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Building information modeling (BIM) is a new process to manage the full lifecycle of a construction project. For road infrastructure, the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase has major importance as it secures its sustainability. However, this phase is not satisfactorily integrated into the BIM process. This limitation emerges from two predominant factors: First, the current industry foundation classes (IFC) standard does not yet support objects related to infrastructure. Second, the information applied to the O&M phase, represented in the IFC, does not allow complete management of this phase. This research paper aims to propose an ontological approach, called IFCInfra4OM, to integrate O&M information in BIM for road infrastructure. In addition, it features the importance and requirements of O&M in road infrastructure and proposes the ontological approach to integrate these requirements within the IFC schema. For this purpose, the methodological diagram is presented. Its steps outline how the analysis of existing international standards is necessary for better integration of BIM into the road infrastructure domain. The proposed methodology develops the criteria to be considered for such an objective. Finally, the scientific contribution of the research is presented in the light of the prevailing field literature. Furthermore, future works for building IFCInfra4OM are submitted.

Open Building Information Modelling (OpenBIM) is a collaborative project management process. Its application to road infrastructures is currently limited. OpenBIM standards for infrastructure are still under development. One of these standards is the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), which is a data architecture for modelling infrastructure projects. The current and upcoming releases of IFCRoad focus on structuring data for the design and construction phases of an infrastructure’s lifecycle. Semantics of the O&amp, M process phase are not fully integrated within these standards. This paper proposes an extension of the IFC schema to enrich this standard with semantics inherent in the O&amp, M phase of road infrastructures. This extension, based on IFCInfra4OM ontology, allows the OpenBIM process to be fully applied to road infrastructures. Its implementation on a case study relative to the A7 Agadir–Marrakech Highway in Morocco enables, on the one hand, analysis and compliance with O&amp, M management requirements on the basis of a single container: the IFC-BIM-based model. On the other hand, it allows comparison of the OpenBIM process with that of ClosedBIM for the integration of O&amp, M data into BIM for a road infrastructure.

The management and the identification of design changes constitute an essential part of the of a design flow within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, requiring the formalisation of a multi-disciplinary collaborative information modelling environment. Construction projects generate substantial amount of change information, which needs to be updated continuously throughout the process, from initial feasibility study to the decommissioning of facilities. Complications arise from the information storage in multiple incompatible file formats that can lead to the loss or omission of details. In addition to any unexpected changes, the mismanagement of information is another factor leading to delays and costly errors. In order to mitigate such issues, this paper proposes to integrate the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to validate and visually identify the result of change requests. The system is developed using C# by 1) integrating angular framework with ASP.NET (Active Server Pages) to create a dynamic single web page and 2). Using X-BIM toolkit that supports IFC format to read, create and visualise the BuildingSmart Data Models (aka IFC Models). This approach enables a web-based platform capable of generating reports and visual previews, highlighting the differences between IFC files throughout the design processes. A web-based system prototype allows users to compare subsequent versions of IFC design models in terms of additions, modifications and deletions. The prototype uses NLP to intelligently identify the changes that have been made as it compares newer and older versions of the same model, making this information available to designers and 3D modellers. Prospective work will focus on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the implementation of changes within the construction models.

With the development of computer processors, vast numerical simulation tools are widely used by fire engineers to determine the spread of fire and smoke. However, the fire modeling practices are often highly time-consuming and cost-intensive especially for building geometry information which does limit the further implementation of building fire safety analysis. Although nowadays building information modeling (BIM) has become a buzzword in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) field to facilitate information integration and interoperability, data sharing and exchange are still weak in the traditional interoperability between BIM applications and fire simulation software, since the data schema of them are totally different. In this paper, a quick and accurate approach for information sharing for building fire safety analysis between mainstream BIM applications and widely used fire simulation software has been successfully implemented, based on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). And, both geometrical building information and sematic information can be shared by this approach through the transformation of coordinate systems, outer database, and IFC file extension. The BIM model restoring fire simulation results can support other performance-based design of building, such as structural fire-resistant design and evacuation design. And, all of the analysis results including building fire simulation, structure safety design, and evacuation simulation can be integrated in Autodesk Revit, establishing a framework of IFC- and FDS-based information sharing for building fire safety analysis successfully. A gymnasium has been taken as a case study to illustrate the capability of this framework.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a method for the digital collaborative design, construction and operation of buildings. However, in order to realize a complete view on needed work and expenses of a building, the surrounding landscape elements must be considered as well. Within this paper, the BIM authoring tool Autodesk Revit and the open BIM data model and exchange format Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has been investigated for its capability to represent landscape elements like a terrain model, retaining walls, and ways. Therefore, a feasibility study has been carried out including the surveying of real-world landscape objects like terrain, buildings, ways and paths, playgrounds, and retaining walls, in order to use actual existing objects instead of idealized, theoretical elements. The aim was to develop and evaluate a workflow from the surveying over the modeling in BIM-able software to the export of an IFC data file. Therefore, the general modeling concepts of BIM and their suitability and limitations for representing landscape elements has been investigated. Experiences made within the project are discussed and first solutions and concepts are recommended. In addition, this paper reports from the buildingSmart International working group “Site, Landscape, and Urban Planning”, their current work and future goals, in order to extend IFC for landscape objects. Additionally, a concept for level of information need referring to landscape elements is shown.

