Today, Dean Demko presented his work in collaboration with GT Dev on the GSA IFC Space certification for DP R4.  He constructed a complex BIM with dozens of multi-wall bounded spaces.  To certify the process, Demko exported his DP BIM via the R4 IFC Exporter and imported it into the GSA-approved testing application Solibri.

Solibri has rule sets that allow users to make extraordinary square footage measurements.  Based on these rules, you can install a new custom set of dictionaries with packages pertaining to “Design Gross Area,” “BIM Area” (generally Net Area), “Rentable Area,” and “Usable Area.”  Dean came up with a semi-automated way to report and batch modify these values using Data Sheets; I encouraged Demko to publish his process on the GTWiki:  Adding GSA space attributes to Dictionary
GSA IFC DP Space Certification with Custom Attributes (Image: GTWiki, Dean Demko. 2009)

The package is named “GSA Space Categories” and “GSA Space Areas,” and once installed in a session of DP R4, these values can be applied to any typical R4 A&S Space.  The default setting is “unset,” so users must add their square footages either by attribute formula, data sheet, or manual modification.  (Or script it)  There was one value, which I forget, that had an empty string as its default value, but that was due to a modification to the xml that produced an anomaly–this shouldn’t impact the results of the attributing.

We have yet to test the import capabilities of Solibri on more complex BIM projects, like some of Frank’s work, but I suspect it will import fine.  As for these square footage assumptions, there may need to be an expansion to the GSA Attribute packages.

GSA IFC DP Space Certification with Custom Attributes (Image: GTWiki, Dean Demko. 2009)