BIMvoice

For years, the buildingSMART openBIM Practitioner certification existed in one language only.

German.

If you wanted to prove you could actually do openBIM in practice, with IFC, IDS and BCF, you had to sit the exam in German.

So look at who is certified today. Just over 300 Practitioners in the whole world. Almost all of them from Germany and Austria.

For a long time people read that number and thought it said something about skill. That the German speaking world was simply ahead of everyone else.

It was not about skill. It was about access.

The standard is global. IFC does not care what language you speak. But the door to proving you understood it was open in one country and nearly closed everywhere else.

That is changing now. Practitioner is rolling out in English.

Which means the map is about to look very different.

If you work with openBIM outside the German speaking world, you are not late. You are early. The people who move now become the first certified Practitioners in their countries. Not because they were better than anyone. Because the door finally opened for them too.

Do you know anyone certified as a buildingSMART Practitioner in your country yet?

6 hours ago | [YT] | 5

BIMvoice

𝘽𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂: the first version of Bonsai Viewer is now available.

Free. Open. No login wall.

Dion Moult and the team just shipped it.

What works today: fly, perspective, top, down, measure, area, volume, hide, isolate, open, save, federate.

Load 100 IFC models in one project if you want.
First open processes the geometry. Second open hits the cache and is instant.

Cloud is in too. The Autodesk connector is bundled. Publish to cloud, save your federation project to cloud, sync, open from cloud. Local cache included.

Georeferencing is in.
Linux and Windows builds are live.
MacOS and web are next.

On real projects, 50 models loaded at once is normal. 100 is not rare. Throw that at it and see how it holds.

Try the hybrid-manifold-opencascade kernel and tell Dion what breaks. That is how this thing gets better.

The open side of BIM keeps shipping. Pay attention.

Read more about this here: community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/29255/#Com…

Credits: image and update from Dion Moult's post on the OSArch - Open Source in AEC community forum.

1 day ago | [YT] | 28

BIMvoice

A few days ago someone asked me a good question.

If a C-level person looks at you and says "show me the money," what evidence do we actually have for openBIM?

Honest answer: this is one of the weakest parts of the openBIM conversation.

We are good at explaining standards. IFC. IDS. BCF. bSDD. ISO 19650. We can talk about that all day.

We are less good at explaining why a company should care.

This is part of what the buildingSMART Use Case Management platform is built to close. Structured openBIM use cases that companies can actually adopt. Standards in context, not just standards in theory. It is still maturing, but the direction is right.

There are proof points. They are just not packaged in one neat ROI report.

In Norway, openBIM delivery is normal on many projects. Not perfect. Not always done well. But normal. (Public) clients expect IFC. Teams coordinate with open formats. Handovers depend on structured information.

In most other countries this is still early. Some public clients are moving in that direction. Some procurement rules are starting to ask for it. Digital permitting is moving toward open standards. The wave is real, just slower than people want to admit.

So the question is not only "can we prove openBIM saves X percent."

The sharper question is "what happens to your company when the client starts asking for openBIM delivery and your team does not know how."

That is the part most people miss.

And companies do not build that capability in the abstract. They build it through people who already have it.

Most can say they know BIM. Fewer can prove they understand openBIM delivery. Fewer still can actually work with information requirements, IDS, use case definition, model checking, and real project delivery.

That is why Practitioner matters.

Not because the certificate magically makes you good. It does not.

But because it gives a structure to prove practical openBIM capability. Use cases are one of the things you need to understand in practice, not just as theory. Same with IDS, IFC delivery, and information requirements.

And as openBIM moves from "nice idea" to "client requirement," the people who can actually do it become much more valuable.

The waiting position has a cost.

2 days ago | [YT] | 1

BIMvoice

Did you know fewer than 400 people in the entire world hold the buildingSMART Practitioner certification?

Most are in Germany and Austria.

Very few are from anywhere else.

Many countries have zero.

Not a single certified openBIM Practitioner.

That is not because openBIM does not matter there.

It is because the Practitioner training and exam were mainly available in German for years.

That is finally changing.

The international English version is opening now.

Which means that, for a short window, there is a real chance to become the first certified openBIM Practitioner in your country.

The first.

Or one of the first.

But this is not only about being early.

It matters most for people already doing the work.

People building their own model checks.

Working with IFC exports.

Handling information requirements.

Trying to make openBIM workflows actually work on real projects.

Many of them have no formal way to prove that capability.

Practitioner helps close that gap.

I went through the Practitioner process myself, so I know what it tests for and what it does not.

I am opening the first English language Practitioner group at BIMvoice now.

Founding Group.

Pre-registration phase.

Only 4 spots left.

Could you be the first in your country?

3 days ago | [YT] | 6

BIMvoice

Most IFC delivery fails before the export button is pressed.

The failure starts in the requirements.

Too much is requested.
Too little is prioritized.

If everything is important, nothing is important.

And this matters because exporting to IFC is still ignored by many teams.

It is treated like a button.

Not a skill.
Not a workflow.
Not something that needs testing, feedback, and improvement.

So what happens?

The project asks for too much.
The team exports what they can.
The client does not check it seriously.
Nobody trusts the result.

That is not openBIM.

That is just file exchange.

Especially on smaller projects, the first goal should not be a perfect IFC model.

The first goal should be a usable IFC model.

Start with the information that matters most.

Classification.
Generated quantities.
Relationships.
Materials.
A few core attributes and properties.

Check those things.

