The ADSK Format - A Superior Communication Tool

The Information Age has been a great boon to the manufacturing world. These days we all have access to nearly limitless information about any topic imaginable. With the right information, we can achieve goals that 20 years ago seemed forever out of reach. With the wrong information, however, we can enable mistakes that make those of the past pale in comparison.

Take as an example the recent troubles experienced by Toyota Motor Sales: millions of recalled vehicles, a public relations disaster and lasting harm done to the brand. Some are attributing these troubles to a failure of the concept of Digital Prototyping. A recent article published at Forbes.com declared:

'Software-designed cars don't always behave as expected in the real world.'

While I agree that our virtual models don't always behave in reality as they do on the screen, I don't see that as a fault of software. Digital Prototyping is a tool, and as with any tool, when applied improperly it can do more harm than good. The problem with Toyota's sticking accelerators appears to be increased friction due to humidity. If engineers had even considered the possibility, they could have used their software to investigate the consequences and possibly solved the problem before it became a nightmare.

The real benefits of Digital Prototyping cannot be ignored, and these same benefits are driving the Building Information Modeling (BIM) revolution in the construction industry. In fact, BIM appears to be catching on much faster than did Digital Prototyping, as the immediate, demonstrable cost savings it presents makes it very attractive to management.

You can't just say the letters 'B I M' and reap the benefits, however. You need content to get the job done. To BIM users, access to accurate information is paramount. The whole point of BIM is to gather as much information as possible to avoid problems during the construction and operation phases. Do you provide products to the building industry? If so, ensuring you also provide as much information as possible with complete accuracy can be the difference between your brand becoming synonymous with quality, or synonymous with something less attractive.

The Product Communication Problem

Consider the 'traditional' method of product information dissemination, the catalog:

Even the Best Catalogs Can Be Confusing

For decades, engineers have been using the catalog to find, spec, and price components. More recently, product designers have been able to provide electronic 2D drawings and even basic 3D models to their customers. There are two major problems with the 'catalog and basic model' approach when it comes to communicating detailed product information, however.

The first problem? Engineers don't create catalogs. Sure, they provide the data, but ultimately a member of the sales or marketing department is responsible for the end product. Said one Sales Communication Administrator I spoke to about this process:

'An engineer can look at a datasheet and in a blink know everything there is to know about [the product]. A sales or marketing person can stare at a datasheet all day long and not make sense of it - be it the part or the datasheet in general.'

Every time information is handed off, the possibility of making a mistake increases. The chance is even greater when one party in the handoff doesn't really understand the information they're working with. The sales and marketing folks are great at selling your products, but they'll be the first to admit they often get lost in the product's details.

That leads to the second problem -- customer interpretation. Even if your handoff to marketing is flawless, your customers must still correctly use the information your catalog supplies.

Fifteen Different Order Parameters? Good Luck!

The more complex your product, the greater the chance your customer will inaccurately interpret or transcribe important details about it when creating their BIM model. Contrary to popular belief, the customer isn't always right. Even a minor mistake can cost thousands of dollars and days or weeks of schedule slip.

One Solution: The ADSK Format

A solution to these information handoff problems is emerging: the ADSK file format. This is the file format Autodesk has introduced to share information between building product designers and their customers. Created by the Autodesk Inventor AEC Exchange environment, an ADSK file can contain vast amounts of information about your products.

AEC Exchange Dialogs from Autodesk Inventor and a Corresponding Dialog from Revit MEP

This includes not only exact geometric information, but detailed information about product performance: air, liquid, even electrical connections. As a product designer, you can guarantee that your customers receive completely accurate information for use in their BIM models.

For now, catalogs still have their place. As BIM adoption grows, however, building designers will become increasingly reliant on digital information to develop their models. The ADSK format, which provides both geometric and product performance information, is the superior communication tool that BIM modelers will come to rely on in the future.

This page last edited on Monday, February 14, 2011