Web-Based Tool for Interoperability among Structural Analysis Applications

Over the last decade, building information modeling (BIM) has been the main player in the architectural, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. The BIM workflow is becoming more powerful by progressively integrating more applications of the AECO industry. It is worth noting that further elaborations are still to take place to address the in-practice interoperability issues in which import and export information among applications need to be automated. This paper provides a comprehensive interoperability assessment in the structural analysis domain, where the available information exchange methods have been evaluated based on Likert scale criteria. Three scores are considered to evaluate the accuracy of information exchange, including complete transfer, partial transfer, and no transfer. The transfer is considered complete when geometry, static loads, boundary conditions, and material properties are successfully transferred. These four parameters represent the practical need for information exchange in terms of structural analysis in which each application is capable of running its solver to obtain the analysis results. Five commercial structural analysis applications are considered in the assessment, representing the most common in the field: SAP2000, ETABS, ROBOT, STAAD Pro, and RFEM. Based on the assessment results, a web-based structural analysis model converter (SAMC) is developed to enable ISO-based interoperability among structural analysis applications, building on the industry foundation classes (IFC) data model. SAMC has been validated for two applications, namely, SAP2000 and STAAD Pro, while the concept is proven to link any structural application that is willing to join the BIM workflow.