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The conversion from building information modeling (BIM) to building energy modeling (BEM) based on the industry foundation classes (IFC) data standard is a crucial step for efficient building energy design and energy performance analysis. The scope encompasses analyzing limitations in existing BIM-to-BEM workflows and proposing an optimized strategy that addresses data loss and modeling inconsistencies. The research question revolves around enhancing conversion efficiency and precision, with the hypothesis validated through literature review, development of a conversion tool, and case study verification. The data collection and evaluation methods involve streamlining the conversion process by incorporating BIM model optimization, automatic repair of damaged geometric information, and automatic thermal zone division. The main findings reveal that the optimized strategy and tool significantly reduce information duplication, improve the precision of energy simulations, and validate the hypothesis, thereby contributing to more efficient and accurate building energy design and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient acquisition and dissemination of information are crucial in building information modeling (BIM). Current BIM models face significant challenges, including inadequate modeling techniques, poorly defined information requirements, and low interoperability. These issues result in poor information quality and complicate the transition from information acquisition to model processing. Public authorities often provide documentation in various formats, requiring manual transfer to software, which is error-prone and burdensome. This process is particularly difficult for small and medium enterprises lacking resources and knowledge. To address these issues, the IDS (Information Delivery Specification) Collab Tool is under development. This tool aims to automate the import of requirements into authoring software, perform automated compliance checks, and enhance interoperability among stakeholders. It will assist designers in providing accurate information according to requirements through the IDS standard, improving model quality and efficiency from early design stages. Adapting BIM models to specific project requirements and aligning new IDS capabilities with traditional industry practices remain significant challenges. Preliminary evaluations indicate the tool's potential to significantly improve workflow efficiency and compliance in BIM modeling. However, broader awareness and adoption of the IDS standard are needed. Further research and refinement are essential to fully realize the benefits of digital tools in revolutionizing design and construction practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address environmental challenges, the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) industry, which is known for its high resource consumption and waste production, needs to switch to a circular economy (CE). This approach focuses on reducing, recycling, and reusing materials to narrow, slow, and close material loops. However, one of the main problems which the AECO industry is still facing is the lack of common, standardized, and automated procedures to consider the recyclability and presence of hazardous materials. To address this problem, this study focuses on extending the recyclability rate from the material to building scale, considering the presence of hazardous materials based on the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), hence defining a new KPI. It adopts Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and integrates them with bespoke programming in Python to develop a standardized and automated procedure that complies with Italian regulations. The new KPI will help clients and designers to rate the overall recyclability of a building and to choose the best combination of materials and components. The procedure includes data acquisition, transmission, and data/model integration, resulting in practical and trackable measures that could be globally scalable. Scenario analyses are also developed to consider the impact of maintenance attitude on waste production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of complex file format conversion, weak data interoperability and low effective information utilization rate in the development and application of industry foundation classes(IFC) standard documents, an implementation method of IFC model data mapping to database, reconstruction of building information model(BIM) on Web side and online visualization analysis of information was proposed. Based on Web framework, the application framework of IFC standard file to relational database was built. Using JavaScript language for deep parsing of IFC standard files, using Python language to store IFC model data and effective information throughout the entire lifecycle of buildings in a relational database. Combining practical cases and analysis, the implementation effect of this application framework was demonstrated and verified. The results show that this method can realize the integrity and high efficiency of project data interaction and support the secondary development of related applications in the whole life cycle of buildings. At the same time, intelligent construction technology and scientific management are integrated to improve the effectiveness of BIM information management and promote the digital development and intelligent application expansion of the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion from building information modeling (BIM) to building energy modeling (BEM) based on the industry foundation classes (IFC) data standard is a crucial step for efficient building energy design and energy performance analysis. The scope encompasses analyzing limitations in existing BIM-to-BEM workflows and proposing an optimized strategy that addresses data loss and modeling inconsistencies. The research question revolves around enhancing conversion efficiency and precision, with the hypothesis validated through literature review, development of a conversion tool, and case study verification. The data collection and evaluation methods involve streamlining the conversion process by incorporating BIM model optimization, automatic repair of damaged geometric information, and automatic thermal zone division. The main findings reveal that the optimized strategy and tool significantly reduce information duplication, improve the precision of energy simulations, and validate the hypothesis, thereby contributing to more efficient and accurate building energy design and analysis.

