Currently, the majority of projects are being documented in the BIM environment using 3D modeling, design, and documentation tools. This is especially true of large capital projects, and over the past year it has also become common place even for small commercial interiors projects due to the maturity of the software platforms across disciplines, increased experience of teams and savvy owners. While we’ve seen an increase in the overall effort during the initial project phases, the resultant construction phase has yielded positive results through fewer RFIs, submittal cycles, and field changed. The model’s geometric benefits of enhanced visualization and coordination are proven, but the majority of projects today haven’t realized the over-arching goal of BIM which is to provide the common platform for design, construction, and… operations/facility management.
The “I” in BIM is the core to capture, store, communicate, and utilize the ‘information’ throughout the building’s life cycle. With the variety of software platforms, users, and manufacturers in the industry, a common standard was needed to facilitate the interoperability of the information. Wait for it…. COBie. Aside from being a cool term to drop at a project interview, COBie is the standard which provides the framework for the project & building variables to be populated in a consistent manner. COBie stands for “Construction-Operations Building information exchange”.
For example, a BIM model which follows the COBie standard has all of the building spaces, zones, equipment, and components both from a physical 3D/geometric representation and also the information supporting those entities. Examples of this information include – where the equipment is located, what system it is apart of, what zone it serves, the manufacturer, serial number, and its unique equipment identification tag. The variables within the BIM model that retain this information can be utilized across software packages based upon the common set of variable names and format outlined within the COBie standard.
The process of assigning the responsibility of populating this data within the BIM model requires upfront communication across the team and is ideally documented via the project’s BIM Execution Plan. The common approach is for design team (architect / engineer) to populate the initial set of variables of their design (spaces and basis of design equipment). During the procurement and construction phase, the construction contractors add the actual purchased equipment information to the model, including the manufacturer, model number, serial numbers, warranty information, performance variables of equipment, etc. This ‘layering’ of information within the BIM model ideally mitigates concerns over duplication of effort and culminates in an ‘as-built’ of the building’s equipment and systems. The approach is consistent and works well with the current trend utilizing a single model across design, construction, and facility management.
The issues seen today include potential reworking of BIM families to ensure that the variable names are COBie compliant so that data is entered once and populated the project’s output equipment schedules and specification data sheets while also embedded subsequent population by the contractor during procurement and construction of additional data for the owner.
With COBie being adopted and becoming a more prevalent standard in the generation of BIM models, owners and operators will be provided with a living resource for facility management, thus leveraging the investment made in the BIM model during the design and construction phase.
Joy.
Chad A. Wisler, PE LEED AP BD+C is managing principal at Vanderweil Engineers, LLP in Boston.