The assigned article was about interoperability. Interoperability is the ability to work within the field of BIM using software from one program and importing into another program. For example, using a Revit file in an Autodesk application. For a long time this has always been a problem with BIM. The AEC community has been asking for a universal file type that all programs can read. The BIM industry has tried to help with this problem by offering IFC's. IFC's are classes held to show users different ways files can be imported into one another. I found this article pretty hard to read and understand. It was extremely dry and boring. I do not know a lot about computer programming and therefore struggled to understand some of this reading.
The second article I read also talked about interoperability. This article "Open BIM" talks about the advances some of the major BIM companies have taken in order to standardize BIM files. This article states that in early September, AutoDesk's IFC exporter code is now available as open-source software on their website. This is a growing trend that many of the major companies are leaning towards. This allows any particular BIM file to be imported to the standard IFC file so they can be imported into other programs. This is very beneficial because this allows their particular program to be more easily accessed by companies who obtain that particular software. This trend can lead towards a more integrated AEC work force. This article also talks about how Graphisoft (ArchiCAD) and Telka (Telka Structures) announced that they will be cooperating with each other to improve interoperability between programs. They anoounced that students and educators will be able to download Telka software on the Graphisoft website. This shows that these companies careless about the competition between each other and more about the functionality of their programs.
Both the assigned article and the second article talk about interoperability. However the second article talks about the steps taken by the AEC industry to make interoperability a reality. here is the link to the second article. http://www.constructech.com/news/articles/article.aspx?article_id=8993
This post made me think of how the language of computer models so that they can easily swing between softwares as kind of how we think of units, like SI or imperial units. That we need a standardized way of thinking and using BIM models and analysis models so that they can be universally used. BIM has been advertised, and has proven to be, an incredibly and ever-growing important aspect of our field, but this limitation will hold it back, even if only slightly, until it has been fixed.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know that there are programs to convert the BIM files to be standardized for a wide variety of programs to open them. The articles I read were a bit more dated, and mentioned how some program like this would be ideal. Fast forward a few years, it is clear that these programs now exist and there are not as many language barriers for computers running different programs. It will be interesting to see how this trend of cooperative programing will continue in the next few years.
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