Geosiris

Earth Modeling Data Handling

Geotechnical BIM

Geosiris implemented, in collaboration with the EGIS Group, an Autodesk/Civil 3D plug-in (RESQML-CAD) able to communicate to BIM-aware applications all types of geological study information embedded into a RESQML EPC + HDF5.

Geosiris implemented in collaboration with the EGIS Group an Autodesk/Civil 3D plug-in (RESQML-CAD), an EGIS RESQML-based solution able to communicate to BIM (“Building Information Modeling”) aware applications all types of geological study information embedded into a RESQML EPC + HDF5.

Egis is an international player active in the consulting, construction engineering and mobility service sectors. It creates and operates intelligent infrastructure and buildings capable of responding to the climate emergency and helping to achieve more balanced, sustainable and resilient territorial development. With operations in 120 countries, Egis places the expertise of its 16,000 employees at the disposal of its clients.

Context and history of Geosiris’s development

The EGIS Company is engaged in a BIM approach for many of their civil engineering projects concerning transport (highways, railways, metros, canals, tramways) or industry (harbors, airports, factories, etc.) in France and worldwide. BIM is based upon a set of processes for managing a project, based around a 3D digital model that assembles the different models produced by each discipline or specialty.

Architects were the first in the construction industry to use 3D models and CAD tools, but for a building there is no need to have a 3D geomodel of the subsurface, and thus the CAD tools have essentially no facilities for importing a 3D geomodel and the associated data.

The need exists in civil engineering and an effort is starting internationally to communicate between CAD software by using the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). Today there is even no IFC release candidate for Geotechnics and Subsurface. To fulfill this need in the short and middle term, the EGIS Company was working to find an operational solution to exchange sub-soil 3D models based on international standards. A decision was made to use the RESQML format currently used to exchange geological and reservoir earth models between major geomodelling software used by the petroleum industry (Léonard et al., 2019; Léonard, 2020).

Since 2019, a first specific application (RESQML Builder) integrates borehole data and 3D geomodels, taking into account the DEM (Digital Elevation Model) of the BIM project. A second one (RESQML-CAD), developed by Geosiris, is dedicated to the transfer to Autodesk Civil 3D. Another development (RESQML GIS) is in progress to transfer the same 3D models and their borehole data to ArcGIS Pro and WebSIG.

BIM use cases realized with RESQML-CAD

A plug-in for Autodesk Civil 3D, developed in C#/.NET under Visual Studio in collaboration between EGIS and Geosiris (Léonard et al., 2019; Léonard, 2020), provides the geotechnical information to this BIM software.

A menu added to the menu bar of Autodesk Civil 3D (versions 2018 to 2021) allows connecting and disconnecting to RESQML documents, importing and drawing horizons and faults of the 3D models, drawing boreholes in 3D, drawing fence-diagrams and 3D logs data. It is possible to choose each element to draw among the various interpretations of the 3D models (geological, geotechnical, hydrogeological). Each drawn element is also associated with a list of attributes in a BIM database.

Views obtained exclusively with RESQML-CAD include:

  • 3D model of an extension (dock and basin) of the “Port Autonome de la Guadeloupe”, also called “Guadeloupe Port Caraïbes”.
  • Boreholes drawn by RESQML-CAD: an EGIS gold mining project with boreholes having different types of trajectory (vertical, horizontal, inclined and deviated), and the Hinkley Point C EPR project (UK) with cored boreholes and trial pits.
  • 3D models with vertical faults.
  • Boreholes with pressure meter test data: detailed view of a borehole with the curves of creep pressure and limit pressure, and a view of a group of 3D boreholes with their data.

References

  • Léonard (2019 and 2020).
  • Valentin Gauthier et al., Operational Use Cases Using RESQML Standard to communicate Geotechnics and Subsurface Information to BIM, Near Surface Geosciences, an EAGE conference in Bordeaux, 29 August – 2 September 2021.
  • Geotechnics and subsurface information: ontologies and data model of the RESQML v2.2 with examples of interoperable transfers between geomodelling, BIM and GIS software.

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