Nick Tune joined us at Ecobuild 2015, and kicked off our selection of BIM seminars with Introduction to Buildingsmart and COBie - you can now see the slides here!

1. Introduction to openBIM, Building
SMART & COBie
Nick Tune
Director BuildingSMART

2. A Lesson From History
In the 1980s, Western Manufacturing
faced economic pressure:
- High quality, low cost imports
- Rising labour cost
- More demanding legislation
It had to innovate to survive

3. The Solution......?
Integrated Process

4. What is Integrated Process?
• The ability to share and use data between team
members from the same discipline .... and
• The ability to share and use data between
different disciplines
Access to the information
you need – when you need it

5. In Construction
Integrated Process
Is called
BIM

6. What BIM is Not
• A NEW CONCEPT
• A TECHNOLOGY
• JUST A MODEL
• THE SOLUTION TO EVERYTHING

7. What communication protocol does
BIM need to succeed?
• A common language
• A platform to communicate the common language
• A willingness to communicate the common language

8. Three Ways To Apply BIM
Communication Protocols
1. Bespoke
2. Single platform (Closed BIM)
3. Common Platform (Open BIM)

9. Everyone learns everyone else's language
BESPOKE
UN

10. Everybody, bar 1, has to change their language
UN
SINGLE PLATFORM (CLOSED BIM)

11. COMMON PLATFORM (OPEN BIM)
UN
IFC
Everyone uses their own language with a common interpreter

12. What is OPEN BIM?
A PROCESS THAT GIVES USERS
ACCESS TO THE INFORMATION
THEY NEED WHEN THEY NEED IT
WHATEVER TECHNOLOGY IS USED

13. A world wide Alliance
driving the transformation of
the built environment
through creation & adoption of
open, international standards
Values
Open
Neutral
International
Non Profit
Goals
Create openBIM standards
Host open BIM forums
Certify software & people
Become a trusted resource
Promote active use
Standards Focus
Data
Processes
Dictionaries
BIM Standards
History
1995 Established
2000 IFC2 Release
2012 IFC4 Release
2013 First ISO Standards
International Network
Australasia
Benelux
Canada
China
French
German
Hong Kong
Italia
Japan
Korea
Middle East
Nordic
Norway
Singapore
United Kingdom
USA
bSI Partners
Richard Petrie
CEO
Patrick MacLeamy
Chairman
Introduction: buildingSMART today

14. Standardisation vs. Standards
S t a n d a r d i s a t i o n
ISO
CEN
National
Standards
bSI

15. Success
• Standards Body of Reference
• Harmonisation of standards
• Development of openBIM standards
(where required)
• Vibrant Chapters
• Quality Mark in Demand

16. UK
Sphere
bSI
Sphere
International Benefits

17. Standards Process: Overview
Needs Identification Solution
Development
Deployment
Standards Program Process
Third Party
Rooms
Filter
Initiation Development
Projects
Projects
bSI Final
Standard
Implement
in Software
Industry
Adoption
User Training
& Certification
Working
Groups
S
C
SC
Approval
SCE

18. What it does Name Standard
Describes Processes
IDM
Information Delivery Manual
ISO 29481-1
ISO 29481-2
Transports information / Data
IFC
Industry Foundation Class
ISO 16739
Change Coordination
BCF
BIM Collaboration Format
buildingSMART BCF
Mapping of Terms
IFD
International Framework for
Dictionaries
ISO 12006-3
buildingSMART Data Dictionary
Translates processes into
technical requirements
MVD
Model View Definitions
buildingSMART MVD
Data: IFC
Model:
MVD
Their are five basic methodology standards
Technical Principles: Basic Standards
© 2014 buildingSMART
See http://www.buildingsmart.org/standards and http://www.buildingsmart-tech.org/specifications

21. buildingSMART will focus on standardising processes. We believe this is
the priority and that we are well positioned to do this because of our
worldwide network and neutral status.
Current activity is limited by resources and narrow engagement.
Active Project buildingSMART lead
Data dictionary cloud hosting and development tools Product Room
Pilot project to populate data dictionary Product Room
Coordination View for IFC 4 ITM
Infrastructure Alignment & Spatial Reference Infrastructure Room
International BIM Guidelines Process Room
Tools to check BIM models MSG
Technical Principles: Current Focus

22. Where is the industry now ?
– BIM 4 SMEs
– Mostly design based
proprietary software, limited
use in construction phase, little
use in maintenance
– Most haven't used level 2 tools
protocol/tools ie COBie etc
– Not aware of interoperability
issues

23. BSUKs Vision
– The UKs leading body for the development of openBIM
standards and the ‘go to’ organisation in supporting
clients and users with the adoption of openBIM/BIM
Level 2 within their work processes.

