The Year of openBIM

As we welcome the year 2025, there is much cause for excitement. During my time at buildingSMART International (bSI), I can seldom think of anything quite like it. This is partly because of the important progress that has been made (yes, this can often feel self-congratulatory, but nonetheless, it is good to reflect on what has been achieved because we are a collective community), as well as a chance to look to the future. This inflection point always gives rise to a feeling of optimism, and I believe 2025 will be a milestone year.

China-Aidan-january-2025

Having recently returned from an early-in-the-year trip to China, I am reminded that their New Year takes place slightly later in January. As you may know, in the Chinese New Year, they have the "year of (the Snake is this year) something", - which is a nice way to bring focus and importance to a subject/topic. It is also a time for celebration, for giving thanks, and for spending time with family. You could argue that these are important elements for the buildingSMART community and certainly part of the DNA. Given that we cannot announce the "Year of openBIM" every year, why not start in 2025? 

At bSI, we have made significant strides in partnerships and brand growth, ensuring end-users benefit from our standards and services. While the true impact of openBIM is difficult to measure, several key achievements highlight its growing influence: 

  1. Summits: The biannual events that we call Summits have grown immensely over the last few years, riding out the COVID era to continue to evolve and attract record numbers, with new people in attendance every time we host an event.  
  2. Awards: The openBIM awards program breaks records year-on-year to truly reflect the use of open standards and services in real-world projects on a global scale. 
  3. Standards: IFC 4.3, Information Delivery Specification (IDS), and ongoing work on APIs and IFC 5 are major advancements in the development and use of hugely important standards. 
  4. Services: The re-launch of the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD), the launch of the IFC Validation Service and the Use Case Management Service (UCMS) are major initiatives that actively support the use openBIM. 
  5. Professional Certification: Over 25,000 individuals have become certified across the global network, taking the opportunity to upskill, learn and develop personally and professionally with openBIM. The launch of the practitioner level is a milestone of high-quality education from buildingSMART International. 
  6. Chapters: As of January 2025, there are 37 Chapters. In 2018, there were only 20. We've entered new continents (South America and Africa), highlighting more reasons to feel encouraged by the global reach we have. 
  7. Mandates: There are a growing number of mandates either published or in the works that we made available through our IFC Mandates Playbook for 2024. These top-down initiatives provide clear direction and opportunities for the community to share a common set of goals through policy decisions. We are seeing a rise in mandates on IDS and government publications in bSDD as well. 
  8. Statistics: Whether it's through webinars, website traffic, impressions, clicks, subscribers or followers on social channels, we have seen a massive increase in engagement and interest. Reflecting on the statistical growth in these areas can only mean one thing: openBIM is here to stay. 

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) remain a cornerstone of our work. The development and adoption of IFC as a neutral, open standard have been transformative for the industry over the past 30 years. Reflecting on this journey, the passion and dedication of our community—individuals who genuinely care about the future—stand out as the driving force behind openBIM's success. Challenges lie ahead, but with our collective approach, we can continue to thrive. 

What does the future hold? 

We're all well aware of the new digital landscape we face. The rise of AI, machine learning and robots means we are often future-gazing. At bSI, we are also grounded in ensuring the standards and services we develop and promote support any future function. Some of the most exciting areas that I believe make this the Year of openBIM include: 

  • IFC 4.3: We have produced IFC 4.3. The opportunity for this standard to become mainstream is here. With a growing list of vendors supporting this standard and more demand from users, this standard will become a major part of future work for the infrastructure industry on a global scale. bSI has never invested so much time and effort into a standard before, and we remain committed to seeing this as a globally used standard. 
  • Validation: One of the most important services we've produced is the IFC Validation Service. This transparent, free service has a development path and some key and critical features we expect to roll out. The ability to validate models that adhere to the IFC standard will not only improve quality and trust for users but will also become the baseline for future software certification platforms. 
  • Education: We recently launched the Practitioner module to provide experts with specific training related to their jobs, which is applied to openBIM standards and services. The potential of this is huge, and the opportunities for the market will depend on the pace at which it is rolled out. 
  • IFC 5: We've heard a lot about this next-generation standard that will help IFC unlock new use cases and functionalities. The publication of the Technical Roadmap in 2020 paved the way for the industry to collectively agree on a future that means IFC can be both agile and reliable. The pace of work is impressive, and the first prototypes are already available. We are blessed with the help and support of our community, which has helped turn this into a reliable solution. 
  • Acceleration: We also expect to see more investors join buildingSMART to accelerate the pace of these critical standards and services and bring about more results and enhancements. This is much needed to ensure we provide the quality, reliability, and potential of openBIM at the time users need it the most. 
  • Open will always be open: As of today, some of the previous standards, like IFC 2x3, are still hugely popular and will continue to be supported as long as they are used and valuable. The same will apply to any version of IFC. We remain fully committed to advancing IFC and ensuring that the existing and legacy standards are supported and that compatibility is kept as a high priority. There has always been the need to develop and maintain existing standards, but at the same time, new standards must be advanced as well. 

It is easy to forget how far you have come, and this is the case for the buildingSMART community. Over these 30 years, thousands of people have put their time, expertise, money, heart and soul into various facets of what we know it to be. This is the reason it has been so successful, and this is why there is a growing market for openBIM.   

The power of the brand scales language, culture and politics. I only need to walk through an industry event and see a buildingSMART logo on a booth, a presentation or attached to a garment of clothing, to know it is bigger than we probably think. Collectively, a community is a powerful thing. I would not underestimate its ability to make a huge difference and to change the world. The next stage of the buildingSMART journey will be the best yet, and I, for one, believe this is why we should consider this a critical year – the Year of openBIM 

 

Author: Aidan Mercer, Marketing Director