Validation of the common conversion practices between BIM model and finite element model

Abstract

The development of Building Information Modelling software helps engineers to leverage computing technology to improve productivity by facilitating the data sharing and exchange at a common platform, hence reducing the needs to reproduce the same data over and over by different parties. However, the so-called common data in the physical world might not be the common data in a computer programme. For example, a physical BIM model by architects and structural (analytical) model in structural engineering software are very different in the representation within the computer data base. Therefore, a conversion programme or translator is normally required when we wanted to make use of the data in BIM model from Architect to perform structural analysis in the structural software. Common conversion practises may not be rigorously tested to understand the implications on to the analysis results due to assumptions adopted during data conversion process. This project focuses on Revit and Robot software, to validate the common conversion practise used in Revit, namely projection method and auto-detect method. The aim of the project is to ascertain structural analysis results from two case studies using two alignment method to determine the accuracy and reliability on the usage of such conversion methods.