BIM Knowledge: Understanding the Basics of BIM Standards
In this article, the author introduces the fundamental elements of BIM (Building Information Modeling) standards. Stakeholders in engineering and related fields, who have broad business and governance objectives, aim to achieve Business Process Reengineering for global AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) and facility management. With the advancement of computers and networks, traditional business processes have become outdated. Notably, integrating information and communication technology (ICT) into workflows has created new opportunities for profit and enhanced public services.
The development of BIM standards involves contributions from multiple organizations. These efforts are communicated to and influenced by legislators, encouraging stakeholders to enhance efficiency across nearly every commercial and public activity related to the built environment. These activities include planning, design, construction, management, renovation, repurposing, decommissioning, and the eventual demolition of structures such as buildings, bridges, power plants, airports, highways, fuel storage facilities, refineries, and ports. Stakeholders believe that adopting BIM standards will save billions of dollars and improve overall quality of life.
Global BIM standards encompass several key areas, including the business view and the exchange of information between AEC professionals and owners, as well as the interests of facility operators. Today, the adoption of fundamental standards plays a critical role, including:
- The International Interconnection Alliance IFCs
- Standards from the National Institute of Building Sciences
- ISO standards
- Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE) standards
- Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards
- FIATECH Capital Investment Roadmap
- Classification systems such as CSI Omniclass and COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange)
In the United States, a national CAD standard, particularly for 2D drawings, remains essential. However, this represents a diverse and extensive collection of documents that require significant effort to integrate effectively. Such integration seems feasible primarily because:
Advances in digital technology—such as increased processing speed, storage capacity, and bandwidth—have made this task manageable. Additionally, web technologies, especially extensible markup language (XML), enable encoding methods that capture semantic relationships between different elements. This facilitates the use of BIM files across all stakeholder activities.
The BIM standardization process involves extensive outreach and collaboration with primary system stakeholders, as well as coordination with recognized industry organizations. It also requires technical standardization efforts. The coding architecture must be agreed upon alongside software service interfaces or application programming interfaces (APIs) to ensure the necessary interoperability.
Within specific application domains, experts filter and refine complex encoded information into focused subsets tailored for their particular needs. This approach, known as Application Architecture, ensures that BIM standards are both comprehensive and flexible.
In summary, this introduction outlines the basic elements of BIM standards covered in this issue of BIM Knowledge. We hope this overview proves helpful to readers seeking to understand the current landscape of BIM standardization.
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