Aligning LOD, LoD, and OEM into a Project Collaboration Framework

Architects (AIA), BIMForum, and buildingSMART alliance™ (bSa) are working together to create a content and context-rich framework for building information modeling (BIM) collaboration. This framework merges level of development (LOD); level of detail (LoD), a refinement of an object’s specification; and the object/element matrix (OEM)¹, defining data requirements at an object level by BIM purpose or use case. This article explains how this combination integrates the three definitions of BIM: BIMODEL (product), BIMODELING (process) and BIMANAGEMENT (the data) into a repeatable strategy needed for BIM-based project collaboration, communication, and execution.