# Developing a Building Fire Information Management System Based on 3D Object Visualization
## 4 Prototype Design of the BFIMS
### Design of the BFIMS  
The complexity of a system is determined by the plug-in, user accessibility, and functions through the platform chosen to implement and run the system. Furthermore, in terms of system accessibility, users should generally be able to easily modify and configure the database for changes according to the level of information they can process. In particular, for emergency responders, the system interface should be simple and easy to manage. It is also necessary to guarantee data processing speed by reducing large-capacity information loads [26]. Therefore, the system to be developed should be able to extract only the minimum level of information requirements for fire response activities.  
SketchupTM, a conceptual 3D modeling tool, has been unsuitable for complicated building models. However, it is one of the easiest modeling programs for non-professionals to use in that it is useful for quickly constructing approximate mass models. It also requires less system storage capacity compared to other BIM software and, therefore, it can improve data access speed. Sketchup has an  
Figure 2: Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram of conceptual data model for BFIMS.  
easy-to-follow interface and an extension (or plug-in) functionality, which can be applied to a variety of applications [27]. Further, it is easily integrated with Google Earth, making it advantageous to apply the extended concept to future urban disaster management. Sketchup is generally used as a schematic design tool in the earlier stages [28].  
As a plug-in system, BFIMS was developed via Sketchup software and can further be expandable as a BIM model. The system can be installed as an add-on program to Sketchup. Ruby, which is the default language for Sketchup, was adopted as a programming language for the system.  
The Sketchup plug-in program used in this study is named BFIMS. It is a system prototype for managing information that can be used in the maintenance phase for fire safety and in the fire emergency phase for fire control. As seen in Figure 3, the facility manager installs the BFIMS into the Sketchup, which contains a 3D object model with building components. Based on the information structure provided in the previous section (see Table 1), the type is determined. In this stage, any specified object data, including building components, are also stored into the system. When changes are made in the maintenance stage, the stored data are updated using the modification algorithm. In addition, visualization in color designated by the type is possible. The position of the component (object) belonging to each type in the 3D environment is obtained. The necessary information can be classified according to the corresponding procedure by outputting the details.  
To construct a database of the 3D object, the authors developed a building model in the Sketchup environment via BFIMS. The model view is in a mass form to improve the data processing speed. The user inputs the object type as well as physical and maintenance information using the graphical user interface and the plug-in. The type information linked with each object and each relevant information are encoded and stored in Javascript Object Notation (JSON) in the attribute of the model. At this time, the type information given to the object is stored in the ComponentDefinition entity, and the information given with regard to each object is stored in the ComponentInstance entity. Sketchup visualizes the single or grouped multi-object information selected by the user. As a result of the data processing, it can also retrieve the detailed information in a real-time basis.  
Figure 3: BFIMS architecture.