Kobe BC Minutes

Wolfgang Haas reported that AP225 (Building Elements by Explicit Shape Representation) is due to start a 5 month ballot for Draft International Standard (DIS) in July. No more technical changes will be accepted, only editorial changes. Test cases are created. The work has been supported financially by the German Building Ministry.

Alastair Watson reported that progress on AP230 (Building Frame: Structural Steelwork) working draft is proceeding well. BSI (the sponsors) is due to review it within the next month and there will be a general release probably in August. AP230 is based on work undertaken in European CIMsteel project, but drawing detailed review from elsewhere including USA and Japan. The project is currently seeking resources for - interpretation - qualification - abstract test suites ATS

Patrice Poyet/Jean-Luc Monceyron had prepared a first comprehensive working draft (distributed at the meeting). The work was drawing on inputs and industry review from IAI. This additional industry review was very beneficial, although timescales of the project would need to be adjusted to take account of it.

Jeffrey Wix had prepared a new release of the Building Construction Core Model (Part 106) (distributed at the meeting). The project is to time.

Dick Wittenoom (Australia) forwarded information relating to the proposal for a `level 0' pre activity for AEC Libraries. Preliminary work had been in progress and it was intended that a more detailed submission would be made to the Toronto meeting. Arrangements were in hand for a major industrial consultation in the form of an Internet Workshop in September/October. He also reported an initiative by CSIRO, AIQS and others examining the flow of information in building projects and the important role of classification.

AP225 Building Elements by Explicit Shape Representation - Wolfgang Haas

Wolfgang Haas gave an overview of AP225 and the progress achieved since the last STEP meeting in Dallas. All CD balloting issues had been resolved so there were no more open issues. On May 6 and 7 a qualification workshop had taken place at NIST where the current version of AP225 was reviewed and all CD balloting issues had been incorporated. During this workshop the validation report was also reviewed. Editorial issues were detected and a few minor technical issues. These will be resolved shortly. It is intended to forward the document for DIS balloting by the end of June.

Pilot testing of various AP225 ARM level implementations were in the final stages. Wolfgang Haas demonstrated on a notebook computer the exchange of a building model between the Belgian CAD System ICAADS and the German Nemetschek ALLPLAN system using Conformance Class 1 of AP225 on an ARM level. All building elements were successfully exchanged. 80% of the building elements became corresponding elements in the receiving system i. e. walls remained walls, columns remained columns etc. Only HVAC elements did not become similar elements in the receiving system - they became building service elements with shape and properties. The reason was that the receiving system was an architectural system with no special service elements such as ducts, valves and pumps. Attribute data and classification data were exchanged too.

Roads (possible future project) - Torbjorn Holm and Bernd Wentzel

Torbjorn Holm and Bernd Wentzel (EuroSTEP company) presented the Swedish work already undertaken on Road modelling. The Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA) has supported the work. The work is far from being academic, and is forming the basis of implemented systems being worked upon. Lars Lindquist is the project manager at SNRA (he attended the STEP meeting in Dallas). The SNRA is prepared to offer the work as an input tovfuture AP development for Roads provided there is interest and involvement from other countries. Interest from the Netherlands and Germany had already been expressed.

AP230 Building Structural Frame: Steelwork - Alastair Watson

AP230 has the work of CIMsteel as the major input. In CIMsteel, 4 data exchange protocols (corresponding to conformance classes in STEP) are defined covering: - Analysis - Member design - Connection design - Detailing. CIMsteel has effectively created a pre-standard termed the CIMsteel Integration Standard (CIS) based on the Logical Product Model (LPM) produced in the CIMsteel project involving mainly UK, France, Netherlands and Italy. The CIS is STEP based and around ten vendors are involved as associate collaborators, committed to implementation. First release of CIS (CIS 1.0) came in September 1995. Second release (CIS 2.0) is planned for early 1997.

The objective is that CIS 2.0 and AP230 will be very similar.

AP230 Initial Working Draft is ready now, N486. The document can be found on: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/civil/research/cae/step/ap230/ap230.htm

AP228 Building Services: HVAC - Patrice Poyet

Graham Storer presented a series of overheads prepared by Jean- Luc Monceyron on AP228 scope and progress to date. A new working draft (0.2) dated May 1996 was circulated. The new draft has been considerably expanded, reflecting requirements from wider industrial review. The current model includes approximately 140 entities (relating to around 30 root entities). Although neither Patrice Poyet or Jean-Luc Monceyron could be present in Kobe, they wanted to have early reactions to the new draft from interested parties.

