National BIM standard version 1, part 1 released

The National Institute of Building Sciences' (NIBS) Facility Information Council (FIC) announced the release of the “National BIM Standard Version 1, Part 1: Overview, Principles, and Methodologies” for public use.

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff March 1, 2008

The National Institute of Building Sciences’ (NIBS) Facility Information Council (FIC) announced the release of the “National BIM Standard Version 1, Part 1: Overview, Principles, and Methodologies” for public use. The document, which includes contributions by more than 30 subject-matter experts in the capital facilities industry, incorporates industry comments and now contains new and expanded information about the NBIMS production and use process.

The National BIM Standard establishes standard definitions for building information exchange through building information modeling.

“As the building process transitions to BIM, the use of true performance criteria for and design of higher performing buildings will become possible,” said David A. Harris, FAIA, president of NIBS. “This will allow our moving beyond the non-codified performance measures that have to a large extent depended on manufacturers’ claims and warrantees that address building performance in many different and typically non-standardized ways. In the future, through the use of BIM, we will greatly increase our ability to analyze the life-cycle value of many more design alternatives and options.” The National BIM Standard can be downloaded at www.facilityinformationcouncil.org .

The new version of the U.S. National CAD Standard also is available. Unveiled in January, NCS Ver. 4.0 is the first upgrade since 2005 and can be ordered at www.nationalcadstandard.org .