Interoperability tests between IFC certified software for open BIM based quality assurance

Abstract

The construction industry consists of various and massive architectural information as an architectural process includes a variety of design stages with cooperation of many disciplines. A Building Information Modeling (BIM) serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle from inception onward. buildingSMART has developed Industry Foundation Classes(IFC) standard for interoperability of BIM based information. Several software tools are already IFC-compliant. However, there are a lot of problems related to efficient interoperability of software owing to the lack of guide regarding the software usage and insufficiency IFC interfaces of software. The purpose of this study is to suggest efficient IFC support interface development methodologies of existing IFC certified software. The scope of this study is interoperability test for open BIM based quality assurance. To achieve this purpose, the authors have classified subject of open BIM based quality assurance and investigated IFC certification process and certified software. In addition, the authors have exported and imported via IFC files using different IFC interfaces in the software for interoperability of architectural objects and their properties. Finally, the authors have suggested IFC support interface development methodologies and hereafter direction for efficient interoperability of IFC certified software based on open BIM.