GRAPHISOFT® recently announced it has joined forces with buildingSMART® International, Tekla® and several leading software vendors to launch a global program in order to promote Open BIM collaboration workflows throughout the AEC industry.
From their release: Open BIM is a universal approach to the collaborative design, realization and operation of buildings based on open standards and workflows. Open BIM is an initiative of buildingSMART and several leading software vendors using the open buildingSMART Data Model.
More info after the break.
GRAPHISOFT is taking part in efforts to coordinate promotion and implementation of Open BIM collaboration workflows. The company, along with several others, will provide common definitions, requirements and branding. GRAPHISOFT and Tekla began the Open BIM movement, with the support of various organizations such as buildingSMART. Far from an exclusive club, the movement encourages and welcomes any organization in the AEC industry to join that is ready to support the overall goals and fulfill the agreed set of requirements.
The goal for the program is fully explained at GRAPHISOFT’s blog BIM Engine by ArchiCAD. To put it simply here, it is to elevate the conversation about specific projects and models from the data level to the workflow level. At this level of collaboration, the data serves as a vehicle of high-level information. Open BIM allows for the selection of project participants based upon expertise and not the particular software being used.
The Open BIM movement provides guidelines and best practices as well as common branding and international visibility to leverage upon these values and maximize the value of projects. Through the OPEN BIM program, GRAPHISOFT Managing Director, Steve Benford says the company will work to complete its “mission critical” strategy of leading the way for Open BIM collaboration.
“The Open BIM program gives companies in the AEC industry a viable solution to what has been a long-standing issue,” explained Benford, Managing Director of GRAPHISOFT, North America. “No matter what the size of the project, true collaboration has been out of reach. By true collaboration we mean one that recognizes and transcends the presence of divergent “trade” priorities that exists among independent organizations.”
AEC professionals know the path of technical level coordination between trades over the years. There are many who can relate to the process of submitting full printed documentation throughout the design process. Light-tables were the foundation for piecing together the different building structures and building systems. That process is carried out even today through paper’s digital equivalents (2D DWG and PDF based collaboration workflows).
The data rich models created in BIM opened the way to platform data collaboration. And while the industry as a whole saw improvements; gaps in data sharing were still possible and often problem-causing. Design information created by one trade cannot necessarily be integrated into other trades’ environment without true Open BIM; can even be lost during data conversion.
At this time, ten companies are participating to provide the framework to Open BIM through ongoing global and local Open BIM activities. The first of these activities begins with the Open BIM Live Online Seminar on March 27th, featuring Rift Architects, a firm that has applied the Open BIM collaboration workflow to design and build a high-end residential complex in the heart of the Oslo fjord in Norway.
Companies participating in the Open BIM program from day buildingSMART International, GRAPHISOFT, Tekla, Nemetschek AG, Trimble, Nemetschek Allplan, Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., Nemetschek SCIA and Data Design System. For more information, please visit: www.openbim.com.
