Building Programming information exchange (BPie)
ORGANIZATION: Stattsbygg/USACE/OBO/bS alliance/bS Norway
Chair
Bill East
bill.east@us.army.mil
(217) 373-6710
Problem
In many public facility acquisitions an architectural program is required to be created to justify the request for the funds to design and build the facility. As the project progresses changes in mission and tenants may pressure the management team to deviate from the original architectural program without returning to the needed funding body for re-approval and needed additional funding. This pressure to expand scope, while keeping funding constant, can result in completed buildings that cannot function as originally envisioned.
There have been several buildingSMART and related projects aimed at the capture of architectural programming information to support both the architectural programming effort, delivery of standard Request for Proposal documents to more clearly communicate owners’ requirements, and to perform the automated assessment of spatial compliance of later design documents. These projects include the Portfolio and Asset management – Performance Requirements (PAMPeR), International Alliance for Interoperability’s AR-5 Project, the buildingSMART international Room Data Sheet “aquarium” project, the United States General Services Administration project, the buildingSMART alliance Spatial Compliance information exchange (SCie, pronounced “ski”) project, and a new Norwegian effort whose aims are similar to the projects above. While each of these projects project have explored some aspects of the contracted information exchanges needed to create an open standard for architectural programming, none of these projects have achieved a critical mass to be recognized as national standards and be widely implemented internationally.
Of critical concern to those attempting to use contracted information exchanges is the need to repeat the results of testing conducted under controlled conditions. This requires the precise specification of both data format and content constraints. In addition, common test models must be used in the context of automated testing programs. Finally, software companies shall be required to provide native versions of test models, configuration guides, and usage instructions to ensure repeatability by those not directly participating in these efforts.
Objective
- Develop a consolidated international specification for the contracted delivery of architectural programming information by the evaluation and consolidation of previous project results.
- Create the necessary verification tools and models to ensure repeatability of the results of commercial software testing in project-specific contexts.
Plan
- Prepare an Information Delivery Manual and Model View Definition specification to document the consolidated requirements.
- MVD documentation shall be based on the recently approved format that requires the explicit specification of business model constraints.
- Mappings to building-specific lightweight formats such as COBie shall be created to support human understanding and lightweight system integration efforts.
- Starting with the current requirements identified in the IDM, documentation shall confirm the requirements identified in this project and identify alternative mappings used on previous MVD projects.
- Standard building model test cases shall be developed based on three (3) existing models (duplex, office, and clinic) provided by the buildingSMART alliance.
- this is expected to be complete May 2012
- A freely downloadable model server, based on the open source bimserver.org, shall include COBie transformations and model checking compliance with the required format.
- Software companies shall be engaged thru an open “Challenge” process to demonstrate their ability to create correct building information, in the correct format.
- Challenge results shall be published in a format similar to that of the COBie Means and Methods web site.
- The above process shall be compiled in a document consistent with IFC 4.
- The above process shall be compiled in a document consistent with the National BIM Standard – United States Ballot Process and submitted in the appropriate round of the NBIMS-US.
Subject to the following constraints:
- Information from previous projects shall be used, where readily available. Information not publically available shall be noted in the final ballot submission.
- The Industry Foundation Class SPFF format shall be used as the basis for this specification any other formats such is ifcXML and COBie shall be provided.
Status (01-Feb-2012)
The following allocation of responsibilities is suggested, following approval of approach by buildingSMART Scandinavia and buildingSMART alliance, provides a detailed resource schedule that can be developed for each of the respective organizations.
- IDM/MVD Documentation (buildingSMART Norway)
- Computable MVD documentation, e.g. www.nibs.org/docs/BSADOC_COBIE/ (buildingSMART alliance)
- COBie Mapping documentation, e.g. COBie responsibility martrix (buildingSMART alliance)
- Comparison with Previous Efforts. To explicitly all past IAI/buildingSMART projedcts and consideration of US Unified Facilities Criteria and GSA Spatial Programing guide. Identification and Resolution of Semantic issues (buildingSMART Norway).
- Expected completion April 2012
- Test Model Extensions (buildingSMART Norway and buildingSMART alliance)
- bimServer.org release for COBie transformations and compliance checking (buildingSMART alliance)
- Software Challenge. To be discussed.
- BPie Means and Methods web site. (buildingSMART Norway and buildingSMART alliance)
- IFC 4 Documentation. (buildingSMART Norway)
- NBIMS-US Ballot. Compilation of previous documents. (buildingSMART alliance)
Additional Resources
Licensing
Building Programming information exchange by buildingSMART alliance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
