1. BARBi
Bygg og Anlegg Referanse Bibliotek Building and Construction Reference Data Library IAI International Technical Summit #22 Helsinki – 22/23-April Lars Bjørkhaug Norwegian Building Research Institute

2. Who is BARBi ?
BARBi is a joint initiative for the Norwegian building industry with members from
Norwegian council for building standardisation, Norwegian building research institute, associations for Engineers, Architects, Owners and Contractors. Associations producers of materials, building products and product catalogues.
BARBi cooperate internationally with
STABU Nederland, Building Research Establishment BRE, International Construction Information Society (ICIS), International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) and EPISTLE

3. The BARBi project – timeline –
January 1998 – August Study of the ”state of the art” in product modelling in the building industry
September 1998 – January 1999 Test of EPISTLE snapshot E (POSC/CAESAR) ”the Wall test case”
February 1999 – May 1999 New evaluation based upon the results of the test case
May 1999 – October 1999 Establishing a subset of EPISTLE v.3.1 for the building industry.
November 1999 – October 2000 Participating in the development of ISO/PAS and Ifc 2x
October 2000 – February 2001 Establishing a test version of BARBi.
March 2001 – December 2001 Development of tools and establishing founding for further projects. Test of compatibility with EPISTLE snapshot E-, and LexiCon content.
March 2002 – > Full scale test of the library. Connecting briefing, calculation and specification applications with knowledge bases, building codes and product catalogues.

4. What is BARBi ? A conceptual... object oriented ...
language neutral ...
reference data library
The Norwegian version of a common Reference Data Library based upon the framework of ISO/PAS

5. What is BARBi ? Conceptual
..because BARBi describes objects from what they are, independent of use and time, and not from what they are named or classified as.
”Building product catalogue”
NS 3420 ”Building specifications”
NS 3451 ”Building parts”
building, outer wall, inner wall, door, outer door, inner door, sliding door, cladding, outer cladding, inner cladding, surface, inner surface, outer surface, inner surface, artefact, interior...

6. What is BARBi ? Object oriented
..because it puts the object (concept) in the centre and study its properties and relations to other objects.
inner door
door
building product
fire door
fire escape route
escape route
door leaf
door frame
door sill
doorway
opening in wall
horizontal light-opening for door
with of escape route
outer door
sliding door
rotating door
strongroom door
sliding door leaf
sliding door frame
can be
is a type of
is part of
consists_of
relates to
consists of

7. What is BARBi ? Language neutral
..because one object can have several names in the same language
beam
truss
balk
ligger
bjelke

8. What is BARBi ? Language neutral
.. because one name can refer to several objects
function
a pump in a functional description
pump
physical object
a mounted pump in a plant
activity/prosess
to pump something

9. What is BARBi ? Language neutral
.. because what a dictionary gives as a translation of a word in one language not necessarily refers to the same object in another language.
dør
door
door-set
door
dørblad

10. What is BARBi ? Reference Data Library
Linking standards, classification systems and their definitions.
Having globally unique ID’s for every concept in the library.
Providing multiple classification- and specialisation hierarchies for any concept
ISO/PAS
Eng, tool
Economy tools
Proj. library
Civil engineer
User
Contractor
Owner
Sub- contractor FM
El. engineer
Common Project Model
Eng. tool
Knowledge base
Price catalogue
Building texts
Product- catalogue
Specification tool
CAD tools
Architect

11. Key principles for population of BARBi
Every object shall be self-contained (consistent and computer sensible)
All properties are directly associated to the object (concept)
Properties shall have meaningful names
A supertype concept might represent any of it’s first level subtypes.
All concept shall be class level concepts
All concepts shall be public domain

12. What can BARBi do for the building industry?
Give precise and exact definitions of objects, properties and relationships.
I.e. What do we mean by ”width” and ”height” for a door?
depends on who is using the concept, and in which context it is used.
depends on when, in an object’s lifetime, the concept is used.
depends on which classification we refer to.

13. What can BARBi do for the building industry?
Give precise and exact definitions of objects, properties and relationships.
in BARBi you will find:
all known properties for objects with explicit names
several types of relationships between objects, properties, activities, units and references.
references to known standards and classification systems
a global unique ID and a set of language-dependent names and definitions, for every concept in the library

14. Ongoing full scale test project
Objects and object templates using ISO/PAS
Proffzone (LA Lund,
Computer Associates CA)
Briefing, specification tool for master builders
Cost, calculation, purchases and tender.
Norwegian building research
Institute (NBI)
Knowledge bases
Product certification
Environment data
Best solutions
Norwegian council for building
standardisation (NBR)
Standards, regulations
Norwegian building product
catalogue (Norsk Varedata AS)
Product, price and manufacturer information
ISO/PAS Reference Data Library
Knowledge bases
Example of types of information flow between applications and different sources of information. An RDL Object is a language neutral object with unique ID’s for all properties and relationships independent of use and time.
Briefing document / Specification
Laws / Regulations /
Standards
Briefing template(s)…
Xxx xxxx xxxx xxx
Calculation / purchasing / logistics
CAD & Object libraries
IFC/GDL template(s)…
Xxx xxxx xxxx xxx
CAD / Engineering
Product libraries
Product template(s)
Xxx xxxx xxxx xxx
Facility management / demolition
FM template(s)…
Xxx xxxx xxxx xxx
Templates is used to present an RDL Object in different ways for different users. Templates also provide mapping between RDL Objects, applications and external sources of information.

