Extending the IFC Standard to Enable Road Operation and Maintenance Management through OpenBIM
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper proposes an extension of the IFC schema to enrich the standard with semantics inherent in the O&M phase of road infrastructures. The paper is generally well written and well structured, and it fits into the scope of the journal. However, the following issues must be solved:
1. The introduction is generally adequate, but the authors need to describe more clearly the intellectual merits and how the extension can be operated as a standard.
2. To allow comprehending the extension, (i) extracts of the schema in terms of the corresponding EXPRESS file and (ii) a representation of the IFC model for the use case in terms of the corresponding STEP file must be provided.
3. It should be further elaborated how the IFC model (use case) is generated (related to (2)).
4. Many figures are incomprehensible.
5. English writing must be improved.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper is very related to another paper the authors published recently in the same journal, reference 25. It is suggested to clearly distinguish the contribution which is different from that one.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript presents Extending the IFC Standard to Enable Road Operation and Maintenance Management Through OpenBIM. OpenBIM and IFC are important for the company and are part of not only infrastructure projects.
The article still needs to be modified and explain in a more detailed way.
Recommendations for addition:
- OpenBIM is based on open IFC standards. In this context, it is necessary to specify the following facts in road and infrastructure, which are not clearly specified in the study.
- Design activities of road infrastructure are connected to work with solid road (area solid and volume solid). How was the planar road solid transformed into the IFC standard to behave as a volume solid?
- How was data compatibility between multiple volume solid in the IFC format?
- How was the connection of descriptive information to external databases ensured (connection of basic properties within descriptive fields for individual volume bodies in terms of construction materials - concrete, gravel, fraction, etc.)
- Is such a database of descriptive materials generally available for BIM models? If so, try to characterize it in more detail, i.e., whether it is part of the processing software. Is it possible to link volume object settings in IFC to existing external databases in this context? Have you ever considered a unified BIM database that would describe the composition of materials?
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The reviewer's comments have thoroughly been implemented. However, writing and figures (diagrams in particular) still need improvement, which may finally be checked by the editor without another review round.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
