Building Information Modeling

3Interoperability Through Standards: IFC, Concepts and Methods

Pierre BENNING^1,2 and Claude DUMOULIN^1,2

¹ Bouygues – Travaux Publics, Paris, France

² Projet MINnD, Paris, France

3.1. Introduction

Exchange formats to describe the information associated with an infrastructure are necessary in order to ensure interoperability between the many software applications of the actors involved and to guarantee the continuity of the data throughout the life of the infrastructure. A standardization of these formats meets these requirements.

The development of standards requires the contribution of two types of experts: those from professions linked to the infrastructures defining their information exchange requirements, and exchange format professionals. This is illustrated through the principles, concepts and methods used for the development of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) object classes describing the exchanged information.

Interoperability is illustrated by the development of IFC classes for infrastructure, coordinated by buildingSMART International, including the alignments (IFC-Alignment), structures (IFC-Bridge), tunnels (IFC-Tunnel), roads (IFC-Road) and rail lines (IFC-Rail).

3.2. OpenBIM and interoperability

Building information modeling (BIM) can be defined as “the use of a shared digital representation of a built asset to facilitate design, construction, and operation processes, and form a reliable basis for decision making” (Norm ISO 19650-1, 2018, translated by author). ...