A domain model for geometric modeling in support of the automated BIM modeling

Abstract

PurposeThis research aims to argue that manual geometric modeling is blocking the building information modeling (BIM) promotion to small-size companies. Therefore, it is necessary to study a manner of automated modeling to reduce the dependence of BIM implementation on manpower. This paper aims to make a study into such a system to propose both its theory and prototype.Design/methodology/approachThis research took a prototyping as the methodology, which consists of three steps: (1) proposing a theoretical framework supporting automated geometric modeling process; (2) developing a prototype system based on the framework; (3) conducting a testing for the prototype system on its performance.FindingsPrevious researches into automated geometric modeling only respectively focused on a specific procedure for a particular engineering domain. No general model was abstracted to support generic geometric modeling. This paper, taking higher level of abstraction, proposed such a model that can describe general geometric modeling process to serve generic automated geometric modeling systems.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focused on only geometric modeling, skipping non-geometric information of BIM. A complete BIM model consists of geometric and non-geometric data. Therefore, the method of combination of them is on the research agenda.Originality/valueThe model proposed by this paper provide a mechanism to translate engineering geometric objects into textual representations, being able to act as the kernel of generic automated geometric modeling systems, which are expected to boost BIM promotion in industry.