Information technologies, such as building information modeling (BIM), significantly improve the clash detection process, but the clash resolution process is still time consuming. Although some studies have devoted attention to this field, they rarely discuss the dependency relations between clashes, which impact clash resolution in practice. This paper proposes to adopt graph theory to capture clash dependency and harnesses the information embedded in BIM models. This provides decision support for clash resolution, specifically focusing on automatically generating a component change list to minimize potential change impacts. This paper maps this situation as a minimum-weight vertex cover problem and discusses how to use component attributes to calculate vertex weights for approximating component change impact. Then, a branch and bound algorithm is designed to search for an optimal component change list. The paper tests the framework in two construction projects, and the results show the efficiency of the designed algorithm. The validity of the proposed method is further supported by comparing the list generated by the proposed method with actual project solutions.

Building information modeling integrates information from multiple disciplines and significantly improves design coordination based on its visualization and parameterization, especially through detecting clashes. However, the process to solve these clashes is still manual and time-consuming. Some studies have tried to address this field, but they rarely discussed the dependent relationships between clashes. However, clash components are interdependent from functional and spatial levels, and ignoring the dependency may cause iterative adjustments for the same clash. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss clashes from a holistic view and design globally optimized solutions. This paper constructs a clash dependent network by analyzing the functional and spatial dependent relations between clash components and their nearby building elements. Based on the network, an algorithm is designed to optimize the clash correction sequence to minimize potential feedbacks. Feedback relations mean that the post-corrected clashes will impact the pre-corrected clashes, which may cause design rework. The proposed method is tested on a real project and the result shows that the optimized sequence significantly decreases feedbacks compared with the sequence detected by commercial software.

Smart buildings are the trend of the next generation's commercial buildings that link different building systems together with the Building Automation System (BAS). Building information modeling (BIM) assists in data exchange and information flow. Previous research has explored BAS and BIM integration for energy management, building design optimization and operation, and building fault detection and diagnostics. However, it is rarely seen to design BAS or exchange BAS information in different project stages using BIM tools. The current design of the BAS system is either using 2D drawings based on AutoCAD or vendor customized tools. Unlike the other building systems, BAS seldom participates in design-build BIM cycle but blends into facility management in the later stage. To tackle this issue, this research aims to set a fundamental step to facilitate information exchange for BIM assisted BAS design and operation using one of the BAS open communication protocol named Building Automation and Control Networks (BACnet) and open BIM standard Industry Foundation Class (IFC). This paper leverages Information Delivery Manual (IDM) and Model View Definition (MVD) methodologies to define an IFC subset schema (a BACnet MVD) so that BAS information conforming to the BACnet protocol can be represented in IFC data model for information exchange throughout various project stages with BIM tools. Revit and a web browser were used to demonstrate the implementation of the BACnet MVD for BAS information exchange. In this way, BAS information represented in the open BIM standard can unlock the potential of future smart building information exchange and integration.

Following decades of research, the potential of automated rule-checking applications for building models to boost the productivity in the AECO industry has yet to fully materialize. Most efforts have been dedicated to dealing with the complexities associated with formalizing rules related to building designs for computability. To make automated rule checking applications successful, data availability and accessibility are critical components that must be addressed. Unfortunately, to-date they have not received the same level of attention. To lay a solid foundation for a robust environment of automated BIM-based rule-checking systems, this paper proposes a novel approach of transforming building data into a simplified schema (BIMRLSS) as a means of addressing this critical issue. The paper also describes an implementation of the proposed approach on a traditional database management system, which offers the primary advantage of facilitating high-performance queries and supporting a wide range of query types in real-time. More importantly, this approach not only allows alphanumeric data queries, but also enables queries on the geometry by using various spatial operators. Allowing complex spatial-based queries provides a means to significantly simplify the traditional programmatic approach to BIM-based rule-checking. This data-focused approach allows us to lower a significant barrier that currently prevents BIM-based rule-checking systems from reaching their full potential, making the checking process easier and more robust. To highlight the implications and practical benefits of the proposed method, this paper also demonstrates several application scenarios by utilizing a wide range of queries.

