Madel, a Spanish manufacturer of HVAC components, has selected to manage the BIM data for its equipment on the BIM&CO platform

“We shape the air” – even though Madel is an expert in HVAC solutions itself, it’s BIM&CO the manufacturer has decided to entrust with the modelling of its products in BIM!

For more than 50 years, Madel has specialized in the design and production of components for the diffusion, adjustment and monitoring of the air in air conditioning installations.

It was in 2014 that the company began to express an interest in BIM: with the increase in demand on the part of engineering consultancy and architectural firms showing no sign of slowing, the manufacturer decided to take the leap and offer its products in BIM format. Jordi Delgado, an industrial engineer at Madel, explains: “For some of our services, the ideal of having our products in 3D seems completely logical. However, we are aware that the most important thing was the information contained within these objects, and not just the geometry in itself.”

Working in close collaboration with the Madel technical teams, BIMETRICAL, a Spanish company with expertise in BIM modelling and Content Partner to BIM&CO, was given the responsibility of defining the manufacturer’s specific needs, and then realising the creation of digital copies of its products. “We were quickly faced with the problem of parameters, as we wanted to offer a coherent catalogue of products, containing all of the necessary information, without overloading the file, so as to guarantee the fluid use of the BIM objects, without making abstractions of the numerous variants and options relating to our products. Collaboration with a trusted partner was therefore essential to the success of the project,” explains Jordi Delgado.

Madel was also attracted by the BIM&CO platform as a tool for the autonomous management of its objects and BIM data: as a matter of fact, the BIM&CO for Manufacturers offering enabled Madel to offer BIM objects compliant with international classification standards, such as Uniformat or Omniclass, but also with the Spanish classification system GuBIMClass, while still remaining in control of its data (manageable without professional tools). Using the Analytics tool the manufacturer was also able to visualise the growing success of its products among users and to identify potential prescribers with ease.

The technology developped by BIM&CO resolves the issue of the separation of data and geometry. Muriel Bourgeay, Country Manager in Spain, explains: “Processing geometry and data separately enables the advanced management of the data. Using the OPMS (Open Properties Management System), the technical information relating to the equipment can be organised and managed with a view to meeting all of the requirements specific to each stage of the life cycle of the building. Thus, the manufacturers have the guarantee that the are offering products that meed each professional requirement within the BIM process.

The Madel product catalogues, modelled in Revit format, are available at this address.