The efficient acquisition and dissemination of information are crucial in building information modeling (BIM). Current BIM models face significant challenges, including inadequate modeling techniques, poorly defined information requirements, and low interoperability. These issues result in poor information quality and complicate the transition from information acquisition to model processing. Public authorities often provide documentation in various formats, requiring manual transfer to software, which is error-prone and burdensome. This process is particularly difficult for small and medium enterprises lacking resources and knowledge. To address these issues, the IDS (Information Delivery Specification) Collab Tool is under development. This tool aims to automate the import of requirements into authoring software, perform automated compliance checks, and enhance interoperability among stakeholders. It will assist designers in providing accurate information according to requirements through the IDS standard, improving model quality and efficiency from early design stages. Adapting BIM models to specific project requirements and aligning new IDS capabilities with traditional industry practices remain significant challenges. Preliminary evaluations indicate the tool’s potential to significantly improve workflow efficiency and compliance in BIM modeling. However, broader awareness and adoption of the IDS standard are needed. Further research and refinement are essential to fully realize the benefits of digital tools in revolutionizing design and construction practices.

Numerous studies have developed extensions to the IFC schema to meet the needs of specialized domains or represent nascent technologies, and in turn have expanded the scope of interoperability for BIM data exchanges. However, these studies used varying approaches for IFC extensions and validation, making it difficult to identify research gaps and agree on legitimate extension protocols. This study collected 64 studies of IFC schema extensions spanning over two decades, from 2001 to 2022. The analysis first focused on categorizing these cases with respect to their target domains and sectors, their purpose and extension approaches, as well as their methods for implementation and validation. Timeline analyses were also conducted to track the temporal trends over the specified period. The results revealed that architectural cases have recently shifted from process to product representations due to new technology adoptions, while infrastructure cases, initially centered on major sector elements, have transitioned towards operation and maintenance processes. The findings also showed the need for a more holistic and organized approach for extensions, as current ad hoc developments were limited to products and processes only applicable for specific sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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To address environmental challenges, the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) industry, which is known for its high resource consumption and waste production, needs to switch to a circular economy (CE). This approach focuses on reducing, recycling, and reusing materials to narrow, slow, and close material loops. However, one of the main problems which the AECO industry is still facing is the lack of common, standardized, and automated procedures to consider the recyclability and presence of hazardous materials. To address this problem, this study focuses on extending the recyclability rate from the material to building scale, considering the presence of hazardous materials based on the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), hence defining a new KPI. It adopts Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and integrates them with bespoke programming in Python to develop a standardized and automated procedure that complies with Italian regulations. The new KPI will help clients and designers to rate the overall recyclability of a building and to choose the best combination of materials and components. The procedure includes data acquisition, transmission, and data/model integration, resulting in practical and trackable measures that could be globally scalable. Scenario analyses are also developed to consider the impact of maintenance attitude on waste production.

