California Community College's use of web-based Building Information Models in BIMStorms - online brainstorms using BIM - is described in this overview article illustrated with webinar screen captures.

1. BIMStorm BIG BIM BANG
Healthcare + Education
Two significant building owners, Kaiser Permanente and California Community Colleges, are
supporting the BIMStorm BIG BIM BANG “sandbox” with projects that encourage those in the
building industry to explore use of web-based Building Information Models.
BIMStorms are a series of “online brainstorms” and in-person sessions using web-based
Building Information Models to explore dramatic productivity improvements using open
standards to share information among many software programs for planning, design,
construction, operations and maintenance. Organized by ONUMA, Inc., and supported by
sponsors, BIMStorms are free for those interested in learning owner business process
requirements.
The following is an exploration of the California Community Colleges portion of the
BIMStorm, which will be held over a period of three months, with an in-person focus at
Ecobuild 2011, Washington, D.C. December 6.
For more information visit: http://www.BIMStorm.com/WAS

2. An Educational Facilities Owner's Perspective
California Community Colleges is making data available on multiple projects for two
campuses. MiraCosta College will be the site for a project in early planning, three projects as
part of an overall east-side campus plan. The three design projects are 1) a new athletics
center, 2) a new operations and maintenance facility and, 3) a new parking area with solar
photovoltaics.
For Mission College, an exploration of data sharing from the Construction-Operations Building
Information Exchange format (COBIE) to facility management software will be addressed.
“The BIMStorm gives our districts new and fresh ideas and to see how this collaborative
approach and data sharing can help them save money and get more done with the limited
budget we have to maintain our facilities,” says John Roach, Executive Director, Technology
Services, Foundation for California Community Colleges. It is great opportunity for contractors
working with the colleges or potential new contractors to get a sense of what the California
Community College work scope is.”
Roach supports the institution's 72 districts and 112 campus throughout the state. “All of those
districts and campuses are using our facility maintenance program Fusion to collaborate with
the Chancellors office on annual reporting,” Roach says.
Fusion is an internally created, online database that assists with space utilization and facility
management for 71 million square feet of facilities. The need for integrating information and to
streamline and standardize the exchange of information dealing with the facilities was the
reason for establishing the Fusion, according to Roach. Because the college system has
already had organized the data, it was well prepared to benefit from web-based BIM
processes.

3. For this BIMStorm the California Community College will, for the first time, generate project
program requirements in BIM from FUSION which will then be made accessible to the design
teams to work with and submit the completed BIM back to FUSION for compliance checking
and updating of the FUSION data.
“The districts have obligations to
annually submit space inventory
information explaining what space
has been added, what space has
been removed and how those
spaces are being used down to the
room level,” Roach says. “We have
a team of assessors that travel the
state full time and visit each
campus, walking each building
approximately once every three
years.”
Information about the condition of
building systems combined with the
chancellor's office annual updates
for enrollment forecasts allow
districts to allocate spaces at
individual campuses and add
additional forecasts.
“With those three basic building blocks: 1) space inventory telling us what spaces we have
and how they are being used, 2) the condition of the space and 3) the enrollment forecasts
the districts then develop their capital construction plans,” Roach says.
As capital plans are approved by the chancellor's office and then funded, active projects move
into the project module of Fusion. “As projects are built out and the last of the financial
reimbursement claims are processed, the project moves back into the space inventory and
the cycle continues,” Roach says.
He added, “Each district maintains its own sets of data and then collaborate by sharing it
through web services. Ideally we do it as we are doing it in the ONUMA System. We found
that because of the standards approach of the ONUMA Systems and it's light weight web-
based approach, that it is the ideal tool for being able to link into these tools.”
The Foundation for California Community Colleges is working with individual districts on
larger focused projects dealing on a range of projects from master planning through to
maintenance, ticketing, sensor and energy reading, according to Roach.
For this BIMStorm the California Community College will for the first time, generate project
program requirements in BIM from FUSION which will then be made accessible to the design
teams to work with and submit the completed BIM back to FUSION for compliance checking
and updatiing of the FUSION data.

