The Automation of BIM for Compliance Checking: a Visual Programming Approach

A study by FIATECH confirmed that human interpretation causes inconsistencies in applying building compliance & regulations (Solihin & Eastman, 2015). Producing, updating and quality assuring such processes is inconsistent and unreliable (Preidel & Borrmann, 2016). A barrier to interpretation of building regulations is that software is designed by developers that are separate to local authorities (Solihin & Eastman, 2015). The current literature suggests Singapore, Norway, USA & Australia have all implemented BIM automation systems for building regulations. This study reviews current automation systems and based on this proposes a system of creating a checking system is efficient in the control of professionals skilled with local authority and building regulation knowledge. Dynamo visual programming software is selected as the software to assist the automation due to the open source availability and widespread adoption in the BIM field. A methodology of Design Science is applied to diagnose the problem of manual checking through review of the current literature (Kehily & Underwood, 2015). An automation solution is proposed and evaluated in a design office. Architectural professionals provide feedback of the implemented solution and this feedback is applied iteratively to a second automation solution, where feedback is also obtained from users to further improve the solution. Results show a change in workflow and an improvement of traditional compliance checking. The study concludes by proposing a similar BIM automation approach could be applied in local government, within the Irish Planning and Building Control (BCAR) system.