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Faculty of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation Prof. Dr.-Ing. André Borrmann Faculty of Architecture Chair of Architectural Informatics Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Petzold
BIM and the public sector
27. July 2018
Report
Advanced Topics in Building Information Modeling
Gergana Popgavrilova
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Table of contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
2. BIM Policies ................................................................................................................... 8
3. Trends for development .................................................................................................18
4. Conclusion and Outlook ................................................................................................19
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1. Introduction
1.1. Interoperability
Data interoperability is a key to achieving worldwide standardization of BIM methods und
usage. An open-source approach based on open standards and workflows, the so called
OpenBIM, is the base for collaborative design, realization and operation of buildings.
OpenBIM was developed by leading software vendors using BuildingSMART data Model
and aims to support a transparent workflow, allowing user to design and maintain quality
project data regardless of the software tool they use. By avoiding multiple input and
consequential errors OpenBIM provides enduring project data throughout the asset life-
cycle.
Open data standards achieve common language and empower the exchange of relevant
data between software applications and thus an efficient communication among project
members. There is also a great financial incentive to use open BIM standards - once
information transfer is standardized, the cost of extracting it again and making quotes is
greatly reduced. Reaching industry wide consensus on open standards is critical, hence it
is important to demonstrate agreement on standards use not project by project by but at
once and nationally-wide.
An important driver of the BIM globalization regarding open standards is the government,
that has the power to avoid the situation of having several standards, created by the
industry, by for instance funding the development and establishment of open standards
methods, processes and data structures.
This report focuses on government BIM policies
around the world and on the extend of which different
countries have applied open standards.
1.2. Open data standards
Every standard is based on 3 main compounds –
Terminology, Process and Digital storage. Based on
that the open BIM standards are developed as seen
on Figure 1. BuildingSMART Alliance is the
international driver of open standards and has been in
charge of guiding software vendors like Archicad,
Grafpisoft and others, what standards should be
developed in order to allow a free and open exchange
of structured information and to improve
interoperability and quality of the data. There is a wide
range of industry standards and file formats available
for exchanging and managing BIM data.
Figure 1 Specifications summary (Source: BuildingSMART)
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Process Standard – Information Delivery Manual (IDM)
BuildingSMART Information Delivery Manual integrates business processes and
simultaneously provides detailed specification information that is required in order for these
processes to be carried out. Standards for IDM can be found in ISO 29481-1.2016, where
the interoperability between software applications is described and a basis for the accurate
high-quality information exchange is provided. Another standard is ISO 29481-2:2012,
which explains the needed methodology and format for describing the acts between
participants in the building project.
Data Standard – Industry Foundation Class (IFC)
IFC was developed as a neutral data format to describe, exchange and share information
specifically used in the building and facility management sector and between different
proprietary software applications. IFC has been the key to data interoperability in contrast
to native data, which is a proprietary software standard from the authoring tool of a BIM
model. A detailed description is provided in ISO 16739.
Change Coordination – BIM Collaboration Format (BCF)
BCF is a ‘simplified’ open standard XML schema that encodes messages to enable
workflow communication between different software tools. IFC contains GUID’s linked to
the objects and therefore is not suited for documenting issues or workflows. BCF, on the
other hand, separates the communication, in form from textual comments or screenshots
between coordination parties, from the actual model.
Mapping of Terms – International Framework for Dictionaries (IFD)
The data dictionary is one of the main components of a standard that enables a flexible
method of linking existing databases with construction information to a BIM model. It is a
library, based on IFD standard ISO 12006-3:2007, that specifies the language-independent
information in a model. Used to store and provide a reference between classification
systems, information models, object models and to prove models within a common
framework. Different countries agree on how to handle classification on their own. The
Netherlands, for example, use a comprehensive terminology - LexCon data and other
countries have an increased interest in IFD standard and are working to clarify how to
handle data classification.
