003 - Add Location Information to Objects Using Nearby Spaces

Dataflow	Add Location Using Nearby Space
Purpose	Organize objects and data per apartments.
Useful for	Site engineers, site managers, procurement teams, logistics planners, cost estimators.
Wrangling Type	“Enrich”. The Dataflow organizes virtual Wall surface objects by apartments.
Use Cases	Estimating, planning, scheduling, procuring, and tendering of interior works.
Output	Wall surface objects are organized by apartments for efficient use.

simplebim_dataflows_add_loc_info_using_nearby_spaces.png — Using space objects (representing apartments) to automatically organize objects and data in the model.

NOTE: This article continues where we left off with the two previous articles in the series. In these, we generated wall surface, which we will organize in this article. If you haven't already, please make sure to check them out: 001 - Generate Wall Surface Objects – for Painting and Plastering, and 002 - Generate Wall Surface Objects – for Waterproofing and Tiling.

Why It Matters

If you’ve worked with raw BIM models for planning, scheduling, or estimating interior works, you’ve likely run into a familiar issue: the data isn’t organized for your purpose.

There is a great need to organize building elements based on their location in the building. However, this information is not usually in the BIM models you get from the designers.

This is not an error. There are thousands of use cases for the data. Each has its own way of organizing the data, so we cannot expect the BIM data to be ready-made for every purpose.

To add to the pain, BIM models have tens of thousands of objects. Manually picking the objects is not feasible.

Without Simplebim: slow, error-prone, not scalable

In principle, requiring that the model authors set location information in the models is possible. However, this is mostly manual and distributed work. Every designer in the project needs to be separately instructed and their work checked. From every discipline. Managing this is a nightmare, if even possible. And what happens when the models are updated? You have to make sure that the location information is updated correctly. For every model. There are many ways to organize the model in locations. You would need to do this for all of them.

And there is another real limit, in terms of scalability: Manually organizing hundreds of thousands of objects, and trying to keep the information upto date while the design progresses, is simply humanly not possible.

In short, this way of working is too labor-intensive and error-prone to produce data in a scalable way.

The challenge: Models have hundreds of thousands of objects, and the location information usually needs to be added to the models from all the disciplines.

The Smart Way: with Simplebim Dataflows

In Simplebim, you can build your custom dataflow from a sequence of data processing steps. Or you can use ready-made dataflows wrapped in an easy-to-use configuration UI for your convenience.

Let’s now take your BIM data seriously, and see how you can get the job done with Simplebim: quickly, reliably, and automatically.

If you have Simplebim open, let’s explore dataflow and results along:

Select the dataflow & Configure the parameters
Run the dataflow
Check & Use the results

1. Select the Dataflow

In the Dataflow Palette, click Add Step, select the dataflow you need, and Add it: for today’s use case, we need “Add Location Using Nearby Space”.

2. Configure the Settings

The dataflow detects objects that are inside or nearby the given spaces. To do this, we need to define these two sets of objects.

simplebim_dataflows_add_loc_info_using_nearby_spaces_settings.png

Detect from Spaces

Defines the space objects that are used for organizing the objects. In our example use case, these are space objects representing apartment areas.

Look for Objects

Defines the objects that are organized based on their proximity to the spaces. In our example use case, these are wall surface objects.

Direction for Search

Defines what direction relative to the spaces where to look for the objects. Any direction? Only above or below? On the side? Which one you choose depends on your use case. Usually you can leave this to the default, and look for the objects from any direction within the given tolerance.

Tolerance for the Nearby Objects

Defines how far outside the spaces the objects can be. If an object is closer than tolerance to the space, then the object is assigned to that space. If the object is farther than the tolerance from a space, then it cannot be assigned to that space. The number here depends on your use case. For wall surface detection, 50 mm is good.

Space Property 1

Defines the name of the property, which values are combined with the Space Property 2 using the separator. The combined values are automatically set to the Connected Spaces property. Connected Space property is added to the objects, if it doesn't already exist in the model.

Space Property 2

Defines the name of the property, which values are combined with the Space Property 1 using the separator. The combined values are automatically set to the Connected Spaces property. Connected Space property is added to the objects, if it doesn't already exist in the model.

Separator

Defines the separator that is used when combining the Space Property 1 and Space Property 2.

For example:

Space Property 1 = 'A5'

Space Property 2 = '5 Room+Kitchen+Sauna'

Separator = '>',

Result = 'A5 > 5 Room+Kitchen+Sauna'.

Parent Group Name

Defines the parent group name for the automatically created groups. The tool will create a group for objects that were found nearby each given space.

In our example, there are two space objects representing apartments. There are wall surface objects nearby both of the apartments. The name of the parent group is Surfaces by Apartment. The generated groups get their name from the combination of the Space Property 1, Space Property 2 and the separator. So the created groups are these:

simplebim_dataflows_add_loc_info_using_nearby_spaces_groups.png

2. Run the Dataflow

When your setup is ready, just click Run Dataflow and let the software do what it is made for: delivering the results.

simplebim_dataflows_add_loc_info_using_nearby_spaces_run.png

3. Check & Use the Results

Now you are ready to check and use the results: in fact, your model now contains:

wall surface objects assigned to groups, representing apartments, for easy access
with combined identification data from the apartments

If you followed the previous articles where we generated the wall surfaces and enriched them with data, then you now have a rich and well organized set of data for production activities.

simplebim_dataflows_add_loc_info_using_nearby_spaces_results.png

How you can use the results:

Group and report the generated data:
- by the object type, for example waterproofing, tiling or painting
- by rooms (e.g. bathrooms, toilets, bedrooms...)
- by apartments
- by underlying wall construction (e.g. drywall vs. concrete)
Use the surface objects in 3D visualizations to show to your customers:
- for example the work status, or the subcontractors;
- based on location (per room or apartment).
Export the results to IFC and use the enriched data in any IFC-supporting application downstream.
Export the results to Excel or data tables and use the data in any data visualization solution like PowerBI.

That’s the Power of Simplebim®: Automated BIM Data Processing

This is one high-impact use case of how you can turn raw BIM models and data into usable and scalable information.

Is it valuable for your work? We look forward to your comments, thank you!

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