With the increasing adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in construction engineering management, traditional BIM exchange techniques have encountered significant challenges. Multidisciplinary teams often grapple with inefficiencies stemming from redundant data transmission, particularly when many BIM objects remain unchanged throughout projects. Furthermore, the traceability of changes between BIM files is often limited, hampering effective collaboration and integration of data.
The Industrial Foundation Classes (IFC) standard was developed to facilitate seamless BIM data exchange, yet it still suffers from redundancy, traceability issues, and security concerns. Although advancements in cloud computing and blockchain technologies have been explored as potential solutions, these methods also face limitations. Blockchain, for instance, cannot directly accommodate large IFC files, and existing systems usually lack semantic-level traceability, which is vital for effective BIM management.
To address these persistent issues, a team of researchers comprising Lingming Kong, Rui Zhao, Chimay J. Anumba, Weisheng Lu, and Fan Xue have introduced a new methodology titled the traceable semantic differential transaction (tSDT) approach for open BIM exchange. This innovative approach aims to reduce data redundancy while enabling a higher level of traceability for BIM changes at the semantic level.
Additionally, the research has led to the development of openBIMdisk, a Blockchain 3.0 virtual disk that implements the tSDT approach. This platform supports efficient, traceable, and secure BIM exchanges across various blockchain services. A pilot study involving a modular construction project validated the effectiveness of both tSDT and openBIMdisk. The findings revealed impressive results; tSDT minimized BIM redundancy when storing and restoring all changes, utilizing an average of just 0.007% of disk space. Moreover, openBIMdisk demonstrated efficient BIM version management and achieved object-level semantic traceability with an average response time of 5.3 milliseconds.
The implications of this research are significant, providing two main contributions: the tSDT approach introduces an efficient method for traceability of BIM changes, while openBIMdisk delivers a user-friendly Blockchain 3.0 application designed for seamless BIM exchange. This innovative solution promises to enhance collaboration and efficiency among multidisciplinary teams, ultimately elevating the standards of construction engineering management.
The findings of this study can be accessed in the paper titled “Open BIM exchange on Blockchain 3.0 virtual disk: A traceable semantic differential transaction approach,” published in Front. Eng. Manag.