Use them in real workflows.

And make delivery of the critical requirements part of the contract.

Not as a threat.

As a signal that the data matters.

Because if the IFC model has no consequence, it will keep being treated as a checkbox.

3 days ago | [YT] | 1

BIMvoice

"How do I justify paying this much to someone I only know from the internet?"

Someone asked me this on a call a while ago. Senior BIM person. Ready to enroll. He just said it directly.

It is a fair question.

For a long time, the answer was mostly trust.

Trust the content. Trust the conversations. Trust the testimonials.

Trust that I know what I am talking about and that I will actually help you.

That is not nothing.

But for someone investing serious money in training, it is also not always enough.

That is changing.

BIMvoice is now a buildingSMART Registered Training Provider. The training is approved through the official buildingSMART Professional Certification program. The certification you work toward is not "my certificate." It is the buildingSMART Foundation or Practitioner certification. Recognised globally. Verifiable on a public registry. Independent of me.

You still need to trust me as the person guiding you through it. That part does not go away.

But you are not buying a random internet course. You are joining approved training, supported by public content, real conversations, testimonials, and official certification outcomes through buildingSMART.

That changes the trust equation.

What would have to be true for you to trust a training provider you only know from the internet?

6 days ago | [YT] | 9

BIMvoice

Most BIM people misunderstand the role of the buildingSMART Foundation certification.

Foundation has two jobs.

For people who are newer to BIM or openBIM, Foundation gives a structured entry-level understanding of information management on projects and open standards.

It covers BIM terminology, ISO 19650, openBIM, interoperability, IFC, buildingSMART standards, and the owner and operator perspective across the asset lifecycle.

That is the first role.

But for experienced BIM people, Foundation has a different role.

It is the base you need before you go further.

If you want to take Practitioner, you need Foundation first.

You cannot skip it.

That does not mean every BIM Manager or Coordinator is a beginner.

Many experienced people will already know parts of it.

The point is different.

Foundation gives the shared theoretical baseline.

Practitioner is where things become practical.

Foundation is about understanding what things are.

Practitioner is about learning how to do things.

Foundation makes you aware of the standards.

Practitioner tests whether you can apply them.

In Foundation, you do not get tested on how to create IDS, check IFC data, manage BCF issues, or handle openBIM workflows across tools.

In Practitioner, that is exactly the direction.

You are expected to work with information requirements, IFC, IDS, BCF, bSDD, and practical openBIM workflows.

So Foundation is not “the basic course” and Practitioner is not “the advanced version.”

That is the wrong way to look at it.

Foundation is the base.

Practitioner is the doing layer.

For some people, Foundation is enough.

For BIM people who want to prove practical openBIM capability, Foundation is the required step before Practitioner.

1 week ago | [YT] | 5

BIMvoice

Important update for everyone with buildingSMART openBIM certification.

A few days ago, buildingSMART launched a new online registry.

I noticed something strange.

My name was not showing in the registry anymore.

So I searched for other certified people I know.

Some of them were missing too.

I checked with buildingSMART.

The platform change broke part of the registry.

Some people need to give consent again before their name shows up.

So if your name is missing, it does not mean your certification is gone.

You need to log in to the buildingSMART exam platform.

Then check your profile settings.

Professional Registry settings are at the bottom.

Submit your consent again.

The next registry update should happen around 18 June.

This matters.

The registry is one of the few public ways to prove your openBIM certification.

If companies, clients, or employers search for you and do not find you, they may assume you are not certified.

Make sure your certification is visible before the next update.

1 week ago | [YT] | 4

BIMvoice

Do you want to become one of the first openBIM Practitioners in your country?

For a long time, Practitioner certification was available mainly in German.

That is why the vast majority of certified openBIM Practitioners today are from Germany or Austria.

This is changing.

Practitioner is now opening up internationally in English.

And in most countries, there are still zero certified openBIM Practitioners.

Many professionals already work with IFC, coordination, information requirements, model validation, BCF, IDS, and openBIM delivery.

But very few can document that competence with formal certification.

The certificate does not replace the work you already do.

It gives formal weight to the experience you already have.

If you want to become one of the first openBIM Practitioners in your country, contact me.

1 week ago | [YT] | 9

BIMvoice

IFC 4.3 is not a theory anymore.

That was the moment that stayed with me after talking with Simon Dean on openBIMvoice 11.

Because this was not a conversation about nice demo files or openBIM as a future promise. Simon is working on major infrastructure delivery in the UK, where IFC 4.3 has to survive real project pressure: thousands of IFC files, client requirements, validation workflows, supply chain coordination, data lakes, and long term asset information.

That changes the way you look at IFC.

Most people still treat IFC like a file format. Something you export, open, complain about, and send back when it breaks.

But Simon made the stronger point:

IFC is a schema.

And when you understand IFC as structured data, the questions change.

You stop asking only:

“Can I open the model?”

You start asking:

Can I validate it against requirements? Can I report from it? Can I connect it to a data lake? Can I use it for asset information? Can I build repeatable delivery workflows around it?

This is also why IDS matters.

Simon said something I really liked:

Start your IFC journey with IDS.

Because IDS forces you to define what you actually need before you ask someone to deliver it.

Not just “send me an IFC.”

But what information. For which objects. For which purpose. Checked how.

That is where openBIM becomes practical.

The future is not just better exports from authoring tools.

The future is structured information delivery.

And the teams who understand that will be far ahead.

1 week ago | [YT] | 3