SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A BUILDING INFORMATION MODEL

• US 20110218777A1
• Filed: 03/01/2011
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Li, Cheng Jun, Chen, Henry, Plocher, Tom
• Application Number:
  US13/038,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20110218777A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/00 Three dimensional [3D] modelling, e.g. data description of 3D objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/04 Architectural design, interior design
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/422 Technical drawings; Geographical maps

Abstract

In an embodiment, a computer implemented method and system obtains a floor plan in a vector image format. Template driven searching is performed by a computer system to extract basic building structures. In another embodiment, a CAD-based vector image is received into a computer processor. An object is recognized and extracted from the vector image. The object is exported into a building information model compliant to ISO/PAS 16739 (Industry Foundation Classes) or OmniClass™.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a floor plan into a computer processor;

extracting primitive line segments from the floor plan;

decomposing poly lines, curves, and polygons from the floor plan into primitive line segments;

searching for a basic structure in the floor plan using the primitive line segments;

searching for a wall in the floor plan using the primitive line segments;

associating a property to the basic structure and a property to the wall; and

creating a building information model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the primitive line segments include one or more of a point, a line, a curve, and text;

and wherein the building information model is compliant to one or more of ISO/PAS 16739 (Industry Foundation Classes) or OmniClass™

.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching for a basic structure comprises:

creating a template for the basic structure comprising the primitive line segments;

retrieving templates from a structure template library;

utilizing template driven searching to extract the basic structure from the floor plan; and

determining to keep or remove the primitive line segments that are part of the extracted basic structure.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the basic structure comprises one or more of stairs, a door, and an elevator.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the associating a property comprises:

distinguishing room and cubicle space types;

associating a name to the basic structure; and

associating a dimension to the basic structure.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising searching one or more of the name and the dimension via the template, wherein the template includes one or more of a wildcard string and a property including one or more of a color, a font, and a size.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising determining that one or more of the name or the dimension is associated with a particular structure and assigning the name or the dimension to the particular structure.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching for a wall comprises:

setting a boundary width value;

collecting the primitive line segments into a list;

generating a graph by filling a vertex list with end points of the primitive line segments;

merging multiple vertices into a group, wherein a position of the group is a center of a bounding box of the group; and

adding edges to the graph when two points of a particular line segment are mapped to two different vertices of the graph.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising using a wall thinning method on a building structure extracted from the floor plan.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the wall thinning method merges end vertices of parallel lines or curves across a boundary so as to simplify the boundary into a set of line segments and insure that no two lines along the boundary are at the same location.

11. The method of claim 9, comprising merging the building structure as part of a boundary.

12. The method of claim 9, comprising organizing the primitive line segments as a graph data structure, and verifying the building structure by refining wall lines by the primitive line segments, and refining wall lines according to structural design rules.

13. The method of claim 9, comprising associating one or more of a name or a dimension to the building structure extracted from the floor plan.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the building information model is created from the building structure extracted from the floor plan;

and exporting the building information model to a storage device.

15. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving a vector image into a computer processor;

recognizing and extracting, with the computer processor, an object from the vector image;

exporting the object into a building information model; and

storing the building information model in a computer storage medium.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the object originates from one or more building domains including mechanical electrical and plumbing (MEP), Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), security, fire, and lighting.

17. The method of claim 15, comprising:

describing a structure of the object and extracting similar objects from the vector image; and

grouping the similar objects into object classes, thereby creating the building information model, wherein the building information model is compliant to one or more of ISO/PAS 16739 (Industry Foundation Classes) or OmniClass™

.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the describing a structure comprises:

capturing a partial micro structure of the object; and

converting the partial micro structure into a macro structure.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the micro structure comprises one or more of points, lines, curves, text, color, line width, text size, and text font;

and wherein the macro structure comprises one or more of a wall, a staircase, and an elevator.

20. The method of claim 15, comprising providing an output template that comprises semantic information about the object;

and providing a template for basic structures;

wherein the vector image comprises a CAD-based vector image.