Owners of Digicon Information Inc, NBS, announced two major developments this week that will help manufacturers share their product information digitally across both Canada and the UK.
The free-to-use NBS BIM Object Standard defines what constitutes a quality BIM object, and provides the foundations for a consistent approach that can be adopted by designers, manufacturers and BIM content developers alike.
Widely adopted across the UK, the NBS BIM Object Standard has been updated to account for local adjustments, working in partnership with Arup Associates, Institute for BIM in Canada, House of Commons, Smart BIM Solutions and Western University in Canada.
NBS Chief Executive, Richard Waterhouse, said: “Since we announced the acquisition of Digicon in January 2017, we’ve been working with some great liked-minded organisations and people across Canada, trying to understand how we can support the industry.
“We understand the frustrations and time constraints of trying to manage badly constructed data, which is why we were quick to recognise that the lack of an industry-wide standard for BIM objects was a significant barrier to the construction industry's successful transition to a digital future and its adoption of BIM.”
NBS has also developed its National BIM Library to increase use across Canada. The library hosts generic and proprietary BIM objects, created to the NBS BIM Object Standard, that are freely available for designers and specifiers to download.
The NBS National BIM Library is already used globally and for those manufacturers who update their BIM objects to include relevant content for the UK and Canada, will be found more easily by users of the library in Canada.
“For those who write and manage BIM content, the free-to-use guidance included in the BIM Object Standard is a great opportunity to help write product information to an international standard that can be more readily used by specifiers and designers,” added David Watson, President of Digicon.
“The next step is to increase visibility of those objects and that’s where the library comes into play. It provides the opportunity for manufacturers providing BIM Objects to understand how and who is using their products with analytics and automation set up to update on when and where the object is being downloaded.”
Visit www.theNBS.ca and www.nationalbimlibrary.com/ca to find out more about the NBS BIM Object Standard and the NBS National BIM Library.
You can also email info@theNBS.com or call + 1 866-278-9954.
For more information, please contact NBS PR Executive Jennifer Scullion on +44 0191 244 5523 or email Jennifer.Scullion@theNBS.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT NBS: NBS is committed to offering distinctive, innovative specification and information solutions to construction industry professionals and are proud to be leading the construction industry in its digital evolution. Our origins lie in the National Building Specification and for over 40 years we have developed and produced NBS products which support the built environment. Our NBS specification products cover construction, engineering services and landscape design.
More recently we have developed an integrated Building Information Modelling (BIM) platform that has been designed to support global design and construction. It currently has four major components:
- NBS BIM Toolkit: BIM execution plan, roles and responsibilities.
- NBS Create: BIM specification and knowledge platform.
- NBS National BIM Library: BIM object library, generic and actual.
- Construction Information Service (CIS): Standards and regulations.
CIS is delivered via a joint venture with IHS Markit. This relationship has successfully prospered for many years.
Our products are recognised as being individually effective in their own right, but via the linking of the data, classification and integration, the true power comes through these connections across the NBS BIM platform. Combining world leading technology with expert knowledge, NBS is trusted to help construction industry professionals make the best project decisions.
To find out more about NBS, visit www.theNBS.com
ABOUT DIGICON: Digicon is a premier source of construction-related information in Canada - primarily in the form of master specifications, software for specifications and BIM, and related services. Digicon is a Canadian corporation based in Alberta for more than 20 years, starting as a father/son family business and now transitioning into NBS, a division of RIBA Enterprises.
Digicon’s flagship products are its master specifications, designed for the large and small commercial sectors (CMS and MiniSPEC), and the residential sectors with HomeSPEC, and project management documents such as OutlineSPEC and MasterPP.
Digicon has a direct licence with the National Research Council (NRC) to publish the Canadian National Master Specification (NMS). Visit www.digicon.ab.ca for more information.