There is a growing concern in society for the environmental impacts of a built environment. In this regard, the use of building information modelling (BIM) tools has arisen as a new trend in the construction industry to improve the sustainable assessments of buildings in the design phase. For that purpose, current approaches either focus on the use of BIM together with several programs, or solely use it for an automatic quantity take-off. However, as noted in the literature, the lack of semantic information within BIM models can lead to ineffective decision-making processes and models that are unsuitable for the operation and maintenance stages. Therefore, the present study explores the potential of BIM as a repository for the life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) information, and how that information should be used for an environmental and economic analysis. By doing so, the authors intend to discuss the potential of BIM as a data repository and its capacity for supporting an automatic/semi-automatic environmental and economic assessment. A BIM-LCA/LCC framework was proposed, which led to the development of an information delivery manual and a model view definition (IDM/MVD), using the industry foundation classes (IFC) schema, for the integration and exchange of information within a BIM-based environment. Finally, the authors implemented the proposed framework with a case study. It is observed that, although most recent IFC schemes already consider some of the required information, a considerable number of properties are still required to conduct a comprehensive LCA and LCC analysis. Thus, the work presented here contributes to the existing background knowledge necessary for future implementations of BIM-based LCA/LCC and for software developers to develop a suitable BIM-LCA/LCC tool.

Geometric data plays a central role in the geospatial domain, architectural design and construction industry. For upcoming, new approaches to store building data, such as the Semantic Web, no universal common agreement exists on the combination of geometric and non-geometric data. It can therefore be unclear to users on how to represent their geometries, leading to a decelerated application and advancement of making building data available over the web. This gap can only be bridged if a common approach on the representation of geometries on the web is achieved. To first generate a common understanding of geometry representations, an overview of existing and developing geometry (web) standards needs to be given and discussed, i.e., the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), CityGML, GeoSPARQL, and the OntoBREP and GEOM ontologies. This discussion needs to consider general contexts, e.g., 2D, 3D, detailed, or tessellated geometries, and specific use cases of the construction industry. Based on these discussions, this paper aims to propose a general recommendation for web-based geometry representations to enhance future applications of building data on the web. Due to the variety of use cases and their requirements, as well as technical constraints based on deviant interpretations of geometry descriptions from different geometry kernels, it became clear, that no approach or standard is generally superior to others. The biggest distinction identified in this paper is posed between the context of visualizing, where simplified, tessellated geometry holds the highest advantage, and (parametric) modeling, which requires semantically detailed geometry representations. Hence, we recommend to interlink non-geometric data with multiple geometry representations, to address all relevant contexts and use cases appropriately. The individual geometry representations should be chosen based on the relevant use cases for an optimal experience when using and exchanging geometry on the web. With this recommendation, the benefits of all discussed approaches can be exploited while avoiding their respective challenges.

