Viewpoint have started a series on the current state of BIM in the UK, from demystifying what BIM is to where to look for the latest advice and guidance surrounding BIM. This time, they explore the UK Annex, its relation to ISO 19650, and look into the naming convention in more detail
On the surface, recent changes implemented by UK BIM Alliance may not seem too different, but that isn’t the case. Ben Wallbank, BIM Strategy and Partnerships Manager at Trimble Viewpoint, has put together an informative video to talk about the changes and how they may affect your team.
At first glance, the naming convention in the UK annex of ISO 19650 looks very similar to the old BS1192 naming convention.
ISO 19650 is a huge topic in itself, but here are the 3 main takeaways from Ben’s video:
Stricter naming perimeters and naming changes
There are fewer categories in the new UK Annex, which is great for standardisation, but not so great for project detail. Many people are going to want to know those additional bits of information.
There are also slight alterations throughout the standard, such as EIR now being Exchange Information Requirements as opposed to Employer’s Information Requirements.
Detail comes from project-specific codes, rather than the convention itself
If projects need to emphasise a particular detail, such as whether a file is a CAD file or a 3D Revit file, this will need to be assigned as a project specific code or suffix. Ben’s prediction is that codes are going to be expanded from teams requiring extra detail.
Too much detail splinters searchability
The issue with assigning project specific codes is that it makes every project unique – meaning it becomes very difficult to search a collectective project database for a particular item. The only way is by having enough regularity in the way that you retrieve all of these particular types of schedules. If these are defined project by project, you’re losing that ability.
This is where a standard such as Uniclass 2015 can help, as it allows expansion of the naming convention but in a standardised manner. This means that all projects using Uniclass 2015 will be easy to search through the metadata for.
Watch more of the ‘State of UK BIM’ series.
