A system architecture and simulation environment for building information modeling in virtual worlds

This paper describes building information modeling (BIM) research by students and faculty of the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI). The paper also describes work in conjunction with the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), located at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. The objective of this on-going research is to create a virtual modeling environment where architects and planners can present building concepts and design options to customers in a way that is more easily envisioned by the client. The proposed environment would integrate BIM and virtual environments by allowing a free exchange of data between applications. The specific research mentioned in this paper focuses on visualization and editing of interior room configurations for use by USSTRATCOM. The software used for this research project was Autodesk® Revit, Autodesk® 3DS Max, and a proprietary gaming engine called Unity, developed by Unity Technologies and based in San Francisco, California, USA. This paper covers the development of a system architecture in which BIM will be integrated with a virtual simulation environment built in Science Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC’s) On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE) and discusses research results to date.