FAQs

I want to use a bSI standard

1. What is bSI’s role in developing open solutions and standards?

bSI helps industry visionaries transform the design, delivery and operation of tomorrow’s assets by collaboratively developing open, neutral, international digital data-sharing solutions and standards for the built-asset industry.
International openBIM® standards are critical to this transformation, enabling businesses – owners, architects, engineers, contractors and operators – to become global industry leaders, while also mitigating risks, saving time, reducing costs, and significantly increasing innovation.
bSI standards enable data to flow easily from designers and constructors to owners and operators which allows more efficient, transparent and collaborative ways of working throughout the entire lifecycle of built assets.
bSI works with industry experts to develop and create new standards by following the processes set out in the bSI Process.

2. What are the benefits of open BIM standards from bSI?

more transparent, collaborative and open workflows.
greater information certainty due to a shared vocabulary of industry terms.
more open procurement processes.
processes that are inclusive for companies large and small.
greater re-use of data and reduction in cost.
easier integration with linked data created and shared in related industries.

3. Where can I find bSI’s standards?

bSI publishes the standards that it develops on its website. You can access them by visiting our Standards Library webpage.
The technical aspects of the standards have their own section on our website and can be accessed by visiting the Technical Services hub webpage.

4. I want to use a bSI standard. What do I need to do?

You can access and download the relevant information on a standard that you wish to use from our website.
The IFC (International Foundation Classes) schema specification is the primary technical deliverable of buildingSMART International to fulfil its goal to promote openBIM® standards.
IFC is a standardized, digital description of the built environment, including buildings and civil infrastructure. It is an open, international standard (ISO 16739-1:2018), designed to be vendor-neutral, or agnostic, and usable across a wide range of hardware devices, software platforms, and interfaces for many different use cases.
IFC is updated from time to time – in early 2022 IFC4.3 was released.
Both this and other releases are available on our website at the IFC Specifications Database.
IFC and other bSI standards and technical documentation are made available for all to use providing you follow our licensing terms.

5. Tell me more about licensing terms for bSI standards and other bSI documents.

bSI uses several different licensing terms for our standards and other published documents as described in the copyright notice of each published document and/or the relevant webpage.
The two most common licensing terms we use are Creative Commons licenses – CC No Derivatives (CC BY-ND 4.0) and CC Share-Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0).
For more information, please refer to our IP Policy including the annex relating to Licensing of IP in bSI Standards.
In the case of bSI standards and other published documents that you may choose to use, you must give appropriate credit to bSI, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests bSI endorses you or your use.
The credit or attribution to bSI for any bSI documentation that you reproduce, should include the following as a minimum: “© [year] buildingSMART International. All rights reserved. Licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.” or “© [year] buildingSMART International. All rights reserved. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.”

6. I’m a software vendor, so how do the licensing terms for bSI standards apply for me?

Of course, software vendors own the IP in the software they create and market.
So, when software is updated for the latest standards published by bSI (for example the IFC4.3 standards update), the updated software continues to be owned by the software vendor who has developed it.
The IP in the standards themselves however will be owned by whoever developed it – in the case of IFC, this is bSI.
The technical aspect of this (as described above) is that the standards which bSI has published are made available to software vendors and other parties on licensing terms which both enable the standards to be used whilst protecting their integrity.

Working on a bSI Project

How do I work with bSI on a project?

bSI projects are open to all members of bSI.

In some cases, non-members can take part in a project if they have a particular expertise that they can contribute to the project. This is at the discretion of bSI.

To work on a project either respond to a bSI call to participate, email the project leader/team if you have their details and/or contact bSI at contact@buildingsmart.org.

You can also see this video explanation of how to propose a new activity; if an activity proposal is accepted, it leads to a project starting.

How do I sponsor a bSI project?

Parties who provide financial sponsorship and/or in-kind resources to projects are known as project sponsors.
To become a sponsor please contact bSI and let us know how you wish to support a project.
We have a document titled Agreement to Participate in a bSI Project which we will send you and ask you to complete and submit your details including agreeing to our project terms.

Tell me more about your project terms.

bSI supports projects using our project delivery process as described in the bSI Process, which is summarized here: bSI Process.
bSI project terms are set out in our Agreement to Participate in a bSI Project document, which can be viewed here: Agreement to Participate in a Project.
In summary, you agree to participate in the project by providing in-kind hours and/or financial sponsorship.
By signing the Agreement to Participate in a Project document, both you and bSI are then subject to bSI’s policies including data protection, privacy, code of conduct, brand guidelines, copyright and intellectual property rights (IP).

Tell me more with regards to how IP works on a bSI project?

Please refer to our IP Policy for the detail.
In summary, bSI project participants agree that any new IP created as part of the project output and deliverables will be transferred to bSI ownership.
bSI in turn agrees to make such IP available to the BIM community on open terms and as part of open standards for all to use where applicable.
Any IP which a project participant owns prior to the project remains in their ownership; it is only newly created IP that bSI will own and make available to all.

Can you give me an example of how IP is managed in practice?

Typical deliverables which a bSI project team will produce include new standards, technical reports and/or user guides.
Deliverables can be both human-readable (such as written documents) and machine-readable (such as xml or other format files).
Any new IP contained within these deliverables which the project team has created is owned by bSI who, in line with our mission to promote open BIM standards and ways of working, will make it available to the BIM community.
bSI will make this available by following the bSI Process and publishing the project deliverables on the bSI website with promotion through our social media platforms.
Please see our Standards Library for a list of our published standards, technical reports and other documentation: https://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/bsi-standards/standards-library/

I’m a software vendor, so how does IP work for me?

Of course, software vendors own the IP in the software they create and market.
So, when software is updated for the latest BIM standards published by bSI (for example the IFC4.3 standards update), the updated software continues to be owned by the software vendor who has developed it.
The IP in the standards themselves, however, will be owned by whoever developed it – in the case of IFC, this will be bSI.
The technical aspect of this (as described in our IP Policy) is that the standards which bSI has published are made available to software vendors and other parties on licensing terms which both enable the standards to be used whilst protecting their integrity.

Tell me more about licensing terms for bSI standards and other bSI documents.

bSI uses several different licensing terms for our standards and other published documents as described in the copyright notice of each published document.
The two most common licensing terms we use are Creative Commons licenses – CC No Derivatives (CC BY-ND 4.0) and CC Share-Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0).
For more information, please refer to the annex of our IP Policy relating to Licensing of IP in bSI Standards.
In the case of bSI standards and other published documents that you choose to make available under our licensing terms, you must give appropriate credit to bSI, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests bSI endorses you or your use.
The credit or attribution to bSI for any bSI documentation that you reproduce, should include the following as a minimum: “© [year] buildingSMART International. All rights reserved. Licensed underCC BY-ND 4.0.” or “© [year] buildingSMART International. All rights reserved. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.”

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