Buildings are complicated organisms and, as their virtual representations, so are Building Information Models. The ALICE platform has a variety of tools to assist the user model management. Nonetheless, clean and well-structured CIM always can only make your life easier.

Guidelines

The CIM should be a representation of the scheduling scope. We must try to include only the elements we are going to need for the recipes.

ALICE works on top of BIM and information embedded in model elements but while simplifying it into a CIM model for ALICE, it is important to understand what parameters are transferred from model to ALICE.

Following are the properties that ALICE can read from model data: Element GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) Element name (and Element count once multiple Elements are Grouped together) Location coordinates Associated Level Surface area – Overall & Lateral Volume

User-Defined Fields (ALICE Parameters)

Any additional BIM Parameter that might be required for analysis can be created as User-Defined Fields (UDF) in ALICE. These parameters can be used to create parametric equations for material required, construction duration, etc. that ALICE uses to auto-populate values for multiple Element Groups.

GUID's are an essential component of collaborative BIM and ALICE retains the GUID's coming from BIM model and uses it to keep track of Elements and their parameters; both imported from the model as well as UDF's generated in ALICE. This also helps in tracking changes in elements during design revisions and change management.