Collaborative Design and Engineering discusses the history and current practice of BIM collaboration and possible future directions. It notes that currently there is a split between policymakers who see BIM as a goal and practitioners who see it as a tool. The document advocates that mandating standards often lags practice and that collaboration is best achieved by focusing on stakeholders' actual needs rather than imposing top-down requirements. It provides examples of large successful collaborative BIM projects in the Netherlands that worked without formal standards by prioritizing data sharing through open standards.

1. Collaborative Design
and Engineering
History, Current Practice and Possible Future

2. Léon van Berlo
To create a data driven industry
@berlotti
Carpenter  Architectural Engineer  “Researcher”
Netherlands organisation for applied Scientific Research TNO
Mission to improve quality of life and competitiveness of
industry
Developing, implementing and disseminating technology
Focus on openBIM; avoiding any kind of lock-in for industry
Open source BIM collective; BIMserver.org; BIM Bots; BIM
Quickscan®; BIM Execution plan generator; National BIM
Guidelines; geoBIM.org and many more….

4. BIM Collaboration

9. “SHARED DATA MODEL”
shared
data
model

10. Common misconception:
• Shared data model is NOT equal to:
• Shared data(base)
• Shared BIM model instance
• Shared data model comes from the need to share/distribute data in
a standardized way…. “let’s agree this is a door”
shared data model == creating agreements
(interoperability)

16. BIM data flow through standards:
reducing interfaces

22. “There is no
CENTRAL
model”
(in a multi discipline project)

23. Denmark 2006:

26. Found conclusion:
Working (live) in a ‘central’ BIM
has more downsides than advantages.
(ownership of objects, legal aspects,
BIM manager, change requests, etc...)

27. “Centralizing data
stimulates wrong behaviour”

28. So now what?

29. Split in the BIM market
• Policy makersPractitioners

30. Split in the BIM market
• Policy makers
• BIM is the goal
Practitioners
BIM is not a goal, but a great
way to achieve the goal

31. Split in the BIM market
• Policy makers
• BIM is the goal
• Top down
• What is needed to finish the story
Practitioners
BIM is not a goal, but a great
way to achieve the goal
Bottom up
What is needed to finish the
work

32. Split in the BIM market
• Write documents
• Get their inspiration from the UK
• Focus on mandating working
methods, tools and creating
‘standards’
Very high level of knowledge
Work with what is available
Focus on working with
BIM/data

33. Split in the BIM market
• Write documents
• Get their inspiration from the UK
• Focus on mandating working
methods, tools and creating
‘standards’
• CDE; LOD; Execution Plans; etc
Very high level of knowledge
Work with what is available
Focus on working with
BIM/data
IFC, Basic ILS

34. Is the split a problem?

35. IFC

36. Lessons learned
In a fragmented industry,
with fast developing technology,
we see a constantly growing ecosystem of data
Mandating and dictating does not provide solutions,
and always lacks behind practise

40. Just to be clear:
Nothing wrong with an online system to
help you do your work….

42. Current practise

44. The real questions are:
What do I need to do my job?
What do others need from me to do theirs?

46. These classification systems were chosen:
• SfB: 66.67%
• Own company standard: 33.33%
Who should be leading partner:
• Jeroen Vels: 33.33%
• Remko de Haan: 33.33%
• Lex Ransijn: 33.33%

51. 250 IFC files
603.000 objects
258 million geometrical triangles
Shopping district Utrecht

52. >300 IFC files
7Gb IFC data
Almost everything curved
Rhapsody

53. Prominent Amsterdam location
316 apartments
(including most expensive penthouse in Amsterdam)
100 million construction costs
• Everything in BIM from the
beginning
• Quotations and contracts
based on IFC
• Rule checking
• Just in time logistics based
on IFC
• Suppliers deliver data in IFC
• Cranes and support
constructions in 4D BIM
• Fire safety analyses with IFC
• Simulations (wind, fire,
energy) base on IFC
• And so much more…
Pontsteiger