Process Translation – Model View Definition (MVD)
MDVs provide subsets of the IFC data model that are in particular needed to support the
specific data exchange requirements during the life-cycle of a construction project. An MVD
provides implementation guidance for all IFC concepts, such as classes, attributes,
relationships, quantity definitions, used in a subset.
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Figure 2 IFD Library - a mapping mechanism (Source: BuildingSMART)
1.3. Construction Operations Building information exchange COBie
COBie is another non-proprietary data standard, delivered in a spreadsheet data format,
and contains a ‘subset’ of information for a FM handover (all except graphical data), so as
a specification for all of the spaces and equipment in a building. Originally developed by
the US Army Engineering Corps to reduce or eliminate the cost of construction handover
documentation and improve of the quality of that information so that it can be used
effectively by the facility manager, today COBie is part of UK Government’s BIM Level-2
mandate.
The bases of COBie methodology have been explained in the IFC/COBie report from 2012
by the National BIM Library of UK. The findings of the report are very straight forward: in
order to reproduce an electronic version of the current paper handover documents, 3 type
of information would be needed: facility maintenance, operations and assets. In other
words: what assets the owner wants to maintain, how is the information going to be
consumed and at what level of detail.
COBie structure
The contended of a COBie file includes a vertical and a horizontal decomposition of the
building, information about facility, floor, space and zones, so as the equipment installed in
the building. COBie responsibility matrix allows project member to identify responsibilities
for specific elements within a data set, demonstrates the mapping between IFC and
spreadsheets versions of COBie data and identifies the IFC filtering list, for the people
using IFC coordination view. Whether you use the STEP format, the IFC XML, spreadsheet
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XML or COBie light specification, the standard data model developed to express what
COBie information is required is contained in the IFC COBie model view definition.
Figure 3 The “Type” worksheet within a typical COBie spreadsheet (Source: NBS)
BuildingSMART Specification for a model view definition
COBie is part of National BIM Standard Version 2 published in March 2012 by the US. An
important aspect is the specification of the way that information can be transferred between
the spreadsheet version and the IFC version of COBie. Since its initial publication in March
2012 some additional changes have been included in the current version of COBie –
Version 2.4. For the initial specification of the FM handover version the BuildingSMART
has developed an important tool called ifcDoc Tool to establish consistent view model
definitions. This COBie model view identifies all the objects necessary to support COBie
and the relationship between them. It also explains how the objects correspond to elements
in real buildings and provides all the class diagrams necessary to understand all the
relationships between entities in the model definition. BuildingSMART has e specification
to map a model view definition into a spreadsheet for COBie found in the COBie
responsibility matrix. It explains how to map between IFC and COBie, so as the IFC entities
and objects are filtered out and not be included in the COBie data. Several different
products to transform from the Step format to spreadsheet format, such as COBie Toolkit,
that allows the user to define their information requirements and then export it in a COBie
format.
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Figure 4 COBie and interoperability (Source: NBS)
Questions regarding COBie, benefits and challenges of working with COBie
One of the challenges with COBie is for example the necessity of clarifying which
information should be contained in the Attribute table. The input for the table is defined by
the level of detail of the model, whose functionality needs to be correctly exported in the
IFC file and a COBie spreadsheet. If not the case, a big amount of data would be lost by
the transfer to COBie or on the contrary the user will end up with an unworkably large
spreadsheet. Another open topic is the naming of the object and whether it needs to be
explicit or it can contain repeating information stored in the parameters. In order to be easily
accepted by users COBie must not be restricted to a strong classification scheme, however
a clear description of which classification is to be used and when is it needed.
Additionally, the lack of knowledge and willingness to adopt COBie have been a setback
to its fully integration as an open BIM standard. The COBie data structure is well-defined,
but the governments must invest more effort in promoting best case examples to push
forward its use. The level of exported data and geometry information varies from software
to software, which raises the question of the quality of IFC export and therefore successful
use of Cobie.
