ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the North American initiative to develop technical specifications for the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for masonry buildings. It proposes data modeling frameworks required to represent masonry units and walls in BIM. The schema for masonry units is based on a relational database containing geometric, aesthetic, physical property and manufacturing data. The BIM for Masonry Initiative, organized in 2013 in North America, has developed a roadmap for establishing the requirements for masonry data models for masonry design, procurement and construction. For the masonry unit model database (MUD), the schema is described as an entity/relationship diagram and the resulting database is a relational database composed of property tables for geometry, material, color, etc. The masonry units are represented in a relational database known as the MUD which provides generic masonry BIM objects for concrete, clay and cast stone shapes.