The automatic transformation of a Building Information Model (BIM) in Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to a building energy model (BEM) demonstrates significant benefits on the improvement of efficiency and accuracy in a building energy modeling process. However, so far, building objects with curved surfaces in IFC models are not supported by existing transformation approaches as they only handle polyhedral geometries. This study presents an algorithm to automatically facet curved walls and convert their geometries into polyhedrons, so that they can be further processed by existing transformation approaches. In the process of faceting curved walls, geometric connections between each target wall and adjacent walls are detected and handled to maintain the connections in the results. Furthermore, the algorithm updates the geometries of relevant building objects, including straight walls connected to curved walls, openings (i.e., windows and doors) on curved walls and spaces enclosed by curved walls, based on the faceted geometries. This removes curved surfaces of these objects on the one hand, and maintains their geometric relationships on the other. Moreover, slabs with the curved surfaces are also faceted. This algorithm takes an IFC BIM that pertains to the model view definition Concept Design BIM 2010 as an input. It generates a new IFC BIM, in which all curved walls and relevant building objects are represented as polyhedral geometries with correct geometric relationships. A prototype application that implements the algorithm was developed to evaluate the performance of the algorithm with a simple building model and a complex real-world building model. In the results, all the curved walls were faceted, and all relevant straight walls, openings, spaces and slabs were correctly updated, which indicated that the algorithm worked as intended.

The urban environment is characterised by increasingly complex relations driven by the needs of modern societies, such as multi-purpose buildings and composite infrastructures. However, the capabilities for extensive vertical exploitation of land provided by construction technology are related to the expansion of public utilities. This results in administrative restrictions on land and developments, known as Public Law Restrictions (PLRs). PLRs impose explicit and implied 3D restrictions, as well as restrictions of non-geometrical characteristics such as noise or groundwater pollution. This paper investigates if and how 3D modelling may contribute to better manage and enforce PLRs in a 3D framework. To this end, the 3D PLRs required for the urban planning approval process in Victoria, Australia are examined. Requirements and guidelines were analysed in order to identify explicit, non-geometrical and implied 3D PLRs. To accomplish this, the spatial structure of two well-known 3D data models, CityGML and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), were investigated, highlighting the advantages and drawbacks of these models in the management of 3D PLRs. The paper concludes that the implementation of a 3D PLR system requires addressing issues of scale differentiations (building scale or city scale of 3D data models in contrast to extensive, non-parcel-based PLRs), “translation” of qualitative characteristics to specific height, depth or volumetric restrictions, and modelling of invisible, non-material legal spaces.

Purpose This paper aims to describe how building information model (BIM) and big data can be combined in the same interface for providing new value to stakeholders, such as the property owner and user, as well as property service and workplace service companies. The research presents a new concept, which shows how the BIM can be exploited efficiently during maintenance. Design/methodology/approach Initially, existing facility management (FM) processes were investigated to find out how to digitize them and identify bottlenecks. Second, BIM’s data content was explored to identify the information that could be used to streamline FM processes. Third, the potential of the active data measured in the building was evaluated. Finally, research was undertaken to find out how constantly fluctuating information can be combined with BIM objects and what kind of added value that combination could offer. The literature review was used to support the primary contribution. In addition, the research problems were described and the basics of the research were obtained by interviews. The author has interviewed 27 professionals from several stakeholders. Findings The first finding is that the BIM can serve as a platform for building use, various services and management when it has been adequately generated during the planning and construction phases and enriched before being commissioned. The other essential finding is the theory of conditions data model (CDM), which is a technical environment that combines active data with BIM. The most important advantages of BIM in FM are as follows: • Building owner attains better user satisfaction, acquires better quality and smarter services, saves energy, ensures better indoor conditions and improves building profitability. • Service providers can develop and offer new services, speed up operations, save resources and generate more profits. • The occupant gets a better user experience, faster and higher quality services and better indoor conditions. Research limitations/implications The CDM enables to generate for the real estate and construction (RE&C) sector a novel BIM-based ecosystem with standard rules, instead of every individual operator developing his/her own unique solution for BIM use in FM. This will have an impact on the entire RE&C sector’s operating methods and will have significant financial implications in the near future. Application of this research is limited to office buildings where indoor condition measuring is undertaken continuously and where the knowledge of the use cases of spaces is available. In addition, the proper BIM in the Industry Foundation Classes format must exist. The evaluation of the validity of big data is not discussed in this article. Visualization of data and content of user interfaces will be the topic of another article by the author. This article does not deal with intricate technical details, but crucial issues are defined. Originality/value The article presents a unique method for BIM use in FM. The theory of CDM (how to combine active data with BIM) is completely new and a similar solution has not been presented earlier. The theory of the presented method will be the crucial key for BIM use and will lead worldwide commissioning. Currently, the theory is under test in the practical pilot project. The results of the project will be published in the next article.

