NBIMS-US One Step Closer to Modeling Standard

The National Building Information Modeling Standard-United States™ (NBIMS-US™) Project Committee has approved 18 submissions to be included in Version 2 of the standard. The NBIMS-US is a consensus standard that reflects the interests of all facets of the life cycle for the facilities industry, from inception of a facility onward.
The approved documents fall into three main categories: reference standards, information exchange standards (which are built upon the reference standards), and best practice guidelines that support users in their implementation of open building information modeling (BIM) standards-based deliverables.

The nine approved reference standards include:

  • Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) 2×3
  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML
  • OmniClass Tables 13, 21, 22, 23, 32 and 36
  • International Framework Dictionary (IFD) Library Update
  • The four approved information exchange standards include:
  • Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie)
  • Information Delivery Manual/Model View Definition (IDM/MVD) Design to Spatial Program Validation
  • IDM MVD Design to Building Energy Analysis
  • IDM MVD Design to Quantity Takeoff
  • The five approved guidelines and applications include:
  • BIM Project Execution Planning Guide – V2.1
  • BIM Project Execution Plan Content – V2.1
  • Minimum BIM
  • Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) Coordination Requirements
  • Planning, Executing and Managing Information Handovers

The NBIMS-US Project Committee oversees development of the standard, under direction of its parent, the buildingSMART alliance. A council of the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Alliance plans to publish the completed NBIMS-US Version 2 in February 2012. Upon the release, it is expected that other countries will use the NBIMS-US Version 2 as the basis of their national standards.