Extending Building Information Models into Game Engines

The use of detailed building plans and models is common in the construction management domain. Also there is increasing interest in the reuse of such models to realize 3D interactive virtual environments to aid model refinement and for use as training environments, for example virtual site visits. Unfortunately, the development of interactive virtual environments is both time consuming and technically difficult. One successful approach is the reuse of gaming technology to provide the underlying virtual environment and to allow developers to focus on importing appropriate content, e.g. building geometry and textures. Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a rich source of building data and is an ideal basis for constructing realistic virtual environments. This paper overviews the conversion from BIM to game engines and specifically from the BIM tool Revit to the Unity3D game engine in a case study.