There is a wide range of literature on adopting ontology to solve construction problems, but no review of existing studies has systematically analyzed and visualized the trends in ontology research. This study reviews ontology research mainly published in the Scopus database from 2007 to 2017 with the combination of scientometric analysis and critical review. Scientometric analysis (e.g. co-author, co-word, co-citation, and clusters) objectively visualized the research status quo while a critical review was used to identify the research themes and challenges of ontology research in the construction industry. The results identified a large network of co-authors in this field to understand collaboration relationships. Over half the papers (53%) were published by the following three countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The top co-occurring keywords were “project management” at which ontology facilitates knowledge management and information retrieval. When the time factor was taken into consideration, keywords naturally evolved from “project management”, and “knowledge management” to “building information modeling”, and “compliance control” with the successful adoption of information techniques in the construction industry. Four research themes were identified with the combination of cluster analysis and critical review: “Domain ontology”, “Industry foundation classes”, “Automated compliance checking”, and “Building information modeling”. This review provides an in-depth understanding of existing ontology research and indicates the emerging trends in this research domain.

The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), an open and neutral ISO standard, plays a key role in enabling interoperability, allowing entity and relationship data to be exchanged seamlessly between Building Information Modeling (BIM) applications. However, due to the lack of formal rigidity, data exchanges can often be arbitrary and susceptible to errors, omissions and misrepresentations. This research applied support vector machines (SVM), a technique of machine learning, to check the semantic integrity of mappings between BIM elements and IFC classes. The SVM was trained to distinguish model elements from a dataset of 4187 unique elements collected from six architectural BIM models, based on their geometric and relational features. Using a two staged approach, the SVM was first tested to classify the elements with respect to eight IFC classes. Secondly, the SVM was further tested to distinguish between the element subtypes within individual IFC classes. Results of high accuracy (ACC) and F1 scores in both stages attested to the power and generality of the algorithm. The developed approach provides a way to verify BIM models for data consistency, as well as add semantics required for domain-specific analysis. Practically, the approach is envisioned to be of value for automating the quality checks of BIM deliverables, which is still largely a manual process.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a widely established method in the architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management (AEC/FM) industry. Although BIM focuses on processes throughout the lifecycle of the built environment, the applications in the planning phase, e.g. the generation of construction site layouts, have not reached their full potential yet. One important example herein is the allocation and dimensioning of resources (e.g., building materials and equipment) which is typically carried out by humans according to clearly defined rules and best practices. This paper presents model-based rule checking for the planning of construction site layouts. We demonstrate that existing Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS), such as the open-source rule engine Drools, can be used. We combine Drools with the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to retrieve data from a building information model and use the information within the rule engine. We define general model requirements and implement a sample set of prototype rules. We also introduce the concept of offset geometry for rules that, for example, demand a known safety distance between temporary construction site elements. The developed approaches are explained and evaluated in field-realistic, practical case studies. Finally, we present a discussion how the application of the developed rule-based system may assist human decision making in tasks such as safe construction sites layout planning.

In this paper, some outcomes of a research project which aims to introduce automation to speed up modelling of architectural spaces based on point clouds are presented. The main objective of the research is to replace some manual parametric modelling steps with automatic processes to obtain editable models in BIM-ready software and not to generate non-parametric IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) models. An approach of automation using visual programming for interior wall modelling based on point clouds is presented. The pipeline and the different concepts represented in this paper are applicable using different programming languages but here the use of Rhinoceros as a modelling software and its open-source visual programming extension "Grasshopper" is intentional as it is in common use for parametric modelling and generative design in architectural practice. In this research, it is assumed that there is a predominance of three mutually orthogonal directions of the walls in the interior spaces to be analysed, which is the case of most indoor spaces.

Previous geo-referencing approaches for building information modeling (BIM) models can be problematic due to: (a) the different interpretations of the term ‘geo-referencing’, (b) the insufficient consideration of the placement hierarchy of the industry foundation classes (IFCs), and (c) the misunderstanding that a common way to embed spatial reference information for IFC is absent. Therefore, the objective of this study is to (1) clarify the meaning of geo-referencing in the context of BIM/GIS data integration, and (2) develop a common geo-referencing approach for IFC. To achieve the goal, a systematic and thorough investigation into the IFC standard was conducted to assess the geo-referencing capability of IFC. Based on the investigation, a geo-referencing approach was established using IFC entities that are common in different IFC versions, which makes the proposed approach common to IFC. Such a geo-referencing approach supports automatic geo-referencing that would facilitate the use of BIM models in GIS, e.g., for the construction of digital twins.

