Towards efficient BIM use of geotechnical data from geotechnical investigations

The benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the building sector pushed for its use in the geotechnical sector with evident benefits in projects around the world. Standardization, interoperability, and improved data management are some of the benefits of BIM if used on geotechnical data. This work focuses on transforming traditional workflows of handling geotechnical data into a BIM-based workflow that makes geotechnical data available in BIM contexts. For that, a definition of Product Data Template (PDT) for boreholes is proposed. A script is developed using visual programming tools to import data based on PDTs to the BIM platform and translate it into borehole objects. An additional script is used to represent the subsurface layers in 3D. Finally, the interoperability aspects of the information are discussed to ensure proper processes of IFC export/import in this context. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed workflow.