Open Collections

IfcXMLExplorer : a visualization tool for exploring and understanding ifcXML data

University of British Columbia

XML is a markup language popularly used for data exchange across different applications. Its flexibility and simplicity has made it easy to use. However, this flexibility makes it difficult for large XML files to be easily comprehensible. Most XML files have complex schemas and these schemas differ across domains. In this work, we have taken a specific type of XML files - ifcXML. IfcXML files are domain specific XML files generated from building information models (BIM). The organization of ifcXML files is hard to follow; elements in the ifcXML file are identified through unique identifiers, which are used to connect one element to another. This results in long chains of connections. Currently there is no effective method of extracting and understanding these connections. The only way a user can see how one element is connected to another is by following the path of connections through the ifcXML file. We address this gap by introducing ifcXMLExplorer. IfcXMLExplorer is a visualization tool that enables users to better understand the different systems in a BIM model along with the connections within elements of the system by extracting necessary information from the ifcXML file.

Text

2015-11-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/55452

Computer Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/