AP225 Building Elements by Explicit Shape Representation
AP325 Abstract Test Suites for AP225
AP230 Building Structural Frame: Steelwork
Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and the Industry Alliance for the Interoperability (IAI)
Building Construction Core Model (BCCM)
Joint meeting ISO TC59 and TC184 in Stockholm in October 95
CORENET - Construction and Real Estate NETwork
Reinforced Concrete Structural System
AP228 - Building Services: HVAC
Envisaged agenda for Dallas meeting (January 1996)
Robert Aish - Bentley Systems, US
Bill Burkett - PDIT, USA (part)
Roberto Greening - IEZ, Germany (part)
Wolfgang Haas - Haas & Partner, Germany
Seiichiro Hori - CI-NET Promotion Center, Japan
Richard Junge - CAB, Germany
Kari Karstila - VTT, Finland
Peter Katranuschkov - Techn Univ Dresden, Germany
Howard Leslie - CSIRO-DBCE, Australia
Robert Los - TNO, The Netherlands
Jean-Luc Monceyron - CSTB, France
Takashi Nakamura - DAITEC, Japan
Patrice Poyet - CSTB, France
Raimar Scherer - Techn Univ Dresden, Germany
Graham Storer - Taylor Woodrow, UK
Kjell Svensson - KTH, Sweden
Väino Tarandi - KTH, Sweden
Philip Iosifidis - Autodesk, UK
Mike Ward - University of Leeds, UK
Dick Wittenoom - AusSTEP, Australia (part)
Jeff Wix - Jeffrey Wix Consulting, UK
Yacine Rezgui - ITI Univ Salford, UK
Qi Zongh - ITT, Singapore
Project leader: Dr Wolfgang Haas (100065.16@compuserve.com)
WH presented the current state of development and implementation of AP225. CD balloting is underway. Closing date for comments is January 15 of 1996. PR material is available in English and German presenting AP225 in a brochure which was distributed during the meeting.
Pilot implementations of three system vendors are in an advanced stage of development. Pre-processors have produced first practical building models. A demonstration with the tool STEP View visualised three models and showed the information content of the exchange file. Whilst not achieving DIS status until the middle of 1996, AP225 is presently stable and commercially implementable. An implementation toolkit is available. The time schedule for AP225 is:
BB gave an introduction to abstract test suites and presented the current state of development of part 325. A substantial number of test purposes are currently being developed. Test cases covering the test purposes are also being prepared. It is intended that a first complete draft of part 325 will be available by the end of 1995. There might be problems with scheduling qualification of part 325. The time schedule for part 325 is:
Project leader: Dr Alastair S. Watson (a.s.watson@leeds.ac.uk); tel: ++ 44 (0)1274 2332314; fax: ++ 44 (0)1274 2332265; url: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/civil/research/cae/cae.htm
Editor: Dr Michael A. Ward (m.a.ward@leeds.ac.uk); tel: ++ 44 (0)1274 2332317; fax: ++ 44 (0)1274 2332265; url: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/civil/research/cae/cae.htm
MW introduced himself, reported that Alan Boyle had left the University of Leeds, for PDT Solutions, and that he had taken over from Alan Boyle with day-to-day responsibility for AP230 management. Alastair Watson would remain project leader.
MW went on to describe the success of CIMsteel (the basis of AP230) and the positive reception it had received from software vendors in the UK and the US. He said that translators had already been constructed which allowed the exchange of STEP-like neutral files between a number of different applications (currently about 10) and announced that ASW and Andrew Crowley (who currently do much of the modelling work for CIMsteel) were travelling to the USA the next week to present STEP and CIMsteel to the American Institute of Steel Constructors (AISC).
Following a brief discussion of CIMsteel, MW presented the IDEF0 activity model for AP230 and the (minor) amendments which had been proposed during the recent meeting at Leeds University. No new comments arose from the meeting, and the model was formally accepted in its current form.
