FAR - The Revit Family Solution for Manufactureres

In the manufacturing world today we are seeing a great demand to produce more than just ‘off the shelf’ products as the customer is "demanding to have it their way" and in a timely manner.Manufacturers design product lines including static parts/products (what they may have in their catalog); configurable products; as well as total customized products that have been tailored to meet the customer’s specific needs. The following is how I see these product types and their relevance to providing data for architects working in a BIM format, specifically Revit.

• Static parts - These are products that may be singular in size or manufactured in multiple sizes. If they offer multiple sizes the data for these products would be great in a look-up table allowing the end user to select and load what they need, not to download all of the types at once which we feel would be unnecessary data for the architect.
  
• Configurable - These are products that allow the end user to select their needs based on criteria provided by the manufacturer. When providing data in Revit families for configurable products we caution that you have to be careful in not over doing it. This is where CAD Enhancement can help. We would build these Revit families based on our theory of constraints and not all of the design rules that it takes to produce the products, thus reducing the size of the Revit family.
  
• Custom - This is the made to order product designed to meet the specific needs of the customer. More and more manufacturers are requested to create their custom products in a Revit family on a daily basis. CAD Enhancement has the solution for this increasing need by automating the process to provide these Revit families and also allow the end user the opportunity to select the right amount of detail to load into their project.

With the BIM world encroaching the manufacturing world for this BIM data the question is “How to best do this?” It appears websites such as Autodesk Seek, Reed Construction Data and TurboSquid do not have the answer or possibly cannot handle this in their current format. It is also possible they just do not understand how to work with manufacturers’ product data to create efficient and effective Revit families.

CAD Enhancement has the solution in the FAR program to remedy all of the above mentioned product scenarios. The FAR program will not only address these issues but will also allow an architect the ability to select the amount of detail that best represents a product within their Revit project file.Demos of CAD Enhancement’s FAR application will be kicking off the week of June 22, with the anticipated release of the FAR Manager to be around the first week in August. If you are interested in a demo with the opportunity to ask questions about the FAR application, please contact us to schedule a time. We are keeping the attendance for these demos to individuals or a small group in order to allow for constructive interaction between CAD Enhancement and the attendees.



thanks



Patrick K. Johnson