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Everyone knows that BIM is basically graphic, but the thing that makes it BIM –Building INFORMATION Modeling – is the other content, the other information the model contains, whether that be textual, numeric, parametric, or otherwise.

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What this addition of information means is a shift in the way information is presented, and a resultant shift in the role of the specifier much like the shift being thrust upon all participants in the design and construction process by the advent of BIM and IPD. It compels more collaboration, more need for communication and coordination. New tools may have made the “one place” different, but saying it there is still essential.

This provides a real opportunity for Chapter involvement as we chart the path to allow our tools to continue to provide guidance for traditional solutions as they are enhanced to provide guidance for new approaches.

Tech Com is working on discussions of the shifting role and content of specifications in BIM projects. I hope for more involvement from CSI members as we begin to p j p gidentify gaps in the current vision of BIM knowledge transfer and work to make recommendations to the industry.

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As you know, CSI produces a lot of standards and formats. Many people think of them as stand alone solutions, crafted to address one or another information issue depending on the application for which one is familiar for using each of them.

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Taken as a whole however, the CSI family of standards and formats are designed, managed, developed and maintained as a comprehensive suite of standardized solutions.

They are intended to work together, to not overlap, and to each help address a variety of possible implementations effectively but not make them so application focused that it hamstrings their use for other possible purposes.

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UniFormat, a publication of CSI and CSC is a standardized classification for organizing preliminary construction information into a standard order or sequence on the basis of functional elements. Functional elements, often referred to as systems or assemblies, are major components common to most buildings that usually perform a given function regardless of the design specification, construction method, or materials used. UniFormat users can easily understand and compare information since it is linked to a standardized elemental classification structure.

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UniFormat is useful for a variety of possible applications at several different construction phases, but its chief use in BIM is the identification of BIM objects –most BIM software uses some variation of UniFormat to identify object families –starting at early design phases. Further refinements can be used to tag BIM object elements as additional design requirements are added.

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As mentioned earlier, the intent is to allow CSI standards and formats to satisfy traditional applications, but also to expand their possible application to new information needs and applications. Starting with the 2004 revisionMasterFormat now has the capacity to address a wider array of project types and also to provide standardized locations for more specific types of work results, both helpful changes for BIM.

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MasterFormat is now on an annual update process, allowing for the measured addition of new subject matter. The 2010 Update is the first of these annual updates, the 2011 update will be released in 1st quarter 2011. The 2010 Update added the first new division under the annual update process, Division 46 – Water and Wastewater Equipment

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MasterFormat.com is a site with a database driven repository of the latest set of numbers and titles, on which users can propose revisions, track recent changes and additions to MasterFormat, and gain access to and search the current set of numbers and titles. Access to the numbers and titles is a CSI member benefit.

CSI's Guiding Technical Principles 11

The three part specification as set out by SectionFormat provides locations in Part 2 for a lot of information that is now contained in the BIM model.

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But there is still a lot of specification information that is generally not included in a BIM, chiefly in Parts 1 and 3. How to best address that information is a subject to be addressed further by CSI members and technical initiatives.

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OmniClass consists of a library of 15 tables. Though they are under development, there has been growing interest from information providers, large facility owners, software developers and others in North America and abroad about their use to order information.

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It may surprise some of you to learn that OmniClass development started before the Internet was in everyone’s homes -- CSI has been trying to solve the BIM problem since before it was a BIM problem.

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The basis of the table concept that underlies OmniClass is derived from ISO standards. This should ease relating OmniClass classifications to other ISO derived classification systems in other countries.

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Faceted Classification:

Several tables that describe objects in the Built Environment from various points of view

Entries on these tables can be combined to refine their classification

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Example of how to use faceting concept in OmniClass context.

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OmniClass development work proceeds on a set of two alternating two-year development cycles.

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Though end users can and some do use OmniClass in their practices to order information without any intermediary tool, most end users will access OmniClass through its incorporation in software used to develop and organize project information.

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OmniClass and the National CAD Standard are two CSI initiatives that are being incorporated into the National BIM Standard, providing greater reach for those standards and awareness of CSI in the AEC industry.

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NBIMS Version 1 was published two years ago, Version 2 will be published next year.

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