MW then presented a brief overview of the IDEF1X model which underlies CIMsteel and which is forming the basis of the AP230 ARM. He described a section of the model - relating to connections between steelwork elements - in full detail and noted that the complexity of the model was testing the limits of available technology when implemented as data exchange software. MW announced that the data model was also available as an EXPRESS file and that Leeds University was currently migrating to EXPRESS-G for graphical modelling.
Finally, MW spoke about his timetable for STEP authorisation of AP230 and reported that he had obtained funding to work full time on AP230 for the next eighteen months to two years. A detailed schedule for AP230 would be published shortly on the B-C exploder.
(Anne-Francoise Cutting-Decelle presenting later on SIGMA is one of the major authors of the CIMsteel model)
PI opened with a Powerpoint overview of the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) being developed under the auspices of the Industry Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). The work commenced about 12 months ago and a prototype demonstration based on the Autodesk platform was presented at the AEC Systems Show in Atlanta in June 1995 when the IFCs were publicly announced. To date, 200 IFCs have been defined by representatives from a number of building product suppliers, architects, engineers and software houses in US who are founding members of the IAI. The initial release is planned for early 1996. It was stated that IFCs are to objects (walls, doors, windows) as DXF is to graphic entities (line, arc, text).
The IAI is to be an open alliance of organisations including construction and users requiring to exchange information in a common language throughout the life cycle of buildings. Eventually the definition of the IFCs will be placed in the public domain. The Executive Director of the US chapter is Ken Harold. This and other chapters are to be established in other parts of the world including Europe and Asia. Launches planned include UK, Germany and Scandinavia.
It was stated that the IAI is committed to STEP compliance with initial consideration for BCCM, AP230, AP228 and AP225 as they materialise and others planned for the future. Autodesk are one of the founding members with the same status as any other founding member.
RA presented a Powerpoint overview from Bentley Systems, a member of the US chapter, which covered many of the same points presented by Philip. Bentley had been introduced to IAI through the presentation at the AEC System Show. Robert described a little about the task groups set up in IAI and expressed the view that a maturing of what was being planned was required. Timescales were aggressive which probably meant that the full scope of each domain would initially have to be limited.
In discussion the question of relationship with organisations like ISO/TC59 (Classification) was raised. To the knowledge of those present there has been none at this stage. A question was asked about the availability of information on IFCs to the BC committee. Philip responded that this information was confidential to IAI members, but he would make enquiries about the possibility of such a release.
Whilst recognising that these initiatives seemed broadly aligned to the STEP objectives of semantic exchange, the meeting had a concern about the private way in which the work had been undertaken to date, the lack of involvement of other expert groups working in this area and the reference in the slides to the development of a "de facto standard".
Recognising industry need for comprehensive, well considered, and timely standards, the meeting concluded the need for synergy between IAI and STEP BC models/approaches. It was proposed that there was an urgent need to convene a joint meeting with IAI on the occasion of the next STEP meeting in Dallas.
The meeting was positive with regard to the focus placed by IAI on data exchange in construction, and the possible impact on progressing at least the ARM stage of standards quickly but thoroughly. The now non-mandatory Committee Draft for Comment (CDC) stage of standards at which industry consensus is built could if anything be far more important to B-C activity.
The opportunity to meet with the US chapter of IAI, to inform them of work being undertaken within STEP Building Construction and more generally with AEC, was considered particularly important because of the limited US involvement in BC activities.
Project leader Jeff Wix of Jeffrey Wix Consulting, UK.
Since the workshop in Leeds in September, the diagrams have been changed into Express-G.
Many of the comments related to simplifying the model. Business rules and legislation which differs from country to country should not be reflected in the core model. EDIFACT work is already done in related areas and should be taken into consideration. Classification and co-operation with ISO TC59 is important [ se below] .
The model is now out for comments and a meeting will be arranged before Christmas in UK for two days. AP (and future AP) leaders will be invited by Jeff Wix. Comments by other persons or groups should be sent to Jeff Wix in due time for the Dallas meeting in January 96.
