BIM2SIM

BIM2SIM aims at developing a prototype digital technology brick to automatically extract security- and safety-related information from standard building description file formats.

On the one hand, buildings are core elements for security and safety applications, with a wide range of applications: intrusion, evacuation, optimal position of sensors or safety material, hazard modelling, assessment of structural effects, etc.

On the other hand, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is becoming a collaborative must-have for architects, urban planners and in the construction industry. Standard file formats are readily available, and could be extended to provided security-related information as well.

BIM2SIM results will be twofold:
– guidelines for security-oriented building information modelling,
– software converting BIM models into “navigation meshes” used for path-planning, with a first application to the physical security of critical infrastructures.

During the first half of the BIM2SIM project, Scott Brownrigg and APEX solutions agreed on the definition of 9 BIM models of increased complexity, from a single-storey building to a complex site with several multi-storey buildings enclosed by one or more fence(s) on an uneven terrain; together with BIM model variants.

Several pre-processing solutions (from Pure Python to scripts in already existing software) of either the FBX or the IFC file formats have been tested by APEX.
The final choice is to develop into the Unreal Engine both the pre-processor and the physical security algorithm (current EPIC code). A first pre-processing and simulation has been successfully ran with simple AIs for both the “red team” and the “blue team” non-playing characters using SB’s BIM model #1.