BIM: creation of the Concrete Industry Data Dictionary

A sectoral dynamic in favor of the digital transition driven by the FIB and the CERIB

In this context, the Concrete Industry embarked in 2015 on a pioneering work to explore BIM to include digitization in construction and create a sectoral dynamic in favor of the digital transition. This commitment was supported by the FIB (Federation of the Concrete Industry) and the CERIB (Centre for Studies and Research in the Concrete Industry). This work has now led to the constitution of a first data dictionary relating to the description of the construction systems proposed by manufacturers of prefabricated concrete products.

The report "Feedback on the creation of a data dictionary for the Concrete Industry", which has just been published, reports on the work carried out by CERIB, with the support of the FIB and the many concrete manufacturers.

Above all, it constitutes a state of understanding of the impact of digital technology and BIM on an industrial construction sector and the way in which it has taken hold of the subject to make it a collective development and innovation project. He emphasizes that the integration of BIM, which is perfectly suited to precast concrete systems, will allow all players to be more efficient and to better communicate in order to rationalize all stages of construction.

This document aims to explain the understanding of "semantic BIM" by the Concrete Industry, which focuses above all on the qualification of objects in order to be used in digital models. It is illustrated by feedback from the work carried out, specific to the development of the Concrete Industry, but also capable of being transposed to other industrial sectors. It testifies to the Concrete Industry's desire to encourage digital dynamics, by intelligently integrating all the dimensions of BIM, through the digital model and the useful and structured data it embeds.

The thirty-page report describes the basic principles of a data dictionary, clarifies the notions of model and object in a BIM process, explains the process of creating BIM object models in a data dictionary. It presents the catalog of BIM objects of the Concrete Industry and the current classification of precast concrete products, as available in the database of generic BIM objects of the Concrete Industry (17 families containing about forty subfamilies) as a way of arranging books in a library.

The development of the Concrete Industry BIM generic object database

It is the notion of the object and the allocated data that have made it possible to make the link between the Concrete Industry and BIM: an object comparable to an industrial product, most of the time used with others to form constructive systems. Thus, the first work began around the development of BIM objects, modeled on the habits of descriptions of products by manufacturers in their catalogs.

It is from these elements that the database of generic BIM objects for the Concrete Industry was developed: the BDD BIM G.IB. This work was supplemented by CERIB's participation in the POBIM project, launched by the Plan de Transition Numérique du Bâtiment (PTNB) and piloted by AFNOR and which continues with the BIM 2022 Plan.

The BDD BIM G.IB is made up of two separate entities that complement each other:

• A set of object properties and models, subsequently assimilated to the Concrete Industry Data Dictionary;
• A catalog of objects, resulting from models of objects enriched with generic values, making it possible to define the components and the generic systems specific to the Concrete Industry.

Centered on the characterization of the properties of generic objects, the work initially made no distinction between objects and models of objects, which only intervened once the products to be integrated into the base had been selected, described and characterized as BIM objects. The work of the CERIB and the FIB then made it possible to distinguish between models and objects so that the entire construction industry could more easily assimilate the approach.

A response to the business needs of all construction stakeholders

The sum of the work carried out by the CERIB and the FIB around the databases of digital objects is part of a resolutely global vision to involve all the players gravitating in the environment of the Concrete Industry. This work highlights the need to share their management with all construction professionals and to pool their use.

This dynamic is part of a profound change in the methodological practices developed in construction projects. System engineering therefore becomes a necessary condition for the industrialization of the construction sector, which far from being a constraint, must be seen as a great opportunity to structure and rationalize business practices. And in a context where new environmental requirements make technical analyzes more complex, the provision of object databases is now even more essential.

By showing the actual structure, thanks to its digital twin, and by integrating all the information necessary for the calculations, for example those of the RE2020, this census approach is also based on the expertise of manufacturers. The Concrete Industry is proud to have encouraged it to respond as closely as possible to the business needs of all those involved in construction.