Comprehensive evaluation of dams in a dynamic and proactive way is accepted as an effective strategy to improve dam safety. However, there is a lack of efficient and standardised approaches for managing monitoring-related information that can help to provide dynamic and reliable information for continuous dam evaluation. With the importance of digital twins (DTs) being proven in better data integration and interoperability, a DT-based approach for comprehensive dam evaluation and its data integration method based on extended industry foundation classes (IFC) are provided in this study. This paper presents a new data structure and corresponding data classification strategy, using which information required for continuous evaluation can be effectively organised. Considering that existing evaluation methods cannot fully characterise uncertainties in the evaluation process, a cloud model based comprehensive evaluation framework is proposed. In this approach, a multi-rule cloud reasoning model is utilised to evaluate monitoring points. Also, a multi-dimensional cloud model and an improved Criteria Importance Though Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method are leveraged to assess evaluation indices affected by multiple factors. Finally, the results of a case study verify that the proposed DT-based solution realises a continuous dam safety evaluation, which contributes to automated and efficient dam condition monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As-built Building Information Models (BIM) are increasingly used to facilitate the management of all aspects of built infrastructure’s life cycle. Existing studies mainly focus on automating as-built BIM development for surface elements but often ignore embedded elements such as rebar due to the inaccessibility with typical sensing devices, such as image-based or time-of-flight-based methods. To tackle the issue, this research utilizes Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) together with the photogrammetry method to generate BIMs for in- service buildings considering both surface elements (e.g., column, slab, wall, etc.) and rebar. As the first step, as-built BIM for surface elements is generated and then existing rebar is identified by using GPR. A calibration label is designed and attached to elements which are scanned by GPR device, and a series of images are captured from those elements and then used with other images to generate point clouds. Faster RCNN is then utilized to recognize labels among all images. Next, an inverse photogrammetry approach is deployed to identify the scanned elements in BIM. By matching the recorded timestamps of GPR data and labeled images, links between the rebar in GPR data and elements in BIMs are successfully established. Finally, IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is developed to generate as-built BIM models. Six case studies demonstrate that the system is capable of automatically developing as-built BIM, while embedded rebar could be efficiently localized and projected into corresponding elements in BIM.

Collaborative work processes from the perspective of Building Information Modeling demand technical and organizational information requirements from managers. In response, data schema Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has been making significant entities and domain inclusions with a semantic level capable of supporting OpenBIM interoperability throughout the project lifecycle. This paper applies Design Science Research methodology to explore how the IFC should be specified so that BIM actors can meet the representation context of a project translating data through Inheritance Diagrams, which offer auxiliary contributions. The Protocol developed to address the research problem revealed that some information requirements had not been met, as the universe of optional data in the schema is broad. Therefore, an artifact is created to fully meet the demand and is validated by different software. This reveals that the insertion of data can be performed to meet the desired interoperability and stands a valuable tool for BIM actors. • IfcProject specifies 3 main frameworks: Identification; Financial; Geometric and Unit • The mapping of potentially semantic data aimed at specifying Project representation • The 3D tree presents the logic in which IFC data architecture was conceived • Inheritance diagrams help clarify the theoretical foundation of the IFC schema • Graphs represent mechanisms capable of assisting humans in understanding the SPF file [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing an economical and reliable steel mold for precast concrete (PC) components can accelerate the promotion of prefabricated buildings. This paper presents an automated design framework for a steel mold of PC components to generate manufacturing information, including dimensions and location of each plate. The profile and dimensions of PC components are extracted from the shop drawings, and a finite element model of the steel mold is established and initialized. A multi-objective optimization model considering material usage and manufacturing convenience is developed to determine the geometry and quantity of plates in steel molds. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is applied to obtain a Pareto solution set for steel mold design. The production information in DXF format can be automatically generated by parsing Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model. The cost-effectivity and practicality of the proposed framework were verified via the design case for a real PC stair mold. • An automated design framework is developed for steel mold of precast concrete components. • The mold design is modeled as multi-objective optimization model considering material and manufacturing cost. • Design parameters are extracted from shop drawings to automatically establish a parametric finite element geometric model. • The NSGA-II method performs better than MOEA/D and SPEA2 algorithms in terms of solution diversity and computing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have developed extensions to the IFC schema to meet the needs of specialized domains or represent nascent technologies, and in turn have expanded the scope of interoperability for BIM data exchanges. However, these studies used varying approaches for IFC extensions and validation, making it difficult to identify research gaps and agree on legitimate extension protocols. This study collected 64 studies of IFC schema extensions spanning over two decades, from 2001 to 2022. The analysis first focused on categorizing these cases with respect to their target domains and sectors, their purpose and extension approaches, as well as their methods for implementation and validation. Timeline analyses were also conducted to track the temporal trends over the specified period. The results revealed that architectural cases have recently shifted from process to product representations due to new technology adoptions, while infrastructure cases, initially centered on major sector elements, have transitioned towards operation and maintenance processes. The findings also showed the need for a more holistic and organized approach for extensions, as current ad hoc developments were limited to products and processes only applicable for specific sectors.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is gaining momentum and is spreading in the construction industries around the world. For what concerns the ASEAN region, BIM is still not well spread, and this is even more distinct in Cambodia. For supporting the integration of BIM in the Cambodian construction sector, a fundamental contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country that is aiming to be an active player in the digital transformation of the region, education is the first step. Accounting for the current absence of research works in the Cambodian context of BIM-related education, this paper represents the first investigation of the spread of BIM and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) concepts, measured from the perspective of Cambodian university students, aiming to obtain useful insights for future recommendations on BIM adoption and implementation in the tertiary education architectural curriculum. Following the results, currently, BIM and IFC are not well spread in Cambodia and many students enrolled in an architectural-related major are not aware or knowledgeable about them, even though they seem to perceive their importance. Following these findings, a suggestion can be offered to Cambodian universities in posing more attention to BIM and IFC, fostering their inclusion in the architectural curriculum and implementing BIM-related activities in the learning design process, aiming to foster the effective implementation of BIM in the Cambodian construction sector.

