A Web3D Enabled Information Integration Framework for Facility Management

Managing capital oil and gas and civil engineering facilities requires a large amount of heterogeneous information that is generated by different project stakeholders across the facility lifecycle phases and is stored in various databases and technical documents. The amount of information reaches its peak during the commissioning and handover phases when the project is handed over to the operator. The operational phase of facilities spans multiple decades and the way facilities are used and maintained have a huge impact on costs, environment, productivity, and health and safety. Thus, the client and the operator bear most of the additional costs associated with incomplete, incorrect or not immediately usable information. Web applications can provide quick and convenient access to information regardless of user location. However, the integration and delivery of engineering information, including 3D content, over the Web is still at its infancy and is affected by numerous technical (i.e. data and tools) and procedural (i.e. process and people) challenges. This paper addresses the technical issues and proposes a Web3D enabled information integration framework that delivers engineering information together with 3D content without any plug-ins. In the proposed framework, a class library defines the engineering data requirements and a semi-structured database provides means to integrate heterogeneous technical asset information. This framework also enables separating the 3D model content into fragments, storing them together with the digital assets and delivering to the client browser on demand. Such framework partially alleviates the current limitations of the JavaScript based 3D content delivery such as application speed and latency. Hence, the proposed framework is particularly valuable to petroleum and civil engineering companies working with large amounts of data

Ontology of a scene based on Java 3D architecture

The present article seeks to make an approach to the class hierarchy of a scene built with the architecture Java 3D, to develop an ontology of a scene as from the semantic essential components for the semantic structuring of the Web3D. Java was selected because the language recommended by the W3C Consortium for the Development of the Web3D oriented applications as from X3D standard is Xj3D which compositionof their Schemas is based the architecture of Java3D In first instance identifies the domain and scope of the ontology, defining classes and subclasses that comprise from Java3D architecture and the essential elements of a scene, as its point of origin, the field of rotation, translation The limitation of the scene and the definition of shaders, then define the slots that are declared in RDF as a framework for describing the properties of the classes established from identifying the domain and range of each class, then develops composition of the OWL ontology on SWOOP Finally, be perform instantiations of the ontology building for a Iconosphere object as from class expressions defined

Building information modelling project decision support framework

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an information technology [IT] enabled approach to managing design data in the AEC/FM (Architecture, Engineering and Construction/ Facilities Management) industry. BIM enables improved interdisciplinary collaboration across distributed teams, intelligent documentation and information retrieval, greater consistency in building data, better conflict detection and enhanced facilities management. Despite the apparent benefits the adoption of BIM in practice has been slow. Workshops with industry focus groups were conducted to identify the industry needs, concerns and expectations from participants who had implemented BIM or were BIM “ready”. Factors inhibiting BIM adoption include lack of training, low business incentives, perception of lack of rewards, technological concerns, industry fragmentation related to uneven ICT adoption practices, contractual matters and resistance to changing current work practice. Successful BIM usage depends on collective adoption of BIM across the different disciplines and support by the client. The relationship of current work practices to future BIM scenarios was identified as an important strategy as the participants believed that BIM cannot be efficiently used with traditional practices and methods. The key to successful implementation is to explore the extent to which current work practices must change. Currently there is a perception that all work practices and processes must adopt and change for effective usage of BIM. It is acknowledged that new roles and responsibilities are emerging and that different parties will lead BIM on different projects. A contingency based approach to the problem of implementation was taken which relies upon integration of BIM project champion, procurement strategy, team capability analysis, commercial software availability/applicability and phase decision making and event analysis. Organizations need to understand: (a) their own work processes and requirements; (b) the range of BIM applications available in the market and their capabilities (c) the potential benefits of different BIM applications and their roles in different phases of the project lifecycle, and (d) collective supply chain adoption capabilities. A framework is proposed to support organizations selection of BIM usage strategies that meet their project requirements. Case studies are being conducted to develop the framework. The results of the preliminary design management case study is presented for contractor led BIM specific to the design and construct procurement strategy

