Barbour Product Search and bimstore join forces to promote BIM content

I got some exciting news from the James & Adam at http://www.bimstore.co.uk/. They have teamed up with Barbour Product Search www.barbourproductsearch.info to give specifiers and manufacturer’s access to the latest Building Information Modelling technology.

As we all know you can’t have missed the buzz surrounding BIM, and as interest grows, manufacturers and specifiers are faced with the challenge of adapting their working processes to meet the demands of BIM-savvy clients.

With over 10 year’s experience, bimstore has emerged as the leading online library for BIM content in the UK, helping manufacturers in the creation and hosting of BIM content, including the quick and cost-effective conversion of existing CAD objects to BIM format.

As the market leading digital resource for the entire specification chain Barbour Product Search is the perfect platform to promote bimstore’s extensive library. Specifiers will be able to search for and view BIM content from manufacturers, as well as access a dedicated BIM product library.

I managed to catch up with James & Adam at bimstore recently to better understand this new partnership as well as some of the exciting tools that they are working on.

DL - Hi guys tell me more about this new partnership with Barbour?

JA / AW - We have formed a partnership with Barbour search to power BIM components on their product selector site.  We have built a load of API’s into bimstore to enable this type of functionality.  Not only will bimstore be powering BIM on the Barbour site, we are also working closely with Barbour to help get product manufactures products into BIM, and training the whole of the Barbour team.  Initially the Barbour site will contain BIM on each manufactures product pages and also a dedicated BIM search page.

DL - Until recently you only seem to focus on Revit Content, have you plans to expand to other BIM platforms? Because as we all know, BIM is a collaborative effort…

JA / AW - We recognized this & as of Tuesday 20th March 2011 bimstore will officially support all the major BIM applications, including Revit, Archicad, and Bentley. We believe that quality, parametric; data rich native objects are the best BIM components, rather than a platform neutral IFC object. However, we are still proposing to offer IFC content as a download option. Although these components will not be available for download, on Tuesday we are announcing the fact that we intend to, so that the BIM community can help shape the standards for the content.

DL - So have you had to make changes to bimstore to allow you to expand to the next level?

JA / AW - For sure, we launched phase 1 of bimstore in April 2011. The intention of phase 1 was to get a user base of designers (Revit only) to use the site and we have now reached a critical mass so we are ready for phase 2. Phase 2 will allow us to connect with manufactures to allow them to host there BIM content. To do this we have re-designed the site and its message and adding an Eco-system of other applications and features.

DL - So you mentioned an Eco-system for bimstore, can you explain more?

JA / AW – bimstore is more than just a website, it is a powerful engine that is powering BIM components across the internet. We provide a number of distribution channels that we call the eco-system. All these channels are powered from our central cloud location, keeping all the stats and analytics in one place and enabling easy updating and management.

DL - So by the sounds of it you are working on other tools which will allow users to connect to the BIM Content?

JA / AW - Yes, that’s right. The bimstore Website is the shop window for the BIM components. But we also have a bimstore App, which will you to get direct access to bimstore components directly from within the designers/specifiers chosen software package.

The Revit version will be available for download in the bimstore Labs on the 3rd April 2012. We also have something called bimstore Shelf – When speaking with manufactures, we realised that they wanted to host there BIM components on their own website as well as bimstore. We created bimstore Shelf to solve this problem.  It’s a branded micro site portal that links directly into the manufactures website.

DL - From recent discussions Contractors are recognizing the BIM requirement, are you planning to help them?

JA / AW - We have designed something we are calling the Contractors Portal. Contractors are quickly embracing BIM, and are starting to ask their supply chain for BIM components for their products. bimstore powers Contractor BIM Portals where they can organise and distribute their approved BIM components to design teams.

DL - Looks like you guys having been working hard over the last 12 months, finally any other juicy projects you can share with the readers?

JA / AW - Yep, we are working on a bimstore iPhone & Android App, self explanatory to be honest, but it’s the bimstore site in an app.  Instead of downloading the component, pointless on a mobile! It forwards the BIM component to your email. 

We are also working on something called bimspec, can’t talk too much about this now, but it’s a 100% BIM and completely new type of specification tool. We will be able share more in the future.

DL – Thanks for your time guys & I look forward to seeing the http://www.bimstore.co.uk/ develop as BIM starts to hit critical mass in the UK & beyond.