Testers of the latest version of the National Building Information Modeling
Standard-United States say the update, which is the first-ever consensus-based open standard governing BIM, is a huge improvement over version one.

The National Institute of Building Sciences buildingSMART alliance released the latest version today, May 17, at the national convention of the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C. The standard sets forward agreed-upon ways to promote interoperability among BIMs of different vendors.

The goal is to have software vendors embed the standard in the software so the user doesn't have to worry about it. The bigger goal is to have one BIM for a building, from its cradle to its grave. 

NBIMS-US v2 moves the complete standard into the digital age, says one beta tester: "In the past, most standards have been relegated to monstrous volumes of paper, or a very large pdf file. With version two, we have a navigable structure that allows stakeholders at most levels or disciplines the ability to discern topics that
apply directly to them through any web browser. There are numerous other improvements that constitute orders of magnitude in ease of understanding, applicability and usability over version one."

Sounds like good news for BIM users. More details to come on the NBIMS on ENR.com and in the pages of ENR.