With the rising adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the AEC sector, computational models supersede traditional ways of information provision based on textual documents and two-dimensional drawings. The use of models enables the streamlining of workflows, and the included virtual construction increases the quality of the final product, the building. To create a comprehensive description of a planned building, information from different sources must be combined, specified and regularly updated by the project’s stakeholders. The emerging models are highly structured, and instance files entail large amounts of data. However, in an unprocessed state, these models are of limited suitability for performing engineering tasks as the amount and structure does not match the domain-specific and purpose-oriented views. Selection and filtering data for the user’s needs is a well-understood task in computer science, and various approaches are available. A promising approach is the usage of formal query languages. In this paper, selected common query languages are examined and assessed for processing building model information. Based on the analysis, we come to the conclusion that textual query languages are too complex to be employed by typical end users in the construction industry such as architects and engineers. To overcome this issue, two Visual Programming Languages representing a new, more intuitive mechanism for data retrieval are introduced. The first one, QL4BIM, is designed for general filtering of IFC models, the second one, VCCL, has been developed for Code Compliance Checking. Both languages provide operators based on the Relational Algebra to allow handling of relations - a highly required feature of BIM QLs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of visual programming languages in the BIM context.

中文翻译：

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基于可视化编程的建筑信息模型中的数据检索

随着AEC领域中建筑信息模型（BIM）的日益普及，计算模型取代了基于文本文档和二维图纸的传统信息提供方式。使用模型可以简化工作流程，并且所包含的虚拟结构可以提高最终产品（建筑物）的质量。为了对计划中的建筑物进行全面描述，必须将来自不同来源的信息进行组合，指定并由项目的利益相关者定期进行更新。新兴模型具有高度结构化，并且实例文件需要大量数据。但是，在未处理状态下，这些模型对于执行工程任务的适用性有限，因为其数量和结构与特定于领域和面向目标的视图不匹配。选择和过滤满足用户需求的数据是计算机科学中众所周知的任务，并且可以使用各种方法。一种有前途的方法是使用形式查询语言。在本文中，将检查和评估所选的通用查询语言以处理建筑模型信息。基于分析，我们得出的结论是，文本查询语言过于复杂，无法被建筑行业的典型最终用户（例如建筑师和工程师）采用。为了克服这个问题，引入了两种表示新的，更直观的数据检索机制的可视化编程语言。第一个是QL4BIM，用于IFC模型的常规过滤，第二个是VCCL，用于代码一致性检查。两种语言都基于关系代数提供运算符，以允许处理关系-BIM QL的高度要求功能。本文最后讨论了BIM上下文中可视化编程语言的优势和局限性。