BIMobject® Cloud – Now compliant and future-proof for COBie, a part of the UK Government BIM Level 2 Requirement

Once again BIMobject® shows worldwide leadership, tackling the challenges of the industry. By using the power of its unique and innovative technology BOPC™ (BIMobject Open Property Cloud), BIMobject has enabled all manufacturers to provide COBie data to ensure UK BIM Level 2 compliancy. BOPC is another function, which has been added to the highly successful BIMobject Apps. They are available to all users, at no charge, for Revit, ArchiCAD and SketchUp http://info.bimobject.com/bimobject-apps.

BIMobject has made a technical investment which has enabled COBie data to be included in the BIMobject Cloud. This tool is available for both manufacturers and users for free. This is just the beginning; BIMobject will continue to invest when new classifications are published for different regions all over the world. We understand that with the capability of BOPC, the industry resolves a major challenge.

COBie (Construction Operations Building information exchange) is the data which the UK Government has mandated, from April 6th 2016, for public sector building projects. Without this data, the building product will not be compliant with contract requirements.

Manufacturers can edit or add to the COBie dataset at any time, ensuring that it always reflects the latest requirements. Version control capabilities allow construction professionals to be informed, or check for themselves, when data has changed. This means that we are future proofing our content. With more than 110,000 registrations, users of bimobject.com can access and refresh data at any point during design and construction. Externalising data resolves a huge issue for both manufacturers and construction professionals as explained in the blog - “The Data Conundrum” http://bimobject.com/sv/blog/post/the-data-conundrum-in-bim

“At Tata Steel we recognise that not everyone needs the same data, and especially when supplying products across a number of territories, externalising the data is crucial. It provides users with the flexibility to select the data they need and for manufacturers, the potential to tailor their information to local requirements”, says Steve Thompson, Global Market Manager - Construction and Infrastructure, Tata Steel, and Chair for BIM4M2.

In March of 2015, as part of trials for COBie compliancy, BIMobject submitted a COBie data set to buildingSMART UK. This trial was designed to test that BIMobject’s solutions were compliant with the requirements set out in the standards document PAS1192-2 (part of the UK Government's mandate for Level 2 compliancy).

“We used the special COBie module in Solibri Model Checker to verify that the data from BIMobject was COBie compliant. Solibri Model Checker provides the most comprehensive data verification available for COBie, and it quickly became apparent that the BIMobject submission met all the requirements for BIM Level 2 compliance”, says David Jellings, Managing Director, Solibri UK, and buildingSMART UK Board member.

Matthew Jackson, Digital Content Manager at BIMobject, will be hosting a number of webinars which will demonstrate to manufacturers and users, the power of externalised data coupled with geometric objects.

“By using BOPC we enable manufacturers to deliver regional and project-specific data across the globe, all linked to the same geometric object. We recognise that different countries have different classification systems and by externalising the data, manufacturers maintain the same flexibility and control in the virtual world as they do in the real world”, says Matthew Jackson.

COBie for the UK Government is the first of many data sets for national requirements which BIMobject will be providing to support the needs of both manufacturers and construction professionals.

Information on the upcoming webinars will be released over the coming weeks.