesk Revit or Bentley Building product should take a look at the BIM standards developed for these specific products by the AEC (UK) committee. Original contributors included some of the most high-profile early adopters and they give the type of guidance that a new adopter may need to set up the basics of the BIM workflow including templates, styles and documentation formats. Download the documents at: aecuk.wordpress.com/documents.

In my next article I will discuss in more detail the importance of component libraries and to the standardisation and productivity of BIM processes. Reusable components are the building blocks of BIM models from which, ultimately, BIM data will be derived.

If your intention is to deliver COBie data from the digital model of your asset then the digital components will need to provide the supporting data.