The use of COBie is beneficial in many aspects. COBie’s provides consistency and
uniformity by being an open data standard, project team can share and store data in a
bidirectional approach. Never the less it allows neutral viewers outside a 3D BIM
environment to manage information and thus its use is proofed for the future. Another major
advantage is the ease of use and efficacy that COBie grants. Together with the use of IFC
it enables more efficient and cost effective practice for a clear and reader friendly
information flow between different facility management systems.
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2. BIM Policies
BIM stared originally as a practitioner-driven initiative that has been developing as a constant process of successes and failures of architects, engineers, contractors and owners in thousands of projects around the world. During the economic and building boom of the early 2000s, BIM started to become more important due to growing labor and material costs. Today, we experience a shift in focus from the initial costs to the life cycle costs of the entire building. This shift is connected to the several factors, such as growing energy costs, aggressive reduction targets for energy use and/or carbon emission, technology advances (cloud- based storage/services, data analytics. With the establishment of BIM as an irreplaceable method for cost and time savings, so as project quality incensement, more experienced users started documenting their best practices within their organizations. Some industry groups initialized establishments of guidelines and standards in order to easily and efficiently achieve the benefits of BIM. Nowadays one of the next important tasks of the public sector is to provide comprehensive
direction and guidance inform of BIM agreements or execution plans to all BIM projects
teams. The following section presents a scope of the great effort made by the public sector
owners to implement BIM as the next standard in building, so as a matrix of the matrix of
national-level government policies from a number of construction markets around the
world.
Figure 5 BIM implementation status around the world (Source: CADENAS GmbH)
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2.1. Government policy to encourage BIM use
A rapidly growing number of countries around the world have been adopting BIM
technology and applying it to building design, construction, facility management, and even
demolition. The United States is believed to be one of the pioneering countries for BIM
adoption. Many public sector bodies at different levels in the United States have
established BIM programs, set up BIM goals and implementation roadmaps, and published
BIM standards. Apart from the United States, many countries in Europe have embarked on
significant BIM implementations. The United Kingdom government, for example, mandated
that all UK government projects should use BIM by 2016. Although BIM adoption in the
public sector came later in Asia, BIM has now developed rapidly in Asian regions. For
instance, Singapore and Hong Kong have established their own BIM committees and
published several BIM guidelines.
One of the most appealing benefits of BIM to major economies has been their constant
strive for lowering long-term costs. Nevertheless, experts believe that only through BIM the
real estate sector can deliver qualitative building and at the same time be able to execute
resent aggressive energy reduction mandates.
Another driver of the BIM globalization has been the EU and their reform of the public
Procurement Directive to reduce costs and project overruns. To encourage EU countries
in adopting BIM in their construction planning and execution workflow, the EU Task Group
has published a “Handbook for the introduction of Building Information Modelling
by the European Public Sector “. The guideline aims to help governments and public sector
in the process of construction transition to the digital era, whilst encourage wider use of
developed standards and common principles. The handbook also gives a clear answers of
the questions “why” and “how” the public sector has to provide guidance to implementing
BIM countrywide and moreover it intends to support the procurement of delivering and
sharing neutral open data format for public projects.
Figure 6 BIM Integration around the world (Source dotBE)
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2.2. Influential Policies: Data standards matter more than Authoring Platforms
Governments and public sectors around the globe have the opportunity to simultaneously
encourage the development of BIM standards for use in the international building market.
National BIM standardisation and policy initiatives have been varying significantly in
different countries. Thus led to a wide range of government policies such as mandatory
requirement or laissez-faire approaches so as the different tempo which countries need to
reach their present BIM goals.
Public owners were the first to embrace open data standards for BIM information exchange
and so far have set the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as the preferred standard.
Furthermore, a growing number of the public owners consider to adopt COBie to capture
and deliver data needed for facility management. In general, the public sector has become
less concerned for the creation of the 3D model and the tools used, but have put more
significance on the quality of data that is exchange on different stages of the project and
its accuracy and usefulness. This trend shifted the conversation about BIM from accurate
modelling of the geometry to managing and preserving relevant data.