With the increasing popularity of modular buildings, many manufacturers have made BIM objects for use by designers. However, these BIM objects must satisfy specific regulations and requirements, and their quality needs to be verified. In this study, the authors propose an automated checking system for modular BIM object quality verification. The system includes three parts, which are modular BIM object guideline, pre-checking module and automated code checking module. The modular BIM object quality verification system is proposed to be applied to government modular product certification site for checking the modular BIM objects. It is expected that the use of this automated checking system will make it possible to connect users and manufacturers to promote the circulation of modular building products, as well as provide designers with standardized modular BIM objects for design purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Installing photovoltaic (PV) equipment on the building's surface reduces greenhouse gas emissions and additional land acquisition. However, existing methods for estimating PV potential primarily focus on roofs and the assessment of facades and windows is not detailed. This study proposes a method based on the Building Information Model and its standard Industry Foundation Classes to effectively estimate the potential area and location of PV modules on the building's surface and explore the PV potential in detail. The method was applied to residential buildings in Xinyi County, China, and the results show that the annual average energy generated through windows (47,589.793 kWh/year), roofs (141,126.304 kWh), and facades (284,060.393 kWh) constitute a significant amount, particularly the facades, which show significant potential as sources of solar electricity even under the influence of shadows. The rationality and feasibility of this method were verified by comparing it with ArcGIS and other relevant studies available in the literature. Next, we assessed whether the installation of PV panels on the building's surface still has certain operability under the serious shadows. For this purpose, a building with serious shadow shading was selected to analyze the demand and supply of energy. The electricity consumption of the selected building was found to be 131,785.898 kWh/year, which is significantly lower than PV potential (310,632.775 kWh/year), as calculated in this study. Thus, the efficient use of the building's surface for PV generation can meet not only the local electrical energy demand but also the excess energy generated can be sold for economic gain. The method proposed can provide new insights to energy software designers and developers, and the results can provide a reference for energy investors, building owners, and engineers to focus on the installation of PV panels on facades and windows, and formulate complex schemes of PV modules on different building components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions always incurs additional costs in buildings, but it is difficult to productively evaluate and certify the cost-effectiveness of low-carbon measures. Therefore, this paper proposes an OpenBIM-based method for analyzing the marginal abatement cost (MAC) of these low-carbon measures. This method uses industry foundation classes (IFC) to calculate the life cycle carbon emission (LCCE) and life cycle cost (LCC), subsequently drawing the MAC curve for construction projects. Taking a public building in China as a case study, it indicates that eight measures show the synergy between LCCE and LCC, while four measures show the opposite. Therefore, this study suggests that building projects should not blindly raise the baseline but rather identify the cost-effective low-carbon measures through quantitative calculations. Moreover, this research addresses the interoperability problem of multi-source heterogeneous data when evaluating MAC stored and certified by the IFC, helping designers quickly identify cost-benefit reduction strategies. • Quickly finding cost-effective low-carbon measures using OpenBIM • Storing marginal abatement cost in industry foundation classes • Avoid arbitrarily raising the mandatory baseline of buildings • Potentially reducing cost and carbon emission synergistically [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing popularity of modular buildings, many manufacturers have made BIM objects for use by designers. However, these BIM objects must satisfy specific regulations and requirements, and their quality needs to be verified. In this study, the authors propose an automated checking system for modular BIM object quality verification. The system includes three parts, which are modular BIM object guideline, pre-checking module and automated code checking module. The modular BIM object quality verification system is proposed to be applied to government modular product certification site for checking the modular BIM objects. It is expected that the use of this automated checking system will make it possible to connect users and manufacturers to promote the circulation of modular building products, as well as provide designers with standardized modular BIM objects for design purposes.

