buildingSMART Data Dictionary --> bSDD

[bernd]

Has one of you guys ever been used the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) ?

http://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/ ... ictionary/
and
http://bsdd.buildingsmart.org/#concept/browse

[yorik]

I had a look at it already, the idea is excellent, it's even more than a dictionary, it includes all the omniclass. And it has a public API. I'd really like to plug that in freecad at some point.

The only question I haven't found an answer for yet: What to do with it?

[bernd]

I had a look at it already, the idea is excellent, it's even more than a dictionary, it includes all the omniclass. And it has a public API. I'd really like to plug that in freecad at some point.

The only question I haven't found an answer for yet: What to do with it?

I really like the idea too. Just check some materials of your ifc files. I could made a list off 20 German words for concrete! With the data dictionary it is clearly how to define a concrete wall. AFAIK with this you could make a Model in portugese or in belgian or even Flemish and I open the Modell in German and we all know the walls are made off concrete without doing some translation off the string because the product conctete from the datadictionary is used by an unique ID. Since Allplan has no implementation off the bSDD I do not really know what to do with it either and how it integrates in ifc. There is even no swiss standard for the bSDD materials and products. I'm in contact with swiss officials in this regard. As soon as I have further information I'll come back. But I assume this will take some time.

[yorik]

Actually all Arch objects (not only materials) should have a class ID. Then in the future we could pass a whole project through some API like that...

[PrzemoF]

I've never used, but it looks like an interesting idea, however that is a deal breaker for me: "You understand and agree that your licensed use of bSDD information, API and tools by this Agreement is limited to non-commercial applications."

http://bsdd.buildingsmart.org/tou.html

Especially I don't like when some serious limitations like the above are mixed with statements like this:
"The buildingSMART Data Dictionary creates data transparency for everyone. It’s easy, open, and international, allowing a vast range of features to be developed."

http://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/ ... ictionary/

[bernd]

@przemo:
Thanks for pointing that one out.

But this will mean the standard is not open. It is just everyone can read it. The license seams not compatible with GPL2. As far as I understand it, this will not allow us to implement the bSDD API and use the bSDD data in FreeCAD master ?

[PrzemoF]

I don't know. Muddy waters of licencing are not my favourite area...
I learned the hard way that if someone is _pretending_ to use open standards I should just stay away.

Off topic:
I was contributing geolocation data (wifi, mobile cells + gps data) for a long time to a company (I'll call them "A") that worked in exactly the same way as bSDD. They promised free access to the data and they had a nice web API. The software for data collection was with GPL licence, but the data collected were under some other licence (I never checked that!).
Some day Mozilla Foundation decided to start providing geolocation based on wifi+mobile to devices that don't have gps, so I decided to ask the "A" company how can I get the data that I contributed to donate it to Mozilla. And then the hell broke loose. Export option from the collection software was exporting only tiny part of the data that I collected and the web API was allowing to show "my" data in a nice way, but with something like 100 positions in one go, without any export options. After some days of trying get "my" data back I gave up and I realised that company "A" just used me in a very smart way.

That's from EULA of the company "A": "RESTRICTIONS. You may not rent, lease, sublicense, transfer, distribute, telecommunicate, copy, or sell the Data in its entirety or in any part for any commercial consideration, gain, or benefit."

[bernd]

@przemo:
thanks again for the example. I started to get in touch with swiss and international people in the regard off bSDD. I really will keep an eye on licence!

What if I or swiss create their own bSDDdata on a different licence. There is some file format to include bSDD data in a ifc file. If we have our own data and our own parser in FreeCAD we need to find which licence applys to the ifc extension? Could I use the own data then ?

[PrzemoF]

Again - the core devs have to give the answer, but as long as it's open (in the real meaning of open) I'm interested in contributing in all possible ways.

[yorik]

I think buildingSmart people are dealing mostly with commercial software vendors. They are also selling things to them (IFC compliance for example). But you can see they (or at least the main guy who seems to be doing 99% of the work at buildingSmart) like open-source. Probably we must see this license more as a way to keep the door open for open-source projects, while trying to earn their bread with the big vendors... It's not ideal from our point of view, but it's something already.

About the specific license they use, probably it would indeed prevent us from shipping any data from it inside FreeCAD. But that doesn't seem to be a big problem to me, it's not the kind of thing we would want to "embed" inside the freecad code, more some service we would want to connect to during runtime...