The following chapter provides a summary of the different government policies towards
BIM interoperability and the development of a common open data standard applicable for
public sector projects.
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Figure 7 Countries with National Mandates (Source: McGraw Hill Construction)
2.2.1. Germany
Digital Road Map for Design & Construction, Germany
Main topic: Document the value proposition and strategy. Use the public sector
procurement as a goal setter for introduction of the program.
In 2015 Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure launched a BIM
strategic Road Map or the transport infrastructure sector. Government and industry have
led the initiative “planen-bauen 4.0” and set the goal to applying BIM to all new public
projects in Germany form the end of 2020. The first of out of three maturity levels of BIM
implementation has been applied under the name of Performance Level 1. Its defined
criteria are to achieve vendor-neutral data exchange formats and to support interoperability
and neutrality towards software products and tools. Germany’s strategic plan is similar to
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UK Government’s Construction Strategy 2011, has set the clear target of supporting a
wider industry transformation in the next 5 years. The guideline is intentionally design to
set the base for an even more collaborative and open data environment, which includes
sharing of neutral open format data and not specifying vendor-specific solutions.
Figure 8 BIM Mature Levels (Source: Researchgate)
2.2.2. Singapore
Singapore BIM Guide Version 2
Main topic: Public sector taking the lead
The governments BIM strategy is based on the public sector leading the way by establishing a secure and stable platform for BIM use, which will then encourage the private sector to retransform their construction business. The government has not only developed an industry-wide range of BIM guides, but has also subsidized BIM trainings up to 50% and has implemented programs for incentivizing BIM adopters.
A brief summary of the BIM milestones and regulatory requirements are as follows: In 2012 BIM got mandatory for all public sector building projects. During the next two years an architectural and engineering BIM e-submission was implemented for all new building projects greater than 20,000 sqm. Lastly in 2015 architectural and engineering BIM e-submission was mandated for all new building projects greater than 5,000 sqm.
Never the less the government also supports the development of BIM standards such as
BuildingSMART's Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The Building and Construction Authority
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(BCA) together with BuildingSMART Singapore have developed a library of building and
design objects as well as project collaboration guidelines. To improve the IFC data exchange
quality BCA developed the Singapore IFC Code-checking for an automated model checking
for BIM e-submission. The application, called CORENET e-Plan Check system allows
architects and engineers to check their design for regulatory compliance through the internet
gateway. The system is based on IFC 2x2, which provides a stable core model to build the rich
information that e-Plan Check system needs. Singapore government recognises the long-term
sustainability that IFC ensures and by demanding the BIM e-submission supports the faster
implementation of IFC by major CAD developers and vendors.
Singapore's Second BIM Roadmap focuses on and uses as a UK Government's BIM Level 3
strategy. However, in the latest BIM Singapore guide the choice of data information exchange
is agreed by the collaboration parties, depending on the project, using and open format like
IFC is preferable, where available, but not mandatory. For the contract deliverables whose
open standard formats have not been finalized the data exchange shall be in a mutually agreed
format which will allow a later use of the information outside the BIM framework.
Figure 9 CORENET e-Plan Check system (Source: Section Five)
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2.2.3. The UK
BIM Level 2
Main topic: The introduction of BIM to the public estate or as a policy requires resources
and a plan
The UK government is an enthusiastic BIM supporter and its BIM mandate is thought to be
one of most ambitious and forward-thinking policies. Since its launch in 2015, it has already
met the goal of requiring all public projects to deliver BIM data for the entire project lifecycle by
2016. This is the method of working that has been set as a minimum target by the UK
government for all work on public-sector work.
Originally used by the government as a possible tool to cut lifecycle costs in the construction
industry and reduce the carbon consumption by 20%, nowadays it is a must have skill to be
competitive in the branch. Level 2 BIM is distinguished by collaborative working, and requires
"an information exchange process which is specific to that project and coordinated between
various systems and project participants “. Furthermore, any CAD software that each party
uses must be capable of exporting to one of the common file formats such as IFC or COBie.
