Integration of BIM and GIS Data of a Heritage Building Using FME

Abstract

BIM and GIS technologies are used in both planning and investment and construction processes. GIS is more often used in the former, where one operates on a macro scale and information about the environment is essential for decision-making. BIM, on the other hand, is increasingly implemented in investment and construction processes (micro scale). The BIM model as a resource of knowledge and information about the construction object is the basis for decision-making, while data from GIS systems are necessary to obtain reliable information about the environment and the prevailing spatial, social or economic conditions. The basic information from GIS systems are attributes related to geographic location (coordinate system, angle to true north, elevation ordinate). Unfortunately, both technologies use different programming paradigms. GIS is mainly a relational database based on multidimensional tables, while BIM uses so-called encapsulation, polyform, hierarchy or instantiation, which enrich semantically stored data. There are many benefits to integrating geospatial data with building object information. The problem of compatibility and interoperability of the two technologies is the subject of many considerations of basic science and the problem of practitioners during application work. Georeferencing of BIM models is conferred in several ways, however, most of them require relatively expensive commercial tools or extensive digital skills or even programming. Rarely, however, are tools such as FME used for data conversion, management and visualization. Thus, the purpose of the present work was to attempt to properly georeference a BIM model of a historic building, located at Constitution Square in Warsaw, in a GIS environment, and then convert the data to shapefile output format using FME software. The results of the experimental work indicate that the BIM data can be embedded quite accurately in the space of a given coordinate system and displayed against various contextual data, but the 3D geometry itself loses its detail and quality. The paper discusses the limitations of the procedure and future research directions.