Patent Document ID: 9170574
Application ID: 12891505

Base Claim:
1. A method for configuring a building management system (BMS), the method including; storing a repository of equipment model templates in a memory, wherein each template defines a data organizational framework that is configured to describe a category of equipment in a building system, one or more data points associated with a piece of equipment belonging to that category, the roles of those data points, and relationships with one or more further pieces of equipment for which equipment model templates are defined; a user defining a plurality of equipment model items using the repository of equipment model templates via a user interface that is in operative communication with the memory, such that each equipment model item describes a specific physically installed piece of mechanical equipment in terms of data as required by the template, wherein for a given physical installed piece of mechanical equipment, the defining includes: (i) selecting, from the repository of equipment model templates via the user interface, the category of equipment that describes the physical installed piece of mechanical equipment; and (ii) for each of the one or more data points associated with the selected category of equipment, associating via the user interface the data point with a physical installed control level item associated with the physical installed piece of mechanical equipment, being a control level item from which data is received by the BMS, such that the BMS is configured to attribute data receive from that control level item with that data point; constructing an equipment model including the defined equipment model items, wherein the equipment model provides for automated visualization of the equipment model items defined to represent physical installed pieces of mechanical equipment in terms of location and relationships; and using the equipment model to automatically visualize the equipment model items defined to represent physical installed pieces of mechanical equipment in terms of location and relationships on a display.

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Claim 2:
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the relationships with the one or more further pieces of equipment are defined in terms of reliance relationships and containment relationships.