Detailed planning with just a few clicks

No house without windows. No house construction without planning. No planning without an architect. Anyone who plans buildings inevitably thinks about windows and doors. Modeling them as BIM elements yourself on the computer takes hours or even days for a single window, weeks or months for a library with a small window selection. It's faster on the Internet: bimobject.com is a global marketplace with 4 million users and 31 million product downloads per year, free of charge for architects. They download BIM objects and insert them into their building models. On this platform, GEALAN provides data from windows and doors in various formats and its plug-ins for architectural software. This is how users also become aware of GEALAN's planner software 3.0. Thanks to numerous downloads and good ratings bimobject.com GEALAN is listed at the top of the search results for windows and doors. 

Jana Breuch (27), an architect, specialises in BIM during her studies in Aachen, attends BIM courses and discovers GEALAN: "That was in 2018. After learning how to work with the CAD/BIM software Vectorworks, I got into Revit. As a student, you have to rely on free websites such as BIMobject and GEALAN was actually the only profile manufacturer that was represented there with a wide range of products." 

Jana Breuch has been working at skt umbaukultur in Bonn for three years – an office that specialises in residential construction and conversion projects. "Building in existing buildings is a high priority for us. However, I am more involved in new construction projects and also use the planning software 3.0 from GEALAN for this." skt is currently undergoing a development process: the CAD system has been converted from 2D to 3D, Revit has been introduced. The office wants to work more innovatively, network more efficiently and make better use of time. Jana Breuch was also brought into the team for this purpose: "I think I brought some momentum with me. Ideas existed before my time and I gave the impetus to make them a reality." 

To familiarize herself with GEALAN's planning tools, Jana Breuch combines intuition and strategy, "just sits down to get straight to it" out of her own interest, clicks through menus and quickly gets into routine. "The user interface is super clear and you can find your way around quickly." She gets answers to specific questions in video tutorials and later in an individual training course from the construction service. "I was surprised by GEALAN's support. Once or twice a year we have someone with us who introduces us to new profile systems, answers questions about the planner software 3.0, introduces new employees. For assistance with specific problems, we turn to the architectural consultancy. Mostly it is about error messages for sound insulation, Uw value or statics. We then learn what we have planned incorrectly and need to change. This gives us planning security, which is important for the exchange with specialist engineers." 

The architect is currently working on several apartment building complexes and single-family housing estates with daycare centers. As soon as she starts planning windows for a new project, GEALAN is involved. "The fact that we are already using the GEALAN RevitPlug-in in the design phase is also due to the fact that the Revit library is not well equipped. Particularly in the case of window families, it has gaps that GEALAN can close for us in order to quickly develop initial façade ideas. The sash size portfolio is unique and the integration of elements is uncomplicated, even for special requests." Time savings and flexibility are plus points in the cooperation with investors who demand very detailed views at an early stage. Jana Breuch likes to try things out, check and adapt to find out what is necessary and what is feasible. "If we build higher, it will be complicated with the sash sizes and if the frame profiles become too large, it will be difficult to create the opening for them, especially in confined spaces and at low room heights. Being able to easily test detailed solutions on the model is an enormous help." 

"In the past, window details were only an issue for implementation planning. But since we now save so much time, we can already incorporate it into the design planning. This optimizes the exchange of information between all parties involved and thus the entire planning process." 

Innovation? "Absolutely!" Jana Breuch is enthusiastic about innovative window systems. Above all, in the sense of zero-barrier planning, it does not use massive, large window profiles. BIM is a "huge process" for Jana Breuch. The first steps have been taken, but the exchange between architects and engineers, for example, is still reaching its limits. If even more data were taken from BIM models, BIM could make work even easier and make planning and construction even more efficient.