BIM Toolkit API for software developers

When setting out to work on the BIM Toolkit we wanted to make this a truly digital project. Where organisations with software development skills wanted to work with the data then we wanted to make this as easy as possible. As a result, the LOD, LOI and Uniclass 2015 classification library information have all been published digitally on the cloud and can be accessed using documented web API calls.

This blog post builds on some of the information that is already available in the article The BIM Toolkit for Software Developers in the support area of the website.

The sample applications below are deliberately as simple as possible. This is to help those with software development skills quickly understand the code so that they can then then develop more complex solutions.

The first sample I’d like to look at is one that can easily be worked with in a development environment that is already installed on most machines – the Visual Basic environment within Microsoft Excel.

The screenshots below show that the LOD, LOI and classification information can be worked with providing the user has a web connection.

Fig 1 – From a classification code and an LOD banding, the LOD guidance can be displayed

Fig 2 – From a classification code and an LOI banding, the LOI guidance can be displayed

Fig 3 – From a classification code and an LOI banding, the LOI property sets can be returned

Fig 4 – From a classification code, child or sibling classifications can be returned

Fig 5 – Stepping through the client code in Visual Basic (in this particular sample)

The support page written by NBS Labs Manager Alan Smith can be found in the support area of the BIM Toolkit website. Details on how to sign up for API access are provided on this page. There are also a number of samples (including the Microsoft Excel sample) on the NBS github page.

• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/for-software-developers
• https://github.com/theNBS/

Fig 6 – Support for software developers from NBS

Fig 7 – The NBS github page

Fig 8 – A .Net web sample showing how to work with a digital plan of work file exported from the Toolkit

Fig 9 – A .Net windows application from the recent AEC Hackathon importing a digital plan of work file

Fig 10 – A .Net web sample showing how to work with the Uniclass 2015 classification system

Fig 10 – A .Net web sample showing how to embed LOD and LOI guidance within a website

...and finally, a snapshot of each stage can also be exported to COBie and IFC format to comply with the UK level-2 BIM standards for information exchange.

The documentation for these standards are below. We recommend the BIM Academy xBIM SDK for working with both COBie and IFC pro grammatically.

• COBie (BS 1192-4:2014)
• IFC 2x3
• BIM Academy xBIM SDK

Fig 11 - Export to COBie or IFC