- Author
- Lipman, R. R.
- Title
- Details of the Mapping Between the CIS/2 and IFC Product Data Models for Structural Steel.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Vol. 14, 1-50, January 2009
- Keywords
- mapping | databases | structural steels | structural systems | steel structures | design applicaitons | structural analysis | specifications | beams | columns
- Identifiers
- product data model; interoperability; CIMsteel Integration Standards (CIS/2); Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) product data models; conceptual relationship between CIS/2 and IFC (Khemlani, 2007); shape representation; CIS/2 to IFC translator options
- Abstract
- A mapping between the CIMsteel Integration Standards (CIS/2) and the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) product data models for structural steel has been developed. The development of the mapping takes a pragmatic approach through a manual inspection of both schemas to see which entities and attributes correspond to each other. In some cases there is a direct one-to-one mapping between CIS/2 and IFC entities and concepts, while in other cases there is a one-to-many or one-to-none mapping. The mapping has been implemented as a translator from CIS/2 to IFC files. Many examples are shown of partial CIS/2 files and the corresponding mapped IFC entities generated by the translator. The mapping examples and IFC test files generated by the translator have identified several deficiencies in the IFC schema for modeling structural steel and for general structural analysis models.