The construction industry is information-intensive, and building information modeling (BIM) has been proposed as an information source for supporting decision making by construction project team members in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. Because building information models contain more building data, further use of the aggregated building information to support construction and operation activities has become important. In Industry 4.0, similar-to-real-life virtual assistants, e.g., Apple's Siri and Google Assistant, are becoming ever more popular. This research developed a query-answering (QA) system for BIM information extraction (IE) by using natural language processing (NLP) methods to build a virtual assistant for construction project team members. The architecture of the developed QA system for BIM IE consists of three major modules: natural language understanding, IE, and natural language generation. A Python-based prototype application was developed based on the architecture of the QA system for BIM IE to evaluate functionalities of the developed QA system using several BIM/industry foundation classes (IFC) models. Seven building information models and 127 test queries were utilized to evaluate the accuracy of the developed QA system for BIM IE. The experimental results indicated that the developed QA system for BIM IE achieved an 81.9 accuracy score. The developed NLP-based QA system for BIM is valid to provide relatively accurate answers based on natural language queries. The contributions of this research facilitate the development of virtual assistants in the AECO industry, and the architecture of the developed QA system can be extended to queries in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modelling (BIM) is a revolution in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. In the AEC industry, several interesting innovations are being introduced every day. Most of the code compliance work, which is time-consuming and quite multifaceted, is now performed manually. The number of unwanted errors is increasing, and any suspension of the project is led by the structural code-checking system, and is a tiresome process. Subsequently, the BIM-based model is presented to automate the structural stability design of buildings. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) specification is introduced in this work, and is used to automate the building design processes to achieve design correctness and efficiency. The IFC-based interoperability framework is presented to automate the design of structural elements of RC buildings. Consequently, a deep multi-perception-based generalized adaptive framework (DMPBGAF) is presented for the automated code compliance checking process. The concepts and relationships in the building code were automatically matched to their equivalent concepts. A building code was checked against the Indian seismic code IS 13920, and when shear wall data were presented in this IFC file, it exchanged the data with the custom engine. It is possible to eliminate the unwanted issues based on the automated code compliance system with BIM. This goal can be accomplished by using a coding rule-based engine to compile the BIM model and store the design code of the specific country with its clauses. After generating the Python file to code all of the prepared checks, the python file in the form of functions was obtained from the IfcOpenShell library. Finally, a rule engine was developed for interpretation of the checks; the three model IFC files were tested on this, and it gave satisfactory results. The FreeCAD software was employed in this research for the IFC-based BIM model to automate the design. The shear wall data were presented in the first IFC model; all of the code checks were passed based on this modelled design, and when given to the rule engine, it gave a 100% compliance report. Insufficiently reinforced shear wall data contained in the other two IFC files were purposely created to fail some of the code checks. This method significantly reduces the time by eliminating the duplication of efforts. From the viewpoint of accuracy and reliability, the proposed method is more accurate and results in enhanced reliability as compared to manual design methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modeling (BIM) has been widely accepted in the industry and extensively used in supporting many construction tasks. In the government sector, the USDOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has implemented building information modeling (BIM) for bridge construction. Hence, state DOTs are now faced with heightened pressure in complying with the FHWA's Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) standardization. Although BIM can provide many benefits to DOTs, current BIM-based platforms for bridges are not fully developed to process traditional two-dimensional (2D) bridge drawings for BIM-based computational tasks involving existing bridges, for example cost estimation. Bridges are a critical infrastructure in any nation's economy, and by law the DOTs are tasked with ensuring that they remain safe for use. To maintain bridges, engineers currently perform periodic inspections, assessing each part of the bridge to identify areas that require maintenance. Maintenance work items are then generated for these areas; these are usually computed traditionally or by systems that still rely heavily on manual inputs. Such processes are time-consuming and cumbersome, and depend on years of bridge technical expertise. To overcome these limitations and improve the accuracy of processes such as generating