The latest BIM report of NBC (Quelled) shows a rising understanding and acceptance of the
open data standards among UK users. IFC has been the been the core data format exchange
in terms of NBS deliverables since its launch in 2013. Furthermore, UK’s National BIM Library
is believed to be the largest freely available collection of more than 5.000 objects in IFC format.
As collaboration being one of the bases for a successful implementation of BIM, it requires an
open, non-proprietary data environment. 72% use IFC on projects they have been involved
and another 50% do not share the opinion that ‘Information models only work on the software
they were made on’. They will also become increasingly important. 62% describe their use as
essential to Level 3 BIM.
Together with BIM Task Group the government defined open standards for BIM data exchange
such as COBieUK, adapted version of COBie to matches Government’s BIM Level-2 package
of open standards. Today 87% of BIM users in UK receive models for purposes after
construction and 74% frequently use COBie standard for their models.
Figure 10 IFC survey (Source: NBS National Report 2018)
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Figure 11 COBie survey (Source: NBS National Report 2018)
COBie is most commonly used as a spreadsheet and can be shared between different teams
and the client. 'We haven't been required to produce a COBie output, it looks too complicated
to achieve and I'm not sure that it is useful.' 41% of the BIM projects contain a COBie output,
however it has not been universally adopted yet, but if the goals are to use the advantages of
BIM not only in design stage but in the whole lifecycle of the building, a higher adaption rate
has to be achieved. Last but not least to achieve collaboration a shared platform has to be
given to do so. CDE is a place where shared information is stored an easily accessed. Almost
three quarters of the UK BIM users use CDE for at least some of their projects and another
21% for all.
Additionally, NBS has been commitment to support open standards and expand technology
capabilities by conduction various researches. For example, in the resent years NBS work on
a project to develop a prototype that allows users to make changes in design based on different
environmental criteria such as embodied carbon or recycled contend. The data was structured
in IFC based on various databases. NBSV took also part as a funder in a project with BIM
Academy, to develop an automatic code checking of building regulations using BIM and IFC.
2.2.4. The US
The USA have been one of the pioneering countries using BIM. The Contribution to BIM
implementation has been driven by different levels of the public sector – from national
organizations to public universities. However, while other countries and some US localities
have BIM mandates, there is not one clear US BIM mandate that is nationally valid. Experts
believe a great amount of costs in this branch could be saved if the public sector develops a
common set of BIM rules and requires it from designers and engineers. Despite the
government initiatives on different levels, only 12% of US owners (mostly form all the public
sector) say that the government effort has had an impact on their interest and another 11%
are considering requiring BIM on their next project.
On the other hand, there have been two agencies – the GSA and the USACE that have been
creating policies requiring BIM for the projects. One of their great accomplishments was to
successfully set IFC as an international delivery requirement in BIM mandates. Another
example is the decision of IFC Ports & Harbours to draw on the expert knowledge from the
BuildingSMART International community and leading organisations in ports and harbour
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construction to provide a framework for open data standardisation. The framework will include
domain specific IFC Schema extension, Model View Definition (MVD) development, software
& model demonstration, documentation for the extensions and MVDs plus guidelines on use
of the information.
Furthermore, USA is the origin country of COBie and one of the information exchange standard
on the market is the COBie – Version 2.4. Despite that only 15% of the users use frequently
COBie and almost half (41%) are not familiar with its concept at all. This is a clear example
how the US BIM government and public sector can learn from the leadership shown in the UK,
where 74% use COBie on a daily basis. In order to be competitive in the AEC market, US have
to understand the value of COBie as a tool for structured data exchange in the FM.
Figure 12 Countries With BIM Policies by Agency or Municipality (Source: McGraw Hill Construction)
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2.2.5. Scandinavia
The Scandinavian countries have been among the pioneers regarding open format
deliverables in BIM projects. The public property owner in Finland published in the early 2007
their BIM guidelines with specific requirements to the product model deliverables being in IFC
format. Two years later, in 2009, Norway showed its commitment to the open data standards
by organizing an architectural competition for the National Museum in Oslo in which the
participants (237 submissions) where demanded to submit their project inly in IFC format
(Laakso & Kiviniemi, n.d.)
