Architects, designers and builders will get a hand in selecting natural stone from Cold Spring Granite with its new online library of Building Information Modeling (BIM) families.



"With increased collaboration of designers, constructors, suppliers and manufacturers earlier in the design and construction process, the trend is heading toward making specific product selections sooner rather than later," said Jeanne Ver Dugt, Cold Spring drafting supervisor. "Cold Spring Granite's families will help meet the need for technical product information faster."



BIM, which generates and manages data during the life of a building, usually involves 3D real-time software, such as Autodesk Inc.'s Revit®. Wwith more product information becoming readily available in a BIM format, Cold Spring Granite assembled their products in Revit's organizational groups, or families.

Cold Spring Granite established functional details and parameters in the created models such as sizes, height and slope. This information can be taken directly from the project and incorporated into the production tickets to streamline the manufacturing process.

"This will further enhance our efficiency as a supplier," said Tim Feldhege, Cold Spring drafting manager. "We've been careful to keep our family files to a manageable enough size for practical use by architects and general contractors."

Enhanced files, featuring the addition of color and finish combinations for rendering, are also available on the Cold Spring Granite website. The ability to add color and texture during the early stages of the design process has been met with favorable feedback from the market.

Cold Spring Granite's BIM object families are available in Revit 2010 format on the company's website, and currently include family details such as stone wall facings, anchors, thresholds, floors, coping and sills. Data is available in 3D versions for modeling and 2D for drawings.

Additional stone information, such as panel sizes, weight and test data can be found on the Cold Spring Granite website. Currently, Cold Spring Granite has 20 families, with approximately 50 more building product models in the works.

"Architects will be able to use our BIM objects to specify piece sizes or make adjustments," said Feldhege. "If their requirements go beyond the parameters of what we've established, we can work together to make changes and adjustments specific to the project."