The development of a smart city and digital twin requires the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), where BIM models are to be integrated into GIS for visualization and/or analysis. However, the intrinsic differences between BIM and GIS have led to enormous problems in BIM-to-GIS data conversion, and the use of City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) has further escalated this issue. This study aims to facilitate the use of BIM models in GIS by proposing using the shapefile format, and a creative approach for converting Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to shapefile was developed by integrating a computer graphics technique. Thirteen building models were used to validate the proposed method. The result shows that: (1) the IFC-to-shapefile conversion is easier and more flexible to realize than the IFC-to-CityGML conversion, and (2) the computer graphics technique can improve the efficiency and reliability of BIM-to-GIS data conversion. This study can facilitate the use of BIM information in GIS and benefit studies working on digital twins and smart cities where building models are to be processed and integrated in GIS, or any other studies that need to manipulate IFC geometry in depth.

Building information modelling (BIM) is increasingly appropriate for infrastructure projects, and in particular for transport infrastructure. It is a digital solution that integrates the practices of the construction industry in facility management during the whole life cycle. This integration is possible through a single tool, which is the 3D digital model. Nevertheless, BIM standards, such as industry foundation classes, are still in the pipeline for infrastructure management. These standards do not fully meet the requirements of operation and maintenance of transport infrastructure. This paper shows how BIM could be implemented to address issues related to the operation and maintenance phase for transport infrastructure management. For this purpose, a new ontological approach, called Industry Foundation Classes for Operation and Maintenance of Infrastructures (IFCInfra4OM), is detailed. This ontology aims to standardise the use of building information modelling for operation and maintenance in road infrastructures. To highlight the interest of the proposed ontological approach, a building information model of a section on the A7 Agadir–Marrakech Highway in Morocco is produced according to IFCInfra4OM. The methodology is presented. The results obtained, including the IFCInfra4OM data model, are submitted. In the last section, an overview of the IFC extension approach is submitted.

This paper focuses on the definition of a method supported by digital processes for a sustainable and user-orientated re-design of the existing building stock. Based on the analysis of the methodological and procedural aspects of the computational approach to architectural design in relation to different performance conditions, the research addresses the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM), intended as a powerful method for coordinating the complexity of the multiple, interdisciplinary and conflicting aspects involved in the rehabilitation of buildings. In addition to the advantages in terms of control and management, the BIM process has proven its effectiveness in tackling the issue of sustainability, allowing all actors involved in the research to share information and pro-actively control various outcomes of a building’s performance, such as energy and environmental quality. To show the opportunities and limitations of the digital management in information-based processes, the activities carried out in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 project “Pro-GET-onE—Proactive synergy of inteGrated Efficient Technologies on buildings’ Envelopes” are reported. The research, based on a case study method, which is applied to a student residence in Athens, demonstrates that BIM possesses great potentialities for developing effective and efficient construction and renovation processes toward buildings with high quality standards.

Fire hazard in public buildings may result in serious casualties due to the difficulty of evacuation caused by intricate interior space and unpredictable development of fire situations. It is essential to provide safe and reliable indoor navigation for people trapped in the fire. Distinguished from the global shortest rescue route planning, a framework focusing on the local safety performance is proposed for emergency evacuation navigation. Sufficiently utilizing the information from Building Information Modeling (BIM), this framework automatically constructs geometry network model (GNM) through Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and integrates computer vision for indoor positioning. Considering the available local egress time (ALET), a back propagation (BP) neural network is applied for adjusting the rescue route according to the fire situation, improving the local safety performance of evacuation. A campus building is taken as an example for proving the feasibility of the framework proposed. The result indicates that the rescue route generated by proposed framework is secure and reasonable. The proposed framework provides an idea for using real-time images only to implement the automatic generation of rescue route when a fire hazard occurs, which is passive, cheap, and convenient.

