COBie Deliverables using Industry Foundation Class

within Revit

“The argument that drives the demand for COBie is the management of space usage, operations, cost and environmental impacts, repair and replacement. In short, better value, cost and carbon.”

Nick Nisbet

Construction Operations Building Information Exchange(COBie) is a non-proprietary data format, used for thepublication of a subset of building information models(BIM) focused on delivering asset data, as distinct fromgeometric information.

March 2018

With the collaborative 3D environment becoming a requirement on more and more projects, it is

important to leverage the data and information that is stored alongside the 3D geometry. COBie is the

nominated format for the digital and electronic delivery of

asset data.

Digital Power!

When we model as part of a BIM workflow, wemodel rooms (or spaces) which define an area of usewithin a building. These are located on a given levelof the project and are filled with components fromdifferent disciplines.

3D authoring tools understand the hierarchicalrelationship between locations and components,and can instantly identify where any number ofcomponents are located around the building. Viceversa, by selecting a component it is possible to seewhere that component and any like it are situatedaround the building.

Using this intelligence inside of the authoring

software is natural and works well, however typicallywe do not want to use an authoring tool for ourFacilities Management system, or to manage the as-built data. That’s where COBie comes in.

COBie takes this intelligent information and stores itin an accessible, specifically formatted, easy tounderstand spreadsheet. This information should bevalidated and verified at certain points on the projectto ensure its accuracy but it will remain a separatehandover from the 3D model.

Is this not completely going against the purpose ofBIM which is typically, to be more efficient? Thereis a better way…

Who, what, where and how?

When we use 3D modelling technology to author and createdesigns, each component or piece of geometry has moreintelligence and logic than you might think. It is this hierarchicalintelligence and understanding that makes a digital handovernot only possible, but preferred when working with BIMworkflows. Together with the Level of Information thatdesigners are adding to their models, the result is a data rich,intelligent handover with clear use!

THE BENEFIT OF A DIGITAL HANDOVER

March 2018

Industry Foundation Class

Let’s not forget the reason COBie resides withinMicrosoft Excel, as delimited text based data, aglorified XML file if you will. Its purpose is to transferasset data into a Computer Aided FacilitiesManagement (CAFM) system.

What is the reason for using COBie?The Industry Foundation Class file is also a fully textbased file. All of it! From the 3D model to the datamodel alongside it. Therefore, you can have theintelligence and power of the 3D model withoutloosing the integration possibilities of the AssetInformation into other systems.

On many projects, there is already a format which is perfect for thedigital handover, the IFC file. The Industry Foundation Class file containsfull understanding of each individual component within its 3D model, and all the hierarchical relationships it has throughout the building. It can instantly show a userany amount of data from the Information Model and these relationships on demand.

Let’s think about that in the sense of COBie. By selecting a space you can instantly identify the components that are contained within that space. By selecting a component you can see what systems it is connected to. By selecting an instance of a component it is possible to see which type it is being driven by. The IFC file is doing exactly what COBie is setting out to do but in 3D and is fully linked to the intelligent, data rich 3D model not to an unintelligent Microsoft Excel file.

IFC relationships inside of Solibri Model Checker

March 2018

In order to produce good quality IFC files which align to the latest IFC Model View Definitions, Autodesk release regular updates to the IFC Exporter inside of Autodesk Revit. Ensure that you keep up to date.

IFC Exporter Alternative UI

Use the free COBie Extension andClassification Manager fromAutodesk Revit to build up yourCOBie and object classification(Uniclass) inside of Autodesk Revit.

Remember, we are interested inmanaged, maintainable assets sofocus on those for the COBie data.

Revit Extensions

COBie 2.4 Design Deliverable (previouslyextended FM Handover view) can be chosenfor export directly out of Autodesk Revit.Out of the box, this will support all datadriven by the Revit Extensions mentionedon this page.

“IFC is able to support the transfer of COBie data using it’s 2x3 COBie 2.4

Design Deliverable Model View Definition (MVD). ”

Autodesk Revit to IFC with COBie data

• COBie.Contact• COBie.Facility• COBie.Floor• COBie.Space• COBie.Zone

• COBie.Type• COBie.Component• COBie.System• COBie.Attribute

Additional COBie data can be added into the IFC export via some more advanced workflows, namely by creating manual schedules and by adding custom parameter and property sets into the IFC export.

March 2018

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