• Building codes are in use throughout the world to control the
  quality of building and engineering provision. Although the codes differ from
  place to place, the information that is required to enable the checking of
  compliance against particular types of code will be consistent.


• Providing information for code checking purposes will enable
  the development of automated procedures.


• Responsible agencies in different places will then be able to
  develop (or cause to be developed) applications that can interpret the data
  against local codes.


• Automated code compliance checking offers significant economic
  benefits since it provides for the rapid analysis of a submission. It can also
  be used to highlight aspects of a submission that require human interpretation
  due to the 'fuzzy' nature of certain compliance requirements (e.g. where
  exceptions can be made to allow for particular design considerations or
  abnormal circumstances).


• This provides also for more effective use of the skilled human
  resource.

New domain schemata will be added as appropriate to support alarms, controls, drainage etc. as determined from requirements identified by the supporting project.

• To extend the provision of support within the IFC Model for the
  automated checking of data submitted for compliance with building codes and
  regulations with particular focus on requirements for:
  
  
  
  • Fire and personal safety
  
  
  • Handicap accessibility
  
  
  • Electrical, public health and HVAC installations
  
  
  • Transportation access and parking
  
  

The project is concerned only with the provision
within the model of classes, rules and functions that support the checking of
requirements against local codes.

Since codes differ between different locations, it is
assumed that the actual checking will be carried out by external applications
that use data conforming to structures determined by the extension models.