Special Terms in BIS

This section contains rules and recommendations [rec.] related to special terms from the BIS upper ontology

Model

Description Note
Rule Model classes must always be suffixes with Model. E.g. FunctionalModel, PhysicalModel

Exception: GeometricModel2d, GeometricModel3d

Element

Description Note
Rule Abstract terms should only appear higher in the inheritance hierarchy than concrete terms. E.g. The term Element is used to suffix some abstract classes. Once Element is dropped from the name – because the class is concrete - it never comes back.

User-facing classes are normally concrete and we especially don’t want to add superfluous terms to those.
Rec. User-facing classes should not be expressed in abstract terms E.g. Don’t use InformationContentElement when you can use Document

RoleElement

Description Note
Rec. Don’t suffix with Role E.g. Resource, Asset rather than ResourceRole or AssetRole

Aspect

Description Note
Rec. Suffix with Aspect

Type

Description Note
Rec. Use the term Type for real world types rather than Class or Kind E.g. FunctionalType rather than FunctionalClass or FunctionalKind

Last Updated: 15 June, 2021