Institut pour la modélisation des données du bâtiment du Canada

OTTAWA (le 9 décembre 2010) – Les 11 août et 30 novembre 2010 à Ottawa, plusieurs organisations ont conjugué leurs efforts pour créer une nouvelle entité nommée l’Institut pour la modélisation des données du bâtiment du Canada (IBC). Cette nouvelle entité a pour mission de « diriger et faciliter l’utilisation coordonnée de la modélisation des données du bâtiment (BIM) dans la conception, la construction et la gestion du milieu bâti du Canada ».

Les organisations représentant les partenaires fondateurs relèvent de secteurs particuliers de l’industrie qui souhaitent vivement voir que la mise en œuvre du BIM se fera à un rythme et d’une manière qui permettront aux principaux intervenants de comprendre leurs rôles et leurs responsabilités et d’évaluer leur capacité de participer à ce processus.

Ces partenaires ont établi plusieurs priorités, entre autres, un programme de sensibilisation, un manuel de pratique, une bibliographie de ressources utiles et une évaluation/analyse exhaustive du contexte portant sur l’utilisation de BIM au Canada et à l’échelle internationale.

Les partenaires fondateurs sont l’Association des firmes d’ingénieurs-conseils (AFIC), l’Association canadienne de la construction (ACC), Devis de construction Canada (DCC), Construction de Défense Canada (CDC), le Conseil national de recherches du Canada (CNRC) et l’Institut royal d’architecture du Canada (IRAC).

POUR DE PLUS AMPLES RENSEIGNEMENTS VEUILLEZ COMMUNIQUER:
Pierre Boucher
Chef des opérations
Association canadienne de la construction
613-236-9455
pierre@cca-acc.com.

Institute for Building Information Modeling in Canada

OTTAWA, December 9, 2010 – On August 11^th and November 30, 2010 in Ottawa, a number of organizations joined forces to create a new entity called: The Institute for Building Information Modeling in Canada (IBC).  The mission of this new entity is “To lead and facilitate the coordinated use of BIM in the design, construction and management of the Canadian built environment “.

The founding partner organizations represent specific industry sectors that have a keen interest in seeing BIM implemented in a way and at a pace that enables the primary stakeholders to understand their roles and responsibilities and to assess their capacity to participate in this process.

These partners have identified a number of priorities that include an awareness program, a practice manual, a bibliography of useful resources, and a full environmental scan/assessment on the use of BIM in Canada and internationally.

Founding partners include the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC), the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), Construction Specifications Canada (CSC), Defence Construction Canada (DCC), the National Research Council (NRC), and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Pierre Boucher
Chief Operating Officer
Canadian Construction Association
613-236-9455
pierre@cca-acc.com

CSCand CSI Update OmniClass^TM Tables
Updated tables meet changing information needs of the industry

Contacts:
Nick Franjic, CAE        Christine Tanner
CSC                                CSI
(416) 777-2198             (800) 689-2900 x4784
nfranjic@csc-dcc.ca ctanner@csinet.org

September 14, 2010 – The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) today announced updates to several tables in the organizations’ construction classification system, OmniClass™.

OmniClass is a means of organizing and retrieving information specifically designed for the construction industry. OmniClass is useful for many BIM applications, from organizing reports and object libraries to providing a way to roll up or drill down through data to get the information that meets your needs. OmniClass draws from other extant systems in use to form the basis of its tables wherever possible, such as MasterFormat™ for work results and UniFormat™ for elements.

Developed in collaboration with other industry groups, the updated tables meet the need for greater data organization and normalization required for Building Information Modeling (BIM) interoperability. They represent the first revisions in an ongoing process of two-year development cycles.

“These OmniClass updates address issues related to harmonization, overlap, and industry advances in BIM, IT, and web-related applications,” said CSI Executive Director and CEO Walter Marlowe, P.E., CSI, CAE. “All disciplines involved in designing the built environment will benefit from the changes.”

CSC President Corinne Golding, RSW said, “The use of BIM continues to grow throughout the industry, and these updates to OmniClass will make it easier for the design community throughout North America to integrate BIM successfully.”

The updates announced today involve the following tables:

• Table 13 (Spaces by Function) saw the greatest collaboration of all the updates, with space classifications used by many organizations harmonized into one table. 
  
• Table 23 (Products) was significantly expanded to support the facility management needs of federal agencies and the classification and terminology needs of leading construction information providers, and now provides a cross-reference with the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC). 
  
• Table 32 (Services) now reflects the need for flexibility to support services provided in various project types facility lifecycle stages.

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• Table 36 (Information) was expanded to support the growing understanding of BIM data and to reflect the types of information required such as owner requirements, site data, and facilities data. 
  
• Table 49 (Properties), which deals with the classification of objects that have also been called “attributes”, “parameters”, or “performance criteria,” was normalized for use by software vendors.

