Bradley BIM-Revit Resource Portal

The Bradley BIM Team maintained time and cost records for building the Bradley Revit Family Library from the summer of 2009 to December 2011.When I survey the Revit family modeling costs, relative to the processes we used to build Bradley's 1000 Revit Families; it reveals the "real value" in cost savings for each pre-built Bradley Revit Family Model.

Each pre-built, Bradley Revit model, can typically save a trained and knowledgeable BIM Manager between $150-$250 of labor costs.

Whoa! How did you arrive at that dollar value?

I arrive at this value, by combining these 2 assumptions with our 7 standard steps (below) for properly constructing a Revit family model. In fact, these are the initial steps I teach every professional; that needs to properly create Revit family models.

 Assumption #1: I set my BIM Manager costs at $75 / hour; realizing the manager has real costs for hourly wage, software, equipment and benefits. The manager should have a billable rate (cost) for creating project Revit families (project billing cost) AND company standard Revit family library (billed back as overhead to reduce future project costs). I identify these costs as an organization's BIM Assets.

#1 - Building Product Manufacturer (BPM) Website Hosts BIM Files

Typically, a Building Product Manufacturers' (BPM) Marketing Department creates BIM files to promote the specification of their products; within their clients’ BIM design projects.

While BIM files promote the manufacturer’s brand; successful pre-built BIM files provide real cost-savings to the BPM's design + contracting customers. BPM BIM files provide the manufacturers' distribution network with digital planning tools to assist designers + contractors' with their project product selection process.

Logically, a Marketing Department should choose the building product manufacturer's website as the first and best location for file-hosting of their BIM files.

1. Links to the BPM's digital design files (BIM, CAD, Specifications, Product Tech Data Sheets) should be prominently displayed on the front page of the corporate website

2. Indicate the BIM file-types of your products for your clients to download. (Revit, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks or Bentley BIM files)

3. Within the BIM Library, populate product images, contact links, product warranties, construction specifications and tech data sheets around your individual BIM files.

Fact: Designers expect to find and search for a BPM's BIM files on the BPM website, first. They assume the most current files are located on the BPM website with all supporting documentation.

Tip: Do not syndicate the BIM Files with BPM BIM File Library Websites or BIM File modeling service websites; until the BIM library is completely hosted on the BPM website.

For example, our corporate BIM Library website annually delivers more than 6 million Revit model downloads to our visitors. Collectively, four different BIM Libraries that host \ syndicate Bradley Revit models, achieve only 10% of our total annual website downloads. 

The Bradley BIM library was hosted on our corporate website for 18 months; prior to adding other BIM Library services. BPMs want the majority of ALL visitor traffic to come to the BPM website. Links to the BPM BIM library files, should NOT take their visitors to their BIM Library; that is NOT on the BPM website.

#2 - Know Your Client Market & Design Tools

Where are you selling the majority of your products? USA? Europe? UK? Middle East? China? Australia?

What BIM software are your design and construction clients using in your major sales market(s)?

My April 2014 Revit \ BIM article for Sourceable.net (Australia) reviews the potential savings from carefully selected, pre-built Building Product Manufacturers' (BPM) BIM content for BIM-based projects and office BIM standards.

Sourceable.net (Australia) Article

Pre-built Manufacturer BIM Content Can Deliver Savings

Excerpt: Leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software packages such as Autodesk Revit, Bentley Microstation, Graphisoft ArchiCAD and Nemetschek Vectorworks provide libraries of free generic BIM content in their respective BIM file formats.

However; without reliable BIM content produced by Building Product Manufacturers (BPM), projects produced by designers with BIM software; will be greatly limited to create accurate construction documents.

Read Complete Article:

Pre-built Manufacturer BIM Content Can Deliver Savings

My thanks to Excel Engineering Inc in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin for their permission to use their CrossWay Church \ Germantown WI Revit project image for my Sourceable.net BIM BPM article.

Additional Building Product Manufacturer (BIM) Content Articles

My First 5 Revit Family Manufacturer Content Websites

Bentley AECOsim Building Designer Reads Manufacturer Revit Family Files

Bradley BIM Library Available for Vectorworks Service Select Members

Bradley Revit Family Secrets | LOD – Level of Development

Key Costs for Building Revit Families

The secret to successfully implementing Revit is choosing Revit process features; that offer the best initial financial benefits early in the CAD-to-Revit transition process.

