When coordinate systems don't match across disciplines, models that look correct in isolation fail to align. The errors often don't surface until late in the project, when they're expensive to fix. This two-day course at VDI Wissensforum covers coordinate reference systems, transformation methods, and how IFC 4.3 handles georeferencing.
The target audience is BIM coordinators, surveyors, and infrastructure planners who deal with georeferenced models in practice.
Image Credit: VDI Wissensforum
What the seminar covers
- Where GIS and BIM approaches diverge and how to integrate them without data loss
- Coordinate reference systems and their role in construction and infrastructure projects
- Transformation methods: Helmert, NTv2, analytic
- Defining exchange information requirements and other legal documents
- IFC 4.3 georeferencing:
IfcProjectedCRS,IfcMapConversion, andIfcRigidOperation - Quality assurance and model coordination for georeferenced deliverables
- Case studies from infrastructure practice: common failure modes and how to catch them early
What two days looks like
The course starts with coordinate reference systems, covering projected, topocentric, and geocentric types and the role each plays in BIM and infrastructure modelling work. Most georeferencing problems start here: a model was built in one system, the survey data was in another, and nobody caught the mismatch.
From there, transformations. The course covers different transformation paths, among others Helmert and NTv2: what each handles, where they differ, and when the choice matters. Transformations between reference systems introduce distortions that compound in multidisciplinary projects, and the course works through how to quantify and account for them.
The second day covers IFC 4.3 entities IfcProjectedCRS, IfcMapConversion and IfcRigidOperation: how to populate them so any compliant tool can reconstruct the coordinate placement without needing external documentation.
Last but not least, the importance of geodetic distortions is discussed and quantified. The participants learn, when these can be safely neglected, and what measures can be undertaken to minimize the impact of (potentially unintentional) neglection.
Instructor
Štefan Jaud is our founder and managing director. His doctorate at TU Munich was on georeferencing in BIM. He applied that research in infrastructure consulting, e.g. a georeferencing study for the Erzgebirge Base Tunnel on the Dresden–Prague high-speed rail corridor.