BIM-based model checking in the early design phases of precast concrete structures

Designers often carry out their work in the early design stages with disregard to prefabrication requirements, leading to poorly thought out design decisions in terms of precast concrete planning efficiency. If precast expertise could be integrated early into design schemes, this would improve design efficiency, reduce errors and misalignments, and save time at every design iteration. The objective is not to replace precast domain experts, but to help architects make better-informed design decisions. This research is part of a wider investigation that aims to develop a rule-based expert system to support an automated review of precast concrete requirements in BIM models in the early design stages, proactively providing feedback for design decision support. This specific paper summarizes the theoretical part of the research and proposes a way to formalize precast expert knowledge as rule-sets in a tabular form that can be later programmed and integrated in a BIM platform for automated checking of BIM models.