BIM Reading Week 5

The two articles I read are listed below:
“Interoperability”.
“Interoperability (AcessScience)”.

The assigned reading in the BIM handbook was an interesting and lengthy read. This article went into extreme detail explaining the progression of BIM programs and their interoperable capabilities. At times this article was difficult to digest due to the vast amount of acronyms used. To be honest it got a bit much to keep looking up what each acronym stood for. Despite the immense detail, I understood the overall concept of why interoperability was necessary between BIM software. Companies utilizing the software such as NASA pressured the software companies to provide functionality between programs to ensure the best outcome in design. This resulted in several different approaches in attacking the interoperability of each program. The approaches they took are as follows: 1) Direct, proprietary links between specific BIM tools, 2) Proprietary fi le exchange formats, primarily dealing with geometry, 3) Public product data model exchange formats and 4) XML - based exchange formats. It became necessary for programs to be somewhat interchangeable to satisfy the user’s needs and companies began to oblige. The goal of these companies was to provide enough interoperability between programs without allowing one program to operate solely on a single platform without competition. I found this article interesting in how it explained the progression of interoperability but at times difficult to follow with all of the technical programming terminology.
The additional article I chose to read happened to have the same title as the assigned reading; however it detailed interoperability in a broader sense of the term. This article did not just highlight on programmatic interoperability, but also technical and operational interoperability. I found this article interesting when it talked about military interoperability between forces and aspects of the government. The article then continued to detail into the programmatic interoperability which gave a broader definition to the one determined in the assigned reading. What I found interesting was how this article was able to correlate the interoperability into several categories in how they affect society. Whether it’s for computer compatibility or military interoperability it is an important and necessary stage that has to be addressed by its user or operator. I look forward to learning a little more about this type of operation.