Developed in the US under a grant by the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy and NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration), COBie is a modern data format used to streamline the handover process to the owners or operators of a building.

What does COBie stand for?

COBie stands for Construction Operations Building Information Exchange. Since its introduction, it has transformed into the internationally recognised standard for information exchange during the operations handover and communication.

COBie became part of the data requirements of the BIM Working Party Strategy in 2011, and then in 2019, the UK National Annex in BS EN ISO 19650-2 made the COBie format structure mandatory.

COBie is an information exchange specification viewed in spreadsheets or within more sophisticated design, construction and maintenance software. The fact that the specification is so versatile means that COBie is ideal for all sizes of projects, irrespective of their scale and complexity.

What is COBie?

The data format used as part of COBie enables the publication of the subset of the BIM model (Building Information Management) that focuses explicitly on delivering asset data that differs from the geometric information.

What the COBie specification does is allow for the collection of all the critical data of a project into one single format for ease of sharing. This approach is entirely different from the usual building project process, which requires individuals involved in the project to document everything manually.

Using the COBie specification on a construction project means that contractors can easily update all of the documentation throughout the project lifecycle, leaving it ready to be handed over to the facility operator once the building is finished.

What benefits does COBie offer?

COBie has dramatically improved the quality of data available during construction, but who benefits from COBie specifications?

  • Building Designers. COBie makes it easy for designers to match its data with their drawings and compile a set of all the design schedules associated with those drawings.
  • Contractors. COBie makes it easier for contractors to collate construction submission data effectively as gathering and organising information is more straightforward, thanks to eliminating the need to copy and re-organise data repeatedly.
  • Facility Managers. COBie makes it easier for facility managers to access the documentation they need to understand the building spaces and equipment in detail.

As you can see, COBie is enabling a new era of collaboration in the construction industry, thanks to it becoming an extension of BIM technology. COBie is paving the way to a more streamlined data exchange and more efficient collaboration on all construction projects by transforming historical paper-based data storage processes into a digital format.

For more information on our COBie-compliant BIM services, please give our friendly team a call on 0161 427 0348 or send us an email to office@thecadroom.com