Collaboration and IFC in the Netherlands. More info on leon.vanberlo@tno.nl

1. COLLABORATIVE DESIGN AND
ENGINEERING WITH IFC IN THE
NETHERLANDS
Data sharing ≠ collaboration | Léon van Berlo

2. COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
AND ENGINEERING WITH IFC
IN THE NETHERLANDS
Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands 08 April 2015

3. A DUTCH GUY IN MANCHESTER
AND THIS IS THE REFERENCE.….
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

5. SORRY FOR….
…bad English
…proverbs
…spelling errors in this presentation
…rude language
…sarcastic jokes (when in doubt: it was sarcasm)
…giving an opinion about the quality of your questions.…
…and all the other stuff (caravans, bicycles, other coaches, etc..)
But thanks for having me here!
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

6. NETHERLANDS ORGANISATION FOR
APPLIED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TNO
Helmond
Eindhoven
Rijswijk
Delft
Leiden
The Hague
Zeist
Utrecht
Groningen
Soesterberg

7. INTERNATIONAL
OFFICES / AGENCIES
Offices
Agencies
Trends Transitions

8. THE POWER OF TNO
FROM IDEA TO INNOVATION
Trends Transitions

9. TNO IN NUMBERS 2013
Number of employees (effective average)
Consolidated turnover
3.276
€ 564 million
Trends Transitions

10. ON THE BIM SIDE…
Core team of 8 BIM experts (broad spectrum)
Second ring of 10 – 15 part time BIM related experts
Additional special departments for energy, health, safety, etc.
Great BIM track record:
First reference of ‘BIM’ in publication (1992)
BIM Handbook in 1988 (!)
Worked on IFC since beginning
Involved on several levels
at BuildingSMART
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

11. HOW ABOUT YOU?
Architects?
Engineers?
Contractors?
BIM Managers?
Policy makers?
Modellers?
Managers?
Are you ready for controversial statements?
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

12. START WITH THE CONCLUSIONS:
Collaboration is not the same as data sharing
You need to know what (and how) you / the other person need(s)
Domain models are the master models
It is not about a theoretical perfect BIM
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

13. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

14. LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING…..
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

15. 1998 (?)
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
“SHARED DATA MODEL”
shared
data
model

16. COMMON MISCONCEPTION:
Shared data model is NOT equal to:
Shared data(base)
Shared BIM model instance
Shared data model comes from the need to share/distribute data in a
standardized way…. “let’s agree this is a door”
shared data model == creating agreements (interoperability)

17. BIM DATA FLOW THROUGH STANDARDS:
REDUCING INTERFACES

18. YES, I’VE SEEN THE PICTURES…

20. 2008: BIMSERVER.ORG
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

21. 2009: 1ST RELEASE
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

22. 2010/11: NATIONAL BIMSERVER PILOT
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

23. 2012: REPORT
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

24. THE PILOT / RESEARCH
Look at how information flows in a project
Look at how which tools are used
Research: compare ‘homogeneous’ software with ‘own choice’ software
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

26. 26

27. “THERE IS NO CENTRAL MODEL”
(IN A PROJECT)

28. DENMARK 2006:

29. DENMARK 2008:

30. 30

31. 31

32. NL 2012:

33. NO ROUNDTRIP
(import/export in a chain of tools)

34. OBSERVATIONS:
“There is no loss of data using IFC”… It is all in the native software. The
question is what data you want to share (using IFC). What data do you need
to do your job? Then we look if that is in IFC (and in your tool after import)
Not a single IFC ‘loss of data’-issue occurred during the experiments.
In a homogeneous software environment, users felt that all team members
should have equal BIM software modeling expertise. When using the
concept of reference models, not all project team members collaborating in a
project need to have the same level of BIM expertise.
34

35. AND TO CLOSE UP….
The use of a reference model concept with IFC can lower the needed BIM
competences for a project partner to be able to collaborate in a way that is
sufficiently effective for the entire project team.
All respondents in this experiment were strongly convinced that choosing
project partners based on their competence of a specific software tool,
prior to their engineering competence, is never preferred
35

36. FOUND CONCLUSION:
WORKING (LIVE) IN A ‘CENTRAL’
MODELSERVER HAS MORE
DOWNSIDES THAN ADVANTAGES.
(OWNERSHIP OF OBJECTS, LEGAL ASPECTS,
BIM MANAGER, CHANGE REQUESTS, ETC...)
36

