Definition of the Path Object and its Properties for Evaluating Building Circulation Issues using BIM-Enabled Numeric Data

Abstract

This paper aims to define the path object and its associated properties using the building circulation path between space instances, and to suggest its practical applications regarding design review issues using a series of numeric data of building circulation (NDBC) from a given BIM model. Building circulation is one of the significant factors in architectural planning and design. In the early phase of spatial planning, it is critical to satisfy circulation-related design quality issues for people, and to ensure full compliance with National Building Code and standards. As BIM and its applications have been adopted in AEC industries, rich informative data of building objects and useful digital representations have been developed for such circulation review tasks. As an extended research to benefit designers and circulation-related application developers, this paper focuses on the BIM-enabled formal definition of the path object and properties, and the demonstration of several analysis-purposed applications using the NDBC. With the computation of rich spatial information in a BIM model, path objects can be instantiated dynamically, and a specific data model for such building circulation paths can be defined with series of numeric data sets. In this paper, the formal definition of the path object and its properties are explored, and one of the NDBC applications has been clarified and demonstrated for further circulation analysis-purposed tasks using a software tool developed by the author. Circulation analysis has been conducted by specific rule-checking software with static BIM models; however, standardized BIM model (IFC) does not directly include building circulation data. Hence the author believes there is a demand to store and reuse the path objects with associated information dynamically populated from the BIM models. Consequently, the definition of path objects with properties has led to the development of NDBC and its associated software tool as one of the applications for further circulation analysis. The three main objectives of this work can be summarized as follows; 1) Definition of the path object and its associated properties: In the part of path objects, the author deals with a path object that concludes a start and target space object. When the path object is generated from a BIM model, its properties are calculated automatically. The author describes and defines the types of those properties with the usability of design review issues. 2) Definition of NDBC with building model: On the basis of path and property definition, comprehensive numeric data of building circulation can be derived and computed from the entire building model. Derived value of path properties as raw data has a potential to expand its applicability such as the summation and average value of path objects , tracking related to other building components based on target path object, and so on. 3) Implementation of external database of NDBC and its demonstration of building circulation issues: NDBC can be implemented as an external database for reviewing path objects and properties, comparing NDBC between path objects, and other expanded applications based on review purposes. By using the NDBC application, this paper demonstrates some actual building circulation review cases.