8 | APRIL 2020
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
DOOR HARDWARE LEADING THE
WAY IN BIM FOR CONSTRUCTION
PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS
UK door hardware manufacturers are at the forefront
of supporting the integration of building products
in BIM into British and European markets.
The Guild of Architec-
tural Ironmongers (GAI) is
working with the National
Union of Hardware Indus-
tries (UNIQ), the French
trade association for door
hardware manufacturers,
to create BIM templates
for hardware products. The
new BIM templates are
being translated from the
GAI’s original templates re-
leased in 2017 and adapted
to make them suitable for
use in France.
The GAI is already
represented on a number
of European Committee
for Standardisation (CEN)
product standard commit-
tees and this is the first
foreign language project of
its type that the GAI has
embarked upon.
This work is part of
a wider project being
co-ordinated by ARGE, the
European Federation of
Associations of Locks and
Builders Hardware Man-
ufacturers, looking at the
implementation of prEN
ISO 23386. This standard
will cover digital processes
used in construction using
a common methodology to
describe, author and main-
tain properties in intercon-
nected data dictionaries.
European generic BIM tem-
plates and data dictionaries
for hardware industry are
being created to conform
with this new standard.
Frédéric Ducloyer, gen-
eral secretary of UNIQ,
said:
“This is a major issue
for our industry. We are
seeking to standardise the
definition of properties for
our BIM objects and data
templates, which will make
it much easier for our
members to set up their
own private BIM objects
for their products.
“Our goal is also to
set up some generic BIM
objects, with a selection
of properties, that will be
of use to architects at the
early stage of their projects.
It did not make sense for
us to do this on a national
level, as when it comes to
standardisation, it is always
better to look at this at a
European level.
“This is the main reason
why it was important for
us to lead that project
with GAI and to bring this
forward together as a next
step within ARGE and
CEN.”
UNIQ is in the process
of creating its first three
templates for door closers,
locks and central locking
for windows. The next
phase of work will be to
adapt the template along-
side ARGE for use in wider
Europe in line with prEN
ISO 23386. The templates
need to be easily adjusta-
ble in order to address the
areas that may differ from
country to country, for
example specific legislation
on equality, as well as local
product standards and cer-
tification requirements.
The GAI is also part of a
consortium of construction
organisations in the UK
led by the Construction
Products Association (CPA)
to develop PAS 14191:2020
Built Environment – man-
agement and operation of
interconnected construction
data dictionaries – specifi-
cation. This PAS will assist
with UK implementation
of prEN ISO 23386 and
form the basis of LEXiCON
and other UK construction
dictionaries.
It will cover the govern-
ance and management of
digital construction product
data information sets and
aims to provide the con-
struction industry with a
plain language ‘dictionary’
to standardise product data
for use in BIM.
Douglas Masterson,
technical manager of the
GAI, said:
“It is a huge step for-
ward for this sector to be
involved in the creation
of such standards that
impact wider construction,
not just ironmongery. The
Guild is embracing this
opportunity to be part of
an initiative to improve
product data, traceability
and ultimately building
safety.”
This project is the next
stage of a project initiated
by The Product Data Defi-
nition, published by the
UK government’s BIM Task
Group in 2016. It aimed to
create a method to enable
information to be request-
ed and exchanged by map-
ping to core properties.
As part of this, LEXiCON
was developed to utilise
tools, templates and Global
Unique IDs (GUIDs) that
could be used across dif-
ferent formats and software
platforms.
www.gai.org.uk