HARDWARE & SECURITY
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
Architectural Ironmongers (GAI)
is working with the National Union
of Hardware Industries (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 released 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 committees 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 Manufacturers,
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 maintain properties in
interconnected data dictionaries.
European generic BIM templates
and data dictionaries for hardware
industry are being created to
conform with this new standard.
Frédéric Ducloyer, general
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
50
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
alongside ARGE for use in wider
Europe in line with prEN ISO 23386.
The templates need to be easily
adjustable 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
certification 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 – management
and operation of interconnected
construction data dictionaries
– specification. 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 governance and
management of digital construction
product data information sets and
aims to provide the construction
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 forward 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 Definition, published by
the UK government’s BIM Task
Group in 2016. It aimed to create
a method to enable information
to be requested and exchanged by
mapping to core properties. As part
of this, LEXiCON was developed to
utilise tools, templates and Global
Unique IDs (GUIDs) that could be
used across different formats and
software platforms.
www.gai.org.uk
MAR/APR 2020
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