Diverse industries have recognized the significance of a neutral data standard for seamless building information modeling (BIM) data exchanges and adopted commonly agreed schemes such as the industry foundation classes (IFC) schema for enhancing BIM data interoperability. To selectively employ domain-specific data exchange requirements, the AEC-FM (the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management) industries have developed their own schema with a subset of the IFC schema, named a model view definition (MVD). However, because of latent human errors, inadequate MVD definitions, and error-prone data mapping problems, the adoption of IFC for exchanging and sharing BIM data is frequently limited with severe data integrity issues. This challenging situation requires the detailed examination of the limitations of the heterogeneous IFC translation processes of the current BIM authoring and application tools. To accomplish this objective, the authors thoroughly investigated the two MVDs, the Coordination View Version 2.0 and the Construction Operations Building Information Exchange, broadly used as an international standard for developing the IFC translation processes, and then identified their intrinsic requirements/rules and developed rule-based data validation processes. These new intrinsic knowledge of the two MVD specifications will be fundamental foundations to create coherent BIM data exchange systems that are currently scattered and dispersed in heterogeneous IFC translation processes and structures. Newly revealed rules pertaining to these two MVDs have been executed with IfcDoc, which is the IFC documentation tool. This BIM data validation process is expected to not only accurately evaluate the translation processes between BIM native data and IFC ones but also help industry professionals ensure the integrity and the accuracy of their BIM data according to the BIM data exchange standards using the two MVDs. In addition, the outcomes of this research study are expected to bolster the interoperable BIM adoption and offer the values of greater consistency of BIM data exchange.

Building information modeling has demonstrated its advantage to support design coordination, specifically for automatic clash detection. Detecting clashes helps us identify problems, but the process for solving these problems is still manual and time-consuming. This paper proposes using network theory to improve clash resolution by optimizing the clash correction sequence. Building systems are often interdependent of each other, and the dependency relations between building components propagate the impacts of clashes. Ignoring the dependency may cause new clashes when solving a clash or cause iterative adjustments for a single building component. However, a well-organized clash correction sequence can help reduce these issues. Therefore, it is necessary to holistically discuss the clash correction sequence by considering the dependence between clashes. This paper analyzes clash dependencies based on building component dependency relations. We design an optimization algorithm for determining the optimal sequence based on the clash dependency network to minimize feedback dependency, which may cause design rework on a project in project practice. The proposed method is validated on a real building project. After comparing with the natural sequence detected by commercial software, we find that the optimized sequence significantly reduces feedback and automatically groups dependent clashes, which facilitates design coordination.

Building information modeling ( BIM) has been increasingly used to coordinate construction tasks, and one of its most widely used applications is automatic clash detection. Clash detection consists of discovering potential problems or interferences in the model, but it does not entail solving these clashes. Some studies have discussed automatic clash correction from the knowledge management perspective, but their approach to clash correction rarely discusses the dependent relationships between building components. However, a building is an inseparable whole and building components have dependent relations. Relocating one object to correct one clash may result in other objects violating spatial constraints, which may directly cause new clashes or indirectly cause them by relocating other components. The dependency structure propagates the impacts of clashes. Therefore, it is necessary to holistically solve clashes by considering the dependence relationships between elements. This paper analyses six kinds of spatial relations: intersect, penetration through, penetration, containment, connection, and impact relations, and designs algorithms to query these relations from an industry foundation classes ( IFC) model based on a bounding volume hierarchy ( BVH) structure. Spatial networks among building components are formulated based on these relations, and several potential network applications are proposed. The spatial network methods are tested on a real project, leading to help identify irrelevant clashes and reduce the number of objects that need to be changed.

The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) with real-time data from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices presents a powerful paradigm for applications to improve construction and operational efficiencies. Connecting real-time data streams from the rapidly expanding set of IoT sensor networks to the high-fidelity BIM models provides numerous applications. However, BIM and IoT integration research are still in nascent stages, there is a need to understand the current situation of BIM and IoT device integration. This paper conducts a comprehensive review with the intent to identify common emerging areas of application and common design patterns in the approach to tackling BIM-IoT device integration along with an examination of current limitations and predictions of future research directions. Altogether, 97 papers from 14 AEC related journals and databases in other industry over the last decade were reviewed. Several prevalent domains of application namely Construction Operation and Monitoring, Health & Safety Management, Construction Logistic & Management, and Facility Management were identified. The authors summarized 5 integration methods with description, examples, and discussion. These integration methods are utilizing BIM tools' APIs and relational database, transform BIM data into a relational database using new data schema, create new query language, using semantic web technologies and hybrid approach. Based on the observed limitations, prominent future research directions are suggested, focusing on service-oriented architecture (SOA) patterns and web services-based strategies for BIM and IoT integration, establishing information integration & management standards, solving interoperability issue, and cloud computing.