For full details of AP228 and latest documents see http://www.cstb.fr/ILC/ap228/ftp.cstb.fr (with the following directory : /pub/ilc/ap228/)

Part 106 Building Construction Core Model - Jeff Wix & Fritz Tolman

It was not possible for the project leaders to attend the meeting, although a new version (N496) of the BCCM model was tabled. Some of the issues raised at earlier meetings (London, Dallas) were not yet addressed. These related mainly to the overall size and depth of the model. Also the role of the core model has not been illustrated by trial mapping onto AP's like AP230. It was felt that a workshop focused on this would be helpful, and might form part of a fuller workshop being proposed for all the projects possibly in September (say in Delft or London).

Japan construction industry presentations

Dr Tatsu Terai presented the current situation of the Japanese Construction Industry.

Some of the characteristics of Japan's Construction Industry were: - `Gigantic' organisations - In-house laboratories - In-house developed computer systems - Construction and design in the same company - Lack of common standards

Japan's situation on STEP/BC: - AIJ (Architects Institution of Japan) is officially responsible for STEP/BC balloting, but has no fund. Tatsu Terai is the chairman of the STEP/BC group in Japan. - Industry has presently (almost) no interest in STEP, but this must change (new Japanese intiatives in Construction Industry Data Exchange Consortium, IAI). - CALS/Electronic Commerce works to promote STEP/BC work in Japan with financial support (CI-NET, Nippon-CALS). - Consortium is established in FCIP (Fund for Construction Industry Promotion) for STEP/BC activities during 2 years.

Hiromichi Shimizu, Kajima, presented some of their work. They spend 30 billion yen per year for research, including IT. Their home page is: http://www.kajima.co.jp/welcome.html

Shuhei Okamoto of contactor Shimizu showed a technically advanced in-house CAD system with real time construction sequences. They are using Open GL.

Junichi Yamashita,of contractor Fujita, presented their view on IT. They developed in-house a prototype model oriented system as long as 10 years ago, since 2D manually driven CAD was not envisaged to be cost effective. More automation was needed. Today users are beginning to ask for a model oriented system again! This time Fujita will buy a system. They took the initiative to the two year consortium for STEP/BC work funded by FCIP.

Miscellaneous

Planned Spaces Project: Kjell Svensson, KTH, presented a Swedish project in the field of Facility Management which is funded as a pre study. It can give input to the work of a future Spatial Arrangement AP.

Prototyping: Vaino Tarandi, KTH, presented a Swedish project, Prefacto, about planning and cost estimation. It is based on STEP and product modelling.

Workshop: A proposal was made to have an intermediate work shop in the middle of September perhaps at TNO in Delft or in London with three main objectives: - Peer review of Core Model considering compatibilty with the AP's under development (AP228, AP230), focusing on the main structures. - Review of AP228 and AP230 - Consideration of Spatial Arrangement AP

Toronto meeting: At the Toronto meeting it was important that project leaders for all projects attend. The Wednesday is planned to be an industry day with presentations to Canadian companies in all industry sectors focused on business case/benefits for STEP. This is being arranged and co-ordinated by the STEP Meeting hosts.

Other topics will be: - AP's and their relation to spaces, the core model, classification, location and geometry - Comparison between core models of IAI IFC and STEP

Seminar in Tokyo

12th-13th June a seminar and discussions were held in Tokyo with Japanese Construction Industry companies and organisations. The seminar and meetings were arranged and sponsored by the Fund for Construction Industry Promotion in Japan. STEP Building Construction work was presented by five representatives from the BC group. AP225 and AP230 were presented in detail. Approximately 100 persons came to the presentation.

June 1996, Kobe

Minutes Vaino Tarandi ( & Graham Storer)

This page is maintained by M A Ward

Last updated 23 April 1997

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Minutes of the STEP WG3 / T12 / AEC / Building Construction Sub-Group Meeting in Kobe followed by a Construction STEP seminar and Japanese construction industry demonstration in Tokyo 10-13 June 1996

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