Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Implementation of a BIM Domain-specific Language for the Building Environment Rule and Analysis

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper describes an implementation process for a domain-specific computer programming language: the Building Environment Rule and Analysis (BERA) Language. As the growing area of Building Information Modeling (BIM), there has been a need to develop highly customized domain-specific languages for handling issues in building models in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry sector. The BERA Language, one of the domain-specific languages, deals with building information models in an intuitive way in order to ensure the quality of design and assess the design programming requirements using user-defined rules in the early design phases. To accomplish these goals, the BERA Language provides the capabilities for an effectiveness and ease of use without precise knowledge of general-purpose languages that are conventionally used in BIM software development. Furthermore, the design and implementation of the BERA Language focuses on building objects and their associated information-rich properties and relationships. This paper represents the implementation issues of the BERA Language associated with the building information models, their mapping into the building data structure, and their instantiation and execution. In addition, Portability of the language, extensibility and platform-dependent issues are involved in the BERA Language implementation. The implementation described in this paper is based on the use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as given building information models, Solibri Model Checker\({\circledR }\) (SMC) as an IFC engine, and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) as a compilation and execution environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Eastman, C.M.: From blue print to database. Economist, Economist Technology Quarterly June 7, 18–22 (2008)

  2. Sanguinetti, P., Abdelmohsen, S., Lee, J., Lee, J.-K., Sheward, H., Eastman, C.M.: General system architecture for BIM: An integrated approach for design and analysis. Adv. Eng. Inform. 26(2), 317–333 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lee, J.-K., Lee, J., Jeong, Y.-s., Sheward, H., Sanguinetti, P., Abdelmohsen, S., Eastman, C.M.: Development of space database for automated building design review systems. Autom. Constr. 24(2012), 203–212 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhang, S., Teizer, J., Lee, J.-K., Eastman, C.M., Venugopal, M.: Building information modeling (BIM) and safety: Automatic safety checking of construction models and schedules. Autom. Constr. 29, 183–195 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Scott, M.L.: Programming Language Pragmatics, 2nd edn. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (2005). ISBN 978-0126339512

  6. ECMA International.: ECMA International. http://www.ecma-international.org/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  7. ECMA International.: Standard ECMA-262 - ECMAScript Language Specification. http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-262.pdf (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  8. ISO 16262: ISO/IEC 16262:2002, Information technology - ECMAScript language specification. http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=33835 (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  9. W3C: World Wide Web Consortium: W3C, an international community where member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe. http://www.w3.org/ (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  10. W3C: W3C Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS1/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  11. Web2.0: Web 2.0 by Paul Graham: Does Web 2.0 mean anything? http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  12. W3C: Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language 2 (XHTML2) Working Group Home Page, also contains old standards for HTML4, XHTML1.0, etc. http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  13. XHTML: Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML) Reference. http://xhtml.com/en/xhtml/reference/ (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  14. W3C: Extensible Markup Language: XML. http://www.w3.org/XML/ (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  15. W3C: Scripting and AJAX. http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/script.html (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  16. JQuery: jQuery Project, a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. http://jquery.org/ (2010). Accessed Nov 2010

  17. Netscape Communications: The Netscape Archive. http://browser.netscape.com/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  18. W3C: W3C Document Object Model (DOM). http://www.w3.org/DOM/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  19. Lethbridge, T.C., Laganiere, R.: Object-oriented Software Engineering. McGraw-Hill (2005). ISBN 978-0073220345

  20. Gay, J.: The History of Flash, Macromedia Showcase, Jonathan Gay, 2001. http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/events/john_gay/page02.html (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  21. ActionScript: Adobe Inc., Action Script, a scripting language based on ECMA script for controlling Adobe Flash Media (FLA/SWF files). http://www.actionscript.org/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  22. W3C: W3C Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS1/ (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  23. The Open Group: Regular Expressions, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2, 1997. http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xbd/re.html (2010). Accessed Feb 2010

  24. Mashey, J.R.: New programming languages are born every day. Why do some succeed and some fail? ACM Queue Volume 2, Issue 9 (December/January 2004-2005) - Languages, Levels, Libraries, and Longevity (2004)

  25. Parr, T.: The Definitive ANTLR Reference: Building Domain-Specific Languages, Pragmatic Bookshelf (2008). ISBN: 978-0978739256

  26. Lee, J.-K., Eastman, C.M.: Building Environment Rule and Analysis (BERA) Language, Under Review (2014)

  27. Lee, J.-K., Eastman, C.M., Lee, Y.C.: Design Review Applications for the Spatial Program and Building Circulation using BERA Language, Under Review (2014)

  28. Scott, M.L.: Programming Language Pragmatics, 2nd edn. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (2005). ISBN 978-0126339512

  29. Parr, T.: Language Implementation Patterns: Create Your Own Domain-Specific and General Programming Languages, Pragmatic Bookshelf (2009). ISBN: 978-1934356456

  30. Parr, T.: ANTLR, Another tool for language recognition, http://www.antlr.org. Accessed Feb 2010

  31. Parr, T.: StringTemplate, www.stringtemplate.org. Accessed Feb 2010

  32. Parr, T.: Soapbox: Humans should not have to grok XML - Answers to the question When shouldn’t you use XML? IBM developerWorks, Terence Parr, (2001), http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-sbxml.html Accessed Feb 2010

  33. Dijkstra, E.W.: On the role of scientific thought. In: Dijkstra, E.W. (ed.) Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective, pp. 60–66. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York (1982). ISBN 0-387-90652-5

  34. MDA.: Model driven architecture (MDA), OMG Architecture Board ORMSC, OMG document number ormsc/2001-07-01 (2001)

  35. Kent, S.: Model Driven Engineering, Integrated Formal Methods. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 2335/2002, 286–298 (2002). doi:10.1007/3-540-47884-1_16

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Interior Architecture Design, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jin-Kook Lee

  2. Digital Building Laboratory, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Charles M. Eastman & Yong Cheol Lee

Authors
  1. Jin-Kook Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charles M. Eastman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yong Cheol Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin-Kook Lee.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lee, JK., Eastman, C.M. & Lee, Y.C. Implementation of a BIM Domain-specific Language for the Building Environment Rule and Analysis. J Intell Robot Syst 79, 507–522 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-014-0117-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-014-0117-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation