With the emergence of BIM (Building Information Modelling) methodology in the engineering, architecture and construction industry, the need to guarantee the quality of information has arisen. Previously, when working in CAD, it was sufficient to ensure the quality of the drawings. This is when it became necessary to standardise a format for evaluating and auditing the information contained in the models.
With this objective, that of regulating and establishing a common framework for the exchange of information in the BIM environment, various standards and regulations have emerged. Among them we highlight: LOIN (Level of Information Need) and ISO 19650-EIR (the latter stands for Exchange Information Requirements).
However, these standards allow the BIM designer or manager to make their own interpretation of the documents to some extent. These standards detail the information, parameters, values and specific coding that must be present in the models. In short, they provide information intended to be processed by both humans and machines.
Along these lines, in the context of Open BIM, a new format has recently emerged that makes it possible to create a document that can be understood by both humans and machines. The developer specifies in this format their needs and details the quality and quantity of information required in the different elements of the models to be delivered. The contractor generates the corresponding file with the model data and compares it with the developer’s file. In doing so, they detect possible discrepancies with respect to the standard set at the beginning of the construction project.
This file format is known as IDS (Information Delivery Specification).
Those of you interested in exploring the IDS format can find more information on Building Smart, in What is Information Delivery Specification (IDS) and Information Delivery Specification IDS.
By Pepe Ribera, Senior Architect in Amusement Logic’s Architecture Dept.
