Integration of multiple product models: IFC model servers as a potential solution

The development of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) started from the vision of an integrated building product model which would cover all necessary information for buildings’ whole lifecycle: requirements management, different design activities and construction and maintenance processes. Although the IFC model specification covers a substantial part of the required information its implementations into practical applications have shown several serious problems. One of the main problems is that the internal structures of the different software products do not support the information needs for the whole process. Thus, the idea of lossless, incremental data flow through the different applications used by the project participants has not come true. It is obvious that file based data exchange is not feasible solution, and some other solution for integrated project data model is necessary for the AEC industry. This paper discusses some viewpoints and potential solutions to the above problem.