The library has been developed by the company with the support of the CITB through its innovation pilot projects. The BIM library features 102 of Stewart Milne Timber Systems products; including walls, floors and roof products and is free to download from BIM store.

BIM is a collaborative design, construction and sales process which use BIM objects to create intelligent 3D models of a project across multiple professions and trades, to maximise efficiency and avoid conflicts which can add time and cost to a project or a development. The 2016 the National BIM report showed that 86% of respondents expected to be using BIM in projects in 2017, and 97% of projects in five years’ time.

Stewart Dalgarno, director of product development at Stewart Milne Group, said: “Part of the challenge of bringing BIM into mainstream construction practice is a lack of available products or systems in an accessible, useable format for clients, designers and construction professional to use.

“Our research highlighted, that less than 5% of the supply chain are BIM ready, with 40% BIM aware but not active, with the rest not even aware of BIM. There was no dedicated Offsite Timber Frame Systems library and only a handful of Offsite Manufacturers, offering some form of BIM component library.

“We’ve worked closely with the BIM Store, the UK’s leading BIM content and hosting creators, to develop this library and it will help designers and architects build 3D models in Autodesk Revit, in a fast and accurate manner, helping them reduce their effort and improve accuracy, from concept to detailed design.”

Architects are free to download specific products or systems or the whole library, so it is readily available for them to use, in early stage design work. The use of the Stewart Milne Timber System BIM objects library will reduce lead-in time on a timber frame project, by as much as a month; reduce error, re-working and requests for information, by removing the need for a three-stage ‘back and forth’ design process between architects and Stewart Milne Timber Systems’ design team.

Instead, dimensionally accurate 3D models can be prepared by the design team, immediately after using the BIM library; this allows for the company to automatically create a dimensionally accurate 3D timber frame model, which can be exported back into the original model using an IFC file. This ensures the original model is an accurate representation of the offside system to be erected; it also provides a platform for clash detection and therefore reducing site costs and delays when unforeseen clashes arise.