ABSTRACT
With the stability of the IFC model has come an increasing use of its application on real projects and in real working situations. A result of this is an awareness that attention has to be paid to surrounding issues to ensure that IFC use (and Building Information Modeling in general) delivers on the promise of better ways of working for the AEC/FM industry.
This awareness is particularly seen in Norway where there is a keen interest in these topics driven by encouragement of the State Building Authority to use BIM and IFC. This has led to development of product libraries, implementation of regulations systems, interest in requirements specification and a focus on applications of data in discrete process steps. Individually, each of these topics has been the subject of substantial research and development. However, the extent of concurrent development in Norway is making consideration of the outcomes of work into a necessity.
This paper will discuss the development of a Framework of Information for Construction that takes account of data throughout the project lifecycle and in support of data exchange contracts/validation for specific processes, dictionary/ontology definition, product libraries, regulatory approaches, early stage planning and more. It will highlight the background leading to the development and indicate the projects that are creating the need for the development. The ‘Information Delivery Manual’ (IDM) will be shown as a key deliverable that unites user requirements with software solutions and its use for validating information content and quality in processes demonstrated. Application of the IDM to ongoing projects will be presented.
