5 myths and 5 realities of BIM - GIS integration

Chris Andrews has written a valuable article at an interesting time, when ESRI and AutoDesk are looking for ways to bring the simplicity of GIS to the design fabric that strives to materialize BIM as a standard in engineering, architecture and construction processes. Although the article takes the point of view of these two companies, it is an interesting point of view, although it does not necessarily coincide with the strategies of other speakers on the market such as Tekla (Trimble), Geomedia (Hexagon) and Imodel.js (Bentley). We know that some of the positions before BIM were “a CAD that does GIS” or “a GIS that adapts to CAD”.

A little history ...

In the 80s and 90s, CAD and GIS technologies emerged as competitive alternatives for professionals who needed to work with spatial information, which was processed mainly through paper. In that era, the sophistication of the software and the capacity of the hardware limited the scope of what could be done with computer-aided technology, both for drafting and for map analysis. CAD and GIS appeared to be overlapping versions of computerized tools for working with geometry and data that would produce paper documentation.

As software and hardware have become more advanced and sophisticated, we have seen the specialization of all the technologies around us, including CAD and GIS, and the path to fully digital (also called “digitized”) workflows. CAD technology initially focused on automating tasks from manual drawing. Building Information Modeling (BIM), a process for achieving better efficiency during design and construction, has gradually pushed BIM and CAD design tools away from creating drawings and toward intelligent digital models of real-world assets. . The models created in modern BIM design processes are sophisticated enough to simulate construction, find defects early in design, and generate highly accurate estimates—for budget compliance on dynamically changing projects, for example.

GIS has also differentiated and deepened its capabilities over time. Now, GIS can handle billions of events, from live sensors, make visualizations from petabytes of 3D models, and images to a browser or mobile phone, and perform predictive, complex, and scaled analyzes on multiple processing nodes scattered throughout the cloud. The map, which began as an analytical tool on paper, has been transformed into a dashboard or communication portal to synthesize complex analyzes in a human-interpretable way.

To take advantage of the full potential of the integrated workflows between BIM and GIS, critical for domains such as Smart Cities and Digitized Engineering, we must examine how these two worlds can go beyond industry competition and move towards workflows complete digitized, which will allow us to disconnect from the paper processes of the last hundred years.

Myth: BIM is for ...

In the GIS community, one of the most common things I see and hear are BIM definitions based on the external understanding of the BIM world. I often hear that BIM is for administration, visualization, 3D modeling or that it is only for buildings, for example. Unfortunately, none of these is really what BIM is used for, although it may extend or enable some of these capabilities or functions.

Essentially, BIM is a process to save time and money, and achieve highly reliable results during the design and construction process. The 3D model generated during the BIM design processes is a by-product of the need to coordinate a particular design, capture a structure as is, to assess demolition costs, or provide a legal or contractual record of changes to a physical asset. . Visualization can be part of the process, because it helps humans understand the dynamics, characteristics, and aesthetics of a proposed design.

As I learned a long time ago at Autodesk, the 'B' in BIM stands for 'Build, the verb' not 'Building, the noun'. Autodesk, Bentley, and other vendors have worked with industry to infuse the concepts of the BIM process, in domains such as railways, roads and highways, utilities, and telecommunications. Any agency or organization, managing and constructing fixed physical assets, has a vested interest in ensuring that their design and engineering contractors use BIM processes.

BIM data can potentially be used in operational workflows for asset management. This has been noticed, for example, in the new ISO standards for BIM, which have been informed, by the UK norms standardization process, established in the last 10 years. Even though these new proposals focus on the use of BIM data, over the entire life cycle of an asset, it is still clear that savings in construction costs, as stated in the article, are the main driver for the adoption of BIM.