Norway
Statsbygg BIM Manual 1.2.1
Norway is also considered one of the earliest BIM adopters with IFC playing a critical role from
the beginning. The country started the process of BIM standardization in the early 2000 by
collaborating on a digital e-submissions with Map Authority of Norway, as follows by the end
of 2010 BIM was mandated for all new and renovation government’s projects.
Later in Norway has embraced the mandatory use of open Standards by communicating and
sharing building information based on OpenBIM. All used softwares had to be able to export,
link and import all information in the latest official version of open international format like IFC
(ISO 16739). The government has also supported the use of BuildingSMART International
Official Information Delivery Manual and Model View definitions.
Denmark
Executive Order No.118
A national BIM adoption strategy covering public construction process was launched in 2007.
A reset survey in the UK among other countries shows that the biggest awareness of what IFC
is was shown by BIM users in Denmark. An interesting fact is that for projects over 5.5 million
€, 3D models have to fulfil a number of requirements regarding content, information level on
different stages of the project so as a data exchange using IFC format. Although the
government project takes a small part of the property area, the impact on the market created
by the IFC requirements are big.
Netherlands
Netherlands does not have an official BIM mandate, but in order to stimulate the quality and
competiveness of the Dutch construction industry, a Building Information Council (BIR) was
set as part of Rijkswaterstaat highways and waterways BIM program. A BIM gateway, called
BIM Locket was developed on a national level in order to stimulate the management of open
BIM standards so as relevant geospatial standards in the country. Some of the successfully
adopted open standards in the country are: COINS – a BIM standard that complements
standards developed by BuildingSMART; the Dutch open standard for communication and
information transfer VISI and CB-NL Concepten Bibliotheek Nederland /Concepts Library
Netherlands) - a standard for the digital description of generic concepts related to physically
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built objects and spaces and areas. In general, there is a very little IFC demand from client
nowadays.
2.3. Influence of the private sector on BIM
The focus of this report lies on the implementation of BIM in the private sector around the
globe. However, the research showed some important examples of how the private sector in
different countries encourages the BIM usage either on their own or in partnership with the
government. Brazil, for example, does not have an officially authorized BIM guideline, yet it
has reported the higher rate of BIM usage among contractors, compared with all other markets.
Moreover, buildingSMART announced its intention to open a division in Brazil in order to more
efficaciously promote open data standards. Another example is Canada, again in partnership
with buildingSMART has been using the successful example of UK’s national BIM standard as
a basis for their own Canadian standard. Furthermore, the BIM Alliance group, consisted of
more than 140 companies from the architectural and engineering sector, have been
successfully encouraging the use of open BIM standards, solutions and tools. As a
consequence of a lack of standardization of the, the implementation of BIM in this countries is
done case-by-case only.
3. Trends for development
3.1. BuildingSMART indicatives
In 2017, at the BuildingSMART International Summit in London, a decision was taken to form
a working group, called Classification (Resolution PR2017 – 10:08). It aims to develop a
standard approach to implementation of open formats for models (IFC), terminology(bSDD)
and process (IDM/MVD). To achieve the goal of IFC-base BIM the group will consider all the
aspects of classification use and therefore will reach experts on different levels – from
classification development to various system users in different countries. The task is to prepare
a plan for a new standard for submission, review and approval (BuildingSMART, 2018).
In 2016 the organization also launched a new specialist forum, called Room, where in focus
are the development and deployment of open digital standards specifically for the needs during
the construction phase. The Construction Room intends to propose site productivity
improvements through the use of BIM and IFC open data exchange standards. The created
standards will be adopted by industry and available for software implementation
(BuildingSMART, 2016).
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3.2. Drivers and obstacles for IFC
The drivers towards an open data standard
The push from the public sector towards an open standard based BIM has made
the significant change since vendors have increased their interest in IFC.
