Can smart manufacturers/suppliers of construction products make a real difference TO BIM and still look after their ‘bottom line’?

I promised, I‘d give manufacturers/suppliers of construction products hints on how to work well in the BIM arena;

However, before you (smart manufacturers/suppliers) get into analysing the 10 points I mentioned yesterday, there is another question to ponder:

Is the digital representation of your products going to be a free-standing object type, attached to a system tool or a self-supporting tool operating within the host program?

Now, if this sentence makes no sense to you, you need to go one step backward:

Is there anyone within your team that can answer with confidence the question above?

Here is my definition for the types:

·         Free standing objects are: Digital articles that can be placed in a virtual space without any additional tools (system provided or external). These can be very simple or very complex and their attributes (parameters) can be variable or fixed depending on the product they represent.

(branded furniture, fixtures, appliances)

·         System tool attachments are: ones that use program-supplied tools as their vehicles to build virtual representations for the products, most typically walls, slabs, roofs.

(branded walls, slab or roof systems; spouting, pipes, windows, doors)

·         Self supporting tools are: ones that work within programs but contain all applications that are needed; They self-execute themselves, look after their individual components and synchronise modelling/editing tools with their host environment.

(waterproofing- excavation- finishing systems)