BDNS at Max Fordham

John Gunstone

Quick intro to myself…

MEP Engineer for 6 years at Max Fordham
- Project Engineer on multiple projects delivered on-site
Staggered by the inefficiencies in the design, construction and commissioning of Buildings
Started writing code to automate various calculations and design processes on Projects
That soon became my full-time job
Now run a small team develeping software products focused on Engineering Delivery

Digital Transformation

mindmap
  root((**Digital 
Transformation**))
    **New Services**
      Smart Buildings / Digital Twins
      Digital Commissioning
      Performance Monitoring
    **Automation**
      Efficiency
        More Profit
      Faster Outputs
        Improved Service
    **Real-time Monitoring**
      Easier to manage
    **Building a Growing Resource**
      More Automation
      Leverage AI
    **Standardisation**
      Data Insights
      Raising Minimum Standards
      Robust Design

Engineering Tools at Max Fordham (MF)

My Intro to BDNS

A project asked for it to be used in a BEP (BIM Execution Plan)
I was in the process of developing a product specification and cataloguing system (Digital Schedules)
I wanted to try and standardise how equipment were named across projects
I found the BDNS community to be active, supportive and willing to expand to satisfy new use cases
My first commit was merged in Nov 2022

BDNS at MF - Digital Schedules

Schedules - old

status-quo

Digital Schedules - new

brave-new-world

Revit Properties

AecSchedule App

Revit export data rich IFC

aectemplater - data flow

define templates / extend IFC classes

aecschedule - data flow

record project data against templates

Custom Templates / Classes

We have extended the IFC classes to satisfy all scheduling needs. Sometimes that means a new class, sometimes that means extending an IFC class with extra properties. Classes (/Templates) are given default BDNS abbreviations.

Minimum Data Fields

Types

{
    "project_number": 5003, 
    "abbreviation": "DB", 
    "type_reference": 16
}

BDNS = 5003-DB16
BDNS = 5003-DB (no inc. type)

Instances

{
    "project_number": 5003, 
    "abbreviation": "DB", 
    "type_reference": 16,
    "instance_reference": 1
}

BDNS = 5003-DB16-1
BDNS = 5003-DB-1 (no inc. type)

Centralised Product Data

dashboards

Pain Points - Assemblies / IfcUnitaryEquipment

Pain Points - Types and Instances

Instances:

main mech equipment (e.g. AHU, FAN etc. )
main elec equipment (e.g. DB, PB etc.)
…

Types:

small power accessories (e.g. SSO, DSSO)
…

Not always clear which to use when.

Pain Points - Customising references on Drawings

Ongoing Work - bdns-plus

bdns-plus

Desired Outcomes

better definitions of the parameter names that build the reference
description of which of those names should exist in the Revit model
- e.g. “name”, “id” ?