BIM Content Management at a Glance

1. Automate As Much BIM Content Creation as Possible

As pointed out in this article on ArchSmarter, there are some tried-and-true ways to keep your content organized: 

• Simplest approach: Keep content sorted with a robust folder structure. The more granular the folders, the easier it is to pinpoint specific families. Be wary of using too many folders, as they can make “finding the right family like searching through a haystack.”

• Using templates: Load commonly used families into a template file. Balance the number of families included in the template with overall file size. If you load in too many families, you will end up with unmanageable project files that are prone to errors.  Hybrid: Use spreadsheets to batch load families. While it’s time-consuming to create the family sets on the front end, it will be worth it when you can “load tens or hundreds of families with a single click.”
   

2. Standardize Your BIM Family Files

You’ll either be using out-of-the box content, downloading it from a library or manufacturer’s site, or creating youar own. In each chase, you should name or rename the family in a way that identifies where it came from makes it easy to locate in your family browser. 

Make sure your naming convention is clear and easy to understand. If it requires a cheat sheet or a committee to make sense of it, guess what? You’ll be answering the same questions over and over again or worse, other users will just ignore it and make up their own instead. Even if your naming structure makes sense to you, run it by a few co-workers before you implement it.  

More standardization best practices:

• Use a prefix or identifier for your company for families created by you or your firm, so they can easily sort in the family browser

• Project specific families should have a project prefix 

• Add the LOD to the family name as a suffix for easier auditing, switching of higher and lower LOD families as needed, and to broadcast to the user how much detail they can expect in the family  

>> Don’t forget to consider: How will you update your content with each new release of your modeling software? Whether you create separate folders for each upgrade version, or use a single library and add new files for the different versions, things could get real hairy real quick. 

3. Manage Your BIM Content in One Inventory

When you’re working in your model, it’s fine to keep a small collection of items you will use in the future. Storing every component you loaded just in case you might need it is not. This will slow down your system to a frustrating pace. If a component you need accidentally gets purged, you can always load it back in. 

One of the biggest problems when working with content is that both individuals and entire teams go back to old projects and carry forward mistakes to new designs. Make sure to create a formal process for going back to correct or flag objects or components that have caused problems further downstream. That way you can ensure only the right content is available for your next project, eliminating rework, delays, and other poor outcomes.

4. Hire a BIM Content Specialist

There is a best way to create and manage your content: Have someone else do it for you! It’s incredibly easy for teams that spend time searching for and updating their own manufacturer content to miss product updates. Most manufacturers don’t send notifications when updates are made — meaning your entire building model could be thrown off, even if just one type of component was updated without your knowledge. 

There are more time-saving, headache-stopping benefits to using a managed content provider:

• Easily find the content you need with advanced filtering, sorting, and tagging

• Making data accessible across teams and applications removes silos and makes real-time collaboration possible

• Having the most accurate, detailed information available allows for digital-twin builds and the reduction of risk further throughout the project

• Preview the family before you load it saves time

• Help your team maintain the quality and usefulness of your content over the long term 

There’s no getting around it: BIM models today require content. Lots and lots of content. Yet budgets and deadlines have rarely kept pace. It’s time to manage your content in smarter and more efficient ways.

BIM Software Can Help with MEP Content

Shrinking budgets result in BIM engineers designing in even smarter and more efficient ways. Good software is necessary to do this. But different projects require different functionalities in your software (and different content needs). Flexibility is becoming even more important here as well.

The ‘on-demand’ model, such as the system we use at home for Netflix, will increasingly penetrate the world of design software. Software, updates, and support are included in a monthly payment, and consequently can be adjusted precisely to meet your needs. Specific design tools, available as Apps, will appear more frequently. The functionality and content you need at a specific moment can easily be installed for your project by means of these handy Apps.

Ready to browse the world's largest BIM library for MEP engineers? Or is it time to look at making the move to Trimble MEP? Reach out today to see how we can help your mechanical, engineering, or plumbing business!