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March 2010 COBie Challenge

National Facility Management & Technology Tradeshow - Baltimore, MD

by E. William East, PhD, PE - Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers

Executive Summary

The Construction-Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie2) format facilitates the delivery of building information during planning, design, construction, and commissioning for delivery to facility owners and operators. The COBie2 format is an internationally harmonized version of the original COBie format. This page summarizes the results of the March 2010 National Facility Management & Technology Trade Show COBIE Challenge. Linked to this page is detailed information and results from each of the participating vendors. The event had two aims-to update the COBie Challenges held previously

The Test Model

The facility selected for the March 2010 Challenge is one of the test buildings, a two-story duplex apartment building, used at the Dec 2009 COBie Challenge. An isometric version of this building, the Weimar Apartment Building, is shown in the figure. To prepare for the March 2010 Challenge, this German building was translated from German to United States English. Once translated the architectural model used in Dec 2009 was extended with additional mechanical and electrical equipment. Specific products were identified along with simulated warranties, parts, and preventative maintenance plans.

COBie Format

The March 2010 Challenge version of the Weimar Apartment building also included a number of small changes in the format of the Dec 2009 COBie file. To reflect these changes, related to warranty information and some additional description fields related to the facility the COBie file was designated COBie 2.26.

Challenge Criteria

The March 2010 Challenge differs from the three previous COBie events because the nature of the discussion about COBie has begun to change. Previous COBie events focused on the ability of software companies to produce COBie compatible building information deliverables. Now that this ability of software to produce and/or consume COBie information has been well established, the March 2010 Challenge focused on the flow of information from start of a project to the operations and management.

From the completed Weimar FM Handover COBie file the author team created a series of COBie files demonstrating specific steps in the facility delivery process. The table below shows the COBIe files used to as the basis for the delivery of a building through it's entire life-cycle.

COBie Producers

During the March 2010 Challenge the vendors producing COBie files were asked to identify which of the following types of files would be created by their software.

Testing of exported COBie files was accomplished using a third part assessment tool completed for the Dec 2009 COBie Challenge. All COBie producers were required to conduct a self assessment using the bimServices tool. In the week leading up to the Challenge, the vendors also demonstrated their software's compliance with the specification for the COBie file export.

COBIE Consumers

During the March 2010 Challenge vendors consuming COBie files were asked to identify which of the following files would be consumed by their software

Testing of software that consumed COBie data was accomplished in a two stage procedure. In the first stage, the vendor completed a self-assessment tool. In the second stage the author of this page viewed a live demonstration of the vendors' software and spot-checked specific issues to complete a quality assurance review.

Responding to the Challenge

During the March 2010 COBie Challenge vendors were asked to demonstrate their software in the context of the life-cycle business process supported by their product. The table below shows how the vendors positioned their products to support specific segments of the facility life-cycle.

The Results

Based on the quality criteria identified previously, a live testing demonstration, a live public demonstration, and (as needed) a follow-up testing demonstration all vendors passed their COBie Challenge. Those interested in implementing COBie should review the table above to determine which products consume or produce the COBie data of interest. After that the reader should review the specific results for each vendor. Some vendors are further along in their implementation of COBie than others. Producers of COBie data should pay particular attention to the time required by for COBie producers to manually adjust vendor export files. Consumers of COBie data should pay particular attention to the extent of importation of specific COBie data as noted in the attached results pages.

REFERENCES

• COBie Project Information
• COBie "Means and Methods"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The COBie Challenge was sponsored by TradePress, buildingSMART Alliance, and the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers. Particular thanks are expressed to Ms. Wendy Dietzler at TradePress for her assistance setting up and during the meeting and to Mr. William Brodt at National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters for his leadership of the NIBS Facility Management and Operations Committee. Mr. Deke Smith is the Executive Direct, buildingSMART alliance.