1. BIMSERVER.ORG
An overview
Léon van Berlo

2. INNOVATION FOR LIFE
“TNO connects people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the
sustainable competitive strength of industry and well-being of society“
TNO in short
• Netherlands largest research organization (top 3 in EU)
• Independent & not-for-profit
• Working closely with Academia, Public & Private industry
• Founded in 1932, head office in The Hague

3. THE POWER OF TNO
FROM IDEA TO INNOVATION

4. TNO IN NUMBERS 2015

5. SCIENTIFIC PROFILE

6. BIM AT TNO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_information_modeling

7. GREAT TRACK RECORD
BIM expertise integrated in multi disciplinary teams.
Objective and independent in every aspect.
Great BIM track record:
First reference of ‘Building Information Model’ in publication (1992)
BIM Handbook in 1988 (!)
Worked on IFC since beginning
Leading role in open source BIM collective
Involved on several levels at BuildingSMART and openBIMstandards.org
Continuously critical on developments (objective/independent)

8. BIM AT TNO
Towards a ‘data driven industry’
education
data
processtools

9. OUR ‘FLAGSHIP’: BIMSERVER

10. BIMSERVER.ORG IS
Software
“A Platform”
To create an IFC based BIM database
Focussed on getting BIM data online (cloud)
Equipped with BIM specific features for data analyses and management

14. BIMSERVER = SOFTWARE
IFC based database
Plug-ins
API / Connections

15. BIMSERVER ARCHITECTURE
Plug-ins
API / Connections
Open standards, Object
based versioning,
Revisioning, User
management, Merging, etc.
Modelchecking,
(de)serialization, Render
engine, Services, compare,
add/edit/delete, etc.
Web services,
Authoring tools connections,
Visualisation, API (json,
soap), etc
IFC based database

16. Security/Authorisation/etc
Logging
Metrics
BIMSERVER ARCHITECTURE
Plug-ins
API / Connections
IFC based database
Non-IFC
Database
(BCF)

17. TECHNICAL
Open and stable core to use and build on top
Core server features like revisions, authorization, compare, query, modelchecking,
merging, etc..
Open interfaces, lots of network protocols (soap, OAuth, json)
Open standards (data and interface)
Plugin framework for render engines (like IfcOpenShell); Query engines (like BimQL)
Flexible admin configuration & fine-tuning
Good developers documentation and SDK
Open source
Etc..

18. BIMSERVER IS NOT ALONE

19. BIMSERVER.ORG:
mission is to help all actors in the Architectural, Engineering
and Construction (AEC) industry to collaborate/work more
efficiently and effectively
(and thereby creating better buildings for lower costs).
goal is to create the most favorite software platform for online
collaboration in the AEC-industry.

20. QUITE SOME TRACTION…

21. QUITE SOME TRACTION…
Site visits 2016

22. QUITE SOME TRACTION…
1.(not set)
2.Beijing
3.Shanghai
4.London
5.Paris
6.Warsaw
7.Vienna
8.Melbourne
9.Berlin
10.Chennai

23. WHERE DID YOU USE BIMSERVER?

28. CHARTING

29. BCF Forum (design / issue management)

30. MODELCHECK

31. MODELCHECK

32. FLOORPLAN GENERATOR

34. L.A. Metro Westside Subway Extension

35. L.A. Metro Westside Subway Extension

36. Information inheritance between
Architectural data and
Supplier data

42. Spin-off products

45. LEARNING FROM COLLABORATION LOGS

47. SUPPLIERS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=878Kb_zaAFY

48. LOD Checker

52. BIMSERVER.ORG
Stable base to push innovation with tools, data and processes.
Started in 2008
Fully based on IFC (IFC2x3 and IFC4)
First ‘cloud’ system for BIM
Affero GPL and open interface which makes it suitable for commercial use
100.000 downloads in 2016
Growing number of commercial support agreements (software vendors;
government organisations; larger engineering firms; etc)
Awards for best performance and most stable
Broadly used and accepted in the industry

53. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION