A good team: PIM and BIM at CREATON GmbH

For companies that use Building Information Modeling (BIM) systems, the provision of suitable data is a significant competitive factor. But how can large volumes of data be optimally transferred to third-party systems and kept up to date at all times? An efficient solution is to connect to a product information management (PIM) system.

The interaction of the crossbase database and CadClick opens up completely new possibilities of data preparation and provision. Through the permanent exchange between the systems, we can ensure that all data is always up to date, everywhere.

Robert Einbock
Marketing Manager, BIM, Database Publishing, CREATON GmbH

Initial situation

CREATON GmbH, the largest German manufacturer of clay roof tiles and market leader in plain tiles, has an extensive product range. The company uses the PIM system from crossbase to minimize the manual effort required for data maintenance and data transfer to various output channels. Together with crossbase and CADClick, CREATON GmbH efficiently creates BIM data to provide planners, architects and interested parties with product information quickly and easily.

Procedure

To enable interaction between the PIM and BIM systems, an automated interface between crossbase and CADClick (KIM GmbH - Member of 4PACE) was implemented. As a result, the BIM models created in CADClick are enriched with product data from the crossbase database at CREATON and parameterized. Defined BIM formats are then automatically generated, which are assigned to the products in crossbase and referenced there in the product structure. These can be output together with all other product information via various output channels such as online stores where CREATON offers its products.

An API interface was developed by crossbase for this purpose, which determines the relevant articles at regular intervals and checks for changes in the BIM-relevant data. If necessary, a web service from CADClick is called up via a delta logic. The returned BIM files are imported into CREATON's crossbase database and assigned to the corresponding products.

It is possible to retrieve the BIM files in different languages, output formats and levels of detail ("Level of Detail" or "Level of Information"). These files are referenced in crossbase as additional information for the respective products.

The product data from crossbase can either be used as parameters that directly influence the generated BIM files (e.g. height or color of the model), or they serve as descriptive additional information that is included in the BIM models.

Result

The automated interface between crossbase and CADClick ensures seamless integration of product and BIM data. This enables the central management, flexible adaptation and targeted provision of BIM files in various formats and levels of detail. CREATON GmbH benefits from efficient process design and can always provide up-to-date product information for numerous output channels.

Advantages

• Automated interface for efficient interaction between PIM and BIM system
• Time savings thanks to a high degree of automation
• Automatic creation of BIM formats based on the product data in the database
• Flexible BIM files in various languages, formats and levels of detail
• Regular checking and updating of BIM data
• Integration of product data as parameters or additional descriptive information in the BIM models