Adding an extensive feedback loop for the creation and validation of functional requirements of BIM models

During the planning, design and permit process of buildings, various regulations must be adhered to in order to obtain a compliant building permit. Therefore formal requirements for buildings and technical rules in practice are examined and can be checked. For this purpose the open specification for checking functional requirements of a digital building model OpenBIMRL can be used. Architects or engineers may verify their BIM model with a pre-defined set of rules or entire rule-sets. This may be a set of rules for specific countries or usage (housing, commercial). In OpenBIMRL, functional requirements are formulated using a web-based platform separated from the actual rule checking engine. These rules consist of two main components: information extraction through predefined building blocks called Nodes, followed by the application of logical operations and comparisons. Previously, testing and verification of these rules on BIM models required a separate, non-portable program. To address this limitation, we conceived a redesign of the engine into a pure dependency structure devoid of user interaction. A server-client architecture was chosen with a RESTful endpoint. This change enables rule creators and end-users to view the outputs of defined rules and their respective Nodes directly in a concise format and within the 3D model itself.