Multi-lod model for describing uncertainty and checking requirements in different design stages

The design of a building is a collaborative process between multiple disciplines. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM), a model evolves throughout multiple refinement stages to satisfy various design and engineering requirements. Such refinement of geometric and semantic information is described as Levels of Development (LOD). So far, there is no method to explicitly define an LOD’s requirements nor any specification of its uncertainty. Furthermore, despite the insufficient information available in early design stages, a BIM model appears precise and certain. This can lead to false assumptions and model evaluations, for example, in the case of energy efficiency calculations or structural analysis. Hence, this paper presents a multi-LOD meta-model to explicitly describe an LOD’s requirements taking into consideration the information uncertainty. This makes it possible to check the consistency of the geometric, semantic, and topologic coherence across the different LODs. The model is implemented as a webserver and user-interface providing a means for managing and checking exchange requirements between disciplines.