A WebGL application based on BIM IFC

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como partes dos requisitos para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática, ramo de Computação MóvelThe possibility of displaying high performance 3D accelerated graphics in the browser is seen as an obstacle to the conversion of applications to the web. The release of WebGL made Web3D gain new strength to overcome that obstacle. Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) tools are a type of applications that could benefit with this advance. In the AEC industry, there is a standard candidate for Building Information Modelling (BIM), called Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). This data model promotes interoperability between AEC tools, giving a common format to the applications. This work comes from the need of redesigning a legacy application that allows the user to design, display and calculate building structures. Focusing on the displaying of building structures, this work merges IFC and WebGL into an application, to replicate in a modern way the legacy application capabilities. This is done by developing a server module that processes the IFC data model and a client module that displays that model in a WebGL environment. The result is a prototype web application capable of displaying 3D IFC building models in the browser without plug-ins. A possibilidade de visualização de gráficos acelerados 3D de alto desempenho no navegador ainda é visto como um obstáculo na migração de aplicações para a web. O lançamento do WebGL fez o Web3D ganhar uma nova força para superar esse obstáculo. As ferramentas de Arquitetura, Engenharia e Construção (AEC) são um tipo de aplicações que podem beneficiar com este avanço. Na indústria AEC, há um candidato a padrão para Building Information Modelling (BIM), chamado de Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). Este modelo de dados promove a interoperabilidade entre as ferramentas de AEC, fornecendo um formato comum às aplicações. Este trabalho surge da necessidade de redesenhar uma aplicação legada que permite ao o utilizador projetar, visualizar e calcular estruturas de edifícios. Focando na visualização de estruturas de edifícios, este trabalho funde o IFC e o WebGL numa aplicação, para replicar de forma moderna as capacidades da aplicação legada. Isto é feito através do desenvolvimento de um módulo de servidor que processa o modelo de dados IFC e um módulo de cliente que mostra esse modelo num ambiente WebGL. O resultado é um protótipo duma aplicação web capaz de visualizar modelos 3D de edifícios em formato IFC no browser sem plug-ins

3DRepo4Unity: Dynamic Loading of Version Controlled 3D Assets into the Unity Game Engine

In recent years, Unity has become a popular platform for the development of a broad range of visualization and VR applications. This is due to its ease of use, cross-platform compatibility and accessibility to independent developers. Despite such applications being cross-platform, their assets are generally bundled with executables, or streamed at runtime in a highly optimised, proprietary format. In this paper, we present a novel system for dynamically populating a Unity environment at runtime using open Web3D standards. Our system generates dynamic resources at runtime from a remote 3D Repo repository. This enables us to build a viewer which can easily visualize X3D-based revisions from a version controlled database in the cloud without any compile-time knowledge of the assets. We motivate the work and introduce the high-level architecture of our solution. We describe our new dynamic transcoding library with an emphasis on scalability and 3D rendering. We then perform a comparative evaluation between 3drepo.io, a state of the art X3DOM based renderer, and the new 3DRepo4Unity library on web browser platforms. Finally, we present a number of different applications that demonstrate the practicality of our chosen approach. By building on previous Web3D functionality and standards, our hope is to stimulate further discussion around and research into web formats that would enable incremental loading on other platforms

An overview of virtual city modelling : emerging organisational issues

This paper presents a recent overview of the increasing use of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies for the simulation of urban environments. It builds on previous research conducted on the identification of three-dimensional (3D) city models and offers an analysis of the development, utilization and construction of VR city models. Issues pertaining to advantages, barriers and ownership are identified. The paper describes a case study of the development of a VR model for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK and outlines the role that academic institutions can play in both the creation and utilization of urban models. The study offers a new approach for the creation, management and update of urban models and reflects on issues which are emerging. Areas for future research are discussed