maintenance work items for bridges, we propose a framework for automatically (1) processing existing 2D bridge drawings for bridges built pre-BIM adoption in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry; (2) converting these record drawings into three-dimensional (3D) information models; and (3) converting 3D information models into industry foundation class (IFC) files. The developed 3D models using the proposed framework were compared against developed 3D models using the state-of-the-art method. Experimental results show that the developed framework can be used in developing algorithms that generate 3D models and IFC output files from portable document format (PDF) bridge drawings in a semiautomated fashion. The proposed method uses 3.33% of the time it takes the current state-of-the-art method to generate a 3D model, and the generated models are of comparative quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the building sector pushed for its use in the geotechnical sector with evident benefits in projects around the world. Standardization, interoperability, and improved data management are some of the benefits of BIM if used on geotechnical data. This work focuses on transforming traditional workflows of handling geotechnical data into a BIM-based workflow that makes geotechnical data available in BIM contexts. For that, a definition of Product Data Template (PDT) for boreholes is proposed. A script is developed using visual programming tools to import data based on PDTs to the BIM platform and translate it into borehole objects. An additional script is used to represent the subsurface layers in 3D. Finally, the interoperability aspects of the information are discussed to ensure proper processes of IFC export/import in this context. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Industry foundation classes (IFC) is an open and neutral data format specification for building information modeling (BIM) that plays a crucial role in facilitating interoperability. With increases in web-based BIM applications, there is an urgent need for fast loading large IFC models on a web browser. However, the task of fully loading large IFC models typically consumes a large amount of memory of a web browser or even crashes the browser, and this significantly limits further BIM applications. In order to address the issue, a method is proposed for dynamically loading IFC models based on spatial semantic partitioning (SSP). First, the spatial semantic structure of an input IFC model is partitioned via the extraction of story information and establishing a component space index table on the server. Subsequently, based on user interaction, only the model data that a user is interested in is transmitted, loaded, and displayed on the client. The presented method is implemented via Web Graphics Library, and this enables large IFC models to be fast loaded on the web browser without requiring any plug-ins. When compared with conventional methods that load all IFC model data for display purposes, the proposed method significantly reduces memory consumption in a web browser, thereby allowing the loading of large IFC models. When compared with the existing method of spatial partitioning for 3D data, the proposed SSP entirely uses semantic information in the IFC file itself, and thereby provides a better interactive experience for users.

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), the buildingSMART open standard for BIM, is underused with respect to its promising potential, since, according to the experience of practitioners and researchers working with BIM, issues in the standard's implementation and use prevent its effective use. Nevertheless, a systematic investigation of these issues has never been carried out, and there is thus insufficient evidence for tackling the problems. The GeoBIM benchmark project is aimed at finding such evidence by involving external volunteers, reporting on various aspects of the behavior of tools (geometry, semantics, georeferencing, functionalities), analyzed and described in this article. Interestingly, different IFC software programs with the same standardized data sets yield inconsistent results, with few detectable common patterns, and significant issues are found in their support of the standard, probably due to the very high complexity of the standard data model. A companion article (Part II) describes the results of the benchmark related to CityGML, the counterpart of IFC within geoinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building information modelling (BIM) is a revolution in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. In the AEC industry, several interesting innovations are being introduced every day. Most of the code compliance work, which is time-consuming and quite multifaceted, is now performed manually. The number of unwanted errors is increasing, and any suspension of the project is led by the structural code-checking system, and is a tiresome process. Subsequently, the BIM-based model is presented to automate the structural stability design of buildings. