SimDesign is an open-source Python framework which enables the simulated design of buildings following historical and modern seismic design procedures in Europe. The framework generates a Building Class Information Model (BCIM) database for a given building taxonomy, described through attributes such as lateral load coefficient and design class, to represent multiple possible building realisations and explicitly capture building-to-building variability within a portfolio of buildings. Each realisation is processed through an iterative simulated design procedure, with the resulting design details stored in the Building Design Information Model (BDIM) database. Following the design stage, the framework generates a Building Nonlinear Structural Models (BNSM) that can be readily used for structural analysis in OpenSees. These outputs ultimately support the development of probabilistic seismic demand models, fragility functions, and vulnerability models for large-scale seismic risk assessment studies, such as the European Seismic Risk Model (ESRM20). The SimDesign source-code is maintained in a GitHub repository under the Built Environment Data (BED) initiative, allowing the earthquake engineering community to contribute to a growing database of seismic design practices encompassing a wide range of design codes in European countries. A web-service implementing the framework is also available to facilitate the generation of the datasets and computational models. Technical details on the development of SimDesign can be found in the list of related publications provided on the Documentation page.
How to use and cite this work
This work is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3. To view a copy of the license, visit https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html
If you make use of the SimDesign framework, please cite as follows:
Ozsarac, V., Pereira, N., Mohamed, H., Romão, X. and O’Reilly, G.J. (2025), The Built Environment Data Framework for Simulated Design and Vulnerability Modelling in Earthquake Engineering. Earthquake Engng Struct Dyn., 54: 2651-2670. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.4378