The trend of using modern technologies in the construction industry has been growing stronger recently, particularly in the fields of additive construction or robotic bricklaying. Therefore, specifically for the purpose of robotic bricklaying, we created a digital layout plan for robotic construction works. This article presents a universal methodology for creating a bricklaying plan for various variations of wall building systems. The method is based on the conversion of drawings from the BIM (Building Information Model) environment to the BREP (Boundary Representation) model through use of the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) format, which simultaneously divides object models into layers and connects discontinuous wall axes by means of an orthogonal arrangement and inserting details into critical structural points. Among other aspects, the developed algorithm proposes the optimal placement of the robotic system inside objects under construction, in order to minimize the distance of the robot’s movement and to reduce its electricity consumption. Digital layout plans created in this way are expected to serve as a stepping stone for robotic bricklaying.

The growing demand for building information modeling (BIM) data and ubiquitous applications make it increasingly necessary to establish a reliable way to share the models on lightweight devices. Building scenes have strong occlusion features and the building exterior plays an important role in digital devices with limited computational resources. This allows the possibility to reduce the resource consumption while roaming in outdoor scenes by culling away the interior building data. This article addresses the task of automatic annotation of BIM building exterior via voxel index analysis. We showcase the research of using industry foundation classes (IFC) and other mainstream formats as our input data and proposed an automatic algorithm for annotating the building exterior. Afterward, a practical and accurate voxel index analysis procedure is designed for frequently flawed models. The annotation can be added directly into the original data file under the same IFC standard, avoiding the complex procedure and information loss in semantics mapping between different standards. The final examinations show the robustness of our algorithm and the capability of handling large BIM building models.

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) provide safer, greener, and more convenient mobility, while reducing the impact on the environment. In recent years, simulation platforms have been employed to study ITS applications, mostly focusing on traffic-related simulations. Despite several research studies on ITS applications and simulation platforms, formal semantic descriptions of intelligent transportation systems have not been addressed yet. In this paper, a semantic model describing intelligent transportation systems for roads is proposed. The semantic model is devised to provide a basis for designing ITS simulation platforms. Building upon the semantic model, an extension to an open building information modeling (BIM) standard, i.e., the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema, is presented. The IFC schema extension is verified and validated using a BIM-based simulation scenario of ITS for roads. It is shown that the proposed IFC-compliant description of ITS for roads provides a formal basis for generating BIM-based simulations and hence facilitates ITS infrastructure modeling in BIM projects. It is concluded that the present work represents a cornerstone for designing BIM-based ITS simulation platforms. In future endeavors, potential standardization and formalization efforts may be discussed.

Building information modelling (BIM) is the first step towards the implementation of the industrial revolution 4.0, in which virtual reality and digital twins are key elements. At present, buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy consumption in Europe and, so, there is a growing interest in reducing their energy use. In this context, proper interoperability between BIM and building energy model (BEM) is paramount for integrating the digital world into the construction sector and, therefore, increasing competitiveness by saving costs. This paper evaluates whether there is an automated or semi-automated BIM to BEM workflow that could improve the building design process. For this purpose, a residential building and a warehouse are constructed using the same BIM authoring tool (Revit), where two open schemas were used: green building extensible markup language (gbXML) and industry foundation classes (IFC). These transfer files were imported into software compatible with the EnergyPlus engine—Design Builder, Open Studio, and CYPETHERM HE—in which simulations were performed. Our results showed that the energy models were built up to 7.50% smaller than in the BIM and with missing elements in their thermal envelope. Nevertheless, the materials were properly transferred to gbXML and IFC formats. Moreover, the simulation results revealed a huge difference in values between the models generated by the open schemas, in the range of 6 to 900 times. Overall, we conclude that there exists a semi-automated workflow from BIM to BEM which does not work well for big and complex buildings, as they present major problems when creating the energy model. Furthermore, most of the issues encountered in BEM were errors in the transfer of BIM data to gbXML and IFC files. Therefore, we emphasise the need to improve compatibility between BIM and model exchange formats by their developers, in order to promote BIM–BEM interoperability.

[EN] The analysis of road safety is critical in road design. Complying to guidelines is not enough to ensure the highest safety levels, so many of them encourage designers to virtually recreate and test their roads, benefitting from the evolution of driving simulators in recent years. However, an accurate recreation of the road and its environment represents a real bottleneck in the process. A very important limitation lies in the diversity of input data, from different sources and requiring specific adaptations for every single simulator. This paper aims at showing a framework for recreating faster virtual scenarios by using an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-based file. This methodology was compared to two other conventional methods for developing driving scenarios. The main outcome of this study has demonstrated that with a data exchange file in IFC format, virtual scenarios can be faster designed to carry out safety audits with driving simulators. As a result, the editing, programming, and processing times were substantially reduced using the proposed IFC exchange file format through a BIM (Building Information Modeling) model. This methodology facilitates cost-savings, execution, and optimization resources in road safety analysis., This research was funded by the Spanish Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), as well as the European Regional Development Fund, grant number EXP-00091379/ITC-20161077.

