Latest BIM standards for engineering and construction
Last month we published an article about the latest BIM standards. We appreciate this may be a complex topic, so we thought we’d help by covering some more ground. In this article, we’ll expand on some of the previous topics and explore new key differences in the latest BIM standards.
Why was PAS 1192 needed in the first place?
As we mentioned in our previous post, PAS 1192–2 — probably the most referenced BIM standard — was superseded by ISO 19650. But let’s dig a bit deeper in this transition. In truth, the first document that introduced the concept of collaborative production within the engineering and construction industry in the UK — and the world — was BS 1192. It was first published under the name BS 1192–5:1990. After a couple of revisions and amendments, it became BS 1192:2007 + A2:2016 — commonly known as simply ‘BS 1192.’ The title of this standard was ‘Collaborative production of architectural, engineering and construction information — Code of practice.’
The latest major revision of BS 1192 was in 2007. Later in 2011, the UK Government Construction Strategy announced the requirement for a fully collaborative 3D BIM environment by 2016 on public projects. This new requirement created a need for a new set of BIM standards to guide architects, engineers and contractors.
This is why PAS 1192–2 was born in 2013. It was the next developmental stage from BS 1192, to meet the quickly changing needs of the industry. PAS stands for ‘Publicly Available Specification.’ This type of specification is generally regarded as a provisional standard. PAS standards are reviewed every two years to decide whether a formal BS standard is required or not. Due to the many changes that the UK engineering and construction industry was undertaking, PAS 1192–2 was in use for seven years.
Why did PAS 1192 develop into an international standard?
It wasn’t until 2019 that PAS 1192–2 and BS 1192 were superseded by BS EN ISO 19650–1 and 19650–2. And there’s an interesting history behind this transition. The fact is that the UK was a pioneer when it comes to BIM development and implementation. Many countries around the world saw the benefits of BIM. More specifically, asset owners and clients in Australia and the Middle East started using the UK’s 1192 series of standards (PAS 1192–2 and BS 1192). What’s even more fascinating, they demanded the application of those standards on their projects outside the UK. The international community didn’t think it was fair to know UK standards — they were not in the UK, after all.
As a result, the international community approached the International Organisation for Standardization — ISO. They asked the organisation to produce an international set of standards for BIM. And this wasn’t an easy process. It took four years to get a consensus to approve the final documents. The European Committee for Standardization — CEN — also confirmed the adoption of ISO 19650 as European standards. Thus, BS EN ISO 19650–1 and 19650–2 were born.
When Paul Shillcock, co-author of PAS 1192–2 and ISO 19650–2 was asked to explain the difference between these two standards, his answer was: ‘Not a lot!’ So, if you are familiar with PAS 1192, you will also familiar with ISO 19650–2. In a previous article, we highlighted the main differences, which mostly involve new terminology.
Summary of the core latest BIM standards
Let’s re-cap the changes up until that moment. Basically, these two standards:
PAS 1192–2:2013 Specification for information management for the capital/delivery phase of construction projects using building information modelling.
BS 1192:2007 Collaborative production of architectural, engineering and construction information — code of practice (+A2:2016).
Were superseded by these two standards (which are the latest BIM standards at the time of writing this post):
BS EN ISO 19650–1:2018 Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM). Information management using building information modelling. Concepts and principles.
BS EN ISO 19650–2:2018 Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM). Information management using building information modelling. Delivery phase of the assets.
You may also want to check out PD 19650–0:2019, which is not a standard in itself. Rather, it gives guidance on the transition from the UK 1192 series to the new ISO 19650 series.
The future of the ISO 19650 series
Currently, ISO is developing ISO 19650–3 and ISO 19650–5, using PAS 1192–3 and 1192–5 as the baseline. PAS 1192–3 sets out the requirements for information management during the operational phase of a project using BIM. PAS1192–5 talks about the specification for security-minded assets and projects with BIM. The ISO is intending to publish ISO 19650–3 and 19650–5 later this year, which will also supersede the respective PAS 1192 documents.
At the moment, there is no plan to replace BS 1192–4:2014. This is the British Standard that provides guidance about COBie. And the same goes for PAS 1192–6:2018, which is the specification for Health and Safety and BIM. These two sets of standards are still in use nowadays and part of the latest BIM standards.
Other BIM standards that you shouldn’t forget
If you are like us, you may be wondering what happened to PAS 1192–1? Well, probably BSI started the series numbering with PAS 1192–2 since somehow, they considered the older BS 1192 to be ‘PAS 1192–1.’
It’s also worth mentioning two other documents that form part of the latest BIM standards. These are BS 8536–1 and 8536–2, published in 2015. They are codes of practice for facilities management and asset management, respectively.
And because we know it’s difficult to get your head around so many standards and changes, we’ve put together the graphic below to make things easier. Enjoy and leave us a comment if we left any relevant standards out!