37. BIMSERVER TODAY:

38. IN THE MEANTIME….
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

39. STATE OF BIM COLLABORATION IN 2015
Working with ‘Reference model concept’ is the norm
Main input for BuildingSMART International IFC4 Referenceview MVD
Working with IFC is like sliced bread
Reference model concept is integral part of National BIM Guidelines
IFC usage and understanding has rapidly grown
Making a BIM is not the goal
Collaboration is seen as something else than just sharing data!
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

40. “A CENTRAL DATASTORE
STIMULATES WRONG BEHAVIOUR”

41. EVERYONE BRINGS THEIR
CRAFTSMANSHIP AND EXPERTISE
TO ACTUALLY COLLABORATE

42. THE REAL QUESTIONS ARE:
- WHAT DO I NEED TO DO MY JOB?
- WHAT DO OTHERS NEED FROM ME TO DO THEIRS?

43. SOME EXAMPLES
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

44. EXAMPLE: SEVERAL MODELING TOOLS
Several modelling tools used
All sharing parts of the model as IFC
Quality checks
Filtering objects to create a new view
For good coordination you still need to know who created what object
So even in a single database you still have separate models….
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

45. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

46. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

47. EXAMPLE: CONTRACTOR USING
SUPPLIER MODELS
Architectural and Construction model as a base
Suppliers deliver IFC models to replace original model parts
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

49. This is an animation in the original presentation…
Want it? E-mail me on leon.vanberlo@tno.nl

50. EXAMPLE:
COMPARE DESIGN / ENGINEERING
Contractor and lime stone supplier
Comparing models
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

54. EXAMPLE: 3 IFC EXPORTS FROM 1 MODEL
Because that is what collaboration is about!
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

55. IFC Coordination view
IFC 2nd order space boundaries
IFC explicit geometry

59. EXAMPLE: VOIDS
Exchange openings
Openings are not a lack of data; they are there. Some people need them.
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

60. This is an animation in the original presentation…
Want it? E-mail me on leon.vanberlo@tno.nl

61. IN THE MEANWHILE.….
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

62. BIMIE
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

64. NATIONAL BIM GUIDELINES
Written by the sector (“this is how we do it”)
Coordinated by independent organisations
Only extensively proven content (no experiments or innovations)
Series of topics
Coming from the industry itself
Each with own writing team
Each with own release date
All using same terminology
All aligned with each other
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
bimguidelines.nl

65. 2013/14/15: NATIONAL BIM GUIDELINES
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

66. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
http://nationaalbimhandboek.nl/onderwerpen/werken-met-disciplinemodellen/

67. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
model
coordinate
conclude
communicate

68. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
model
coordinate
conclude
communicate

69. HOW TO GET THE DATA FLOWING…..
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

70. BIM EXECUTION PLANS / PROTOCOLS
DO NOT WORK
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

71. THE REAL QUESTIONS ARE:
- WHAT DO I NEED TO DO MY JOB?
- WHAT DO OTHERS NEED FROM ME TO DO THEIRS?

72. 2014: BIM PROTOCOL GENERATOR
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands
http://bimprotocolgenerator.com/

75. BIM PROTOCOL GENERATOR
Ask others about their preferred way of working
What data do you need to do your job?
How do you want it?
What tools do you use? And what data structures?
Protocol generator merges the answers to a concept protocol.
Team discusses the issues and transforms it to final protocol.
“Protocol generator is a team building machine”
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

77. COLLABORATION: FORGET ABOUT
THE BLACK BOX!

78. BEWARE OF THE GATEKEEPER
Léon van Berlo
Bouw Informatie Modellering

79. HE DOES NOT DO THE WORK…
Léon van Berlo
Bouw Informatie Modellering

80. 08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

81. LESSONS LEARNED
Don’t fight fragmentation; embrace it
Domain/discipline models are the master models
Collaboration is not the same as data sharing
You need to know what (and how) the other person needs
You need to know what yóu need from others
It is not about a theoretical perfect BIM
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands

82. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
LEON.VANBERLO@TNO.NL

83. OTHER SOURCES….
BIM Quality Blocks www.bimqualityblocks.com
BIM Quickscan www.bimquickscan.nl
BIM terminology dictionary
www.nationaalbimhandboek.nl
National BIM Definitions
BIM Automation (suppliers & simulations) leon.vanberlo@tno.nl
Leon.vanBerlo@tno.nl - https://nl.linkedin.com/in/leonvanberlo
08 April 2015Collaborative design and engineering with IFC in the Netherlands