The OBOS is a free resource to assist in the creation of BIM objects, for use by all construction professionals – from designers and specifiers to manufacturers and BIM content developers.

NATSPEC worked with Masterspec (New Zealand) to develop a BIM object standard. The result is the Open BIM object standard (OBOS) intended for use by all construction professionals – from designers and specifiers to manufacturers and BIM content developers, to assist in the creation of standardised generic, manufacturer and project-specific BIM objects.

Having a standard for BIM object creation in place in Australia, New Zealand and elswhere will provide confidence to object authors and, importantly, to product manufacturers that their BIM objects will be acceptable to the end users of the objects, allowing them to manage their BIM content in a consistent and structured manner. Standard-based content means that authors and manufacturers do not risk wasting their time, money and resources creating BIM content that may not be accepted by industry.

With the aim of harmonising BIM practices internationally, an extensive review of existing global guides, standards and protocols relating to the creation of BIM content was completed as part of the research and preparation work.

The OBOS complements and aligns with the recently released NATSPEC BIM Properties Generator - both are mutually supportive tools. The former sets out the rules for applying properties to objects, specifies their format and provides requirements for the graphical modelling and functionality of a BIM object. The latter is a compendium of properties - conforming to the standard - for common architectural and structural objects.

OBOS V1.0 [1.5 MB]     Download