A functional element-naming approach for BIM elements in building envelope systems

Building information modeling (BIM) is becoming a comprehensive, collaborative process in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. BIM's purpose is collaboration between project participants while integrating information and completing successful projects. Persistent and recognizable names are used as direct element identifiers in BIM. Currently, element names are manually keyed in by participants. Common data environments (CDE) are recommended by BIM standards for managing information. We discuss the collaborative environment framework in construction. Participants retrieve data using element names in data environments. To reduce manually naming BIM elements, we propose an approach that ensures a unique, recognizable name. The approach strategy is summarized in four points: (1) geometric forms are separated from geometric properties, (2) list data structures are utilized to store naming conventions, creating element names to link databases, (3) project data are distributed to participants in centralized and distributed data environments, and (4) the Grasshopper program is used to create unique element names, which are stored in a database. We present a case study of a physical curtain wall project for verification. A discussion and analysis of the five procedures, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, of our approach in diverse collaboration environments are explored.