Identification And Analysis Of UK And US BIM Standards To Aid Collaboration

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) government’s ambitious plans to meet Building Information Modelling (BIM) Maturity Level 2 by 2016 places significant pressure on construction companies to not only meet the mandated requirements, but also ensure their existing BIM capability delivers these requirements. This poses a significant challenge to some organisations, as BIM requires a radical repositioning in the way buildings are designed and managed, with collaboration playing a pivotal role in this process. For example, many construction companies still use traditional 2D CAD files, bespoke data, and drawing standards that are company-specific (and often non-compliant). These types of organisations have therefore struggled to appreciate the importance of BIM, especially where professionals continue to use ‘bad habits’, or engage parochial standards that are difficult to share or replicate. Conversely however, there is a real opportunity for companies to proactively embrace this transition to BIM through a number of conduits, not least: the installation of industry standard best practices; embedding improved collaborative approaches; improving data veracity, flow and coordination throughout the design, construction and operations and maintenance phases. In addition, there is an abundance of BIM standards such as PAS 1192-2:2013, PAS 1192-3:2014, BS 1192:2007, BS 1192-4:2014, AEC (UK) BIM Protocol, COBie Data Drops-Structures, etc, which add confusion rather than facilitate the process. Acknowledging these challenges, BIM standards from both the UK and United States (U.S.) will be analysed to address the industries need. It is postulated that one ‘uniform’ methodology is adopted throughout the industry, to promote best practice and avoid conflicts during collaboration.