24. About BuildingSMART & open BIM
– BuildingSMART: a community of people
and organisations who are working with
open-BIM & sharing their experiences
– Working with government & industry to
develop standards, tools and training to
ensure that open BIM is used effectively
– We created the Industry Foundation
Classes (IFC) standard and building data
dictionary & are leading the development
and roll out of COBie in the UK

25. The role of BuildingSMART UKI
– To support users with adoption openBIM
– To support the supply chain to meet the Governments
Level 2 mandate
– To educate the UK supply chain on openBIM
– Develop new openBIM standards via BSInt

26. BSUKs planned work programme
– Repository of information (objective impartial advice)
such as guides, training content, information papers
etc.
– Tools, guides etc. to delivering L2 processes/standards
such as development of IRs
– KPIs for projects to monitor their performance against
BIM L2

27. BSUKs planned work programme
– Portal to showcase project performance (against KPIs)
similar to honest buildings, Carbon Buzz etc
– Case studies with tangible benefits of BIM highlighted
– User trials and condensed trials (like the build live)
series where Level 2 issues are trialled/tested
– Unified method for certification of people, businesses,
objects, projects, data

28. Who is behind BuildingSMART UKI?
– We are a part of the international
BuildingSMART programme, with
representation across Europe, North
America, the Middle East, Far East &
Australasia.
– BRE took control from Jan 13, because we
have a background in driving positive
change through programmes such as

29. buildingSMART UK&I Members

30. BuildingSMART UK trials 2014/15
1. Trial 1 - Employers Information Requirements (EIR) and
Information briefing
Project scope
– To deliver a ‘buildingSMART EIR template’ that will enable
information requirements to be defined which are aligned with the
IFC and COBie standards. An EIR could include the following types
of requirements:
 Organisational Information Requirements (OIR)
 Asset Information Requirements (AIR) and
 Information Requirements (IR).

31. BuildingSMART UK trials 2014/15
– Trial 2 - Product Data Capability
– The purpose of this trial is to test and evaluate a selection of intelligent
objects that are currently available in BIM Libraries.
Objectives
– To establish if a COBie Spreadsheet deliverable for a specific product type
can be populated from the information within BIM Library objects, relating to
the CIC work stages:
– For generic library objects:
– Brief
– Concept
– Definition

32. BuildingSMART UK trials 2014/15
– Trial 3 - Handover using COBie to FM Providers
– The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the capability of FM
and Asset Management systems to import and export COBie
data.
– Objectives
– To establish:
– If COBie Spreadsheets can be imported into FM or Asset
Management systems.
– Once the COBie data has been imported into an FM or Asset
Management and, for example, maintenance regimes and/or
lists of spares have been defined, can the updated Asset
Information Model be re-exported as COBie data.

33. What is COBie?
An MVD of and IFC subset (minus
geometry) at the handover stages of
information

34. 1
2
3
4
5
N
N
N
MC
LD
E
S
ME
M
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier N
A
C
Portfolio
Mgt
PPM
PUSH SIDE – SUPPLY CHAIN PULL SIDE - CLIENT

35. openBIM/COBie field Trials
Trial Criteria
Objectives
Understand
– Issues of Federated working
– Interaction between Proprietary
BIM software and Open Standards
– COBie generation from Federated
models
– Change Management and COBie

36. COBie
COBie Trial
– Phase 1 (2012) emphasised
importance of IFC
– Phase 2 (2013) challenges
contractors to use IFC from
multiple vendors to create COBie
– Real project,
– Real client,
– Real data
– Real EIR

37. Methodology
– Contractor Led (9 participated)
– Chose preferred BIM platforms (min 2 req)
– Chose COBie tools
– Client set COBie criteria
– Based on FM requirements
– Communication through a CDE (4Projects)
– Protocols employed
– A BIM Execution plan
– PAS 1192:2
– Case Study
– Real project ( a small control tower)
– Generate the COBie for client handover

38. Participant Platform Choice
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8
BIM 1 Arch  
BIM 2 MEP 
BIM 3 Gen      
BIM 4 Arch  
BIM 5 MEP     
BIM 6 Struct   
BIM 7 Struct  
BIM 8 Arch
Collaborative Data Environment
Model checking, viewing and co-ordination tools

39. Federation – De-federation
Fabric
Structure Lighting
Water
SVP
Power Fire Alarm Mech. Vent

40. Federation Outcomes
Common points of failure
“Inconsistent or, uncontrolled use of, Global
Coordinate Systems in native BIM tools”
“BIM x to BIM y incompatibilities constrain native
BIM federation”
“Designing and implementing federation
retrospectively is expensive”

41. Participant feedback - Verbal
Inability to understand the COBie sheet and the exact data required to populate
it.
Hard to get the correct data into the IFC file from the BIM tool in order to create a
correct COBie file
Too much time required correcting the COBie data when it fails validation

42. COBie user errors
Values not correctly selected from pick lists
– Contact name not on the contact page
Incorrect Pick Lists (wrong Uniclass table)
– UniClass 1 not Uniclass 2 or OmniFormat
Data values missing that are required
– A contact’s e-mail address
Inconsistent object type filtering
– Columns not required but included

43. COBie is well understood
Strongly
Agree
12%
Agree
50%
Not Sure
12%
Diagree
13%
Strongly
Disagree
13%

44. COBie is easy to produce
Agree
12%
Diagree
63%
Strongly
Disagree
25%

45. COBie delivery requires trained specialist staff
Strongly
Agree
25%
Agree
62%
Not Sure
13%

46. COBie will be implemented in your organisation by 2016
Strongly
Agree
12%
Agree
25%
Not Sure
38%
Diagree
25%

47. Value of COBie
Agree
75%
Not Sure
25%
Strongly
Agree
12%
Agree
63%
Not Sure
25%
Agree
75%
Not Sure
25%
COBie will improve internal processes COBie will improve handover
documentation
COBie will be valuable to client

48. COBie trial conclusions
– People
– Education, practice and documentation - Required
– Process
– Design Management, EIR, internal procedures -
Required
– CDE and federation strategy – At project kick-off
– Classification - UniClass 2 completion
– Technical
– Information Management - Enforcement
– Compliance checking - Feasible
– Digital Plan of Work - Needed
– COBie button?