Interaction Graph for Building Information Model Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Serving high-quality building graphics in low-bandwidth computing environments, such as web browsers and mobile devices, is challenging due to the difficulty in efficiently transmitting rich graphics data.
Innovation Solution
A system processes building information model (BIM) data to generate an interaction graph representing hierarchical and connective relationships between building entities, simulating user interactions to create presentations with embedded references, allowing for efficient rendering and sharing of building views across low-bandwidth networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high-quality building graphics are transmitted in rich detail, then rendering quality is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The building model is divided into multiple hierarchical levels of detail (LOD), where different components and views are segmented into discrete entities. Each entity can be rendered at appropriate quality levels based on user interaction, allowing high-quality rendering only when and where needed, thus reducing overall bandwidth consumption while maintaining rendering quality for displayed elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements nested presentations where detailed building entity views are contained within broader contextual views. Users can navigate from high-level building overviews into progressively more detailed nested views of specific entities. This nesting structure allows the system to transmit only the essential data for current view level, with detailed graphics generated on-demand, resolving the contradiction between quality and bandwidth.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive building entity data is transmitted, then information completeness is improved, but data transmission time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary processing of BIM data to extract and structure essential building entity information into an interaction graph before transmission. This pre-processing organizes data hierarchically so that only necessary information for current user needs is transmitted initially, while comprehensive data remains available on the server for on-demand retrieval, thus reducing transmission time without sacrificing information completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an interaction graph as an intermediary data structure between the comprehensive BIM model and the user interface. This intermediary layer provides a simplified, navigable representation that can be transmitted quickly, while serving as a gateway to access the full detailed model when users interact with specific entities, thereby balancing transmission speed with information completeness.
3Ease of operation
If interactive navigation between building entities is enabled, then user interaction capability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The interaction graph serves as a universal data structure that handles multiple types of user interactions (navigation, selection, exploration) through a single unified framework. This multi-functional approach allows diverse interaction capabilities to be implemented without proportionally increasing system complexity, as the same core structure supports various interaction patterns across different building entities and views.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically generates the interaction graph and manages navigation logic without requiring complex manual configuration. The graph structure self-organizes based on building entity relationships, and the system autonomously handles presentation generation and reference embedding when users interact with entities. This self-service capability reduces the operational complexity burden on users and simplifies the interaction model.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating presentations of views of building entities according to an interaction graph. One of the methods includes processing building information model data to identify a plurality of building entities, wherein each building entity represents a respective feature of a building modeled by the data. Relationships between different respective pairs of the building entities are determined. The relationships are traversed according to simulated user interactions with respective presentations of a plurality of the building entities. At each subsequent building entity encountered by traversing the plurality of relationships, a respective presentation of a view of the building entity is generated, wherein the respective presentation includes one or more selectable references to one or more other views of one or more other building entities corresponding to one of the determined relationships between the building entities.