buildingSMART, formerly the International Alliance for

Interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...

(IAI), is an international organisation which aims to improve the exchange of information between software applications used in the

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

industry. It has developed

Industry Foundation Classes The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a CAD data exchange data schema intended for description of architectural, building and construction industry data. It is a platform-neutral, open data schema specification that is not controlled by a singl ...

(IFCs) as a neutral and open specification for

Building Information Model Building information modeling (BIM) is a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. Building informatio ...

s (BIM).

History

The IAI started in 1994Bazjanac, V. and Crawley, D.B. (1997) ''The implementation of Industry Foundation Classes in simulation tools for the building industry'' - http://www.inive.org/members_area/medias/pdf/Inive/IBPSA/UFSC585.pdf (accessed: 6 February 2012) as an industry consortium of 12 US companies invited by

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartere ...

to advise on developing a set of C++ classes to support integrated application development. The other founding members were

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

;

Archibus Archibus is an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) platform developed by Archibus, Inc. The platform is integrated bi-directionally with building information modeling and CAD design software.

;

Carrier Corporation Carrier Global Corporation is an American multinational heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and fire and security equipment corporation based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Carrier was founded in 1915 as an independ ...

; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK);

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

; Jaros, Baum & Bolles (JB&B); Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Primavera Systems; Softdesk; Timberline Software Corp; and Tishman Research Corp (part of

Tishman Realty & Construction Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc. is an American corporation founded in 1898 that owns and develops real estate. The company is known for being the contractor that built the original World Trade Center in New York City. Tishman Construct ...

). The new technology was first demonstrated in June 1995 in Atlanta at A/E/C SYSTEMS '95.A/E/C Industry Alliance for Interoperability Links Building Industry Professions AT&T, Carrier Corp., Honeywell, Inc. and HOK Among Founding Members. 17 April 1995. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A%2FE%2FC+Industry+Alliance+for+Interoperability+Links+Building+Industry...-a016817760 (accessed: 6 February 2012
archived
This Industry Alliance for Interoperability opened membership to all interested parties in September 1995 and in May 1996 was renamed the International Alliance for Interoperability as Autodesk users insisted that the IFCs should be non-proprietary and urged development of the IFC standard. The first version of IFC was published in June 1996 at which point 26 companies, including Autodesk,

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, Nort ...

, Nemetschek and IEZ, committed to making their software IFC-compliant. The IAI was reconstituted as a not-for-profit industry-led organisation, promoting the Industry Foundation Class (IFC) as a neutral product model supporting the building lifecycle.Eastman, Charles M., and Eastman, Chuck (2008) ''BIM handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers, and contractors'' John Wiley & Sons, pp.72-73. In 2005, partly because its members felt the IAI name was too long and complex for people to understand, it was renamed buildingSMART. It has regional chapters in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.

Activities

BuildingSMART says it develops and maintains international standards for openBIM, combining: *buildingSMART Processes - information delivery manuals *buildingSMART Data Dictionary - it maintains the International Framework for Dictionaries (IFD) Library *buildingSMART Data model - the organisation manages the software-neutral

(IFC) data model buildingSMART also maintains the

BIM Collaboration Format The BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) is a structured file format suited to issue tracking with a building information model. BCF is designed primarily for defining views of a building model and associated information on collisions and errors connect ...

(BCF), a structured file format used for issue tracking in relation to building information models.

Chapters

BuildingSMART has several chapters around the world. * Australasia * Benelux * Canada * China * Finland * France * German speaking * Hong Kong * Italy * Japan * Korea * Malaysia * Nordic * North America * Norway * Poland * Russia * Singapore * Spain * Switzerland * UK & Ireland (in January 2018, the UK chapter merged with the UK BIM Alliance)

External links

References

{{Authority control Industrial computing 1994 establishments in Germany Building information modeling