Fabrication information modeling: interfacing building information modeling with digital fabrication

Abstract

AbstractDigital manufacturing methods have been successfully used in different industries for years and have since had a positive effect on the development of their productivity. These methods offer significantly greater design freedom and make it possible to develop shape-optimized and function-activated components. In the construction industry, however, these technologies are only being used reluctantly, even though additive methods could make resource-efficient construction possible. The possibly decisive disadvantage of these methods is that a significantly higher granularity of product and process information is required, thus significantly increasing the planning effort. A circumstance that the framework described in this study, fabrication information modeling (FIM), could significantly mitigate by linking digital fabrication and BIM-based digital building design via a digital chain. For this purpose, FIM provides a methodology with which the information of a digital building model can be detailed, component by component, in a fabrication-aware manner. Based on the open exchange data format IFC, the FIM framework integrates seamlessly into the BIM context and enables automated detailing of the design information.