COBie

V i t a l i j Te t e r v o v

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AGENDA

What is COBie?
Standards
COBie & Revit
Database example
Model View Definition
Checking

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COBie
Name

C - Construction
O - Operations
B - Building
i - Information
e - Exchange

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COBie standard

National BIM Standard (NBIMs) – United States®

Version 3 section 4.2 – Construction Operations
Building information exchange (COBie) – Version 2.4

Link to standard:
https://www.nationalbimstandard.org/
[Last viewed: 2020.10.27]

Direct link:
https://www.nationalbimstandard.org/files/NBIMS-US_V3_4.2_COBie.pdf
[Last viewed: 2020.10.27]
COBie standard - UK

BS 1192-4:2014
Collaborative production of information. Fulfilling
employer’s information exchange requirements using
COBie. Code of practice

Link to code of practice:

https://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail?pid=000000000030294672
[Last viewed: 2020.10.27]
Underlying standard upon which COBie is based

ISO 16739-1:2018
Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for data sharing in
the construction and facility management industries –
Part 1: Data schema

Link to standard:
https://www.iso.org/standard/70303.html
[Last viewed: 2020.10.27]
IFC Schema
IFC Schema MVD Name Status Documentation
IFC2x3 TC1 Coordination View Official CV 2.0

IFC2x3 TC1 Space Boundary Addon View Official SB 1.1

IFC2x3 TC1 Basic FM Handover View Official FM

IFC2x3 TC1 Structural Analysis View Official SA

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Reference View Official RV 1.2 HTML

RV_1-2.mvdxml

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Design Transfer View Official* DTV 1.1

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Quantity Takeoff View Draft QV 0.1

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Energy Analysis View Draft EV

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Product Library View Draft LV 0.1

IFC4 ADD2 TC1 Construction Operations Building Draft COBie 2.4

Information Exchange
COBie file formats

Format Extension MIME Reference

SpeadsheetML .xml Application/xmlspreadsheet Microsoft Office 2003
COBieLite .xml Application/xml U.S. Department of Homeland Security
IFC-SPF .ifc application/step ISO 10303-21
IFC-XML .ifcxml application/xml ISO 10303-28
COBie file formats

All model view definition files are to be provided in ISO 10303 the STEP
Standard for Product Data Exchange format. ISO 10303 part 21 provides the
specific ASCII format for any IFC Model View Definition file.
COBie file formats
COBie file formats
COBie file formats

Format Extension MIME Reference

SpeadsheetML .xml Application/xmlspreadsheet Microsoft Office 2003
COBieLite .xml Application/xml U.S. Department of Homeland Security
IFC-SPF .ifc application/step ISO 10303-21
IFC-XML .ifcxml application/xml ISO 10303-28

SpreadsheetML is an XML format that presents COBie data in an easy to

understand and digest format for members of the COBie user community who
are not computer programmers.

COBieLite is a United States National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)

compliant-XML schema. The use of this format is expected for system-to-
system exchanges of COBie data in domains other than architectural and
engineering design. This is because the exchanges needed by non-
architectural and engineering design software need not carry the overhead
and file size associated with STEP (or ifcXML) data formats.
COBie file formats
IFC-SPF (ISO 10303-21) is a text format optimized to carry data with complex
relationships, supporting human readability yet more compact representation
(typically around 10% of size of equivalent XML).

IFC-HDF (ISO 10303-26) is a binary file format encapsulating data in a

compact, indexable encoding optimized for quick retrieval and minimal
memory usage. NOTE As this file type is not yet widely implemented, it is
not officially part of this model view, however implementations may prefer
such format for internal use.

IFC-XML (ISO 10303-28) is a hierarchical markup format with wide support

from software development tools and platforms, supporting greater human
readability at the expense of larger representation. NOTE As typical
buildings contain millions of elements with graphs of relationships resulting
in gigabytes of data, XML is not yet suitable for representing complete
buildings from a pragmatic standpoint of data size, transmission cost, and
loading time. However, using derived formats along with MVDXML to filter
data sets may enable more efficient exchanges to take place.

IFC-ZIP (ISO 21320-1) is a compressed file format encapsulating one of the

above formats to minimize data size. NOTE As this model view is primarily
intended for web-based exchange, zip compression may be selected by other
means according to the client and server; therefore, the IFC-ZIP format is
not officially part of this model view.
COBie
Concept

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COBie
Responsibility

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Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Owner.
• What assets are managed?
• What level of detail is required?
• How will the information be retrieved
later?

AIDP/COBie Guide
AIR?
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Consultant.
• Help the owner define space and
product requirements
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Architect.
• architectural schedules such as
spaces, doors, windows as well as the
plumbing and lighting fixtures
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Engineer.
• MEP and other schedules
• They would normally take the space
references from the architects
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Contractor
• Having an outline of assets provided
by the designers, contractor is
required to populate information in
relation to installation dates, warranty
information etc.
Parties who contribute to the delivery of COBie data

Suppliers
• Populate data associated with their
package delivery in a structured way
or input the data into the contractors
database.
COBie
COBie Coverage

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 COBie

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COBie
Deliverables

All deliverables shall comply with the Facility Management Handover Model View
Definition as described in the National BIM Standard – United States.

Unless otherwise specified COBie deliverables shall be provided in Industry

Foundation Class (IFC) file format (STEP‐Part 21) or COBie 2.4 spreadsheet
format.

Files referenced in the COBie.Documents worksheet shall be provided with the

COBie file submission in Portable Document Format (PDF), Tag Image File Format
(TIFF), or Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG).

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COBie
Basics

OneAndOnlyOne Facility

At least one row must be present in:

Facility, Floor, Space, Type, Component – otherwise COBie does not make sense.

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 Revit

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 Springboard

Ecodomus
Drofus
CoBuilder
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Checking

Autodesk Model Checker for Revit

QCReporter

BIMServer

Solibri

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Resources

BuildingSMART IFC 2x3 HTML documentation: http://www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ifc/IFC2x3/TC1/html/

Delivering COBie Using Autodesk Revit - E William East, Shawn O'Keeffe, Richard Kenna, Emma Hooper

Construction-Operations Building information exchange (COBie) Quality Control - E William East and Alfred C. Bogen

BIM Blog - https://bimblog.bondbryan.co.uk/

BS 1192-4:2014 Collaborative production of information Part 4: Fulfilling employer’s information exchange requirements using
COBie – Code of practice

National BIM Standard-United States® Version 3

ISO 16739:2013 Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for data sharing in the construction and facility management industries

Google: COBie Matrix

www.biminteroperabilitytools.com

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