The complicated requirements of projects and the increasing number of project participants have resulted in numerous, iterative BIM data exchange processes for diverse domain professionals. When BIM data are imported into and exported from BIM authoring tools, the seamless sharing and consistent maintenance of BIM data throughout a building project require homogeneous BIM data exchange standards and robust validation frameworks. Several versions of the Industry Foundation Class (IFC) schema provide the schematic foundation of BIM data exchange standards. In addition, diverse disciplines have developed the Model View Definition (MVD), which refers to data exchange specifications defined as a subset of the IFC schema. However, BIM data validation against the requirements of the MVD and the limitations of this data evaluation process have not been thoroughly investigated, which results in syntactic problems, semantic errors, and unintended geometrical transformation. In an effort to address these issues, the research study involves the development of the MVD-based rule-checking features on the IfcDoc tool and includes the in-depth discussion of the complexity and challenges of BIM data validation following the Precast Concrete National BIM Standard. In addition, this paper describes identified knowledge regarding BIM data validation using the MVD relating to procedures, scope, and complexity, and includes the challenges and limitations of automated rule-based BIM data checking to which future researchers can refer in order to avoid revealed problems in their MVD development and evaluation processes.

Building information modeling (BIM) has been increasingly used for design coordination, and clash detection is one important application. However, some studies argued that BIM-enabled clash detection contains many irrelevant clashes. This paper proposes to use network analysis to improve clash detection from a holistic view because a building is an inseparable whole and the dependency relations between building components influence the impacts of clashes. A building component network centered on clash objects is built to represent component dependency. To build the network, this paper determines three kinds of spatial dependent: clash, impact, and connection. For clash relations, the paper further distinguishes four types: intersection, penetration, penetration through, and containment based on the intersection curves of clash objects. To improve generality, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) models are used to query geometric information and bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) structures are used to eliminate irrelevant comparison for expediting the query process. The paper tests the network method on a real project for improving clash detection and confirms that the method helps to identify irrelevant clashes in four scenarios and reduces 17% of irrelevant clashes. In addition, the paper uses the network to automatically group relevant clashes, thereby decreasing > 50% of the clashes initially reported. The paper also shows the function of the component dependent network to analyze the surrounding environment of clashes and identify central components for supporting clash correction.

Industry domains require distinct data and structures of building information models developed and tailored for their disciplines. To seamlessly exchange the building information models, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), which is one of neutral formats, has been broadly used the architecture, engineering and construction, and facility management industries. Model views definitions (MVD), which is one of the IFC sub-schemas used by domain experts and BIM software vendors, consists of IFC-mapped data exchange requirements of each domain and helps software vendors develop IFC import and export features that allow project participants share and exchange BIM information. Because of the heterogeneous translation processes and structures of IFC interfaces according to model views, their validation is imperative to ensure the integrity of BIM data and maintain a consistent data exchange environment. To accomplish this objective, this paper suggests a new approach to evaluating BIM data in accordance with diverse requirements of MVD. Since MVD entails various types of data exchange specifications, this research examines their embedded checking rule types and categorizes corresponding implementation scenarios. In addition, this paper involves rule logic and IfcDoc-based BIM data validation developed based on the logical rule compositions of identified rules types and checking scenarios. This approach is expected to support sharing consistent BIM data sets and confirming the quality of received data pertaining to the syntax and semantics of a targeted model view.

