The collaboration between the involved partners can be easily explained: crossbase enables product manufacturers to publish their products, including product structures, technical data, images, documents, and specification texts. KiM provides the CAD/BIM data for integration into all common CAD/BIM systems. AUSSCHREIBEN.DE showcases this product information and CAD/BIM data on its platform for planners and architects, integrated into a single interface. Users can easily, directly, and freely access the manufacturer’s tendering and planning-relevant content and reuse it.
The benefit is clear: the full digitalization of managing, providing, and presenting product information ensures that planners and architects can meet their needs for up-to-date product information and CAD/BIM data, with minimal additional effort required from the manufacturer.
With over a million free tender texts and product information, AUSSCHREIBEN.DE is the leading online platform for construction product data in the German-speaking region. Over 700 manufacturers from various industries present their digital product catalogs with attachments such as images, videos, assembly instructions, certificates, and CAD/BIM data. 9,000 visitors per day, primarily architects, interior designers, engineers, and TGA planners, use the high-quality data for product research and creating specifications.
Thanks to technology partnerships, the product data or BIM objects from AUSSCHREIBEN.DE can be downloaded in a variety of formats for almost all CAD and BIM applications: both in native file formats of popular programs such as ARCHICAD, ALLPLAN, AutoCAD, REVIT, MicroStation, SKETCHUP, and SolidWorks, as well as in exchange formats like DWG, DXF, IFC, PDF, STEP, VRML, and many other 2D, 3D, and BIM formats. This allows appropriate products to be defined for the relevant planning stage early in the project, making the entire planning process more comfortable, digital, and efficient.
Manfred Scholz, CEO of ORCA Software GmbH, operator of AUSSCHREIBEN.DE, comments: “Those planning a construction project are under immense time and cost pressure. Whether it’s product research or selecting suitable solutions, an effective workflow becomes a crucial factor. All stakeholders in the construction industry benefit from the high-quality, relevant data on a single platform.”
“The client is especially relieved of the tedious task of multiple data maintenance. Data generated from CADClick® is provided to AUSSCHREIBEN.DE as a viewer component. Additionally, the manufacturer’s CAD data is linked from the product catalog to the relevant product page on AUSSCHREIBEN.DE. Through this bidirectional connection, we increase the visibility of both companies for users and make it easier to find the necessary data for the planning process,” explains Christian Altmeier, software developer at KiM.
Product manufacturers use crossbase’s Product Information Management (PIM) system for a variety of media, including technical documentation, price lists, websites, and AUSSCHREIBEN.DE.
Procedure for AUSSCHREIBEN.DE: For AUSSCHREIBEN.DE, a specific product structure is created in the PIM; product groups and subgroups are set up, and products are linked within them. Along with product images and documents, the products include technical data such as dimensions, building physics parameters, and official approvals. These data are used in automatically generated specification texts, in the form of text variables, allowing a single template to serve numerous product variants. This automation ensures a high level of consistency and currency in the specification texts while eliminating the manual effort of creating them.
Data is provided to AUSSCHREIBEN.DE automatically via the standard GAEB XML format. Through crossbase’s Channel Output Management, it’s pre-determined which products will be displayed on the platform. This automation entirely removes the need for portal maintenance. In addition, an interface with CADClick® makes it possible to provide product data for integration into BIM/CAD files.
Data is automatically transferred to AUSSCHREIBEN.DE every week. This means that the data is always up-to-date, even in the event of product changes and further developments. KiM’s connection to CADClick® gives the planner quick access to the appropriate CAD/BIM data for the individual products. And this connection also works in the other direction: the BIM objects each contain a link to the appropriate page on AUSSCHREIBEN.DE. This gives the planner quick access to the required tender texts when dimensioning the components with the BIM objects.
On May 7 and 8 we bring together eCC – eCatalog Conference and DCS – DIGITAL COMMERCE SUMMIT! On Day 1, explore the future of the digital B2B customer journey across industries, and on Day 2, dive deep into industrial sales.