When viewed as a process, integrating GIS technology with BIM becomes much more complex than just reading graphics and attributes from a 3D model and displaying them in GIS. To truly understand how information can be used in BIM and GIS, we often find that we have to redefine our concept of building or road, and understand how clients need to use a wide range of project data in the geospatial context. We also found that focusing on the model sometimes means that we have overlooked the simpler, more basic workflows that are essential to the entire process, such as using data collected in the field with precision at a construction site, to link the location to the model data for inspection, inventory and survey.

Ultimately, we will only achieve common understanding and results if we “cross the gap” to work in combined teams that can bring diversity to problem solving. That's why we're working with Autodesk and other partners in this space.
The partnership between Esri and Autodesk, announced for the first time at 2017, has been a great step to bring together a multidisciplinary team to address some of the BIM-GIS integration issues.

Myth: BIM automatically provides GIS features

One of the most difficult concepts to convey to a non-specialist BIM-GIS user is that, although the BIM model looks exactly like a bridge or building, it does not necessarily have the characteristics that make up the definition of a building or bridge for cartographic purposes or of geospatial analysis.
At Esri, we're working on new experiences for in-building navigation and resource management, like ArcGIS Indoors. Many users have expected that with our work with Autodesk Revit data, we could automatically extract common geometries such as rooms, spaces, floor plans, the building footprint, and the structure of a building. Even better, we could extract the navigation mesh to see how a human would traverse the structure.

All of these geometries would be very useful for GIS applications and for asset management workflows. Still, none of these geometries are required to construct the building and generally do not exist in a Revit model.
We are examining technologies to calculate these geometries, but some offer complex research and workflow challenges that have stumped the industry for years. What is waterproof? What is a building shrink wrap? Does it include the foundation? How about balconies? What is the footprint of a building? Does it include overhangs? Or is it just the intersection of the structure with the ground?

To ensure that BIM models contain the functions required for GIS workflows, owner operators will need to define the specifications for that information before design and construction begins. Similar to classic CAD-GIS conversion workflows, in which CAD data is validated before being converted to a GIS, the BIM process and the resulting data must specify and include characteristics that would be used during the management of the life cycle of a structure, if that is an objective of creating the BIM data.

There are organizations around the world, typically governments and operators of controlled campus or asset systems, that have begun to require that lifecycle characteristics and attributes be included in BIM content. In the US, the Government Services Administration is pushing new construction through BIM requirements and agencies like the Veterans Administration have gone to great lengths to detail BIM elements, such as rooms and spaces, that will be useful in the facilities management after the building is constructed. We have found that airports, such as Denver, Houston, and Nashville, have tight control of their BIM data and often have highly consistent data. I have seen some great talks from SNCF AREP that built a complete BIM program for railway stations, based on the concept that BIM data would be used in operations and asset management workflows. I hope to see more of this in the future.

Data shared with us from George HW Bush Houston International Airport (shown here on Web AppBuilder) demonstrates that if the BIM data is standardized, usually through drawing validation tools, then it can be systematically incorporated into the GIS. . Typically we see construction information in BIM models before viewing FM related information

Myth: there is a file format that can provide BIM-GIS integration

In classic business integration workflows, one table or format could be mapped to another table or format, to reliably allow the transmission of information between different technologies. For various reasons, this pattern is increasingly inadequate to handle the needs of ^tInformation flows of the 21 century:

• The information stored in files is difficult to transmit
• The allocation of data through complex domains has losses
• Data allocation implies incomplete duplication of content in the systems
• Data mapping is often unidirectional
• Technology, data collection and user workflows are changing so rapidly that it is guaranteed that today's interfaces will be less than what tomorrow will require

In order to achieve true digitalization, the digital representation of an asset must be quickly accessible in a distributed environment, which can be modernized and updated to adapt to more complex queries, analyzes and inspections over time and throughout the process. useful life of the asset.

One data model cannot encompass everything that could be integrated into BIM and GIS across highly diverse industries and customer needs, so there is no single format that can capture the entirety of this process in a way that is can be accessed quickly and is bi-directional. I expect integration technologies to continue to mature over time, as BIM becomes more content-rich and there is a need to use BIM data in the context of GIS for lifecycle asset management, it will become more critical. for sustainable habitation of humans.

