Ontology- and freeware-based platform for rapid development of BIM applications with reasoning support

In the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) area, a prominent tendency is to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) data to perform analyses and calculations based on specified rules in regulations or standards so that BIM applications with reasoning support (BIM-R applications) are necessary. The current method is to develop BIM-R applications separately and represent the rules by coding or using proprietary formats, which has the problems of cost and efficiency. To solve these problems, a new method is proposed: to use a platform to rapidly develop BIM-R applications (BIM-R platform) based on ontology and freeware components. Thus, a BIM-R platform must be developed. This study establishes: 1) the functional requirements of the BIM-R platform, 2) the mechanism to transform BIM data into ontology data, and 3) the architecture of the BIM-R platform. This study also selects freeware components to develop the BIM-R platform. A BIM-R platform is implemented accordingly and applied to develop a prototype BIM-R application for the as-bid cost estimation of buildings for illustration. It is concluded that the proposed platform can help reduce the cost and improve the efficiency for the development of BIM-R applications and can be used by both researchers and developers.