The first version of the National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) has been released for a two-month industry review period. The document titled “National Building Information Modeling Standard Version 1.0—Part 1: Overview, Principles, and Methodologies” provides the capital facilities industry with its first comprehensive look at the full scope of requirements for BIM. The review period closes on May 21.
Those interested in reviewing the document can obtain it from the National Institute of Building Sciences's National BIM Standard website: www.facilityinformationcouncil.org/bim/publications.php. This document is the first to be issued under the new NIBS buildingSMART Alliance initiative announced February 27.
The National BIM Standard will provide the diverse capital facilities industry with a vision of how to support and facilitate communications throughout the facility life cycle, from project inception through design and construction, even past demolition for improved operations, maintenance, facility management, and long-term sustainability.
The document was assembled by more than 30 subject matter experts from across the capital facilities industry. It provides both a snapshot of where this burgeoning capability exists today as well as identifies work that still needs to be accomplished.
This first part of Version 1.0, which is now out for review, will be followed by Part 2 at the end of the year. Part 2 will contain items to be standardized across the industry using the NIBS congres-sionally authorized consensus process.
The National BIM Standard has six goals:
Seek industry-wide agreement.Develop an open and shared standard.Facilitate discovery and requirements for sharing information throughout the facility life cycle.Develop and distribute knowledge that helps share information that is machine readable.Define a minimum BIM.Provide for information assurance for BIM throughout the facility life cycle.
As an initiative under the buildingSMARTAlliance, it is garnering support from the widest spectrum of associations, agencies, organizations, vendors, and individual practitioners ever assembled.
Created as part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to spur new building technologies and processes through research and education, the National Institute of Building Sciences is charged with helping to improve building construction and operation to benefit all Americans.
This article originally appeared in BD+C's sister publication Consulting-Specifying Engineer.
