Users of industry leading Building Information Modelling (BIM) software have asked for a common approach to collaborating with engineering data.
Although BIM is now widely accepted as the route to a better quality of Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) design output, there is a distinct lack of common approach across the industry. This absence limits wider adoption of BIM, minimises the return on technology investment made by companies and forces them to continually re-invent disparate processes and software content. Without any practical or independent guidance in place, and following requests by software users, the AEC (UK) Committee has undertaken to produce a BIM standard. The AEC (UK) BIM Standard will address the needs of design organisations whose projects demand operating in a multi-disciplinary BIM environment to connect their design geometry with engineering, scheduling, cost analysis and sustainability technology.
In addition to a published document, the AEC (UK) Committee aims to provide configurations and online content for both Autodesk and Bentley Systems BIM software. To achieve a practical implementation approach across platforms, the Committee has welcomed new, expert members from the UK Revit Community.
The first release of the AEC (UK) BIM standard is anticipated for October 2009 and there will be opportunity by the UK BIM community to shape its future development. This reflects earlier, successful collaborative efforts by the Committee to produce the AEC (UK) CAD Standards. Further details about the Committee’s work can be obtained by emailing the chairman, Nigel Davies at nigel@evolve-consultancy.com.
AEC (UK) Committee, May 2009
AEC (UK) CAD & BIM Standards Site 
Great to see a set of standards being developed for the naming conventions. To be universal (global), we use the following for field 1 (preference is for using 2 letters) –
‘HY’ for hydraulic services (water, sewer, stormwater, hot/cold/tempered, fixtures etc)
‘ID’ for interior design elements
‘IT’ for info tech systems, data
‘SE’ for security systems
‘FE’ for fire engineering
‘FD’ for dry fire systems
‘FW’ for wet fire systems
‘CV’ for civil works incl main infrastructure
‘VT’ for vertical transport (lifts)
‘HT’ for horizontal transport (moving walks)