B2: Week 3 Blog Post - Group B

CHAPTER 3 - INTEROPERABILITY

The BIM Handbook states that "Interoperability" is the ability to exchange data between applications, which smoothes workflows and helps to facilitate their automation.  To the engineering world, this is an extremely important topic.  We, as engineers, may not realize this importance outright, but it is something that should be acknowledged on all levels.  

Interoperability deals directly with file-based exchange formatting.  Examples include drawing exchange format, DXF, initial graphic exchange specification, IGES, and the oldest of its kind, application programming interfaces, or API's.  Starting back in the 1980's data models were originally used in order to allow for different applications to support one another which later grew into two main building product data models.  The first being IFC or Industry Foundation Classes which dealt with the planning, design, management and construction of buildings and the second being CIMsteel Integration Standard Version 2 or CIS/2 which dealt with the fabrication and engineering of structural steel.  Aside from these two data models, many have been developed and used throughout the engineering world.  With advancements in technology came more and more modeling programs that needed to be able to communicate and support one another, thus leading to the need for coordination between multiple applications.  This lead to the birth of Building Model Repositories, which allow overall management of modeling projects on the building object level versus just a file form.  This process provides engineering the capabilities of coordinating multiple models of the same space to represent a building project as a whole.  

Within the realm of interoperability there are various types of important applications to look into.  Though the three most important seem to be platform-to-tool, tool-to-tool, and platform-to-platform.  Of these three, the one we as engineers will encounter the most are platform-to-platform exchanges.  These can be found in file sharing between many of the commonly used modeling programs like Revit, AutoCAD, RAM, RISA, SAP2000, etc.  Whether the issue remains with system modeling within one program or for multiple programs using the same model, it is important to consider the need for accuracy in communication between all files and models.  If one detail is changed in one program, that change then needs to be replicated in all the other models in the various other programs used to represent it.  Thus pushing the need for advancements in the field of interoperability of modeling programming.  This management process is furthermore a fundamental aspect of design coordination that needs to be updated rigorously as technology advances in today's society.  

While the description given above is a broad overview of the topic of interoperability, it is important to recognize that this process of design coordination will be one that will change as technology changes.  Therefore the capabilities of interoperability are still being discovered and more and more will be added to this handbook as time goes on.  While most will have to adhere to various standardization principles set forward the common goal of interoperability will never change.  And who knows, in the future there may be a program that allows for all modeling systems to be represented as one that will be adopted by the engineering industry and used worldwide.  But for now the topic of interoperability is key in focusing on the millions of details that go into taking a modeling program from inception to production.

RESPONSES TO CLASSMATES

Young Kwang Lee - 
Young explained Interoperability on a separate level than I did by taking it a step further and explaining how the AEC industry has taken steps toward exchanging data automatically between BIM applications instead of having to go through each model on each program separately.  In the example he gave about Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor is one I have come to know all to familiarly.  I myself have been exposed to the flaws within program interoperability while working between different versions of Revit and AutoCAD on my previous co-ops.  And it is an issue that is all to familiar and frustrating.  So I agree with Young's exclamation stating that the industry needs to standardize its specifications in program formatting.  It can save a lot of time and frustration in the future!

Dmitriy Voznyak - 

Dmitriy explained Interoperability from the perspective of the importance of standardizing interoperability.  He provided a great example explanation of how structural designers used to manually have to coordinate changes in information across various modeling files.  Furthermore he explained how this process can and should be updated in order to make functionality more cohesive between programs.  I really like that he made a comment about Autodesk's large presence in the engineering world.  I agree that it seems like Autodesk runs the majority of programs used for drafting and designing in today's industry.  But I also agree that one company will not be the monopoly of the industry.  There are various other programs with interoperability capabilities that will most likely fluctuate within the industry based on program needs as technology advances.

Chang Qin - 

Qin explained Interoperability from the perspective that the necessary communication between programs is a lot like the ability to translate words between different languages.  I think using the International Framework for Dictionaries would be a great way to address the issue of interoperability of separate programs especially when working on projects with companies from all over the world.  I agree with Qin when she talks about how using BIM repository would allow for better communication between programs.  It is something that is being looked into by program developers and should continue to be as long as BIM is a way of communicating design in the engineering world.

REFERENCES

Eastman, Charles M. "Chapter 3: Interoperability." BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. 99-149. eBook.