BIM and Ontologies: Overview of Shared Representations

Ontologies have been great resources to share and exchange domain knowledge in the context of BIM. Ontologies define the logic and semantics needed for BIM applications by formally classifying entities in the domain, including the types, properties, relationships, and other significant attributes. One major benefit of using ontologies is that the information and knowledge defined with these ontologies can be shared across the various BIM applications without divulging proprietary information. However, major challenges exist with sharing and reuse of information due to the lack of consistency, redundancy, and potential errors. This chapter explores the development of ontologies, languages, and standards to highlight the applications and deployments of shared representations of building information models.