Why use an established standard for Class templates?

[Christiaan]

I might be working on somebody's Class template soon so I'm revisiting first principles.

My main questions is, what advantages are there to using a standardised classification system—such as Uniclass—besides the following?

1. You don't have to reinvent the wheel
2. Improved collaboration with other consultants and new team members, who may already be familiar with the standard.

VW Classes don't seem to matter a lot when it comes to BIM IFC output. Is this the case, or am I missing something? Classes also seem a little less important with the advent of Materials in VW. The main purpose seems to simply be the internal organisation of one's model.

I've been using a hierarchical, plain-language template I developed many years ago, based on Uniclass 1.4, which looks like this:

 

A-Annotations-GA Plans

A-Annotations-General Notes

A-Fabric-Walls

A-Fabric-Walls-External

A-Fabric-Walls-External-Existing removed

A-Fabric-Walls-External-Existing retained

A-Fabric parts-Core-Plywood
A-Fabric parts-Internal finishes-Plaster

A-Fittings and furniture-Fitted

A-Services-Heating and ventilation-Extract

A-Site-Enclosure-Wall

 

And to incorporate control of line thickness for detailing purposes I recently added:
A-Fabric parts-Core-Plywood-Thick

A-Fabric parts-Core-Plywood-Thin

Very easy to use and understand due to the plain language and logical hierarchy.

Uniclass, while also hierarchical, is mostly coded rather than plain language, and looks like this:

 

A-EF-25-10-M-WallExternal

A-Pr-25-71-33-M-Glass

A-Zz-20-20-D-Dimension

 

And the thing is I can never seem to find a compelling reason to switch to this, away from my plain-language template. Convince me why I should.

[Christiaan]

One benefit, in the case of Uniclass in the UK for example, is that Vectorworks comes out of the box with a comprehensive set of Classes based on ISO 19650, and objects with auto-classing, such as windows and doors, have been set up to use this naming convention, with two default parametric styles (one window and one door) included in the file, along with some walls.

 

This is admittedly one of the advantages I already mentioned (You don't have to reinvent the wheel), but it's a pretty significant wheel.

Does a U.S. install come with a comprehensive Omniclass template like this, or just the AIA template?