It seems like startups are cropping up every day in the AECO space and when it comes to BIM-specific applications, there’s no shortage of solutions to help with the daily grind. BIM content management systems are no exception and I realize that it may hard to understand what differentiators each platform has to offer to determine the best content management system for you.

In the post, we’ll present two of the most prominent features that set us apart from the competition and makes UNIFI the best content management system. If you’ve been wondering why our platform is chosen by Disney, Interior Architects, Katerra, Stantec, HOK, Legrand, Pella, and hundreds of other brands read on!

Storage: Cloud vs Local

Across all industries, cloud technology is gaining more and more steam. When evaluating the best BIM content management system for you, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is, “do I want my libraries hosted in the cloud or locally on my own local network?”

UNIFI Pro is a solution that is cloud-based, which grants our users some obvious benefits:

•Access Anywhere – Consider your team as they’re working remotely on a construction site, a client’s office, or even from home. How easy it is for them to access their BIM content? Do they need to engage with your IT department for VPN access? Many of these issues can be solved by hosting your BIM content libraries in the cloud.

•Version Control – UNIFI Pro provides a simple change management, which means all content inherently maintains a changelog allowing the team to see who changed what and when. Admins can even roll back to a previous version as needed. BIM content management systems that are hosted locally typically rely on your IT department to manage backups.

•A Single Source of Truth – One could argue that duplication is the enemy of standardization. Storing BIM content on a network drive exposes your team to the risk of duplicate families throughout multiple folders and subfolders. Not only will a cloud-based library help mitigate the risk of duplication, but coupled with Project Analytics you’ll be able to see who is loading content from sources other than your UNIFI libraries.

Revit Content is More Than Loadable Families

In terms of project deliverables, Revit is an all-inclusive platform which provides out-of-the-box functionality to manage details, schedules, materials, and more. With that being said, as you’re exploring some of our competitors to determine the best BIM content management system, be conscious of what types of content their platforms will help you manage other than loadable families (i.e., rfa files).

Some of the types of content that we can store In UNIFI Pro include:

•Materials – Migrate away from managing those adsklib files. Struggling with storing them on a common network location is a thing of the past because we can now store the Revit materials (along with their renderable assets) in the cloud along with your other content.

•Schedules – Store your standardized schedules and their relevant parameters in your UNIFI Pro libraries. You’ll even have the ability to preview the schedules before inserting them into your active projects.

•Drafting Views – Details are a critical piece of construction documents. If you’re currently managing these details as drafting views within a “container project,” consider the benefits of storing each detail as an individual piece of content in UNIFI Pro, which enables teams to implement metatags, revisions, and future-proofing for multiple versions of Revit.

Competitive Analysis