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) specification is introduced in this work, and is used to automate the building design processes to achieve design correctness and efficiency. The IFC-based interoperability framework is presented to automate the design of structural elements of RC buildings. Consequently, a deep multi-perception-based generalized adaptive framework (DMPBGAF) is presented for the automated code compliance checking process. The concepts and relationships in the building code were automatically matched to their equivalent concepts. A building code was checked against the Indian seismic code IS 13920, and when shear wall data were presented in this IFC file, it exchanged the data with the custom engine. It is possible to eliminate the unwanted issues based on the automated code compliance system with BIM. This goal can be accomplished by using a coding rule-based engine to compile the BIM model and store the design code of the specific country with its clauses. After generating the Python file to code all of the prepared checks, the python file in the form of functions was obtained from the IfcOpenShell library. Finally, a rule engine was developed for interpretation of the checks; the three model IFC files were tested on this, and it gave satisfactory results. The FreeCAD software was employed in this research for the IFC-based BIM model to automate the design. The shear wall data were presented in the first IFC model; all of the code checks were passed based on this modelled design, and when given to the rule engine, it gave a 100% compliance report. Insufficiently reinforced shear wall data contained in the other two IFC files were purposely created to fail some of the code checks. This method significantly reduces the time by eliminating the duplication of efforts. From the viewpoint of accuracy and reliability, the proposed method is more accurate and results in enhanced reliability as compared to manual design methods.

Integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) can benefit both the Architecture, Engineering and Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) domain, and the geospatial industry. For GIS, BIM is a promising source of three-dimensional (3D) building information that can be used in the study of smart city, green building, big data, etc. The underlying data transformation from Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to shapefile enables GIS to use the rich building information. However, this transformation is difficult due to the different modelling methods used by IFC and shapefile. IFC generally represents 3D objects using boundary representation (Brep), swept solid, constructive solid geometry (CSG), clipping and mapped representation, while shapefile only uses Brep. In addition, the use of different coordinate systems also contributes to the geometry transformation issue. Among all the solid modelling methods used by IFC, Brep and swept solid are the most often used two methods. Compared with Brep, the transformation of swept solid is more challenging as each type of profile for swept solid defined in IFC has to be properly interpreted and converted. This paper develops algorithms to interpret the commonly used profiles of swept solid for the transformation of IFC into shapefile. A bridge model is used to validate the proposed method, and a Web GIS-based bridge management system is developed to demonstrate a possible usage of the transformed shapefile model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic energy generation has gained wide attention owing to its efficiency and environmental benefits. Therefore, it has become important to accurately evaluate the photovoltaic energy generation potential of building surfaces. As the number of building floors increases, the area of the facades becomes much larger than that of the roof, providing improved potential for photovoltaic equipment installation. Conventional urban solar potential evaluation methods are usually based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, LiDAR can only be used in existing buildings, and the lack of semantic information in the point cloud data generated by LiDAR makes it impossible to evaluate the photovoltaic potential of facades (including details such as windows) in detail and with accuracy. In this study, we developed a method to accurately extract facades and roofs in order to evaluate photovoltaic potential based on the Industry Foundation Classes. To verify the feasibility of this approach, we used a building from Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province, China. The simulation results indicate that, out of the total building photovoltaic installable area (8995 m2), that of the facade is 8240 m2. The photovoltaic potential of the simulated building could reach 1054.69 MWh/year. The sensitivity studies of the grid resolution, the time interval and the computation time confirmed the reasonability of the determined conditions. The method proposed offers great potential for energy planning departments and the improved utilization of buildings.

Abstract 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. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • An LCA and LCC analysis can be integrated within a BIM-based environment. • Currently, a BIM-based automatic simple LCA/LCC analysis is possible. • The proposed BIM-LCA/LCC framework was implemented in a case study. • The IDM/MVD methodology improved the background knowledge in the BIM-LCA/LCC field. • The IFC4 schema already contains some properties for this analysis, but not enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract 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. Highlights • An analysis of standards for managing geometric representations of buildings • An exploration of how (semantic) web technologies can support these • An overview of ontologies for representing geometry in the AEC industry • Application of geometrical representation methods in 3 use cases • Some general guidelines for dealing with multiple representations of geometry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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).

