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4.2 Requirements
In order to conceptualize our Reference Architecture for
BIM integration, several requirements were
established. These will be listed and discussed here.
The system must allow for other applications to extract object information from a BIM
model.
This is the basic premise of the architecture. For a move towards BIM models as centralized data
source throughout the construction process, other applications must be able to access the object
information stored within the model in order to use them for their regular workflows.
R1.
The system must allow for other applications to modify object information in the
corresponding BIM model.
Much like R0, This is the basic premise of the architecture. Other applications must be able to enrich
model object data with their own, process specific data. This keeps the central
BIM model up to date,
and allows for more dynamic BIM usage.
R2.
The system must use a centralized repository for the BIM models, making the model the
leading document throughout the construction process.
This requirement is based on expert interviews. Their BIM vision was to have BIM models as a central
data source, with business processes having existing data sources in use.
These existing data sources
can then be used to enrich BIM model data, or simply be used
in parallel, with objects information
linked to BIM objects. This way, not everything has to be stored in the model itself, but every
information used is retraceable to a BIM model object.
Figure 10. Requirement 2, based on the Shared Data Model