A recording of this meeting will be available through August 2010.

According to Dean, “BSD is linking specifications to BIM now but we want to add costs through our CostLink application and will do so at a later date.” In preparing to make the integration, BSD spoke with their customers that were also working with BIM and found that “When we ask people they want it is to push a button and generate specs and cost estimates from a model – well we are not there yet” said Dean, “and we may never get all the way there because of problems with mapping one to one concepts.”

To accomplish the integration, BSD developed a master database organized in accordance with UniFormat at the highest level and products at the lowest level. The mapping connects systems with the products that make them up. “Ultimately we expect to have properties and values associated with linked objects but currently we are only linking/mapping names of objects and specifications statements” said McClendon.

The implementation supports a "view" into a Revit project that identifies objects in a 3-D model. A view of the project specification is also provided.  An assembly dashboard shows which assemblies are used in the model and in the specification and a products dashboard shows products used. According to McClendon, “this allows review of a product list generated from the model in addition; the user may add other products to the list and to the accompanying specification when developing the specification.”

At this point, the system provides a one way connection to Revit, no data is deposited back on the model. The system can update the specification from the model or the user can edit the specification directly. Discrepancies between objects present in the model and specification sections are displayed for the user to manage.

Questions from attendees focused on how tightly the model and specification were integrated. In particular, could the model update the specification or vice versa? While all agree that this bidirectional connectivity would be ideal, as noted above this is not yet possible. According to Rob Dean, this is a goal for a future release. Other questions focused on the linking process and if it could be done at the Revit family library to master specification section level or only existed at the project level? How this could be done was demonstrated by McClendon and Dean. Procedures need to be followed carefully but it is quite possible. Support of other platforms besides Revit was also inquired about. At this time, only a Revit connection is provided. According to Dean, “we would like to support other BIM authoring applications and will do so when we feel there is sufficient demand to support the effort.”

Practice group co-leader Roger Grant, CSI, CDT noted that “this is where use of open standards like OmniClass, the IFC model and IFD could eliminate or greatly reduce the need to map to each product separately.” Dean agreed and acknowledged their interest in and support of these efforts and goals to use standards as possible in future releases. He also pointed out their use of MasterFormat (latest edition) and UniFormat in their products.

With this segue, BIM PG leader Robert Weygant, CSI, CDT, SCIP, brought the meeting to a close with the suggestion that next month’s meeting focus on the latest on updates of OmniClass tables just approved and how their application could aid the practitioner. The next meeting was set for July 23 at 1EDT. Watch for the invitation. It was also noted that the group will take August off and resume meeting September 17 at 1EDT.

Please note that the presentation’ demonstration of proprietary products in no way implies endorsement of the programs by the CSI BIM Practice Group. From time to time the BIM PG focuses on demonstrations of functioning applications/implementations to give members an idea of what is going on and how it works.  If you would like to present on a program you are using and have found helpful, please let us know. We would be happy to schedule a presentation at a future meeting.

By Roger Grant, CSI, CDT