Proceedings of the 29th EG-ICE International Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering
A Common Data Environment (CDE)is an agreed-upon source of information on building-related projec... more A Common Data Environment (CDE)is an agreed-upon source of information on building-related projectsto collect, manage,and exchange data between stakeholders. Theapproach in the AEC domain is to usebuildingSMART’sBIM Collaboration Format (BCF)as thedigital issue communication part ofCDEs.Contrasting with the federated nature of the AEC industry, CDEs are typically organised in a centralised fashion.This work proposes a potential transition of BCF into a distributed environment that servesas an example for further developments inthe distribution of CDEs and CDE-independent data management. We show how a single source of truth over the project data and the advantages of the central approach can be realised in a distributed setupusing a Solid architecture environment,enablingdecentralised authentication and stakeholders’ability to control their data.
Supported mvdXML versions are v1.1. v1-1 and v1.2 draft 3. Three available interfaces for the che... more Supported mvdXML versions are v1.1. v1-1 and v1.2 draft 3. Three available interfaces for the checker, OpenAPI 2.0, a web user interface, and a command line tool, are available. Changes: elements geometry general comments written to BCF files
We study computationally efficient methods calculating changes in IFC models that have been conve... more We study computationally efficient methods calculating changes in IFC models that have been converted to RDF graphs. It is shown how to calculate difference sets that are small enough to be descriptive and usable for synchronization while still using limited computing resources. We present an algorithm that utilizes the neighborhood of an anonymous node to find a probable matching node pair in the second version of the model. By limiting the neighborhood only to the most informative paths in the RDF graph, a balance between the certainty of the matching pair and the size of the neighborhood can be found. The algorithm is compared with commonly available RDF diff tools: Jena, and RDFContextTools RDFC14Ner. When compared, our algorithm provided significantly better results.
Several methods for creating building-related Linked Data graphs exist. This paper focuses on the... more Several methods for creating building-related Linked Data graphs exist. This paper focuses on the conversion of IFC Building Information Models (BIM) to RDF Abox graphs using the emerging W3C Linked Building Data (LBD) modular ontologies: BOT (building topology), PRODUCT (classification of building elements) and PROPS (building-related properties). The existing IFC-to-RDF converter tool, converts IFC into ifcOWL-based Abox graphs which are rather complex and difficult to implement in software applications. The IFC-to-LBD converter presented, is necessary to transform IFC building models into RDF Abox graphs structured according the new LBD ontologies. An output graph contains the relevant information of the IFC building model related to building topology, building elements classification and building-related properties. Additionally, the graph structure becomes more concise (minimum 83 % less triples) and significantly easier to query compared to the output of the ifcOWL-based IFC-t...
Unstructured and poorly managed information is a major cause of time delays in construction proje... more Unstructured and poorly managed information is a major cause of time delays in construction projects. Availability of relevant information at the required time has a considerable impact on decision making in the project’s lifecycle. Multi-models containers, and a more recent approach, Information container for linked document delivery (ICDD), aim to facilitate construction data management and sharing information. Containers help in structuring and linking of heterogeneous data. Such container models are relevant in and align with Common Data Environments (CDE) which facilitate a centralised environment for managing both information and services. Presently, three approaches fit in the vision of CDE: the DIN SPEC 91391-2, OpenCDE-API which is loosely based on DIN SPEC 91391-2, and the W3C Linked Data Platform (LDP), a generic data container-based approach to managing linked data graphs online. In this paper, we investigate how ICDD, an approach to link information, can be represented ...
The highly dynamic composition of actors, processes, and products in the building industry impose... more The highly dynamic composition of actors, processes, and products in the building industry imposes significant challenges on the organization of data and information flows. The coordinated transmission and synchronization of information across organizational boundaries are facing severe scalability, reliability and security challenges. The concept of Linked Building Data has been identified as a potential means to overcome some of these challenges by shifting the paradigm of collaborative information creation from traditional file-based approaches towards dynamically composed graphs federated across networks. However, even though core technologies such as interoperable Building Information Models have reached the level of international standardization (ifcOWL), efficient, domain-specific methods and tools for processing this information have received only a little attention so far. For example, in the context of Linked Building Data, the odds of a broken link can limit the potential...
Abstract The capability to accurately detect changes between successive versions of the IFC repre... more Abstract The capability to accurately detect changes between successive versions of the IFC representation of a BIM model would enable the development of generic change management functionalities for construction projects. Unfortunately, IFC models consist mostly of anonymous objects without stable identities; therefore the computation of differences between versions is complicated. When IFC models are converted into an RDF representation, the uniform graph structure offers new algorithmic opportunities. We study how to assign unique and stable identities to anonymous nodes based on signatures generated from their graph environment, and present the Short Paths Crossings Algorithm (SPCA) that computes sets of paths with limited length from anonymous nodes taking into account their crossings. Empirical tests show that SPCA produces significantly smaller difference sets for IFC-derived graphs than previous algorithms for RDF change detection.
