BIM – Lecture # 05

Interoperability

Dr.-Ing. Abdur Rehman Nasir

Assistant Professor of CE&M,
SCEE – NUST 1
 Interoperability

 As defined by Oxford dictionary, interoperability is “the ability

of computer systems or software to exchange and make use
of information”.

 As regard to BIM, it is the data exchange ability between

applications for smoothing workflows and facilitating their
automation (Eastman et al. 2011, p. 99).

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 Interoperability

 Interoperability is considered as a vital pillar of BIM since the

information contained in the model is required to be
exchanged for being useful.

 In AEC industry, generally all the stakeholders like designers,

architects, surveyors, contractors and engineers etc. that are
working on a certain phase of a project, use particular
software applications which consume and supply information
to be processed by different applications being used by other
stakeholders.
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 Interoperability

 Similarly, BIM information also needs to flow and exchange

along the project lifecycle among the stakeholders for which
the interoperability is desired for exploitation.

 In BIM, interoperability can be categorized into two levels as

made by Hamil (2012).

1. Closed BIM
2. Open BIM

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 Closed BIM

 Closed BIM which is also identified as ‘lonely BIM’, is a BIM

environment where the same vendor’s supplied BIM
applications are used by all the key project stakeholders for a
particular project along its lifecycle.

 Example of it could be the use of BIM applications from the

vendor ‘Autodesk’.

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 Closed BIM

 Here, the architect, structural engineer and MEP design

consultant can use the one product i.e. ‘Revit’ software for
their respective architectural, structural and MEP design
usage; whereas the estimator and scheduler can use another
product namely ‘Navisworks Manage’ software.

 In this practice, interoperability will function as information

exchange capability of used BIM applications since they
possess a similar language structure of a single vendor.

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Closed BIM

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 Open BIM

 Open BIM is a BIM environment where all the project

participants exchange project information and collaborate
with each other using a non-proprietary and neutral file format
regardless of the BIM applications they use.

 Example of it could be the use of diverse BIM applications with

different language structures which is also a norm in the AEC
industry.

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 Open BIM

 Graphisoft’s ‘ArchiCAD’ can be used by the architect, ‘Tekla

Structure’ by the structural engineer, ‘Revit MEP’ by the lead
MEP design consultant, ‘Navisworks Manage’ by the estimator
and ‘Ceapoint desite MD’ by the scheduler.

 In order to collaborerate and coordinate for the project’s

collective BIM model, a common platform is to be developed
by using an open standard which acts as a common
interpreter as shown in Fig.

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Open BIM

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 Open BIM

 Open BIM has been the reason behind the generation of

multiple open standards in the industry.

 Among others mentioned later, Industry Foundation Classes

(IFC) developed by buildingSMART has been the most
common open BIM and neutral standard that is currently used
in practice

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 IFC-History

 It began in mid-90s with an industry consortium of twelve U.S.

companies, initially defined with a motive of advising in order
to support the integrated application development in the
industry.

 A not-for-profit industry consortium led by an international

organization was constituted from the old consortium and was
named as the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI).

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 IFC-History

 The target was to develop a neutral exchange format called

IFC for exchanging and sharing BIM data across various
softwares.

 With a feeling about the coalition’s name being large and

complex to comprehend, the alliance was renamed as
buildingSMART.

 With this history, buildingSMART has come a long way and as

of 2016 it has a total of eighteen (18) chapters representing
twenty-four (24) countries. 100
 IFC-History

 At the contemporary, buildingSMART is continuously updating

the IFC standard in order to serve for the integration and
collaboration demand in AEC industry.

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 IFC

 Industry Foundation Classes, commonly known in the AEC

industry as IFC, is a product schema developed with a motive
of defining an extensible set of consistent data representations
of building and construction industry information for enabling
an exchange between AEC software applications.

 The developer buildingSMART defines IFC standard as the

open and neutral data format for open BIM, where it is used
as a common interpreter for various software applications in
order to facilitate data representation and exchange.

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 IFC

 Basically, IFC is an object oriented data model which is based

on class definition representing elements, processes and
shapes etc. that are being used by software applications
during the project lifecycle.

 IFC is officially registered with the International Organization

for Standardization universally known as ISO under the
standard ISO 16739 2013.

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 IFC

 The IFC specification is written with EXPRESS language for data

definition which is defined in the ISO as a standard data
modeling language for product data (ISO 10303:11).

 IFC is actually a file format and in addition to this, it also has

versions called ‘IFC schemas’. Presently, there are two active
IFC schemas (scheme: particular version of IFC) – namely
IFC2x3 and IFC4.

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 IFC

 IFC has been directed to address all building information over

the project lifecycle i.e. from feasibility and planning, through
design, construction, occupancy and operation

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BIM Workflow

Architectural Structural MEP Model

Model Model

Clash
QTO
BIM Detection

Structural
Analysis
Visualization
Energy
Analysis

Solar Study &

Lighting Analysis

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 OTHER EFFORTS
SUPPORTING
STANDARDIZATION

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OmniClass

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 OmniClass
● Omniclass™ has been developed by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the
International Construction Information Society (ICIS)
subcommittees and workgroups from the early-1990s
to the present.

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 OmniClass
● Currently it consists of 15 tables.

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COBie

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 COBie
● Construction Operations Building information
exchange (COBie) addresses the handover of
information between the construction team and the
owner.

● It deals with operations and maintenance (O&M), as

well as more general facility management information.

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 COBie
● Traditionally, O&M information is provided in an ad hoc
structure at the end of construction.

● COBie outlines a standard method for collecting the

needed information throughout the design and
construction process, as part of the deliverable
package to the owner during commissioning and
handover.

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 COBie
● It collects data from designers, as they define the
design, and then by contractors as the building is
constructed.

● It categorizes and structures the information in a

practical and easy-to-implement manner.

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 COBie
Specific COBie objectives are (East, 2007):
● Provide a simple format for real-time information exchange for existing
design and construction contract deliverables
● Clearly identify requirements and responsibilities for business processes
● Provide a framework to store information for later exchange/retrieval
● Add no cost to operations and maintenance
● Permit direct import to owner’s maintenance management system

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Thank you!

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