CC1705

EVENTfocus
building contractors, civil engineers,
electrical engineers and all other
disciplines involved in underground work.
The final presentation before we started
the Q and A session was given by
Stephen Holmes of Cadventure advising
on the implementation and working
processes of large-scale BIM projects.
AN INTRODUCTION TO COBIE
COBie (Construction Operation Building
information exchange) is, of course, the
UK Government's mandated scheme for
delivering BIM data. As we were
reminded on a couple of occasions
throughout the morning by Martyn Horne,
who presented the overview alongside
Jonathan Reeves, COBie is not a
spreadsheet, although it may look like
one, but a database. It is a convenient
method of presenting all of the
information in a 3D model of a building in
a common data format that can be read
by anyone - whether they have the
authoring tool available or not, and is
accessible to those with no CAD training
or background.
To show where that information came
from Jonathan Reeves took us through a
number of his projects, explaining his
philosophy as an architect, and how the
acquisition of building information is a
natural asset, rather than a conscious
burden. "Architects want to use their
software as a design tool, and not as a
sketch pad," said Jonathan. "It is easier to
design roof frame members in 3D than to
draw them in 2D." Each element or object
included in a 3D model comes with its
own IFC tag, whether the object is
created locally or imported from an
object library such as BIM Object, which
would bring with it a wealth of
manufacturer's object information.
In design mode, Jonathan explained,
you aren't particularly concerned about
the amount of information you have with
each object because when you wish to
start sharing your model with others, you
can go into the Resource Manager in
Vectorworks at any time and add
whatever information you wish.
Even on the smallest projects, Jonathan
explained, there are advantages to being
able to access the information you are
building up in a model. The ability to
create component schedules and
organise the design process, for example
creating a structure with different design
layers - walls/floors, doors and windows,
MEP, lighting systems and so on - is
particularly useful, and while not
absolutely necessary for smaller projects,
they provide great practice for when the
requirement becomes mandatory.
THE VIEW FROM THE FRONTLINE
Stephen Holmes of Cadventure was
given the opportunity to point out a few
home truths. With 25 year’s experience in
the industry, covering all aspects of
project delivery, his first statement set the
tone for the conference. "The reality of
BIM depends on who you are talking to. It
all starts with the client, and they differ so
widely it is unbelievable," he said.
Having worked on projects worldwide,
including three airports, stadiums,
hospitals and residential projects, Steve
said that they all have had widely
different ideas about what information
there is available and what they need. At
one end of the scale you have the "Worst
case clients who don't care about
information and wouldn't know COBie if it
bit them." These are typically developers
who want to sell on the building as soon
as it is built. And at the other end, he
said, is the client who asks for everything
- and who copy and paste it all, so that it
looks as if their aim is merely to force
penalty payments!
The perfect client, though incredibly rare
(less than 1%), understands the value of
data, knows what they want, and can
explain it to you in clear, plain language.
The challenge in the industry, therefore, is
educating owner-operators to ask for the
right information at the right time.
There are, of course, clients at all levels
between these extremes, and you can
help them get data in pretty much
whatever format they like. But that raises
the next challenge - Bad Data in equals
Bad Data out. Stephen explained that
ensuring consistency comes down to
how individuals model, and even on the
same project people can use three or
four different ways of modelling skirting
boards, resulting in garbage when you
try to extract the data in a single format.
DON'T OVERPROVIDE DATA
"Don't overprovide data and learn how
to map data properly," Stephen advised.
When delivering COBie data drops for
Level 2 it is important to know exactly
what needs to be delivered, to know not
to overprovide as well as underprovide.
Download just what you need and
validate it. Do you want liability for all of
the objects you are putting in a model if
it is not your ultimate responsibility?
"Furthermore, is the data clean? if not,
don't put it in the model."
Know how to map data, Stephen added,
so that if there is a problem with the data it
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