Proceedings of the 29th EG-ICE International Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering
A Common Data Environment (CDE)is an agreed-upon source of information on building-related projec... more A Common Data Environment (CDE)is an agreed-upon source of information on building-related projectsto collect, manage,and exchange data between stakeholders. Theapproach in the AEC domain is to usebuildingSMART’sBIM Collaboration Format (BCF)as thedigital issue communication part ofCDEs.Contrasting with the federated nature of the AEC industry, CDEs are typically organised in a centralised fashion.This work proposes a potential transition of BCF into a distributed environment that servesas an example for further developments inthe distribution of CDEs and CDE-independent data management. We show how a single source of truth over the project data and the advantages of the central approach can be realised in a distributed setupusing a Solid architecture environment,enablingdecentralised authentication and stakeholders’ability to control their data.
Supported mvdXML versions are v1.1. v1-1 and v1.2 draft 3. Three available interfaces for the che... more Supported mvdXML versions are v1.1. v1-1 and v1.2 draft 3. Three available interfaces for the checker, OpenAPI 2.0, a web user interface, and a command line tool, are available. Changes: elements geometry general comments written to BCF files
We study computationally efficient methods calculating changes in IFC models that have been conve... more We study computationally efficient methods calculating changes in IFC models that have been converted to RDF graphs. It is shown how to calculate difference sets that are small enough to be descriptive and usable for synchronization while still using limited computing resources. We present an algorithm that utilizes the neighborhood of an anonymous node to find a probable matching node pair in the second version of the model. By limiting the neighborhood only to the most informative paths in the RDF graph, a balance between the certainty of the matching pair and the size of the neighborhood can be found. The algorithm is compared with commonly available RDF diff tools: Jena, and RDFContextTools RDFC14Ner. When compared, our algorithm provided significantly better results.
Several methods for creating building-related Linked Data graphs exist. This paper focuses on the... more Several methods for creating building-related Linked Data graphs exist. This paper focuses on the conversion of IFC Building Information Models (BIM) to RDF Abox graphs using the emerging W3C Linked Building Data (LBD) modular ontologies: BOT (building topology), PRODUCT (classification of building elements) and PROPS (building-related properties). The existing IFC-to-RDF converter tool, converts IFC into ifcOWL-based Abox graphs which are rather complex and difficult to implement in software applications. The IFC-to-LBD converter presented, is necessary to transform IFC building models into RDF Abox graphs structured according the new LBD ontologies. An output graph contains the relevant information of the IFC building model related to building topology, building elements classification and building-related properties. Additionally, the graph structure becomes more concise (minimum 83 % less triples) and significantly easier to query compared to the output of the ifcOWL-based IFC-t...
Unstructured and poorly managed information is a major cause of time delays in construction proje... more Unstructured and poorly managed information is a major cause of time delays in construction projects. Availability of relevant information at the required time has a considerable impact on decision making in the project’s lifecycle. Multi-models containers, and a more recent approach, Information container for linked document delivery (ICDD), aim to facilitate construction data management and sharing information. Containers help in structuring and linking of heterogeneous data. Such container models are relevant in and align with Common Data Environments (CDE) which facilitate a centralised environment for managing both information and services. Presently, three approaches fit in the vision of CDE: the DIN SPEC 91391-2, OpenCDE-API which is loosely based on DIN SPEC 91391-2, and the W3C Linked Data Platform (LDP), a generic data container-based approach to managing linked data graphs online. In this paper, we investigate how ICDD, an approach to link information, can be represented ...
The highly dynamic composition of actors, processes, and products in the building industry impose... more The highly dynamic composition of actors, processes, and products in the building industry imposes significant challenges on the organization of data and information flows. The coordinated transmission and synchronization of information across organizational boundaries are facing severe scalability, reliability and security challenges. The concept of Linked Building Data has been identified as a potential means to overcome some of these challenges by shifting the paradigm of collaborative information creation from traditional file-based approaches towards dynamically composed graphs federated across networks. However, even though core technologies such as interoperable Building Information Models have reached the level of international standardization (ifcOWL), efficient, domain-specific methods and tools for processing this information have received only a little attention so far. For example, in the context of Linked Building Data, the odds of a broken link can limit the potential...
Abstract The capability to accurately detect changes between successive versions of the IFC repre... more Abstract The capability to accurately detect changes between successive versions of the IFC representation of a BIM model would enable the development of generic change management functionalities for construction projects. Unfortunately, IFC models consist mostly of anonymous objects without stable identities; therefore the computation of differences between versions is complicated. When IFC models are converted into an RDF representation, the uniform graph structure offers new algorithmic opportunities. We study how to assign unique and stable identities to anonymous nodes based on signatures generated from their graph environment, and present the Short Paths Crossings Algorithm (SPCA) that computes sets of paths with limited length from anonymous nodes taking into account their crossings. Empirical tests show that SPCA produces significantly smaller difference sets for IFC-derived graphs than previous algorithms for RDF change detection.
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Papers by Jyrki Oraskari