HBIM-GIS INTEGRATION WITH AN IFC-TO-SHAPEFILE APPROACH: THE PALAZZO TROTTI VIMERCATE PILOT CASE STUDY

Abstract

The proprietary software investments in the data integration field are incrementing, and the progresses are visible in the possibility to directly open in a GIS environment a 3D software data format. Still, this is limited to the integration between the proprietary data formats and standards, ArcGIS environment shapefile multipatch and Revit 3D model, by using a proprietary software (ArcGIS). This study takes advantage of the lesson-learnt results in the proprietary data integration field, wanting to replicate a similar result using the IFC open standard, which is not directly openable by a GIS interface and needs to overcome a conversion that in most of the cases leads to semantic and geometric losses. So, an IFC-to-shapefile data conversion was performed, stressing (i) the way information is stored in the attribute table to query the geometries and perform geoprocessing, by (ii) implementing workarounds to keep the Revit instances’ shared parameters in the IFC file, (iii) meanwhile having a high Level of Detail of the HBIM. The research performed the IFC-to-shapefile data conversion through FME (Feature Manipulation Engine), benefitting of the flexibility of the shapefile format and of the IFC’ possibility to keep a high LOD in the export phase. Both allowed to properly query and manage the elements of an HBIM in a GIS (ArcGIS environment), and, using relational attributes table, retrieve the information contained in each Revit instance’ property panel, as the shared parameters that implement the BIM Level of Information (LOI).