The goal of BIM-GIS integration is to enable workflows to create and manage assets. There are no discrete, well-defined transfers between these two workflows.

Myth: You can not directly use BIM content in GIS

Contrary to the discussion on how to find GIS features in BIM data, we often hear that it is neither reasonable nor possible to directly use BIM content in GIS for reasons ranging from semantic complexity, asset density, to asset scale. The discussion about BIM-GIS integration is generally oriented towards file formats and Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) workflows.

In fact, we are already directly using BIM content in GIS. Last summer, we introduced the ability to directly read a Revit file in ArcGIS Pro. At that point, the model could interact with ArcGIS Pro as if it were comprised of GIS features and then be transformed to other standard GIS formats by manual effort, if is desired. With ArcGIS Pro 2.3, we are releasing the ability to publish a new type of layer, a layer of construction scene , which allows a user to encapsulate the semantics, geometry, and attribute detail of a Revit model in a highly scalable format built for GIS experiences. The building scene layer, which will be described in the open I3S specification, feels like a Revit model to the user and allows interaction using standard GIS tools and practices.

I have been fascinated to discover that due to the availability of more bandwidth, cheaper storage, and cheaper processing, we are moving from 'ETL' to 'ELT' or workflows. In this model, data is essentially uploaded to any system that needs it in its native form and can then be accessed for translation to a remote system or data warehouse where the analysis will be performed. This reduces dependency on source processing, and preserves original content for better or deeper transformation as technology improves. We're working on ELT at Esri and it seems we've hit the core value of this change when I referred to 'removing the E and T from ETL' at a conference last year. ELT makes the conversation radically change from the scenario in which the user must always be linked outside of the GIS experience to search or query the model in its entirety. When directly loading the data into the ELT pattern,

Myth: GIS is the perfect repository for BIM information

I have two words: “legal record”. BIM documentation is often the legal record of business decisions and compliance information, recorded for construction defect analysis and lawsuits, tax and code evaluation, and as proof of delivery. In many cases, architects and engineers must stamp or certify that their work is valid and meets the requirements of their specialty and applicable laws or codes.

At some point, it is conceivable that GIS could be a system of record for BIM models, but at this point, I think this is years or decades away, anchored by legal systems that are still computerized versions of paper processes. We are looking for workflows, to link assets in GIS to assets in BIM repositories, so that clients can take advantage of version control and documentation needed in the BIM world along with the ability of a map, to place asset information in a rich geospatial context for analysis and understanding and communication.

Similar to the “GIS features” part of the discussion, integration of information across BIM and GIS repositories will be greatly assisted by standardized information models in GIS and BIM, which allow applications to link information reliably between the two domains. That does not mean that there will be a single information model, to capture both GIS and BIM information. There are too many differences in how the data should be used. But we need to make sure that we build flexible technology and standards that can accommodate data usage on both platforms with high fidelity and preservation of data content.

The University of Kentucky was one of the first customers to give us access to their Revit content. UKy uses rigorous drawing validation to make sure the correct data is in the BIM data to support full lifecycle operation and maintenance.

Summary

Changes in hardware and software capabilities, and the move to a digitized, data-driven society, are creating opportunities to integrate diverse technologies and domains that never existed before. The integration of data and workflows through GIS and BIM, allows us to achieve greater efficiency, sustainability and habitability of the cities, campuses and workplaces that surround us.

To capitalize on technological advances, we need to create integrated teams and partnerships to propose solutions to complex problems that affect entire systems, not discrete, static workflows. We must also fundamentally shift to new patterns of technology, which can address integration issues more robustly and flexibly. The GIS and BIM integration patterns we adopt today must be “future-proofed” so that we can work together toward a more sustainable future.