The Spanish technology company CYPE develops the Open BIM COVID-19 program with which it is possible to calculate and implement safety measures, both in buildings and open spaces, taking into account criteria such as the safety distance, maximum capacity or furniture
The software, which is free and available for download from BIMserver.center, has implemented Open BIM technology, the most up-to-date technology being used in the architecture, engineering and construction sector
The Spanish technology company CYPE has developed the Open BIM COVID-19 software with the aim of facilitating the creation of a safety plan to protect against the spread of COVID-19 in spaces planned to be used by employees or in those places with attendance by the general public. As such, this novel program, which is free and can be downloaded from BIMserver.center, can be used both in buildings and open spaces.
According to Carlos Fernández, Technical Director at CYPE, the creation of this program is a result of the establishment of new government measures around the world that limit the mobility of the population and contact between people, with the aim of minimising the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is directly affecting the configuration of architectural spaces.
This requirement to maintain an interpersonal safety distance, the installation of bins, signs or the establishment of a maximum capacity limit in spaces are some of the new requirements. Open BIM COVID-19 facilitates the adoption and validation of these and other preventive measures in order to minimise infections in accordance with regulatory criteria, and makes possible the placing of furniture in the most appropriate way, optimising spaces and creating circulation routes to avoid contact between people.
Shops, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, covered and non-covered terraces, floors of buildings etc. Any architectural space can be used in this new tool adapted to the Open BIM workflow to start working on the creation of a safety study in response to COVID-19, simulating the most suitable safety measures. Furthermore, and thanks to the BIMserver.center platform, users can view the project in 2D, 3D, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.
The software is available in six languages (Catalan, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) and is designed so that it can be used in any country in the world thanks to the safety parameters that can be manually edited based on the requirements of each country.
Elements taken into account by Open BIM COVID-19
The program offers users the possibility to establish for the whole project a series of requirements to be met, such as the maximum capacity, interpersonal safety distance and the separation between people and routes. In addition, Open BIM COVID-19 has 10 different elements to create the safety plan to prevent the spread of this coronavirus
These elements include people, groups of people (to identify people that live together and have different criteria), routes, separator, reception point, bin, hydroalcoholic gel, mask, gloves and signs. “With all of these elements, the software is able to carry out a study in advance that simulates the most appropriate safety measures based on the conditions of each space and optimise them to the maximum by reducing the risk of spread”, highlights Benjamín González, Director of Corporate Development at CYPE.
Once the calculation has been performed, Open BIM COVID-19 checks it and displays warnings and errors in case any of the requirements previously indicated by the user have not been met. With the project completed, the program generates a justification report with a list of the elements that make up the safety plan to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which can be printed or exported to TXT, HTML, RTF, DOCX and PDF format, as well as generating a detailed safety plan.