15. Ongoing full scale test project
The four layers of the reference library
ISO/PAS
Framework for object oriented data exchange. EXPRESS data model giving the framework for reference libraries.
Rules for population of Reference Data Libraries based upon ISO/PAS I.e EXPRESS rule schema
Reference Data Libraries
Language independent reference objects (RDL object) and relationships with unique ID’s.
BARBi
LexiCon …
BARBi
LexiCon …
Norwegian names and descriptions
Dutch names and descriptions
Names and descriptions in other languages
Template generators, APIs for storing / reading RDL objects
Templates (mapping)
Provide mapping between neutral objects and different ways to represent/present them
Ifc template
Ifc-RDL mapping
Product template
Product properties..
Search template
Advanced search, etc.
Ifc template
Ifc-RDL mapping
Product template
Product properties..
Search template
Advanced search, etc.
APIs for query / update data according to templates and external formats (nnXML, P21…)
External libraries
Knowd.lib
Product libraries
Project libraries
Sources of information based on RDL objects or existing structures mapped to RDL objects trough templates
Ifc template
Ifc-RDL mapping
Product template
Product properties..
Search template
Advanced search, etc.
Knowledge libraries, standards…
GDL, object lib, picedb..
Briefing, FM, program…

16. Products and outcome from the project
Open website for users and partners containing:
Documentation of all relevant information about the project.
Description of tools and products
Own pages for ongoing projects
Demo version of the BARBi browser
Issue log and user forum
The BARBi browser
Implementation of ISO/PAS v1
Implemented in Java Server Pages on top of EXPRESS Data Manager ™ database
Tested on data from LexiCon and EPISTLE with positive results.
Only ISO/PAS version 1 data available for the moment
Will soon be updated according to ISO/PAS version 2

17. Tools for library maintenance
BARBi library tool
Windows based application:
Full implementation of ISO/PAS
Easy to build relationships using drag & drop
Check routines for data integrity (EXPRESS rule schema)
Reads and writes Part 21 and 28
Stores data in an EXPRESS database
Excel and Access data acquisition tools
Tools to populate EXPRESS databases from MS Office applications.
Uses a standard VB API to the EXPRESS database.
Can convert EPISTLE and LexiCon data to ISO/PAS format.
Good for populating object types, bad for relationship
Similar to POSC/CAESAR spreadsheet and db.

18. Possible scenarios for the use of ISO/PAS 12006-3?
In connection with classification systems and paper standards
Automatic translation of classification systems
Providing navigation (query and update) in reference data through established hierarchies
Translation of ISO/PAS objects to classification codes and vice versa.
Mapping between classification systems in different countries

19. Possible scenarios for the use of ISO/PAS 12006-3?
For product and object catalogues
Offering complete conceptual object definitions for any building product independent of time and use
Automatic translation of product catalogues between different languages
Give standard input/output interfaces (views/templates) for queries in product catalogues

20. Possible scenarios for the use of ISO/PAS 12006-3?
In connection with knowledge databases and best practise systems
Offering neutral ways of structuring knowledge
Using conceptual objects to interface knowledge databases.

21. Possible scenarios for the use of ISO/PAS 12006-3?
In connection with IAI and IFC
ISO/PAS provides a solution for continuing standardisation beyond the international level (IAI)
Multi-lingual support for IFC concepts (object types and property sets)
Offer templates for creation of IFC property sets
Supplying language neutral IFC property sets from ISO/PAS compatible product and object catalogues.
Offer mapping between IFC and national classification systems

22. Example “Sawn timber” wood quality NS 3079 Timber Dimensions
Pressure impregnated
pine
Size 48x98
Sorting T0
Shape tolerances
Strength C24

23. Example “Sawn timber” Physical object Artefact Class of Class
NS Standard
Planks
Types of sawn timber
according to
production and
dimension
Sawn timber
Adjusted
sawn timber
Class_
classification
CoC
Material
Substance
Aggregate
Timber
commodities
NS 3079 Timber
Dimensions
(Incl. tol)
Sp_INfoC
Reference
humidity 20%
NS EN
Measuring methods
Width<100,
-1mm- +4 mm
NS 3080
Softwood quality
description
shape
Rectangular
crossection
48x98
CHC
characteristic_possession
Profile
POB
Typification_basis_
POB_cl_member
Info_basis_for_
class_member
cha_class_specialisation
Wood
.Spruce
..Pica
.Pine
Sawn timber commodities
POB_class_
specialisation
Comp_basis_
for_
member
Activity
Manufacturing method
....Adjusted
Visual sorted according (NS-INSTA 142)
Visual mechanical sorting
Strength class NS EN-338
(tidl. EN 519)
Char_basis_
for_POB_cl_
Treatment
.Untreated
.Pressure impregnated
Product_basis_
ACT
Visual sorted T0 according NS-INSTA 142
Product_basis_for_
Char basis_
for_POB_
cl_member
(Shape tolerances that
applies to the com.class)
Char basis_for_
(Quality)
T0 sorting
NS-INSTA 142
C18 Strength
NS EN-338
Cha_cl_basis_
for_act_cl_
Typification_
basis_
POB_cl_ T0
C18
cha_class_
NS 3079 shape tolerances
TPO
NS 3080 wood quality
Adjusted sawn timber
48x98 NS 3079,
untreated,
Spruce, T0,
C18 NS EN-338
Untreated
48x98
Adjusted
T0 (Wood)
NS-INSTA 142
C18(Wood)
NS EN-338
Spruce
POB
Crossection
Type of Wood
Sorting
class
Strength
Manufacturing
NS 3079
and NS EN
(Wood)
NS 3080
Quality
requirements
Treatment
Wood dim/ tolerances

24. …
Any questions? Q