Advanced BIM Course for Masters Students at DTU. This course attempts to bring together multiple resources into a single location to support you in your journey develop your own openBIM tools
The course is divided into 5 modules, each module builds on the previous one to guide you through identifying your use case and the data you need to analyse to create your tool or workflow. The course focuses on the IFC schema to provide you with a robust future proof and interoperable understanding of BIM.
| # | Name | Tools | Assignment | Learning Objective | Standards / Guidelines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IFC Dashboard | IFC / Node-RED | IFC Dashboard | 4 | IFC |
| 2 | Python | IFC Rules / IfcOpenShell | Text | 3,4 | IFC |
| 3 | Use Case | BPMN | Text | 1,2,7 | IDM, Dikon |
| 4 | Format | IFC | Future Format | 1,2,7 | IFC, bSDD |
| 5 | Custom Tools | IFC / IFC.js | Custom Tools | 4,6,7 | IFC, BCF? |
This course is possible because of a large community of humans who have been passionate about supporting standards in the AEC for a very long time. The main organisation representing these people and the needs for standardisaiton in the AEC is the awesome BuildingSmart. BuildingSmart are responsible for the development of several core interoperability tools that make this course possible they include. The table below shows the 5 main standards supported by BuildingSMART.
An industry-specific data model schema
IFC is a standardized, digital description of the built asset industry. It is an open, international standard (ISO 16739-1:2018) and promotes vendor-neutral, or agnostic, and usable capabilities across a wide range of hardware devices, software platforms, and interfaces for many different use cases.
IFC documentation (IFC4X3) in markdown!
A methodology for defining and documenting business processes and data requirements
The built asset industry is characterized by bringing many different stakeholders together in a project-specific organization. In order to work efficiently, it is necessary for all participants to know which and when different kinds of information have to be communicated. The ISO 29481-1:2010 “Building Information Modelling - Information Delivery Manual - Part 1: Methodology and Format” standard has been developed by buildingSMART in order to have a methodology to capture and specify processes and information flow during the lifecycle of a facility.
More information is found here
Data model exchange specifications
Model View Definitions (MVDs) are buildingSMART’s solution to create IFC based standards that can be implemented and tested. A great idea to produce a subset of the total model represented in the IFC. The idea would be to create a smaller specific model that captures just the information they need. The reality is that this is quite difficult to produce which it is possible is the reason there are few approved MVD instances.
An MVD consists of three main components:
Model-based, software-independent communication protocols
The BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) allows different BIM applications to communicate model-based issues with each other by leveraging IFC models that have been previously shared among project collaborators. BCF was created for facilitating open communications and improving IFC-based processes to more readily identify and exchange model-based issues between BIM software tools, bypassing proprietary formats and workflows.
A detailed explanation of BCF can be found here.
A standard library of general definitions of BIM objects and their attributes
The buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) is an online service that hosts classifications and their properties, allowed values, units and translations. The bSDD allows linking between all the content inside the database. It provides a standardized workflow to guarantee data quality and information consistency.
A computer interpretable document that defines the Exchange Requirements of model based exchange.
The Information Delivery Specification defines how objects, classifications, properties, and even values and units need to be delivered and exchanged. This can be a combination of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), Domain Extensions, and additional classifications and properties (national agreements or company specific ones; either stored in bSDD or somewhere else). This is the standard to use to define your Level of Information Needs. It brings validation of IFC to the client, the modeler and the Software Tools that perform (automated) analyses. It is a core component that can be used as a contract to deliver the correct information. It holds the ability to create localized and use-case specific requirements for your projects and asset portfolio. The IDS is the solution for predictable and reliable data exchange workflows.
Technical info is available on https://github.com/buildingSMART/IDS
The super exciting thing about this course is that it tries to move from the old way of running linear courses, where students repeat the same standard exercise each year and try and change it.
The information booklets are in the process of being converted to markdown. In the mean
We are at an exciting point in BIM at the moment, it is a real moment where the future is being defined in front of our eyes. We are trying to bring together some of these developments in a list repo called bim awesome.