Interoperability Analysis for BIM software Based on User-defined Properties

Abstract : The utilization of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has increased in order to enhance the integration of information for management and resources throughout the construction projects. Therefore, various BIM softwares have been used under open BIM environments in the building and plant construction industry. However, it has obstructive factors due to the lack of interoperability. In order to address this problem, this study conducted an interoperability analysis of BIM software focused on user-defined properties for enhanced function and efficiency. Result of the analysis shows that authoring tools have more interoperability problems than viewer tools and simulation tools have. In terms of interoperability, user-defined properties outperforms than those of system basic properties and logic data. Therefore, it was found that functional improvement and workload minimization in BIM can be attained by applying the GBS (an user-defined property for automatic manipulation of BIM proposed by Jung et al. 2013) that enables automatic link between geometric data and non-geometric data. In this respect, this study concludes that the application of user-defined property (e.g. GBS) can be an effective method for information integration throughout construction projects.