• OpenBIM quickly quantifies the social cost of carbon (SCC) at building design stage. • Different life cycle impact assessment models greatly vary SCC results. • A case building is optimized to verify the original OpenBIM-based tool. • Some low-carbon measures can significantly reduce SCC at low economic cost. Buildings produce many carbon emissions in their life cycle, which leads to global warming, human disease, ecosystem destruction, and food shortages. These harms are translated and revealed into the social cost of carbon (SCC), but assessing the building SCC considering protection objects is still difficult due to the lack of adequate and rapid tools. Therefore, this paper proposes a method based on OpenBIM to calculate the SCC through the building life cycle. This method reflects the cause-effect chains of carbon emissions on human health, ecosystem quality, and social assets under LIME, EPS, and ReCiPe approaches. An original tool, NMBIM, is developed based on this proposed method, which calculates the SCC of a case building by directly importing industry foundation classes (IFC) files. The case results show that the maximum life cycle SCC reaches 5872.4 RMB/m2, which exceeds the construction cost. Although SCC results obtained by different LCIA models vary widely, the ones of human health are the most concerned protection objects. This paper provides an effective method for standardly storing and optimizing SCC at the project design stage, which contributes to construction industry planning, construction company decision-making, and public regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of 3D city models with Building Information Models (BIM), coined as GeoBIM, facilitates improved data support to several applications, e.g., 3D map updates, building permits issuing, detailed city analysis, infrastructure design, context-based building design, to name a few. To solve the integration, several issues need to be tackled and solved, i.e., harmonization of features, interoperability, format conversions, integration of procedures. The GeoBIM benchmark 2019, funded by ISPRS and EuroSDR, evaluated the state of implementation of tools addressing some of those issues. In particular, in the part of the benchmark described in this paper, the application of georeferencing to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) models and making consistent conversions between 3D city models and BIM are investigated, considering the OGC CityGML and buildingSMART IFC as reference standards. In the benchmark, sample datasets in the two reference standards were provided. External volunteers were asked to describe and test georeferencing procedures for IFC models and conversion tools between CityGML and IFC. From the analysis of the delivered answers and processed datasets, it was possible to notice that while there are tools and procedures available to support georeferencing and data conversion, comprehensive definition of the requirements, clear rules to perform such two tasks, as well as solid technological solutions implementing them, are still lacking in functionalities. Those specific issues can be a sensible starting point for planning the next GeoBIM integration agendas.

Building information modeling (BIM) is a process that has shown great potential in the building industry, but it has not reached the same level of maturity for transportation infrastructure. There is a standardization need for information exchange and management processes in the infrastructure that integrates BIM and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Currently, the Industry Foundation Classes standard has harmonized different infrastructures under the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) 4.3 release. Furthermore, the usage of remote sensing technologies such as laser scanning for infrastructure monitoring is becoming more common. This paper presents a semi-automated framework that takes as input a raw point cloud from a mobile mapping system, and outputs an IFC-compliant file that models the alignment and the centreline of each road lane in a highway road. The point cloud processing methodology is validated for two of its key steps, namely road marking processing and alignment and road line extraction, and a UML diagram is designed for the definition of the alignment entity from the point cloud data.

This study aims to improve the interoperability between the application domains of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by linking and harmonizing core information concepts. Many studies have investigated the integration of application schemas and data instances according to the BIM model IFC and the GIS model CityGML. This study investigates integration between core abstract concepts from IFC and ISO/TC 211 standards for GIS—independent of specific application schemas. A pattern was developed for conversion from IFC EXPRESS schemas to Unified Modelling Language (UML) models according to ISO/TC 211 standards. Core concepts from the two application domains were linked in the UML model, and conversions to implementation schemas for the Geography Markup Language (GML) and EXPRESS were tested. The results showed that the IFC model could be described as an ISO/TC 211 compliant UML model and that abstract concepts from ISO/TC 211 standards could be linked to core IFC concepts. Implementation schemas for BIM and GIS formats could be derived from the UML model, enabling implementation in applications from both domains without conversion of concepts. Future work should include refined linking and harmonization of core abstract concepts from the two application domains.