Abstract

IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) laid the foundation for interoperability with different applications. However, the IFC lacked the specifications for the process, such as where and when the information was created, edited, and exchanged. Determining what and when to share is difficult. Thus, IDM (Information Delivery Manual) was introduced to capture the business process while providing detailed user-defined specifications on the information that need to be exchanged at particular points within a project. However, the development of IDM needs the widespread support of participants who have high professionalism. Thus, the development of IDM lasts long, and the model view of the exchange requirement is difficult to modify, which obstructs BIM (Building Information Modeling) information sharing. In this paper, the technical framework of the BIM process information exchange was proposed based on the relationships among IDM, IFC, and IFD (International Framework for Dictionaries). According to the framework, the basic method for BIM process information exchange, which is composed of process modelling and exchange requirement extraction based on IDM, model view auto-generation depending on natural specification of exchange requirement, exchanging data by the requirement view in a linear sequence, was established. The exchange requirement model view auto-generation application was also developed. Actual practice in the 4D (4-Dimensional) construction management system of the information specified by the exchange requirement view was presented. Application results illustrate that the framework and the method for BIM process information exchange is effective, and helps in the safe, accurate, and highly efficient exchange, sharing, and integration of data.

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