The Quest for the OpenBIM Exchange Requirements Checking Language: Comparing mvdXML, IDS and Gherkin

Abstract: Information delivery specification (IDS), model view definition (mvdXML) and Gherkin are the main encodings of quality assurance rules for Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) models governed and/or employed by buildingSMART International (bSI). Our comparison shows that each of them addresses the serialization of exchange information requirement (EIR) rules in its own specific way. IDS provides fastest time-to-market with its limited vocabulary, Gherkin rules support encoding of the most requirements with most effort, and mvdXML provides the best trade-off between broad support for various requirements while retaining the benefits of a limited vocabulary for fast implementation.