Resources

The following information includes links to other organisations and documents that have been examined as a resource for the information included in the NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator. The resources below are grouped into categories which relate to the information included in the NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator

 

Property Source

BIMForum Level of Development Specification

The Level of Development (LOD) Specification is a reference that defines and illustrates characteristics of model elements of different building systems at different Levels of Development. Model elements are organized by Uniformat classification. It enables AEC practitioners to clearly and unambiguously specify and articulate the content and reliability of Building Information Models (BIMs) at various stages in the design and construction process. The BIMForum LOD Specification can be found at this page: http://bimforum.org/lod/

 

COBie

COBie is an information exchange specification developed by Bill East for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), for the life-cycle capture and delivery of information needed by facility managers. With this use in mind, COBie links information about building systems and assets to the spaces or locations from where they can be accessed.

The process of creating COBie deliverables follows the same processes used in current design and construction practice, but COBie transforms the information provided in paper documents, or proprietary electronic formats, to an open, standard format that can be re-used through the project.

In its simplest form COBie can be implemented in simple spreadsheets, making it accessible to anyone with basic computer skills. It can also be viewed in design, construction, and maintenance software. The UK have also developed a variant of the original COBie schema titled COBie UK. The primary difference between COBie UK and the US version is that it uses the Uniclass classification system and the US one uses Omniclass.

An overview of COBie with links to resources including COBie spreadsheet templates can be found at this page: www.wbdg.org/resources/construction-operations-building-information-exchange-cobie?r=buildingcomm 

Useful COBie links

For an introductory video, click here 

Another general overview of COBie and links to resources can be found at this page: www.nibs.org/?page=bsa_cobie .

The COBie Guide includes many schedules of plant and equipment parameters/properties and can be found at this page: www.nibs.org/?page=bsa_cobieguide .

 

IFC

IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is a platform neutral, open file format specification that is not controlled by a single vendor or group of vendors. It is an object-based file format with a data model developed and maintained by buildingSMART to facilitate interoperability in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. It is registered by ISO and is an official International Standard ISO 16739:2013. Both the IFC 2x3 (TC1) and IFC 4 (Add 2) schemas have been provided as property sources in the NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator.

IFC 2x3: www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ifc/IFC2x3/TC1/html/ 

IFC 4: www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ifc/IFC4/Add2/html/ 

Useful IFC links

buildingSMART international: www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ 

An introduction to IFC can be found at this page: www.buildingsmart.org/about/what-is-openbim/ifc-introduction/ 

IFC FAQs can be found at this page: www.buildingsmart.org/faqs-open-bim-users/ 

A summary of all IFC releases can be found at this page: www.buildingsmart-tech.org/specifications/ifc-releases/summary

 

NATSPEC BIM

The properties assigned to the source of NATSPEC BIM have primarily been derived from those previously found in the NATSPEC BIM Object/Element Matrix. This document is now superseded by the NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator and is no longer available.

The original NATSPEC BIM Object/Element Matrix was derived from the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) BIM Object/Element Matrix, which is available for download under the References tab from this page: www.cfm.va.gov/til/bim/BIMGuide/lifecycle.htm

 

NATSPEC Spec

The properties assigned to the source of NATSPEC Spec have primarily been derived from the prompts and schedules included in the corresponding NATSPEC specification worksections that relate to that object.

Further information on the NATSPEC specification system can be found at this page: www.natspec.com.au

 

Classification

NATSPEC

NATSPEC maintains the National Classification System to assist specification writers organise the content of specifications, and their users to find the information they are looking for. The system structures information in a logical and consistent way to introduce predictability from project to project.

Download a number of National Classification System resources from this page: www.natspec.com.au/resources/national-classification-system 

Download keynoting framework files based on NATSPEC’s National Classification System from this page: http://bim.natspec.org/tools/keynoting-framework

 

Uniclass

Uniclass 2015 is a unified classification for the UK industry covering all construction sectors. The following link provides an overview of the Uniclass 2015 system including downloadable Excel files of the tables: https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/classification 

Download Uniclass tables in CSV format from this page: https://github.com/buildig/uniclass-2015

 

Omniclass

The US facetted classification system with tables for many aspects of construction including Spaces, Elements, Work Results, Products, Materials and Properties.

The latest editions of Omniclass Tables can be downloaded from this page: www.omniclass.org/

 

UniFormat

UniFormat mirrors Table 21 – Elements – of the Omniclass classification system.

Uniformat documentation can be downloaded from this page: www.csiresources.org/practice/standards/uniformat

 

MasterFormat

MasterFormat mirrors Table 22 – Work Results – of the Omniclass classification system.

MasterFormat documentation can be downloaded from this page: www.csiresources.org/practice/standards/masterformat

 

Other resources

Australian and New Zealand Revit Standards (ANZRS)

The ANZRS modelling standards set out practices for producing Revit model content and models of consistently high quality. The ANZRS documentation can be downloaded from this page: www.anzrs.org./blog/

 

NATSPEC BIM Paper 001: BIM and LOD

This BIM Paper provides an introduction to the concept of Level of Development (LOD) and its value in the management of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) process.

It includes recommendations about implementing LOD on projects and guidance on developing and interpreting LOD Tables. A copy of the paper can be downloaded from this page: http://bim.natspec.org/images/NATSPEC_Documents/NATSPEC_BIM_LOD_Paper_131115.pdf

 

USACE M3

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Minimum Modelling Matrix (M3) is a spreadsheet that specifies the expected LOD of model elements for design models (for construction documents) and record models (As-built). Model elements are organised by Uniformat classification.

The M3 Excel spreadsheet can be downloaded from this page: https://cadbimcenter.erdc.dren.mil/default.aspx?p=a&t=1&i=14