In addition to the tables described above, two tables will be updated in October to reflect recent changes in other CSI/CSC publications on which they are based. Table 22 (Work Results) will be updated to incorporate changes to MasterFormat^TM as reflected in the new MasterFormat 2010 Update, and the new 2010 edition of CSI/CSC UniFormat^TM will be addressed in an updated Table 21 (Elements).

To obtain OmniClass tables, visit the OmniClass website, www.omniclass.org

Anyone wishing to participate in the next round of OmniClass development may contact Greg Ceton at gceton@csinet.org.

About CSI
CSI is a national association dedicated to creating standards and formats to improve construction documents and project delivery. The organization is unique in the industry in that its members are a cross-section of specifiers, architects, engineers, contractors and building materials suppliers. The organization has 148 chapters and more than 13,000 members. Monthly Chapter meetings allow members the opportunity to communicate openly with their counterparts and exchange information for successful project management. CSI is renowned in the industry for its rigorous certification programs for professionals seeking to improve their knowledge of accurate and concise construction documents. CSI provides continuing education, professional conferences and product shows. For more information, visit www.csinet.org, or call 800.689.2900

About CSC

CSC is a national multi-disciplinary, non-profit association with chapters across Canada. In the construction industry’s fast-paced environment, the need for and value of CSC is greater than ever bringing together individuals from all segments of the Canadian construction industry. CSC is committed to ongoing development and delivery of quality education programs, publications and services for the betterment of the construction community. For more information, visit www.csc-dcc.ca, or call (416) 777-2198.

 CSI and CSC Release 2010 Edition of UniFormat^TM

New edition of system for arranging construction information by functional element updated for new applications, saving design teams time and money

Contacts:
Nick Franjic, CAE                    Christine Tanner 
CSC                                           CSI
(416) 777-2198                         (800)689-2900 x4784    
nfranjic@csc-dcc.ca              ctanner@csinet.org  

September 14, 2010 – The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) today released a 2010 edition of UniFormat, a method of arranging construction information based on functional elements, or parts of a facility characterized by their functions, without regard to the materials and methods used to accomplish them.

 This new edition harmonizes UniFormat with CSI’s suite of standards and formats, including MasterFormat 2010 and the new PPDFormat. PPDFormat guides the development of preliminary project descriptions, and when used together with UniFormat represents a comprehensive approach to organizing construction information during the design stage.

 “With this new edition of UniFormat, estimators and design teams can stay on budget and save time from the point when construction documentation development begins,” said CSI Executive Director and CEO Walter Marlowe, P.E., CSI, CAE. “These updates are the result of hard work by a group of dedicated American and Canadian professionals, and we’re delighted with the result.”  

 “We’ve been working towards harmonization for five years, and the result will provide tremendous benefits for the construction industry,” said CSC President Corinne Golding, RSW. “In addition to saving time and money, UniFormat 2010 will play an important role in facilitating BIM by organizing data attached to a model during the preliminary design stages.”

 Changes in the 2010 edition of UniFormat include:

• Moving stairs from Category C Interiors to B Shell.
• Reorganizing Category D Services to reflect more of a systems approach with generic functional categories.
• Providing standardized numbers for Level 4 titles throughout UniFormat.
• Entries to classify “Related Activities” separate from physical elements in the A Substructure and G Sitework elements. These activities may still be included with functional elements as appropriate.
• Placing supplementary components for many functional elements into separate categories to avoid repeating them with each functional element. The “Supplementary Components” can also be included with each functional element in that category as appropriate.

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UniFormat breaks a facility into systems and assemblies that perform a predominating function, such as substructure, shell, interiors, and services, without defining the technical solutions to provide these functions. This allows the facility to be priced at the elemental level, allowing design alternatives to be better evaluated, and allows facility performance to be established at the system level as the project design is being refined.

About CSI
CSI is a national association dedicated to creating standards and formats to improve construction documents and project delivery. The organization is unique in the industry in that its members are a cross-section of specifiers, architects, engineers, contractors and building materials suppliers. The organization has 148 chapters and more than 13,000 members. Monthly Chapter meetings allow members the opportunity to communicate openly with their counterparts and exchange information for successful project management. CSI is renowned in the industry for its rigorous certification programs for professionals seeking to improve their knowledge of accurate and concise construction documents. CSI provides continuing education, professional conferences and product shows. For more information, visit www.csinet.org, or call 800.689.2900

About CSC

CSC is a national multi-disciplinary, non-profit association with chapters across Canada. In the construction industry’s fast-paced environment, the need for and value of CSC is greater than ever bringing together individuals from all segments of the  Candian construction industry. CSC is committed to ongoing development and delivery of quality education programs, publications and services for the betterment of the construction community. For more information, visit www.csc-dcc.ca, or call (416) 777-2198.