The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Building Information Management Council (BIMC) is planning the upcoming release of COBie 3.0, as an update to the Construction to Operations Building information exchange (COBie 2.4) Specification. COBie 3.0 also will be published as an integral part of the upcoming version 4.0 of the National BIM Standard – United States.

COBie is a U.S. national specification of facility handover requirements based on original research by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. NIBS further developed this specification, which describes the information required for facility operations and maintenance upon completion of a building project relating to the commissioning and handover of building systems and equipment. 

"NIBS and the BIMC have collaborated with buildingSMART International for many years to create specifications and standards for the building industry," saids AC Powell, JD, CPS, president and CEO of NIBS. "We are excited about the efforts underway by our COBie Workgroup to create the 3.0 version, which complements and extends our previous work to develop COBie for U.S. agencies, building owners, and facility managers."

buildingSMART International (bSI) leads the development of industry open standards for information management and data exchange for implementation by software vendors in applications used by architects, engineers, contractors and owners in the design, construction, management and operations of buildings and infrastructure. COBie utilizes both the buildingSMART IFC (Industry Foundation Class) Schema and buildingSMART FM Handover MVD (Model View Definition) under creative commons license from bSI.

"The COBie 3.0 specification defines U.S. industry requirements supported by the IFC schema that will also inform the new Asset Operations Handover project being proposed by bSI," said Ian Howell, Interim CEO, bSI. "This new project has two main objectives: to integrate and streamline handover initiatives from around the world and to define a modular framework for asset data exchanges that will support not just buildings but also infrastructure projects including roads, bridges, tunnels, railways and airports."

The NIBS BIM Council has focused on capturing the requirements of U.S. building owners to document best practices and provide guidance on the adoption of digital technology to increase productivity and performance. Examples include the United States National CAD Standard (NCS), the National BIM Standard-United States (NBIMS-US), Construction to Operations Building information exchange (COBie) Specification, and the U.S. National BIM Program (NBP). For more information on the new COBie 3.0 version, visit the  National BIM Standard U.S. Committees COBie V3 WORKGROUP. 

For more information on the Asset Operations Handover project, visit buildingSMART International's activity proposal.