KS briefly presented the international co-ordination meeting between experts from ISO/TC59/SC13 (Classification of information in the construction industry) and ISO/TC184/SC4 (STEP).
The workshop was held in Stockholm 19-20 October and 13 experts from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK participated. The subject of the meeting was co-ordination of construction information objects and models within the working areas of construction classification, STEP, EDI, EDIBUILD and ISO CAD layering standard. The meeting was very successful and agreed on a more direct and regular co-ordination between the four working areas.
One of the main results from the Stockholm meeting, a first version of a classification framework model (in EXPRESS-G) was presented at the AEC Building Construction meeting. The model describes basic concepts in classification of construction works and the relationships between these concepts.
QZ from Singapore presented the Corenet project covering IT development and integration in the construction industry in Singapore. It will last for 8-10 years and cover almost everything in the field of construction and real estate. It was suggested that Qi (and other relatively new representatives) might provide fuller presentations on their work in Dallas and Kobe.
In preparation of the new work item for submission to the Dallas meeting of the Building Construction committee the working group of Richard Junge, HL and Kjell Svensson presented the scope of the proposed Spatial Arrangement. The scope description was illustrated by different usage scenarios taken from Australia, Germany and Sweden.
It was generally agreed that the scope should include the description and representation of:
These entities must persist over their respective life cycles - from briefing through design, tendering and construction, to facilities management and final demolition and reuse.
It was recognised that the provisional name of the AP may need to be changed to better reflect the scope.
Results from ESPRIT Project 6609 COMBI
Peter Katranuschkov (Sen. Res. Assistant)
Raimar J. Scherer (Professor, Chair of Applied Computer Science in the Building Construction Industry) TU Dresden, Germany
A main aspect of the COMBI project has been the integration of design/construction processes and software tools in the domain of RC building structures by using STEP methodology.
The areas covered are: preliminary structural system design - foundation design - structural analysis - dimensioning and detailing of RC frames. For this scope, a product model framework has been developed in EXPRESS / EXPRESS-G. It has been formally validated by using the NIST EXPRESS Tools, and a prototype implementation including 4 software systems has been carried out for validation and demonstration of the concept.
ISO 10303 Parts 41-45 have been used as basic resources. CAD visualisation has been accomplished on the basis both of AP 201 and DXF.
The developed product model framework is organised in 3 hierarchical levels. The lowest level contains application-specific models, that may be independent from each other and are as a rule strongly task related (e.g. structural analysis).
The second level contains a set of partial (aspect) models, each describing the functionality and characteristics of a certain domain, such as structural engineering, architecture etc. These models are developed in a generic way and reflect the integration requirements of a potentially very broad range of design/construction tools that may be used to support the decision making processes in each respective domain.
The top level contains a general "neutral" model, which is independent of any specific domain and application tool. Its basic function is to support the transformations and the consistency of the separate aspect models on the lower levels. In COMBI, this model is deliberately kept "as lean as possible". In future the use of the BC Core Model can be envisaged to substitute the current neutral model in the developed integration framework.
During the presentation the following topics were addressed:
It was pointed out that it may be more appropriate to develop a separate AP "Structural System" that contains the basic specifications of a bearing structure and can service in future both the Reinforced Concrete and the Steel Structures APs. It was proposed to launch an AP for "Reinforced Concrete Structures" on the basis of the work done in the COMBI project, envisaging a close co-operation with Alastair Watson from the University of Leeds. TNO is also known to have done work in this area. This proposal was positively received.
It was decided that the necessary co-ordination steps between TU Dresden and the University of Leeds should be taken in due time and reported at the next meeting in Dallas. Timing of future actions would be taken there.
Project Leader: Dr Patrice Poyet
Current Contact : Jean-Luc Monceyron, CSTB (monceyron@cstb.fr)
JM will as from now be the representative of CSTB on behalf of Patrice Poyet, the current advocate. An overview of the current status of the AP was presented including :
It was emphasised that a working draft should be available before the end of March 1996.
