IDS Support (Information Delivery Specification)

[Patricio Zapata]

What is IDS

IDS is the new standard format developed by buildingSmart, announced publicly on June 2024.
While the figures around the adoption of BIM increase year after year, the adoption’s speed is not in tune with the benefits that the methodology can bring into the AEC industry.
Although this article does not aim to go into the details of why this slow adoption, one of the reasons is that the Employer has a stake in the workflow, where existing sofware tools have not efficiently covered their needs.
IDS covers this gap allowing Employers to be efficiently included in the project development cycle.
IDS or Information Delivery Specifications, enables the formalization of the EIR (Exchange Information Requirements) in a format understandable by humans, interpretable by IT systems, and the consequent automation necessary to validate the information contained in the models thus defining clearly, without ambiguity, the requirements of information that models should contain.

Benefits

By establishing a clear scope of information to be included in the models (PIM), the following benefits are foreseen for the different parties:

• Employer, who can clearly define the information requirements necessary to inform the internal processes of the company

• Designer who can enter/validate the requested information without ambiguity

• Information Manager, using an automatic validation system, can evaluate the IFC* models delivered by the different parties, with the IDS files used to list the necessary data to be included at entity level.

*The standard allows the use of other formats but the maximum potential is obtained with the information structure of the IFC standard.

Workflow

The process should start with the employer defining the EIRs, which may include different requirements for each discipline at different stages(bSDD Search) is a good starting point for Employer to understand IFC’s data structure)
This definition must be translated into a specification that is developed using one of the buildingSmart-certified softwares for producing specifications or authoring tools (Software Implementation - buildingSMART Technical).

Since IDS is not only a computer-readable format, tools such as Plannerly ,-generally-, not only produce the IDS file but also create a document (usually PDF) containing written instructions regarding the filtering of elements and the data that they must include, even with the ability to establish specific values ​​or standardized nomenclatures.
Once the IDS file is generated, it can be sent to the specialist. Archicad 28 supports this file format, which can be loaded using the menu File/Interoperability/IDS/Import IDS File

If the IDS file is a valid file, it will create Archicad’s Properties & Classifications that will automatically merged on a Property Mapping configuration in the IFC translator.

By using these Properties and Classifications it is possible for designer to not only be clear about the Employer's requirements, but also simplify the process of exporting IFC files with a mapping consistent with what is required.

How to use it

Download the sample files using this link.

1. Open the PLN file included in the downloaded file package (IDS-EXAMPLE GS.pln).

• Go to Options/Properties and notice that these have been collapsed to make it easier to identify the properties that the IDS file will generate at the end of the list of existing properties.

2. Go to the File/Interoperability/IDS menu and select the Import IDS command. Select IDS-EXAMPLE GS.ids file already provided.

• Look at the dialog. At the top of the dialog (IDS File Details) you will find a description of the author, tool, and general notes on the purpose and phase for which the specification was created. Note in the Properties dialog that Psets_ will be created for walls, doors, windows, and slabs.

• On the Classifications tab you will find a proprietary classification system that will be added along with the existing Archicad V2.0 Classification that comes ,- out-of-the-box - , with Default International’s Archicad Template.

3. In Property Mapping, provide an easily recognizable name for the import, with the purpose of clearly differentiate it from existing mappings in the file, for example "IDS-EXAMPLE GS"

4. Once the file is imported, you must re-classify the model elements according to the following table, using the Find function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) using the AC classification as the criterion:

Archicad Classification - v 2.0	IDS Classification
Drywalls	Ss_25_20
Structural Walls	Ss_25_11
Doors	EF_25_30_20
Windows	EF_25_30_97

5. Once these elements have been classified, assign the created properties to the correct entity type using the Classification Manager:

6. In File / Interoperability / IFC / IFC Translators, select the default translator, duplicate it with a distinctive name, and press the “Set Preview” button.

• Click on the drop-down list in the Property Mapping section and select the one created in the IDS file import process.

• Click on the 3-dot button (Edit/Create Property Mapping Presets) to enter the dialog Property Mapping for IFC Export, where you can review the import settings:

Press the Map IFC Properties to Export... button and verify how each of the entities with property requirements have the properties imported and properly mapped.

Now your model is ready to be exported using the created translator in IFC format and check in an IDS compliance review application or follow with the next step.

7. Download the SMC file provideded in the package (IDS-EXAMPLE GS_QA.smc), and open it using SOLIBRI ANYWHERE (Download Solibri Anywhere), open the provided file, go to the CHECKING tab and check that the errors ,found with the Checking Process using SOLIBRI OFFICE (Rule SOL, are the same that appear on the plan view of the provided file.

8. As aditional step, you can use the IDS-EXAMPLE-INFO REQ.bcf file to import the issues generated out of the SMC files, to check the errors detected intentionally left-off in the provided PLN (IDS-EXAMPLE GS_01-MAPPED.pln) file using Archicad’s Issue Organizer Pallette.