55. Quantity take off

56. Comparing design with supplier data

57. Comparing design with supplier data

58. Site management

59. Issue management with BCF

60. Pontsteiger statistics
• 230 IFC files (actually almost 350)
• 15.1 Gb data
• 236 Million IFC objects

61. Different software versions 20140223_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.6.0.0
20140223_1515(x64) - Exporter 2015.0.2014.0223 - Default UI
20140606_1530(x64) - Exporter 15.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.6.0.0 (Solibri IFC Optimizer)
20140606_1530(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20140903_1530(x64) - Exporter 15.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.5.0.0
20150212_1515(x64) - Exporter 16.0.421.0 - Default UI
20150220_1215(x64) - Exporter 16.0.428.0 - Default UI
20150220_1215(x64) - Exporter 16.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.5.0.0
20150220_1215(x64) - Exporter 16.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.6.0.0
20150303_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.4.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.4.0.0
20150506_1715(x64) - Exporter 16.0.462.0 - Default UI
20150511_0715(x64) - Exporter 2015.0.2015.0511 - Default UI
20150512_1015(x64) - Exporter 15.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.2.0.0
20150714_1515(x64) - Exporter 16.0.490.0 - Default UI
20150714_1515(x64) - Exporter 16.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.2.0.0
20150714_1515(x64) - Exporter 16.3.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.3.0.0
20150714_1515(x64) - Exporter 16.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.6.0.0
20151007_0715(x64) - Exporter 16.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.2.0.0
20151008_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.5.0.0
20151008_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.5.0.0 (Solibri IFC Optimizer)
20151008_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.6.0.0
20151207_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20151208_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160120_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160220_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.5.0.0
20160220_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160220_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160220_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0 (Solibri IFC Optimizer)
20160225_1515(x64) - Exporter 17.0.416.0 - Alternate UI 17.12.14.0
20160225_1515(x64) - Exporter 17.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 17.2.0.0
20160512_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.5.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.5.0.0
20160512_0715(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160512_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.6.0.0
20160512_1515(x64) - Exporter 15.7.0.0 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160512_1515(x64) - Exporter 2015.0.2016.0512 - Alternate UI 15.7.0.0
20160525_1230(x64) - Exporter 16.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.2.0.0
20161004_0715(x64) - Exporter 16.6.0.0 - Alternate UI 16.6.0.0 (Solibri IFC Optimizer)
20170118_1100(x64) - Exporter 17.2.0.0 - Alternate UI 17.2.0.0
20170421_2315(x64) - Exporter 18.0.1.2 - Alternate UI 18.0.1.2
Adomi 2014, 2016-04-05
Allplan 2016.1 02.08.2016 - 10:41:24
Allplan 2016.1 17.06.2016 - 12:30:11
AutoCAD Architecture 2014 - English Build 7.5.17.0
SolidWorks 2015
SolidWorks 2017
SolidWorks 2017 (Solibri IFC Optimizer)
Tekla Structures 16.1 Build:656467/13.5.2011, IFC Export Version:136/May 3 2010
Tekla Structures 2016i Service Pack 4, IFC Export Version: 4.0.0.0 Apr 12 2017
Tekla Structures 2016i Service Pack 5, IFC Export Version: 4.0.0.0 Jun 27 2017
Tekla Structures 2016i, IFC Export Version: 4.0.0.0 Sep 8 2016
Tekla Structures 21.1 Service Release 3, IFC Export Version: 4.0.0.0 Jan 28 2016
Unknown

62. Pontsteiger statistics
• BIM Protocol on a A3 paper
• No CDE
• No LOD definitions
• No conceptlibrary
• Etc..

63. It works

64. It works
but only when it comes from bottom up

65. Future practise

69. Thank you!
Leon.vanBerlo@tno.nl
leon@bimsupporters.com