The building information modelling (BIM) methodology supports collaborative works, based on the centralization of all information in a federated BIM model and on an efficient level of interoperability between BIM-based platforms. Concerning the structure design, the interoperability capacity of the most used software presents limitations that must be identified and alternative solutions must be proposed. This study analyzes the process of transfer of structure models between modeling and structure analysis tools. Distinct building cases were performed in order to recognize the type of limitations verified in the transfer processes concerning two-way data flow between several software. The study involves the modeling software ArchiCAD 2020, Revit 2020, and AECOsim 2019 and the structure analyzes tools SAP 2020, Robot 2020, and ETABS 22020. The transfer processes are realized in two ways: using the native data format, using a universal standard data transfer, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format. The level of maturity of BIM in structure design is still relatively low, caused essentially by interoperability problems, but despite the limitations detected, this study shows throughout the development of several building case, that the methodology has clear advantages in the development of the structure project.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) can provide solutions to many challenges of asset management, such as missing data, incompatible software, and an unclear business process. However, current implementation of BIM in infrastructure projects has only considers limited factors, such as technology application and digital information delivery, while issues of system compatibility and information needs are still missing. Different aspects of a business are interdependent and an incompatible development of various factors might result in different levels of BIM implementation or even project failure. Comprehensive research is needed to explore the key factors and challenges of BIM implementation in infrastructure projects. This study conducted interviews and surveys with key stakeholders of infrastructure projects to explore the challenges and potential solutions of BIM implementation. Interviews were conducted with 37 professionals and surveys were conducted with 102 professional stakeholders, including owners, designers, contractors, and software vendors. Four main factors, challenges, and potential solutions were identified from content analysis of the interviews and further validated by the surveys. These factors include process factor (when), technology factor (how), people factor (who), and information factor (what). Corresponding solutions are proposed to refine the current workflow and practices.

Semantic 3D city modeling and building information modeling (BIM) are methods for modeling, creating, and analyzing three-dimensional representations of physical objects of the environment. Digital modeling of the built environment has been approached from at least four different domains: computer graphics and gaming, planning and construction, urban simulation, and geomatics. This chapter introduces the similarities and differences of 3D models from these disciplines with regard to aspects like scale, level of detail, representation of spatial and semantic characteristics, and appearance. Exemplified by the international standards CityGML and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), information models from semantic 3D city modeling and BIM and their corresponding modeling approaches are explored, and the relationships between them are discussed. Based on use cases from infrastructure planning, approaches for integrating information from semantic 3D city modeling and BIM, such as semantic transformation between CityGML and IFC, are described. Furthermore, the role of semantic 3D city modeling and BIM for recent developments in urban informatics, such as smart cities and digital twins, is investigated and illustrated by real-world examples.

With the rapid development of infrastructure construction, geotechnical engineering has always been worthy of attention due to its complexity and diversity. Accelerating the informatization of geotechnical engineering will contribute to the project management, but the information contained in geotechnical engineering cannot be well integrated because of the lack of unified data standards. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been considered as an effective technology to manage information, and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) in BIM serves as a neutral and open standard for the exchange of information. However, it was found that BIM cannot express the information of some structure objects and geological objects well during the construction process of geotechnical engineering. Combined with the characteristics of geotechnical engineering, taking advantage of the good extensibility of IFC, this paper proposes a “Built-In Generation Schema” for geotechnical structure models and a “Plug-In Extension Schema” for three-dimensional (3D) geological models, ultimately forming the basic data system of geotechnical engineering information models based on IFC. Applying extended IFC to the modeling process, the BIM-based modeling method of geotechnical models is proposed. In addition, an IFC-based platform is developed to integrate geological models and structure models for further displaying and analyzing of geotechnical engineering models. The work in this paper provides a feasible way and technical support for promoting the integration and sharing of geotechnical engineering information and enhancing the multiprofessional collaborative work.

