The Building Information Modeling and its Use for Data Transformation in the Structural Design Stage

Zhao-Qiu Liu; Fei Zhang; Ji Zhang

doi:10.6180/jase.2016.19.3.05

The Building Information Modeling and its Use for Data Transformation in the Structural Design Stage

Zhao-Qiu Liu This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.^1,2, Fei Zhang¹ and Ji Zhang³

¹School of Civil Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224051, P.R. China
²School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
³Beijing YJK Building Software Limited Liability Company, Beijing 100191, P.R. China

Received: January 25, 2016
Accepted: June 14, 2016
Publication Date: September 1, 2016

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.2016.19.3.05

ABSTRACT

As a processing technology of data and information, building information modeling (BIM) is often used for producing digital engineering model and promoting interoperability among participants involved in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. The real values of BIM largely depend on effective information integrating and sharing among different stages or disciplines through the whole building lifecycle. To this day, although BIM has made a substantial contribution to the Chinese AEC industry, there are still some debates on its roles. Moreover, due to the complexity of structural design process, the weak link between structural model and BIM model makes its deep application even harder. To address these issues, this paper discusses the roles of BIM from the perspective of structural engineers through comparing with the traditional CAD. Then, the BIM structural model is studied by analyzing the model conformation, design mode, and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-format structural model. By comparing the differences between BIM physical model and structural mechanical model, an indirect method for the data transformation from BIM model to structural analysis model isproposed. An interface is developed based on the analysis of data formats and mapping rules. Three typical cases are adopted to demonstrate the data transfer efficiency by using the interface. The case study shows that the proposed method achieves higher efficiency for the data transformation from BIM model to structural analysis model.

Keywords: BIM Technology, IFC-format BIM Model, Structural Analysis Model, Data Transformation Interface, Information Integrating and Sharing

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