Ontology-Based Partial Building Information Model Extraction

Abstract

The current application of building information modeling (BIM) in the construction industry is generally focused on using the complete building information model during the life cycle of the project. With more information being added to the model, the size of the model file and the difficulty to manipulate the model increase. However, different use scenarios may only require access to certain specific information stored in the model. In contrast with the ample research of ontology applications in construction knowledge management, research of ontology in construction modeling has been limited. Hence, the purpose of this study is to use ontology in the extraction of a partial building information model from the original complete model. The building information models covered in this study are in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, which is a widely supported open BIM standard. An ontology TBox is developed according to the existing IFC schema specifications. For each specific IFC model, an ontology ABox is generated at run time, combining the ontology TBox and the IFC instances in the model. The ABox works as an index in the partial model extraction algorithm. A prototype Java program based on the algorithm was developed to demonstrate and validate the algorithm using both a sample model and an IFC model from a real building. The results indicated that the use of ontology provides a valid way to deal with the technical complexity of IFC models.