With the future becoming more technologically advanced with the modeling of all types of information across varying domains, it is imperative that the information contained in the models can be shared and exchanged seamlessly and effortlessly by the end user. The purpose of this research is to develop a methodology that would enable the interoperability of multi-disciplinary information models. Current methods of producing information models have been mostly dependent on proprietary software programs, non-compatible program languages, or standards specific to only a single domain. Therefore, the objective is to have a methodology that applies across the heterogeneous landscape of information modeling. Although the approach is extendable to other domains, the scope for this paper is for bridge information modeling (BrIM) and the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) industry. This research is motivated by the fundamental issues of interoperability, such as semantics, logic, and software issues. The use of an ontology, the formal naming and definition of the types, properties, and interrelationships of the entities in a domain, has been shown to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. This paper builds on the assertion that a well-established taxonomy, a formal hierarchical classification of terms, is the imperative first step in defining an ontology. Therefore, the focuses of this paper is a discussion of defining and organizing a taxonomy. An ongoing case study with a joint industry subcommittee of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA) is used to evaluate and validate the methodology. Preliminary results of taxonomy being developed by the case study is presented to show the importance of defining the semantic and syntactic information in a natural language to promote interoperability. By reducing semantic issues and maintaining consistency of terminology at the software level, reliable, automatic, and standardized electronic exchange of data can be ultimately achieved.

Collaboration within Building Information Modeling process is mainly based on the manual transfer of document files in either vendor-specific formats or neutral format using Industry Foundation Classes. However, since the web enables Cloud-based Building Information Modeling services, it provides an opportunity to exchange data with web technologies. Alternative data sharing solutions include the federation of Building Information Modeling models and an interchange hub for data exchange in real time. These solutions face several challenges, are vendor locked, and integrate Building Information Modeling applications to a third new system. The main objective of this article is to investigate current limitations as well as opportunities of Cloud interoperability to outline a framework for a loosely coupled network-based Building Information Modeling data interoperability. This study explains that Cloud-Building Information Modeling data exchange needs to deploy major components of Cloud interoperability such as Cloud application programming interfaces, data transfer protocols, data formats, and standardization to redefine Building Information Modeling data flow in Cloud-based applications and to reshape collaboration process.

This paper proposes a concept of an accessible BIM database that supports integration with geometry enabling simplified and efficient queries of the IFC-based building model. The simplified schema, BIMRL, is shown to be significantly effective for the purpose of an implementation of an automated BIM-based rule checking system. The schema has been shown to successfully work in both traditional RDBMS and the NoSQL graph database. It complements a missing piece in the current research of automated rule checking, which mostly focuses on the formulation and representation of computable rules involving logic, checking algorithm, and parameterization. Even though these present approaches have largely assumed that data is available and easily accessible from a building model, this assumption is typically infeasible in a real-world implementation. Building rules require not only base data explicitly available in the model but also higher level semantic concepts that typically involve multiple relationships and spatial operations, which cannot be captured explicitly in the model. Without addressing this issue, a rule checking system will severely underperform and will be filled with opaque algorithms that act as black-boxes.

In the building industry, building data such as objects and processes are described in Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model schema to support a neutral data exchange format for BIM tools interoperability. While IFC specification has been encoded in ifcXML format by buildingSMART to support XML-based data transmission, there is a lack of studies on the implementation of IFC specification using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) serialization. JSON is a key-value style lightweight data exchange format that has higher parsing efficiency than XML and due to the inadequacies of XML, JSON has been widely used in Web applications, specifically in Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) Web services. This paper highlights the need for JSON implementation of IFC specification and introduces ifcJSON Schema and its data content. The main objective of this study is to outline how IFC specification can be represented in JSON format. Therefore, the study explains the implementation of the IFC standard as a JSON schema to guide the creation of JSON documents. The ifcJSON documents can be used for web-based data transfer as an alternative to XML documents. Since current IFC specification release is IFC4 Add1, the implementation of ifcJSON4 schema is specified and guidelines for generating and validating ifcJSON documents are described. Additionally, this paper implements ifcJSON4 schema in a use case within the precast concrete domain by indicating the data content for a precast building element with its corresponding geometry representation, product placement, and owner history data. The analysis of results indicates that ifcJSON4 schema developed in this paper is a valid JSON schema that can guide the creation of valid ifcJSON documents to be used for web-based data transfer and to improve interoperability of Cloud-based BIM applications.

Successful implementation of FM-enabled BIM can be achieved with 1) a clear definition of what FM-enabled BIM constitutes, 2) a seamless and practical process of collecting the FM-enabled BIM data throughout project development phases, and 3) a well-executed interoperability plan for exchanging data between BIM tools and facility management systems, such as Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). This research contributes to the body of knowledge by first defining, and examining one of the first few pilots implementation of FM-enabled BIM, and discussing the challenges encountered and the lessons learned, and then by proposing a research framework for future researchers to systematically and strategically build the knowledge foundation on BIM for FM field. The implementation process described and the lessons learned captured in this pilot project provide valuable insights into the successful implementation of FM-enabled BIM.