If Revit can substantially outperform your CAD software for creating documentation; why not start using Revit to draw faster and improve your documentation integrity and quality?

Here's my list of the ten best process features in Revit; that can offer the biggest Return On Investment (ROI) in the initial phase of Revit implementation.

1. Automatic Sheet set Management and Tag Coordination

2. Automated Floor Planning Tools

3. All Model & Sheet Views Update When the Revit Model is Edited

4. Annotation Graphics Resize Based on View Scale

5. Power of Parametric Dimensioning

6. Pre-built Building Product Manufacturer Model Libraries

7. Building Schedules Synchronize\Auto-Update With Model Changes

8. Views: Independent & Automated Visibility Controls

9. Multiple people can simultaneously Access and Edit the Project File

10. Link DWG Files Into Revit Project

I established this list more than ten years ago; to help my Revit clients maximize their Return-On-Investment (ROI) on their "Revit Pilot-Project" implementations.

Many of these Revit process features and associated functionality -- do not exist in other CAD or object-based software programs. Clients immediately reaped the financial rewards (faster drawing, reduced labor) from using these processes on their first pilot projects.

(March 2014) I'm pleased to publish Bentley's formal announcement of Autodesk Revit Family support for their new AECOsim Building Designer V8i (SELECTseries 5) BIM software.

Our thanks to Bentley for using the Bradley Revit Family Library (1,000 families) as part of their larger data set --to test Revit family import stability \ integrity in the new AECOsim Building Designer V8i (SELECTseries 5) software.

Bentley's Technical Manager (a former Revit Manager) for this project, focused on

1. maintaining the Revit family geometry's dimensional integrity,

2. retaining the Revit family parametric & visibility control behavior,

3. retaining the embedded parameter data type values,

4. retaining the Revit family types (embedded or family catalogs)

This new feature immediately provides Bentley users access to 10's of thousands of Building Product Manufacturers' (BPM) Revit families in their native RFA file format.

 Bentley will supports Revit family file formats for Revit 2009 through Revit 2014. When Autodesk Revit 2015 is released; Bentley will begin testing the Revit 2015 new features of the family file format (RFA).

It demonstrates Bentley's commitment to both interoperability between different BIM software tools --and the value of providing their users with pre-built BPM BIM content for their Bentley design projects.

Download 2014 60-page BIM Report:

McGraw-Hill Construction Business Value of BIM in Australia and New Zealand

This research study focuses primarily on BIM users in Australia and New Zealand and it shows that firms in these countries, though relatively new to the use of BIM, recognize its value and are planning to deepen their BIM investments. In fact, 51% of firms are engaged with BIM on more than 30% of their projects today, and this number is expected to increase dramatically in the next two years.

I authored an article for the Australian design+construction website; Sourceable.net --that highlights the BIM Library content investment for BIM Implementation.

Sourceable.net (Australia) Article

View Complete Article: Pre-built Manufacturer BIM Content Can Deliver Savings

Excerpt: Leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software packages such as Autodesk Revit, Bentley Microstation, Graphisoft ArchiCAD and Nemetschek Vectorworks provide libraries of free generic BIM content in their respective BIM file formats.

However; without supporting Building Product Manufacturers' (BPM) BIM content, designers will be limited by cost and time to produce construction documents with their BIM software.

Free Pre-built Building Product Manufacturers' BIM content may also increase BIM file sharing between disciplines -- as the model building costs are covered by the BPM.

Download 2014 60-page BIM Report:

McGraw-Hill Construction Business Value of BIM in Australia and New Zealand

Bradley Australia Website

MODLAR - Bradley BIM Library Link

Bradley BIM is expanding access of the Bradley Corporation Revit Library (1,000 Revit families) through a hosting service agreement with MODLAR.com.

Bradley BIM Articles

Download Complete Bradley Revit Family Library (1000 Families) – Download All Options

Download Bradley Revit Family Library From Autodesk Seek Building Product Manufacturer Revit Library