BRZ Germany is supporting the building trade and construction industry by offering management consulting, an integrative construction software as well as outsourcing services and trainings to efficiently organize operating processes. Our award winning software BIM4You addresses the problems of exceeding budgets and deadlines as well as deficiencies in quality, that affect almost all construction projects, be it a small residential or large commercial projects.

Customers of BIM4You have the possibility to customize the database of construction objects (BOBs) to their individual requirements and naming conventions. Some construction projects require to work with third party CAD models following the IFC standard (Industry Foundation Classes). Thanks to IFC objects within the CAD model can be identified as such, eg. a wall or stairs. 

Unfortunately, not all required attributes are part of the standard. A wall can be built from different materials and in different ways. Therefore, important information is often specified in the naming tag of objects. For example, “Betonwand” (“concrete wall”), “Ortbetondecke” (“concrete ceiling”), “Außenwand” (“exterior wall”). 

Using this naming text it is possible for a specialist to match objects of the third party CAD model to the internal database of construction objects (BOBs) of the company. Those BOBs are customer specific in name, naming convention and attributes. Because this is a fully manual process today, the complete matching of complex CAD models can require up to multiple days.

The goal of this challenge is to automate the matching process as far as possible. Smart recognition of naming conventions, object attributes and language interpretation should allow a success rate of at least 80% for matching CAD objects to BOBs. We would expect a final manual review to be required, but with minimal correction effort.

Initially, using the export/import functionality would be acceptable. We expect you to fully focus on the quality performance of your matching algorithm. A full integration into BIM4You shall be conceptually proposed.

Sufficient data of CAD models and BOB definitions are available. Those can be used as examples of what to expect and as test cases. 

‍

• In-depth knowledge data matching/linkage algorithms 
• Advanced understanding of implementing, testing and optimizing advanced algorithms
• Expertise in database technology
• Experience with BIM and/or construction industry is a plus

‍

• Reduction of manual effort and time by a minimum of 50%
• Success matching of >80% of CAD model objects to company specific BOBs
• Manual review of matching results (including a confidence indicator of every single match)
• Easy usage without impact for the existing user experience of BIM4You
• Concept to allow a full integration of your solution into BIM4You

‍

The project can be divided into three milestones:

1. The first milestone is reached when all required CAD model and BOB information can be extracted and processed.  

2. In the second milestone a matching algorithm has to be developed, which matches both information on test data with high accuracy.

3. Third, optimizing the matching algorithm to reduce manual effort by 50%. A way for manual review of the matches and a concept for full integration of the solution into BIM4You at a later point in time.  

‍