Decoupling Model and Data/Information (IFC & ISO 19650)

,
5

The advantages are as follows:

  • Filesize, as you have mentioned.
  • They can be worked on in parallel - disciplines can independently develop certain BIM data (such as an FM team working on asset data while the modeling team is working on geometric shapes)
  • Not only can they be worked on in parallel, they can work without the other one existing to be plugged in later.
  • They can be reduced to smaller ASCII files which can be version controlled using tried and proven versioning systems such as Git / Hg / P4. We will no longer be locked into cloud platforms such as BIM 360 which deal with monolithic files and implement version control in a very poor way.
  • Files can be kept as ASCII instead of encouraging teams to use binary due to file efficiencies - this means that BIM models will never become corrupt. For example, in the film industry, it is standard practice to decouple related data and as a result manageably store everything in ASCII to prevent data corruption. The construction industry will follow, I expect.
  • They can be analysed separately for efficiency. When files are updated in a BIM server, just the relevant files can be parsed for automatic analysis, such as for automatic environmental analysis, costing, or health and safety constraint metrics. For example, a Blender BIM costing export takes a split second and can be read / written / parsed headlessly also in a split second.
  • It means that the IFC spec can evolve in a reliable way. Mixing keywords into less but highly coupled keywords means that the spec cannot keep the base classes stable whilst experimenting on newer data classes.
  • It means that authoring programs can focus on only delivering parts of the IFC that they specialise in. There will no longer be need for full IFC / BuildingSMART certification, if all a program does is specialise in generating IfcShapeRepresentation, for example, which can be plugged into other IFC programs. This means a greater ecosystem of tools, more interoperability, and less monopoly behaviour.

There are probably more advantages that I missed.

3 Likes