Content Highway - List of US Suppliers/Manufacturers

[Marek Brandstatter]

We're planning to include a list of building product suppliers by country in Content Highway.

The US list we're considering contains over 10000 names, which we're worried may be overkill. Should we be looking at editing it down to something more useable?

All comments appreciated.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=27153&page=1&pp=40&highlight=manufacturers

[Steve_Stafford]

Marek,

I'd be inclined to make this data part of an internet based data table that CH can lookup rather than putting it into CH directly. Maybe that's what you were already doing? Anyway, unless these 10k firms are actually providing Revit content then maybe it is overkill?

[dbaldacchino]

How about including companies that are on Sweets as a start? (www.sweets.com (http://www.sweets.com)). That might be overkill too.

[Marek Brandstatter]

Steve, David

My view is that its overly optimistic to expect every real-world building product to be modelled in Revit. Obviously the more that are the better, but it'll happen over time (years) as a result of Revit's penetration by country.

The approach we're taking with Estimate Highway and Product Highway (of which Content Highway is providing some of the groundwork) is the 'Placeholder concept' where a generic Family-Type can represent multiple building product options.

In other words

1. draw it in Revit- so that it looks right and schedules right
2. research it on the web, in brochures, brick & mortar shops, etc
3. associate multiple product options (URLS, images, etc) to the family-type (probably project specific)
4. nominate one product as final choice

Content Highway is important is that we expect preliminary specification to begin here - ie. start associating multiple building products to your families. The benefits are downstream, when the same families pop up in Estimate Highway already containing candidates/pricing of real-world products.

The Web naturally plays a huge role - Content Highway, Estimate Highway and Product Highway - will have interoperable desktop and web versions.

Is 10000+ suppliers (of say Sweets) still overkill? Should it be substantially whittled down?

[gordie_v]

do you have to include it as a place holder?

why not just make it user editable?

as I add content I also add to the list of suppliers.
that way the list only includes suppliers that I have content for.

that is one area I would like to see improvement in content Highway, I did not see a way to add or subtract fields in the properties. I would like to add fields and remove fields.

[Marek Brandstatter]

do you have to include it as a place holder?
By 'place holder' we will simply allow it become or mean something else later - by changing its metadata not its geometry. This is completely optional. It can remain static if you want.


why not just make it user editable?
That's how it is currently - manually user editable. But what if you change your mind about a product? You then have to manually update multiple fields. In our preferred scenario you would select the new product from an extensive database - eg Product Highway - and all relevant fields will be filled automatically.


as I add content I also add to the list of suppliers. that way the list only includes suppliers that I have content for.
Turning the Populated toggle ON achieves the same thing, but allows an extended supplier list when turned OFF.


that is one area I would like to see improvement in content Highway, I did not see a way to add or subtract fields in the properties. I would like to add fields and remove fields.
We can do this. Out of interest...

(1) Approximately how many fields would you envisage adding?
(2) Can you list a few examples?