Building Content: Why Do We (Or Should We?) *Trust* Manufacturers Content Implicitly?

It’s a pretty common story line, about how BIM Content gets in to a Project Model: Design Starts… Eventually detail starts getting added…  Something gets put in as a placeholder… Once we know what the object is*- we go looking for BIM content that accurately represents that object.  Often times, that means we hit up the Manufacturers website, to see if they have a component for our BIM software of choice. If they do, we download it.  If we are VIGILANT we review it for all sorts of things… But let’s be honest, that doesn’t always happen. A lot of project teams say “well it’s from the manufacturer, and they know their product better than I do!”

But… Is the content you got from them an accurate representation of their product?

Recently, I came across some Plumbing Fixtures on a manufacturers website. I opened them and did my normal “Content Check,” consisting of: Any CAD geometry (nope), all native editable geometry (yep), model on in all views (no,…

Read more

Leave a Comment