IBS (Intelligent Building Systems) in Paris, and EUW (European Utility Week) in Amsterdam, held this week. These conferences will be an opportunity to meet stakeholders of the digital transformation to Smart Buildings and Smart Grid.
Smart Buildings must be intelligent, efficient and connected. The digital technologies needed to create these buildings of the future is available today. The current challenge for making Smart Buildings a reality is that the design, construction and operations processes, procedures and methods must profoundly change. This is the requisite condition for achieving the ambitious energy performance targets expected in the coming years. It is analogous to the automotive and aerospace industries as well as other manufacturers, who have, for many years, worked to optimize Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). PLM is the digitization of products through the entire design-build-maintain process. It is structured to leverage supply chain data necessary for product manufacturing; creating a coherent, standardized data set used for design, manufacturing, delivery and maintenance of the vehicle or product.
In Smart Building construction and operation, there must be a similar common data set. It must be homogeneous and accessible to the stakeholders who design, construct and operate the building. This enables coordination between owners, architects, contractors, subcontractors, equipment suppliers, regulators, facility managers, maintenance contractors and occupants.
The benefits of this approach includes reducing the risk of error during the construction phase, thereby reducing cost. Once built, it benefits operators by having easy access to relevant information in order to be able to more easily identify and correct issues within the building.
The process involves digitizing the building.
The BIM (Building Information Model) is the building trades’ response to the challenge. It defines a shared, common building data model that allows everyone to work together at every phase of a building’s life cycle: design, construction, operation, renovation. The BIM contains all the elements of the building in a database, as well as the 3D representations of the design. Beyond that, the dimensions of time (4D), cost (5D), performance (6D) and heritage (7D) are included. The BIM therefore, is not limited to a geometric representation, but includes all the constraints of a building. This allows for dramatically improved technical and financial oversight and management.
The key point of a BIM implementation is the interoperability of systems enabling data exchange. Standard exchange formats are defined as Industry Foundation Class (IFC) files, which are usable by the various software programs involved in the lifecycle of the building.
Design software for building modeling (i.e. Revit, ArchiCad, Vico’s building, Microstation, and Vector Works Architect) export their data in an IFC file format that other building stakeholders are then able import into their software. For example, a BMS system integrator will be able to import an IFC file from design software into the supervisory software, such as PcVue. This allows for easy integration and configuration of the BMS by retrieving filtered data required for building operation. For example, the location of access control sensors, thermostats and other building control elements. It also allows for importing 3D models of the building.
New versions of PcVue allow integrators to associate real-time measurements from connected equipment and sensors to building design elements. The Facility Management maintenance teams will be able to visualize real-time equipment faults on a 3D view of the building for increased efficiency of operation. As this example shows, the design capabilities associated with an open platform, such as PcVue, with its 3D graphics engine, ensure the consistency of the BIM data in operations and maintenance and will contribute to improvement of the performance of Smart Buildings.
PcVue Solutions experts, as well as the many other stakeholders involved in the digital transformation to Smart Building are present at IBS and EUW to collaborate with you on the BIM Bang Theory!
https://www.pcvuesolutions.com//markets/bms
IBS Stand B13 http://www.ibs-event.com/
EUW Espace Business France http://www.european-utility-week.com/
Created on: 5 Oct 2017
