BIM object standardisation is now more achievable than ever with the release of the NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator v 2.0.
To date the key issues restricting the exchange and interoperability of BIM objects between organisations, disciplines, and projects has been inconsistencies in properties, property naming and object designation. The NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator v 2.0 resolves these issues. It is more comprehensive and more powerful than before. It is an online tool for generating properties associated with BIM objects and is designed to make the process of creating and sharing BIM content that much easier.
The Properties Generator includes objects based on buildingSMART's Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), using IFC4 ADD2 TC1 (4.0.2.1) as the default, with IFC2x3 TC1 (2.3.0.1) also provided. Objects also include classification data for major systems such as NATSPEC, Uniclass, Omniclass, Uniformat, Australian Health Facilities Guidelines (AusHFG) and International Cost Management Standard (ICMS).
Users can choose to view properties from various sources such as IFC4, IFC2x3, and
Open BIM Object Standard (OBOS), with the structural and architectural objects also
including sources such as BIMForum LOD Specification, COBie and NATSPEC. Users can
filter these properties to their needs based on a range of property categories such
as admin data, performance data and geometric data they might require.
Selected properties can then be exported to a pdf or Excel file, which enables them
to be imported into BIM authoring and BIM-ready software applications.
The Properties Generator now includes over 560 objects and their corresponding properties. These comprise generic architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services objects, primarily aligned to the corresponding elements from the IFC4 schema. The requirements of the IFC schema have been implemented within the Properties Generator because it is an established global open source schema for properties and data exchange, which is already supported in the major BIM authoring applications, and enables greater interoperability between different applications.
IFC4 ADD2 TC1 (4.0.2.1) has been used as the default IFC designation for the IfcElementType and IfcPredefinedType for each object. Both IFC4 and IFC2x3 properties can be selected for each object included in the Properties Generator.
Instructions on how to use and navigate the Properties Generator are included in the Instructions tab.
NATSPEC would welcome any feedback or comments you may have on this v 2.0 update release of the Properties Generator, refer to the Feedback tab.