User manual

Introduction

This IDS4ALL converter, developed by Simon Fischer, Harald Urban, Konstantin Höbart and Christian Schranz from the Digital Building Process research group at the TU Wien (https://www.tuwien.at/cee/ibb/zdb), transfers information requirements from an Excel file into an IDS file. In practice, information requirements are often defined in tabular form in Excel. This tool is designed to help you easily transfer them to IDS while taking advantage of the full functionality of IDS. The aim is to use an Excel file structure that is similar to the existing structures for information requirements in order to facilitate the adaptation to IDS.

The converter converts information requirements defined according to the ‘IDS4ALL template’ into an IDS file.

The template contains five work sheets:

• IDS4ALL: Defines general information (metadata) about the IDS. This sheet is mandatory and its structure is predefined and must be adhered to.
• Template: Contains all possible columns without any specifications as template to start with.
• Example specifications: Contains examples for all functionalities of the IDS4ALL converter described in the user manual. Can also be used as template sheet.
• User manual: Explanation of the IDS4ALL converter in English
• Benutzerhandbuch: Explanation of the IDS4ALL converter in German

In the following, the structure of the ‘Example specifications’ sheet is described in detail.

Structure of the ‘Example specifications’ sheet

The ‘Example specifications’ sheet introduces individual columns for possible entries in an IDS facet. In a classic or traditional information requirement table there is a column for the IFC entity, defining the applicability, and columns for the property set, property name, property data type and property value to define the requirements. In the same way, columns are introduced for the other IDS facets for both the Applicability and the Requirements. The names of the columns are predefined and must be adhered to. Columns for IDS Applicability start with ‘A.’. Columns for the IDS Requirements start with ‘R.’ Additional general columns (Phase, Role, Usecase, SpecificationCardinality) do not have a prefix. The order of the columns in the Excel table is not predefined. Likewise, not all columns must be present. Columns of IDS facets that are not required can be removed or omitted, which helps to keep the Excel file simple. This makes the IDS4ALL converter applicable to both simple classical information requirements and more elaborate ones using the full potential of IDS. However, if a facet is used, it must be ensured that all required columns of the facet are also used. For example, the ‘PropertySet’ and ‘Property’ entries are required for the Property Facet. If the Property Facet is used, at least these two columns must be filled in.

The definition of specifications works row wise. Different rows with the same Applicability are merged into one specification. If the different rows concern different requirements, they are merged with an ‘And’ logic into one specification. However, different rows often also concern the same requirements, for example, lists of possible property values are often listen in separate rows. Therefore, for the columns R.AttributeValue and R.PropertyValue different rows can also be used to list different possible values. If all other entries in the rows are equal, the values in the different rows are merged into one list of possible values with an ‘Or’ logic (see ‘Example specifications’, rows 12-21 and 22-31). The second way to define lists of ‘Or’ values is to use the | delimiter (see description of special characters/symbols). The order of the rows is not predefined. Also, empty rows are permitted. These are ignored by the converter (see ‘Example specifications’, rows 55 and 61). In general, the row structure is not hierarchical. Each row must be able to stand on its on. This means each row must contain all information and nothing from previous rows is inherited. However, structuring the data by header rows for a new entity or a new property set as in the ‘Example specifications’ is possible. A header row in the Applicability (see ‘Example specifications’, row 5) creates an additional general specification, in which all information of the more specific specifications is merged. It does not replace the more specific specifications, it is an additional one. A header row in the Requirements (see ‘Example specifications’, row 6) does not create a new specification. Instead, it is merged with the more detailed specifications below. However, if you separate your data into different IDS files by using the general columns, make sure that the general columns are also filled in for these header rows (should match one of the general data of the more specific specifications below, which one is irrelevant). Otherwise, the rows are not merged and incomplete facets are generated.

Below is a list of the predefined column names divided into Applicability, Requirements and general information, including an explanation:

Special characters / symbols

Special characters/symbols are required to define more than just simple values in individual cells. The special characters always indicate a complex restriction or special processing of the values in the cell. Therefore, they are not allowed as normal text. The special characters are not permitted in each column. The list above shows which special characters are permitted in which column.

Limitations

The decimal separator of a numerical value must be a point or a comma.

The name of a specification cannot be defined by the user. It is generated automatically from the IFC entity.

Defining custom values for the purpose and milestone of the IDS is not possible. These values are automatically generated from the general columns. The phases are saved as milestones and the combination of roles and use cases as purpose.