This paper presents and discusses the requirements needed for the development of ontologies in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operation (AECO) Industry. With the increase of information modeling for all aspects of a construction project with a variety of software tools and technologies, there has been a major need of communication and exchange of information. An approach to improve seamless information exchanges is the use of ontologies. One major benefit of using ontologies is that the information and knowledge defined in the ontologies can be shared across domains. However, to do so requires standardized rules and requirements in order to share and promote reuse at the domain level. Significantly, with the increased demand of ontologies in the AECO industry, there needs to be standardization and consensus in the development and use of the ontologies to ensure the seamless transfer of information as well as realizing the full benefits of ontologies.

With the rising adoption of BIM in the AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owner-operator) industry, BIM content is increasingly more complete and valuable. Unfortunately, the data is largely locked inside the respective BIM authoring tool with limited facility for users to perform queries beyond simple queries on objects and their properties. Even with the use of open data exchange format such as IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), getting the data out of BIM is still not an easy task. This research focuses on defining a schema and transformation rules to bring BIM data into a form that is easily queried. The schema is defined using popular relational database structure following an established star schema model that is well-defined within the data warehouse domain. The primary aim of the concept is to allow flexible and efficient queries into the BIM data using standard SQL that removes restrictions on predefined queries, effectively transforming BIM data into an open and queryable database. Another major contribution of this research is the significant potential for supporting spatial queries. This is a critical feature often neglected in the current approach to BIM-based databases. This paper presents the integration of spatial operations into standardized SQL queries making the BIM data accessible for wide ranges of query capabilities. Such feature will allow much better visibility into BIM data for better decision-making processes.

With increasing requirements and complexity in building projects, diverse domain experts employ a neutral file format, which is exchangeable and interoperable among heterogeneous BIM authoring tools and applications in diverse disciplines. The Construction-Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie) is a set of the specifications of building data exchange pertaining to building asset information. For interoperability, COBie is defined as a model view, which is the subset of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema. For ensured interoperability of BIM data, using COBie model view, domain professionals and software developers need to identify 1) whether their IFC instance files include required information on building asset management and 2) whether their IFC interfaces accurately import/export IFC files according to the COBie specifications. However, since no approach currently supports this validation testing, professionals manually evaluate an IFC instance file and their IFC binding processes in order to identify semantic errors, technical problems, and translation mapping issues. To enhance the efficiency of this time-consuming and labor-intensive evaluation process, this study proposes a validation framework for evaluating IFC instance files pertaining to the conformity to the COBie specifications. In addition, this study formalizes the requirements of the COBie model view using identified rule logic. For validation, rules are implemented on a modularized validation platform developed on top of the IfcDoc tool, which is a model view documentation and validation tool.

Cloud-Based BIM Data Transmission: Current Status and Challenges Kereshmeh Afsari, Charles Eastman and Dennis Shelden Pages 1073-1080 (2016 Proceedings of the 33rd ISARC, Auburn, USA, ISBN 978-1-5108-2992-3, ISSN 2413-5844) Abstract: In the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry model-based data exchange methods are mainly based on manual file transfer, data conversion, and data-merge. File-based Building Information Model (BIM) data exchange is either in vendor specific file formats or neutral format using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). IFC Model View Definitions (MVDs) proposed by the US National BIM Standard can assist cross-platform BIM data exchange. Since BIM applications are steadily moving to the Cloud, the study of Cloud-based BIM data transmission techniques become significant. The main objective of this paper is to investigate how building data transmission can be managed in current Cloud-BIM applications and what challenges exist in the current systems. Therefore, in this study, methodologies for Cloud-BIM data integration are investigated. Features of each technique is specified. The strengths and weaknesses of current systems are indicated with regard to data transmission requirements for Cloud-based BIM applications. In addition, the study investigates the challenges to cross-platform BIM data transfer in making multiple Cloud-BIM applications interoperate. The challenges in current data transmission approaches highlight the need for an effective network-based BIM data exchange to address a collaborative BIM work flow in the Cloud. Keywords: BIM, Cloud Computing, Data Exchange, IFC DOI: https://doi.org/10.22260/ISARC2016/0129 Download fulltext Download BibTex Download Endnote (RIS) TeX Import to Mendeley