Connectivity-Based Installation Sequencing for Plant Piping Systems Using Lightweight Geometry and Semantic Rules

In large-scale plant construction projects, integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) with construction schedules is essential for detailed planning and advanced practices such as Advanced Work Packaging (AWP), yet a granularity mismatch remains between schedule activities and object-level BIM components. This study proposes a method that combines lightweight axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) geometry with piping-specific semantic rules to derive object-level connectivity for installation grouping and sequencing. The method was implemented as a custom Autodesk Navisworks add-in and evaluated using an industrial process piping system comprising 705 physical objects. Geometric adjacency relationships were refined through semantic false-positive filtering, achieving 99.02% edge-level precision and 98.37% port-count agreement. The validated connectivity was then used to restructure 20 initial semantic partitions into 16 dimensionally feasible installation groups. A candidate installation sequence was subsequently generated by prioritizing equipment-connected main-line piping and maintaining continuity along connected piping routes. The results demonstrate that lightweight geometry combined with piping-specific semantic constraints can reliably support object-level installation planning without requiring predefined installation grouping or sequencing information in the BIM model. The proposed method provides an intermediate planning structure that links detailed BIM objects with broader construction schedule activities and supports subsequent detailed 4D BIM planning.