About Construction Classification Standards

This topic explains what construction classifications standards are and how to use them in the design process.

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) provide an extensive set of attributes to describe in detail the business objects for the app. OmniClass and UniFormat are classification systems used for costing and estimating projects.

This page discusses:

What is a Construction Classification Standard?

A construction classification standard is a type of identification criteria used throughout the construction process.

Standards are used to determine values of specifications. Typical examples of construction standards include IFC and OmniClass.

Why Use a Standard?

You use a standard because it ensures that all the objects you place and the manner in which you place them meet certain minimum requirements,.

Standards restrict users to attribute that are compatible with a project. When a user selects a standard during the design process, then only the attributes defined in the resource file associated with that standard are applied to the design.

IFC

IFC is an object-oriented file format used by the AEC industry — architecture, engineering and construction — to exchange and share information among a set of software.

Using IFC types lets you structure content and design a building or civil engineering infrastructure with 62 building and civil engineering dedicated types.

Note: The IFC4 Official Release Final specification is available on the buildingSMART International Ltd © web site (http://www.buildingsmart-tech.org/).

Creating objects with such construction types presents two main advantages:

  • Building and civil engineering types comply with the IFC standards used in the construction industry.
  • IFC standards include rules of compatibility (to verify the type consistency). As an example of a compatibility rule, you can insert a terrain in a site but you cannot insert a site in a terrain.

Convert IFC Data Interactively

The app supports import and export of IFC files for both geometry and BIM data.

With a valid license for Converter for IFC and the appropriate assigned role, you can import Industry Class Foundation (IFC) data interactively. For more information, see Converting IFC Data Interactively in Format Converter User's Guide.

OmniClass

The OmniClass Construction Classification System (known as OmniClass™ or OCCS) is a new classification system for the construction industry.

OmniClass is useful for many applications, from organizing library materials, product literature, and project information, to providing a classification structure for electronic databases. It incorporates other existing systems currently in use as the basis of many of its Tables – MasterFormat™ for work results, UniFormat™ for elements, and EPIC (Electronic Product Information Cooperation) for products. OmniClass is a strategy for classifying the entire built environment.

OmniClass consists of 15 tables, each of which represents a different facet of construction information. Each table can be used independently to classify a particular type of information, or entries in it can be combined with entries in other tables to classify more complex subjects.

Note: The OmniClass Official Release Final specification is available on the omniclass International Ltd © web site (http:// www.omniclass.org/).

UniFormat

UNIFORMAT II Elemental Classification for building specifications, cost estimating, and cost analysis proposed UNIFORMAT II Classification of bridge elements are both supported in the app.

This element classification standard identifies any building and civil element by a string made up of a letter plus a number. You can set two UniFormat classifications as extensions.