Best practice “Product information and BIM” using the example of Schöck components

Thanks to the partnership between AUSSCHREIBEN.DE, KiM and crossbase, existing AUSSCHREIBEN.DE catalogs can be automatically updated by KiM and crossbase. Product manufacturers, such as the company Schöck Bauteile, benefit from this partnership: with little effort, they offer architects and planners a valuable, convenient service.

The interaction of all partners involved can be explained simply: With crossbase, Schöck provides its products to be published. These include the product breakdown, technical data, product images, documents and tender texts. KiM controls the CAD/BIM data for insertion in all common CAD/BIM systems. And AUSSCHREIBEN.DE presents this product information and CAD/BIM data on its platform for planners and architects - integrated on one interface. Users can thus access and reuse Schöck content relevant to tendering and planning simply, directly and free of charge.

The benefits are obvious: Complete digitization of the maintenance, provision and presentation of product information can ensure that planners and architects can meet their needs for up-to-date product information and CAD/BIM data. And this with minimal additional effort on the part of the manufacturer.

Schöck: Wide variety of products for different applications

Schöck Bauteile GmbH, a company of the Schöck Group, is a leading supplier of building products for thermal and acoustic insulation. Whether for new buildings or existing structures: Schöck offers forward-looking product solutions and systems for a wide range of structural, structural and design applications. The core competencies here are high-quality, ready-to-install components for the application areas of thermal insulation, sound insulation and reinforcement technology. With its products and services, the company sets international standards with around 1,000 employees in the various companies in Europe and North America .

Technical editor Bernhard Maier is responsible at Schöck for providing the tender texts with the crossbase PIM and explains: “Schöck has many thousands of product variants for the different applications. This makes manual maintenance of tender texts difficult. With the automated text generation in the PIM-system, every single product gets an individual tender text. This is a great added value for the tendering planner.”

The data transfer to AUSSCHREIBEN.DE takes place automatically every week. This means that the data is always up to date, even in the event of product changes and further developments. With the connection of CADClick through KiM, the planner has quick access to the appropriate CAD/BIM data of the individual products. And this connection also works in the other direction: The BIM objects each contain a link to the matching page on AUSSCHREIBEN.DE. Thus, the planner already has quick access to the required tender texts when dimensioning the components with the BIM objects from Schöck.

AUSSCHREIBEN.DE: Leading platform for construction product data 

With over one million free tender texts and product information AUSSCHREIBEN.DE is the leading online platform for construction product data in German-speaking countries. In addition to Schöck Bauteile, over 700 manufacturers from a wide range of trades present their digital product catalogs on the portal. In addition to basic information, these also include images, videos, assembly instructions, certificates and CAD/BIM data. Every day 10,000 visitors use the high-quality data for their product research and the creation of service specifications. Especially architects, interior designers, engineers and TGA planners benefit from this service.

Thanks to the technology partnerships, the product data or BIM objects from AUSSCHREIBEN.DE can be downloaded in a variety of formats for almost all CAD and BIM applications : on the one hand in the native file formats of widely used programs such as ARCHICAD, ALLPLAN, AutoCAD, REVIT, MicroStation, SKETCHUP and SolidWorks - but also in exchange formats such as DWG, DXF, IFC, PDF, STEP, VRML and many other 2D, 3D and BIMformats. In this way, suitable products for the corresponding planning are defined at an early stage of the project. The entire planning process becomes more convenient, digital and efficient.

“Anyone planning a construction project is under a lot of time and cost pressure,” says Manfred Scholz, Managing Director of ORCA Software GmbH, which operates the AUSSCHREIBEN.DE platform. “Whether product research or the selection of suitable solutions: an effective workflow becomes the decisive factor here. All players in the construction industry benefit from high-quality, relevant data on one platform.”

KiM: CAD/BIM component catalogs for designers, planners and architects 

 KiM GmbH is a specialist for configurators and 3D visualization of variant-rich individual parts as well as assemblies in digital product catalogs and the output of CAD/BIM data. The implementation is carried out with the in-house software technology CADClick®. In addition, the Saarland-based company creates innovative communication solutions such as interactive videos, 3D animations or virtual and augmented reality applications.

“In particular, the customer is relieved of the time-consuming multiple maintenance of the data. The data generation from CADClick® is provided to AUSSCHREIBEN.DE in the form of a viewer component . In addition, the Schöck CAD data are provided with a return link from the product catalog to the matching AUSSCHREIBEN.DE product page. By this bidirectional linkage we increase the visibility of both enterprises for the users and facilitate thereby the finding of necessary data for the planning process”, explains Christian Altmeier, software developer at KiM.

Project manager Diyan Rashevski of Schöck supplements: “It was me a joy to be allowed to manufacture the contact between CADClick® and AUSSCHREIBEN.DE. Both companies have realized a project with very high professionalism, so that Schöck's CAD/BIM libraries are now seamlessly integrated on AUSSCHREIBEN.DE.”

crossbase PIM and MAM: A central database for communication in all media and sales channels

Schöck has been using crossbase's PIM (Product Information Management) for a variety of media since 2011, e.g. for the technical documentation, the price list and the website. Schöck maintains its product and media data in the PIM and MAM. Via the interface from SAP to crossbase, information maintained in the ERP is automatically transferred.
 
Procedure for AUSSCHREIBEN.DE: In the PIM, a special product classification for AUSSCHREIBEN.DE is created; for this purpose, product groups and subgroups are created and products are linked in them. In the total over 13,000 relevant products are represented, e.g. Isokorb, Sconnex and Tronsole. In addition to the product images and documents, the products also contain the technical product data, for example, dimensions, building physics characteristic values and building inspectorate verifications. These data are used in automatically generated tender texts in the form of text variables - this thus enables the use of only one text template for a large number of product variants. On the one hand, this automation achieves a high degree of uniformity and topicality in the tender texts, while on the other hand it eliminates the manual effort required to create the texts.
 
Data provision for AUSSCHREIBEN.DE takes place via the standard format GAEB XML. For this purpose, the Channel Output Management of crossbase defines in advance which products are to be displayed on the platform. This is done automatically, so that the effort for maintenance in the portal is completely eliminated. In addition, it is possible to provide the product data for integration in the BIM/CAD files via an interface to CADClick.

Further information on the interface at Schöck can be found in the crossbase report.