A Rule-driven Modeling Method for Chinese Timber Beam-frame Structures Using Historical Building Information Modeling and Industry Foundation Classes Framework

The digital representation of Chinese timber beam-frame structures (CTBFS) is critical for heritage conservation and information sharing.However, existing historical building information modeling (HBIM) approaches provide limited support for encoding the rule-based proportions and construction logic embedded in CTBFS, while current industry foundation classes (IFC)based methods cannot explicitly represent the component semantics and construction relationships inherent to CTBFS.Unlike conventional approaches that primarily focus on geometric parametrization, in this research, we introduce an integrated HBIM-IFC framework designed to capture both the formal rules and assembly logic governing CTBFS.The methodology formalizes traditional construction knowledge into a standardized digital structure, ensuring semantic consistency and interoperability across platforms.It first establishes a component-family-oriented HBIM approach, where beam-frame elements are defined as parametric families governed by historical manuals with embedded relationship logic.Subsequently, this HBIM foundation is translated into an IFC extension strategy using property sets and relationship entities, representing timber-specific semantics without compromising the core IFC schema.Experiments on two CTBFS typologies validate that the proposed framework enables an integrated and interpretable representation of geometry, formal rules, construction logic, and component relationships while maintaining interoperability, thereby supporting sensor-driven documentation workflows and the standardized digital exchange of timber architectural heritage.