The article details how the specification data is exported to COBie.

Also see the Export to COBie section in the NBS Create Help Centre

What is exported

COBie documents contain information on the maintainable assets so NBS Create will export all the data from your specification except for:

Project Management Sections (00)
Whole Building Performance Sections (05)
System and Product Execution Clauses (600-799)
System Completion Clauses (801-899)
System Facilities Management Clauses (901-999)
Any parked or deleted clauses

How the data is structured

Your specification data will populate four worksheets (Contact, Type, System and Attribute) in the COBie document.

The data is populated in these worksheets according to the following rules:

Contact sheet

  • All system and product manufacturer clauses which contain a named manufacturer from NBS Plus or have been entered as a custom manufacturer are exported.
  • Each manufacturer is exported once, one per row. Uniqueness is determined by manufacturer name.
  • If the 'system manufacturer' or 'manufacturer' field in the specification is not the name of a company from NBS Plus or entered by the Custom Manufacturer feature e.g. it is entered as plain text, this will not get exported.
  • Furthermore if the'manufacturer' field is not a name, for exampleif it contains 'Contractor's Choice' or 'Submit Proposals' this does not get exported.

Column name

  

Email

Manufacturers contact email (blank if not known)

CreatedBy

As entered by the user at the point of export. Usually practice email address. This will be blank by default if nothing was entered

CreatedOn

The date the export was completed in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

Category

PM_10_60_55 : Manufacturer
Note: This will show the same value for both a Uniclass 2015 and NBS Code export

Company

Manufacturer name

Phone

Manufacturer contact telephone number

ExternalSystem

NBSCreate (text entry)

ExternalObject

NBSManufacturer (text entry)

ExternalIdentifier

The unique NBS identifier (known as the GUID)

Street

Populated from address field in NBS Plus or custom manufacturer or blank if not populated

Town

Populated from NBS Plus or custom manufacturer or blank if not known

StateRegion

Populated from NBS Plus or custom manufacturer or blank if not known

PostalCode

Populated from NBS Plus or custom manufacturer or blank if not known

County

Populated from NBS Plus or custom manufacturer or blank if not known

All other columns in the worksheet are left blank

Type sheet

  • One Product clause or System outline per row.
  • Clauses in ‘General requirements’ are not exported to this worksheet but they will be included in the Attribute worksheet. General requirements are comparable to system performance which are not included in this worksheet.

    CR0022A

Column name

  

Name

System outline or Product clause title followed by clause suffix (if applicable)

CreatedBy

As entered by the user at the point of export. Usually practice email address. This will be blank by default if nothing was entered

CreatedOn

When the export was completed in the following format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

Category

Classification formatted as [Clause number] : [Clause title]

If both NBS Code and Uniclass 2015 are selected to export or there is a one-to-many mapping each classification is separated according to the COBie scheme as " ; "

If there is no Uniclass 2015 code, "No mapping found for this clause in Uniclass 2015" is inserted as text

Description

Clause title followed by clause suffix (if applicable)

Manufacturer

NBS Plus or Custom Manufacturer email address. Alternatively if this field in your specification has been populated with “Submit proposals”, “Contractors choice” or “Contractors decision” or plain text this will be displayed in this field. It will be left blank if there is no value to display

ModelNumber

NBS Plus or Custom Manufacturer Product reference. This field will be left blank if there is no value to display

ExtSystem

NBSCreate (text entry)

ExtObject

NBSProductClause for product clauses

NBSSystemClause for System outline

ExtIdentifier

The unique NBS identifier (known as the GUID)

All other columns in the worksheet are left blank

System sheet

  • One System outline per row.

Column name

  

Name

System outline clause title followed by clause suffix (if applicable)

CreatedBy

As entered by the user at the point of export. Usually practice email address. This will be blank by default if nothing was entered

CreatedOn

When the export was completed in the following format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

Category

Classification formatted as [Clause number] : [Clause title

If both NBS Code and Uniclass 2015 are selected to export or there is a one-to-many mapping each classification is separated according to the COBie scheme as " ; "

If there is no Uniclass 2015 code, "No mapping found for this clause in Uniclass 2015" is inserted as text

ComponentNames

System outline product clause item values as a comma separated list including suffixes. Only product clause items that are hyperlinks to clauses will be exported

Plain text values will not be exported

ExtSystem

NBSCreate (text entry)

ExtObject

NBSSystemClause (text entry)

ExtIdentifier

The unique NBS identifier (known as the GUID)

Description

Description text from System Outline (blank if nothing to display)

All other columns in the worksheet are left blank

Attribute sheet

  • Product clause and System Outline clauses span over more than one row according to how many clause items them contain.
  • The details of the clause reference in “General requirements” will take on the name of its parent clause. In the example below the ‘General or utility plywood’ clause references another product clause for ‘Timber procurement’ as general requirements. We export the contents of the Timber Procurement clause and apply the name of the parent clause against them – in this case General or utility plywood.

    CR0022B

Column name

  

Name

System outline or Product clause title followed by clause suffix (if applicable)

Note: where there is an indented clause item, the parent will be included e.g. Duty->Size->Width (mm)

CreatedBy

As entered by the user at the point of export. Usually practice email address. This will be blank by default if nothing was entered

CreatedOn

When the export was completed in the following format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

Category

Classification formatted as [Clause number] : [Clause title]

If both NBS Code and Uniclass 2015 are selected to export or there is a one-to-many mapping each classification is separated according to the COBie scheme as " ; "

If there is no Uniclass 2015 code, "No mapping found for this clause in Uniclass 2015" is inserted as text

SheetName

Type (text value)

RowName

Product clause title followed by suffix (if applicable)

Value

Clause item text (that corresponds to the Name field)

ExtSystem

NBSCreate (text entry)

ExtObject

NBSClauseItem (text entry)

ExtIdentifier

The unique NBS identifier (known as the GUID)

All other columns in the worksheet are left blank