December 2010 COBie Challenge: LATISTA
Ecobuild America Conference and Trade Show - Washington, DC
By E. William East, PhD, PE - Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers
The Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) information exchange format is a non-proprietary platform for the exchange of facility life-cycle data needed by facility managers. This page provides links to information used to evaluate the product listed in the table below against the requirements of the Facility Management Handover Model View Definition (FM Handover MVD) (PDF 442 KB) and the COBie draft specification (DOC 37 KB). The information content of the FM Handover MVD and COBie is the same, the format of the two models are interoperable using a freely published bimServices.
The specific version of COBie exercised in this challenge was COBie 2.26. Version 2.26 made slight modifications to the organization of warranty data to resolve issues related to the practical usage of warranty information identified in the Dec 2009 COBie Challenge. COBie 2.26 is the same version of COBie tested during the March 2010 COBie Challenge.
In the March 2010 COBie Challenge, design software vendors created and exported files for a two-story, duplex apartment building. Construction and commissioning software systems imported and augmented this information. Finally, maintenance and asset management software consume this facility handover information. The sections below indicate the specific COBie produced and/or consumed by the designated software vendor.
General Product Information
COBie Producer Challenge
During the project, COBie information may be produced following design, construction, or commissioning. The following table identifies which of the information exchanges were the subjects of the COBie Producer Challenge for the subject product.
| Participant |
Project Phase |
Deliverable |
Contains |
| No |
Early Design |
Blocking and Stacking |
Floors and Spaces |
| No |
Design |
Construction Documents |
Final design deliverables with Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing objects |
| No |
Construction |
Construction Product Selection and Installation |
Construction deliverables with manufacturer information |
| YES |
Construction |
Construction Production QA/QC Documents |
Construction deliverables with QA/QC information |
| No |
Construction |
Facility Handover |
Beneficial occupancy deliverables with project specific commissioning plans |
To assess the quality of the COBie file produced by the subject free software, bimServices was used for compliance checking. To evaluate COBie export routines the number of deviations between the COBie requirement the vendor's file were identified and evaluated based on the total time to correct these deviations. "Simple" deviations are those such as the need to include authorship information for records within a COBie deliverable. The resolution of simple deviations is simple (estimated as 30 seconds each) since the information may be copy and pasted to solve the problem. "Complex" deviations require additional effort (estimated at 120 seconds) to resolve since a this type of deviation results from a COBie row not having specific referential information, such as type, space, zone, or system, needed to correctly identify the data row. For example, a component that does not identify the space in which the component is installed will result in a complex deviation.
Construction - Facility Handover Deliverable
COBie Consumer Challenge
During the project COBie information may be consumed during design, construction, commissioning. The following table identifies which of the information exchanges were the subjects of the COBie Consumer Challenge for the subject product.
| Participant |
Project Phase |
Deliverable |
Extent of Import |
| YES |
Design |
Construction Documents |
Final design deliverables with Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing objects |
| No |
Commissioning |
Construction Product Selection and Installation |
Construction deliverables with manufacturer information |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties, parts |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties, parts, documents |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties, parts, scheduled jobs |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties, parts, scheduled jobs, resources |
| No |
Operations |
Maintenance Management |
Equipment lists, warranties, parts, attributes |
| YES |
Operations |
Asset Management |
Spaces, space areas, space function |
| No |
Operations |
Asset Management |
Fixed assets |
During this COBie Challenge, the vendor consumed the coordinated design stage COBie file (XLS 145 KB) for the reference project to begin the capture of construction information.
To assess the quality of COBie file import the author conducted a webinar with the vendor in the weeks leading up to the COBie Challenge. During this meeting the vendor was required to provide a live demonstration of their use of the COBie data and answer a battery of questions to determine if the project data was correctly loaded. The results for the consumption of COBie data for the sample product, as identified in the tables above, are listed in the table below:
| Consumer Checklist Challenge |
Importing COBie for Use during Construction and Commissioning |
| Verify building name was correctly imported. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify that correct space names and numbers were imported. |
Pass |
| Verify that space area measurement values were imported. |
Pass |
| Verify that space function codes were imported or translated to local classification scheme. |
Pass |
| Verify that equipment is identified as part of the designated building service. |
Out of Scope1 |
|
Verify that the equipment is identified within a single room. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify that equipment is classified as fixed or movable. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify installed equipment is identified. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify that the equipment warranty information was loaded. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify replacement part information was loaded. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify that PM schedules were loaded. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify Safety plan information was loaded. |
Out of Scope1 |
| Verify that tools, materials, and training have been uploaded. |
Out of Scope1 |
Supplemental Note(s):
1 Out of scope for the business process demonstrated at the December 2010 NFM&T COBie Challenge. As a result, importation of this information was not checked. Please verify with the software company if their software is able to import this information associated with alternate business processes.