Following Kent Reed’s (NIST) former suggestions, concerning the availability of documents to close from a SC4 Meeting, a new Web server has been set up for wider dissemination of the information regarding AP 228.
This is an open site, which could host information about, for instance the French SIGMA project. In addition, there were some requests to open an e-mail discussion as soon as the beginning of the next month.
A new draft was released which included the scope; an AAM, with the modifications resulting from the Leeds Meeting; and an ARM with a connection to the BCCM. The modifications on the AAM were presented - as IDEF-0 diagrams - as well as the basic concepts of modelling for the ARM - in EXPRESS-G form.
The document is available on request both in paper and electronic form and a large review is expected to define a sound basis of the ARM before the next SC4 meeting. A call for participation on the AP was also made.
The SIGMA project was presented by Bernard Ferries (Midivaleur), Philippe Debras (CSTB) and Anne Francoise Cutting-Decelle (University of Savoie).
The project is aimed at synthesising French reference models and at contributing to the standardisation process. Participating organisations are Midivaleur (co-ordinator), CSTB, University of Savoie and AFNOR. Several French projects like GSD, MOB, ISOBAT and BOX have produced models and metamodels. All of them are fully documented, and EXPRESS-G schemas are available in most cases. Furthermore, they are results of co-operartive efforts of construction and engineering companies, researchers and software developers. Therefore, the synthesis delivered by SIGMA had to be done and was expected by software developers.
This project is scheduled to finish at the end of this year. The project has delivered some fundamental parts of the reference models:
The Building Construction working group consider that many concepts are important inputs for the building construction core model. To facilitate the reuse of this contribution before the Dallas meeting, the SIGMA team will send a document before the middle of November to the building construction list on the NIST exploder. Complete documents including diagrams will be available some time after this on the following Web server:
http://193.104.99.10/ILC/sigma
A short presentation of the Road Shape kernel model, as developed by TNO, based on the WWW page as produced by TNO, disseminated to WH (Haas and partner) by Rijkswaterstaat was jointly given by WH and RL (TNO). The goal is to raise interest in governmental organisations working on roads and railways to promote work and projects on a Road AP. Any organisation interested in road/rail models should advise Torbjorn Holm (or Graham Storer).
Seiichiro Hori commented briefly on the current situation in Japan. STEP is still relatively unknown in Japan. Some companies use different sets of systems, each tailored to a particular file format. Some have developed forms of internal neutral formats for their systems. This situation is neither satisfactory, nor cost effective. With the introduction of STEP, some companies believe it will get worse than before, as they have to totally replace existing systems.
Solving this kind of problems will require a big effort to promote STEP in Japan.
The co-ordination and organisation group proposed at the Monday B-C plenary was raised and the meeting approved:
These would provide a good geographical distribution. Another one or two could be added (e.g. US).
The matter of IFCs/IAI presented on the previous day when time ran out was raised again, concluding with the suggestion that a letter be sent from STEP to IAI seeking clarifications and formally to invite representatives to a meeting in Dallas.
MsWord 6.0 should be used for sending documents amongst the BC group! Mention was made of a possible Project Management AP.
It was agreed that, despite the interest of most people in most developments, it was now essential to stream activities along the lines of the 3 evolving new APs. However, to allow a lateral exchange during the meetings between the teams and for ad-hoc meetings with other groups, the fourth quarter of each day should normally be reserved for 'joint activities'. This is reflected in the agenda. Also, provisional allowance has been made for a joint meeting with US IAI representatives if that is possible.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Thursday may be appropriate for t.b.a. meetings with other groups. Particularly a working session with Process Plant. The previously followed practice of holding industry meetings needs to be considered (GS to contact Kent Reed).
Minutes: Vaino Tarandi (& Graham Storer)
This page is maintained by M A Ward
Last updated 23 April 1997
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