A Framework for Rule-Based Validation of IFC Space Boundaries for Building Energy Analysis

Abstract

In an industry foundation classes (IFC) building information model (BIM), proper space boundaries (SBs), especially 2nd-level SBs, are needed to properly construct building surface geometry for building energy analysis. This study aims to develop a framework to achieve a rule-based automatic validation of IFC 2nd-level SBs. Two types of errors, namely semantic and syntactic errors and geometric errors, which 2nd-level SBs in IFC instance files may often encounter, are first analyzed. Corresponding to the two types of errors, the framework consists of two modules: 1) the semantic and syntactic validation module, which checks whether the IFC model complies with semantic constraints on 2nd-level SB definition and the IFC schema; 2) the geometric validation module, which checks whether the 2nd-level SBs are geometrically correct. For the syntactic and semantic validation, validation rules are identified and supporting validation tools are investigated. Rules for the geometric validation are also identified and the rule interpretation and execution method are discussed.