DIN EN ISO 21597-1:2018-10

This document has been developed in response to the need of the Construction industry to handle multiple models and documents as one information delivery. Information deliveries are often a combination of drawings, models, text documents, spreadsheets, etc. The availability of relationships between information elements can contribute significantly to the value. The composition of a package can arise from the requirements in the process, e. g. delivery of as-built information, and from specific functional purpose e. g. performing a quantity take-off or communication about issues in 3D models. This standard provides a specification for an information container. It enables uniformity in data drops and chain integration; it also provides a basis for additional functionality in standards and software development. This standard defines a generic container format to store documents and models, and adds the ability to link (connect) otherwise disconnected data. This standard is suitable for industry sectors such as the built environment enabling the exchange of multiple models, documents and their relationships being delivered as part of the process or as contractual deliverables. The format is intended to use resources either included in the container such as documents and models or alternatively referenced remotely (such as web resources). A key feature is that the container can include information about the relationships between the models and documents. The use-cases include the handover of 1. publishing bidding package, 2. project deliverables, 3. sharing of information as background or for development, and 4. publishing approved packages. The container format includes a header file and optionally additional link files which contain relationships by including references to the models and documents. The header file uniquely identifies the container and the contractual or collaborative intention of the container. This information and any additional rdf/owl (semantic web) files or resources provided can form a directly queryable suite. References into the content of other (non-semantic web) models and documents may be made but their resolution may depend on third party interpreters. Alternatively, the link references may be absorbed by the recipient applications, or reviewed interactively by the recipient. The relationships between the payload and referenced models and documents can be targeted to specific objects or entities within the payload files. A number of generic relationships are supported. The format can also be used to deliver multiple versions of the same document or model with the ability to convey the known differences or priority between them.