“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
A BIM Execution Plan for the BIM 360 Common Data Environment (CDE) should include information on how files are named when using Design Review. It should be a straightforward process, but Design Review requires file names between one version and the next to stay the same (or as the Americans would say, “similar”). If the file name is changed the change visualization does not work. When mentioning this to the BIM Manager of a big player in the industry, they had to revise their BEP to accommodate this lack of functionality.
The upshot is that the model should maintain its name throughout the stages of design. There is no scope to change the Suitability Code or Revision using the model file name. To my mind this is limiting, as when someone downloads the model, there is no way to ascertain what the file is meant for by only looking at the file name.
I posted this on the forums, and some practical advice was given: use metadata instead. That is a simple process where attributes are created in BIM 360 and populated in the BIM 360 CDE manually. This does work, even when packages are published and consumed. Best of all, Change visualization is still functioning.
In the standards I have consulted it has often alluded that the file name may include the Suitability Code and the Major Revision if the CDE does not allow for metadata to accompany the file. So it all seems to be OK?
I would say no because when the file is downloaded, the metadata is not written to the file properties. In other words, I would not be able to say what suitability or Revision the file conforms to by looking at either the File Name or the properties of the file.
I would propose the following solution: When a file is downloaded off the BIM 360 CDE, it should create and write the metadata fields and their content to Windows or some other operating system so that one can quickly gain insight as to what the model represents.
If you think this is a good idea, please vote for it here:
