Publications / 2019 Proceedings of the 36th ISARC, Banff, Canada

Optimizing the Usage of Building Information Model (BIM) Interoperability Focusing on Data Not Tools

Elvis Amoah and Troy Nguyen
Pages 1081-1090 (2019 Proceedings of the 36th ISARC, Banff, Canada, ISBN 978-952-69524-0-6, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

Architectural, Engineering, Construction (AEC) and Facility Management (FM) industry rely on varied expertise to achieve a highly successful project. The industry professionals in these fields require greater level of collaboration in managing the expectation of a project success. When every individual in the team uses different BIM software, it becomes stressful, time consuming and an excessive use of budgeted funds to maintain accurate design model version. It also becomes virtually impossible to controls users, compare versions and analyze different models and data. Consider a large-scale project for example, there are several teams and different professional specializations coming together, all using different BIM software’s they have been tasked and making all those interoperate, multiplying the challenges in several folds. Overall, data is extremely important, and no single firm would want to be held back by the tools they use, nor do they want to maintain various disparate software packages. This paper seeks to find optimal ways in addressing BIM interoperability with emphasis on data exchange not the tools. The study reviews number of top vendors and manufacturers website and solicit their views on BIM interoperability and how those companies deal with the challenges of providing a product that integrate well with competing industry software packages.

Keywords: Building Information Modelling (BIM); BIM Software; Interoperability; BIM Collaboration; Data exchange