The growth of cities and the pressure on land worldwide leads to more complex and multilevel structures with different space interrelations. For the registration of complex spaces mostly 2D Land Administration Systems (LAS) are used, while a representation of space in 3D could provide a clearer insight. Concurrently, technological advancements rapidly improve methods to collect, create, visualise, register, store and disseminate 3D data. In this context, much research is now being carried out at the sources and data used as input in 3D LAS and the various methods for their collection. In this scene, the approach to reuse data from the design phase is gaining ground. Specifically existing Building Information Models (BIMs), usually encoded in the non-proprietary Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format (EN ISO 16739:2018) are considered a promising source for 3D LAS. Previous research has shown promising results using BIMs as input for 3D LAS. However, the use of BIM/IFC-models from practice has not yet been tested adequately. This paper investigates the technical issues that are encountered when using real-world BIM/IFC-models as input for the registration of apartment rights in a 3D LAS and how that process can be improved. In the context of this paper, BIM/IFC-models are iteratively being validating against technical requirements. Five real-world BIM/IFC-models are collected. They are tested on the existence of IfcSpace, geometric validity, overlap and the ability to georeference the BIM/IFC-models. The results of these validation show that the collected BIM/IFC-models lack the ability to be georeferenced. Additionally most BIM/IFC-models did not contain IFCSpace, or reference to essential attributes for identifying legal units in the Dutch 3D LAS. Recommendations and guidelines are formulated to address these issues. The BIM/IFC-models are placed in a 3D LAS at conceptual level, in which the legal spaces are enriched with information of the Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRR’s) to those spaces in line with the LADM.

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a complete, wide and complex open standard data model to represent Building Information Models. Big efforts are being made by the standardization organization buildingSMART, to develop and maintain this standard in collaboration with researchers, companies and institutions. However, when trying to use IFC models from practice for automatic analysis, some issues emerge, as a consequence of a misalignment between what is prescribed by, or available in, the standard with the data sets that are produced in practice. In this study, a sample of models produced by practitioners for aims different from their explicit use within automatic processing tools is inspected and analyzed. The aim is to find common patterns in data set from practice and their possible discrepancies with the standard, in order to find ways to address such discrepancies in a next step. In particular, it is noticeable that the overall quality of the models requires specific additional care by the modellers before relying on them for automatic analysis, and a high level of variability is present concerning the storage of some relevant information (such as georeferencing).

Building information modelling (BIM) is an integrated informational process and plays a key role in enabling efficient planning and control of a project in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain. Industry foundation classes- (IFC-) based BIM allows building information to be interoperable among different BIM applications. Different stakeholders take different responsibilities in a project and therefore keep different types of information to meet project requirements. In this paper, the authors proposed and adopted a six-step methodology to support BIM interoperability between architectural design and structural analysis at both AEC project level and information level, in which (1) the intrinsic and extrinsic information transferred between architectural models and structural models was analyzed and demonstrated by a business process model and notation (BPMN) model that the authors developed; (2) the proposed technical routes with different combinations and their applications to different project delivery methods provided new instruments to stakeholders in industry for efficient and accurate decision making; (3) a new material-centered invariant signature with portability can improve information exchange between different data formats and models to support interoperable BIM applications; and (4) a newly developed formal material information representation and checking method was tested on a case study where its efficiency was demonstrated to outperform (i) proprietary representations and information checking method based on a manual operation, and (ii) the model view definition (MVD)-based information checking method. The proposed invariant signature-based material information representation and checking method brings a better efficiency for information transfer between architectural design and structural analysis, which can have significant positive effects on a project delivery due to the frequent and iterative update of a project design. This improves the information transfer and coordination between architects and structural engineers and therefore the efficiency of the whole project. The proposed method can be extended and applied to other application phases and functions such as cost estimation, scheduling, and energy analysis.

An efficient database management system that supports the integration and interoperability of different information models is a foundation on which the higher levels of cyber-physical systems are built. In this paper, we address the problem of integrating monitoring data with building information models through the use of the graph data management system and the IFC standard (Industry Foundation Classes) to support the need for interoperability and collaborative work. The proposed workflow describes the conversion of IFC models into a graph database and the connection with data from sensors, which is then validated using the example of a bridge monitoring system. The presented IFC and sensor graph data models are structurally flexible and scalable to meet the challenges of smart cities and big data.