Configurable model exchanges for the precast/pre-stressed concrete industry using Semantic Exchange Modules (SEM)

Model View Definition (MVD) procedures are accepted by buildingSMARTTM as the de facto industry standard in AEC/FM for specifying information exchanges between software applications using Industry Foundation Class (IFC) schema. However, current model view development approaches are time consuming, lack semantic clarity, are expensive to test and validate, and result in static model views with limited reuse in industry. As a result, software companies are required to duplicate efforts in preparing export functions that contain the same exchange structures multiple times, for each view. To address these issues a new framework for composing model views based on object-oriented, testable and reusable modules of information called Semantic Exchange Modules (SEM) is under development. We define a set of guidelines for developing SEMs and a methodology for specifying model views based on SEMs. The approach is validated using the precast concrete domain model exchanges as the test case. Comparison of current methods to the new approach using SEMs highlights the impact of this research.