The interest towards IFC format has still been statistically low. This phenomenon is
explained by the minimal use and demand of BIM models after the design phase –
for FM for example. With growing interest in the use of BIM models throughout the
complete life-cycle of the building, open data standards such as IFC and COBie will
take lead.
EU’s decision in Oslo 16.02.2016. – the IFC should be adopted as EN ISO file
exchange standard: ISO 16739:2013 – Industry Foundation Classes.
There is an international desire towards open data, after in 2013 the G8 leaders
signed the open data charter and made certain that developed countries will move
towards a greater level of transparency and openness (Fenby-Taylor, Thompson,
& Maclaren, 2016).
Obstacles for adopting IFC
The low use of IFC has arisen by the lack of IFC compliant software products.
Lack of robust IFC interfaces in the software products has been the major setback
for a voluntary use of open data standard.
Lack of information o0n how and when IFC can be used.
Lack of expert knowledge on IFC and trained employees.
The standardization of open formats has been driven only on national level, which
makes it harder for the industry that provides usually overboard services.
Some software vendors promote the IFC idea, however other still prefer proprietary
solutions. This sends and unclear message to the industry and lowers the
motivation towards using BIM methods in overall. (Kivinemi, Karlshøj, Tarandi, &
Bell, 2008).
Uncertainty among organizations regarding legal situation and BIM exchange data
between participants.
4. Conclusion and Outlook
The absence of nationally agreed publically available open standard has formed
interoperability problems between different applications and caused setback in the
communication between stakeholders in design, procurement and operation. A common
opinion is that open standards only benefit the government. However, they benefit any
organization with large portfolio of real property assets. Since most of the government work
is performed by private architectural and engineering firms and contractors, agreeing on
standards has very broad base of influence. After firms have use open standards for
government work, they are more likely to use them on private sector work.
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Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation
Chair of Architectural Informatics
A major reason why open standards and IFC in particular have not been the identified
solution to the problem with a standardized data exchange between parties in the
construction sector has been the unwillingness of the industry to accept IFC. Mainly driven
by of lack of understanding of the positive consequences, issues driven by competition or
poor IFC file quality.
Every change global wide needs a driver and in respect to open BIM standardization, the
solution is in the hands of the governments and public sector. A big transformation in the
construction industry such as the one BIM has already provoked cannot be successfully
maintained if only a few companies or individuals have endorsed the method so far. A
greater adoption towards open standard formats needs big players on national level taking
the lead. A tipping point in this process looks to be the IFC based BIM, in which it is
expected to be increasingly invested in the next two years.
Advanced Topics in Building Information Modeling
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Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation
Chair of Architectural Informatics
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Specifications summary (Source: BuildingSMART) ................................................. 3
Figure 2 IFD Library - a mapping mechanism (Source: BuildingSMART)............................... 5
Figure 3 The “Type” worksheet within a typical COBie spreadsheet (Source: NBS) .............. 6
Figure 4 COBie and interoperability (Source: NBS) ............................................................... 7
Figure 5 BIM implementation status around the world (Source: CADENAS GmbH) .............. 8
Figure 6 BIM Integration around the world (Source dotBE) .................................................... 9
Figure 7 Countries with National Mandates (Source: McGraw Hill Construction) ..................11
Figure 8 BIM Mature Levels (Source: Researchgate) ...........................................................12
Figure 9 CORENET e-Plan Check system (Source: Section Five)........................................13
Figure 10 IFC survey (Source: NBS National Report 2018) ..................................................14
Figure 11 COBie survey (Source: NBS National Report 2018) .............................................15
Figure 12 Countries With BIM Policies by Agency or Municipality (Source: McGraw Hill
Construction) ........................................................................................................................16
Advanced Topics in Building Information Modeling
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Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation
Chair of Architectural Informatics
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Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation
Chair of Architectural Informatics
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Advanced Topics in Building Information Modeling
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Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation
Chair of Architectural Informatics
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