Restructuring Elements in IFC Topology through Semantic Enrichment: A Case of Automated Compliance Checking

The current trends exhibit that the construction industry is focusing on implementing the Building Information Model (BIM) to improve visual analyses, cost estimation, and information exchange. Though standards, requirements, and development control rules (DCR) govern the construction project lifecycle, only a few applications have been developed to investigate BIM's capability in automated code compliance checking (ACCC). A significant amount of the existing application limits its checking capabilities to direct parameter values, easily extractable from a Building Information Model (BIM). On the other hand, a few clauses require implicit information to be extensively expressed in machine language for automated checking. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) derived from BIM models lacks the relational connections of building elements required for extracting property values for automated checking. This study develops a model to restructure a topologically complex element relationship (i.e., sunshade projection width) in an IFC schema. Different categories of semantic enrichment tasks are performed for restructuring and to represent the required clause test values explicitly. The model's performance was assessed on a test case concerning the clause requirements of the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR) code for Maharashtra, India. The compliance check method identified the sunshades in the developed model through simple if-then conditions. The method adopted in the study can be applied to similar code requirements to reduce the manual data preprocessing effort required from the architects and modelers, leading to enhanced penetration of ACCC in the industry.