4. Onuma says, “We are actively looking for other tools that can connect to the Fusion system
and add more value to the colleges.” For example, at Glendale Community College IRIS
Greenbuild is using the ONUMA System and Energle software to link BIM with building
automation systems and sensors to FUSION data.
Sensors provide real-time data
through Energle's dashboards.
Also, web-based BIM lighting
controls that provides the ability to
turn lights on and off remotely are
being tested.
“BIMStorm BIG BIM BANG is
allowing access to several energy
studies, audits for demand
response and how to reduce energy
use for an entire campus,” Onuma
says.
Onuma adds, “We are going to
have a connection between the
ONUMA System and GTX Sync, a master model management web server. In the ONUMA
System we keep models light weight, but if we have a full blown Revit model that we want to
see in 3D in a web browser - for example a mashup of the mechanical model with the
architectural model - GTX Sync is going to have the ability to import that Revit or IFC model
and visualize it in 3D on the web.”
Construction-Operations Building information exchange
Another focus of BIMStorm BIG BIM BANG will be data transfer using the Construction
Operation Building Information Exchange (COBie) format, according to Tina Macica, MPM
Consultancy, supporting the Build LACCD program. “We are developing a COBie specification
to figure out how to take the
information that we receive
during construction – the
operations manuals, the
maintenance manuals, the
warranty information and put it
into a data format that you can
you can transfer it automatically
into SAP,” Macica says. “The
goal is to take information that
is already required to be
delivered in the written format
and move it into an electronic
format.”

5. The test project is a lab building, so there is a significant amount of equipment in it and it is a
great example of the different types of items will need to be maintained. “We will need to know
how do we take some of that information and hook it back into FUSION so the client can
manage the assets down the line in a logical manner,” Macica says. “We will be uploading the
maintenance information into their maintenance management system which is SAP.”
“We are going to release
some of this information
during the BIMStorm so the
different project teams can
utilize what we have done and
see if it works,” Macica says.
While FUSION does not
maintain equipment data, it
does maintain room data,
according to Onuma. “The
opportunity is to have multiple
systems talk about the same
room. For example, LACCD
uses their own FM CMMS
Systems and also uses
FUSION so that all the data
from different systems can be related to the same room with accuracy,” he says. “We don't
need every single element in this model that you see on the screen during facility
management. What we worked on with the LACCD and Tina was to identify specifically what
is needed from the model. Some of it could be very simple data about a piece of equipment.
We might not need all the ducts, but we need all the air handling units, for example.”
Many models being delivered to owners are great for construction but they don't support
facility management, according to Onuma. “So how do you break this data back down into a
different format. It is not necessarily that the more data you have the better. It is really the
appropriate level of detail for what you are trying to do throughout the whole project life-
cycle?” he asks.
Onuma says, “One very important theme for all of the BIMStorms and a lot of the owners – is
how to consistently get data from all of our facilities that can be rolled up to a portfolio level.
This is not possible unless you have consistent naming and numbering. It is as simple as that
actually. We have to have consistent naming and numbering at a very basic level. If we can't
name buildings and number buildings and name spaces and number spaces in a consistent
way, it is impossible to say what's inside. That is the lowest level of BIM detail in this
BIMStorm. Let's keep data consistent. This seems simplistic, but this is absolutely the biggest
challenge most owners have is naming and numbering of spaces.”
These challenges and many other related to improved productivity with web-based Building
Information Models are being addressed in BIMStorm 2011 BIG BIM BANG –
www.BIMStorm.com/WAS
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6. • November 14, 2011 - 8 am Pacific | 11 am Eastern - Live Planning Session II
• November 22, 2011 - 8 am Pacific | 11 am Eastern - Live Planning Session III
• December 7 and 8, 2011 - BIMStorm Live at ecobuild, Washington, DC
• December 8, 2011 S603 Big BIM Bang