System and method linking building information modeling and enterprise resource planning

An electronic construction collaboration system for managing a construction project comprising:

• an enterprise resource planning (ERP) sub-system including code stored in memory executable by a processor to implement;
• a contract engine configured to generate at least one project contract including a contract data set with ERP metadata;
• and
• an interconnection engine configured to:
• generate a link between the ERP metadata and building information modeling (BIM) metadata corresponding to a structural object of a construction project model stored in a BIM sub-system based on a correspondence between one or more first data fields in the ERP metadata and one or more second data fields in the BIM metadata, wherein
• the generation of the link includes determining a match between a determined value for the one or more first data fields in the ERP metadata and a determined value the corresponding one or more second data fields in the BIM metadata,
• the generation of the link is prioritized based on a number of first data fields in the ERP metadata with values corresponding to second data fields in the BIM metadata for the structural object, and
• once generated, the generated link maps an association between non-corresponding data fields in the ERP metadata and the BIM metadata;
• send the contract data set to the BIM sub-system in response to receiving a user's selection in the BIM sub-system using the link between the ERP metadata and the BIM metadata, the generated link mapping an association between corresponding and non-corresponding BIM metadata in the BIM sub-system and ERP metadata in the ERP sub-system;
• automatically receive and update the contract data based on a change order received in the BIM sub-system, the change order having indications of updates to the contract data including updates to the ERP data in the non-corresponding data fields;
• and
• send the updated contract data to the ERP sub-system using the generated map between the non-corresponding data fields in the ERP metadata and the BIM metadata.

A method for managing a construction project, the method implemented by code stored in memory executable by a processor in an electronic construction collaboration system, the method comprising:

• generating a link between building information modeling (BIM) data and enterprise resource planning (ERP) data based on a correspondence between one or more data fields in the BIM metadata and ERP metadata, the link mapping an association between data in a BIM sub-system and an ERP sub-system including a map between non-corresponding fields in the BIM metadata and ERP metadata, wherein the structure and organization of the BIM sub-system is different from the structure and organization of the ERP sub-system, and wherein generating the link includes:
• determining a value for the one or more data fields in the BIM metadata and the corresponding one or more data fields in the ERP metadata;
• and
• mapping the BIM metadata associated with the determined value of the one or more data fields in the BIM metadata to ERP metadata associated with a matching value in the one or more data fields in the ERP metadata,
• wherein the generation of the link is prioritized based on a number of data fields in the ERP metadata with values matching the determined values in the BIM metadata for a particular structural object;
• receiving a structural object selection input from a BIM sub-system user;
• selecting a structural object in a construction project model executed by the BIM sub-system in response to receiving the structural object selection input, the structural object including BIM data and BIM metadata;
• retrieving ERP data from the ERP sub-system in the electronic construction collaboration system in response to selecting the structural object using the link between the BIM data and the ERP data, the retrieved ERP data including data associated with the non-corresponding fields;
• displaying the BIM data and ERP data to the BIM sub-system user without requiring the user to navigate in the ERP sub-system;
• receiving an input associated with the structural object from the BIM sub-system user, the input comprising a change order having updates to the BIM data and the ERP data;
• automatically updating both the BIM data in in the BIM sub-system and the ERP data in the ERP sub-system, using the link, based on and in response to receiving the input associated with the structural object, wherein the automatically updating includes using the map between non-corresponding fields in the BIM metadata and ERP metadata to update non-corresponding fields in the ERP sub-system;
• and
• storing the updated BIM data in the BIM sub-system and the updated ERP data in the ERP sub-system.