UniversalTypesTM – Construction Products at Your Fingertips

buildingSMART International (bSI) and ProMaterial, announce today the launch of an initiative to further develop the UniversalTypes language. UniversalTypes are designed to enable real-time sales of construction products and materials. UniversalTypes will facilitate online sales processes between manufacturers, distributors and purchasers.

“UniversalTypes will help streamline the accessibility of products for construction projects by making building and construction materials available at users’ fingertips. Such a direct user-facing initiative is new for buildingSMART International which further highlights the value and importance of our open solutions and services”, said Richard Petrie, CEO, buildingSMART International.

The UniversalTypes unique language is a specific use case domain of the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) and will enhance existing languages based on the ISO12006-3 standard.  bSI will initially publish the language as a publicly available bSI SPEC and in due course, standardize and maintain the language for the benefit of the industry. As a member of bSI, ProMaterial has been able to expedite the process of creating a universal language by following the bSI SPEC methodology.

buildingSMART will, in due course, invite the leading industry manufacturer of building and civil construction materials and associations for their engagement in defining all necessary UniversalTypes.

For more information, visit www.promaterial.com.

About buildingSMART International:

buildingSMART International is a vendor-neutral and not for profit body that leads the development of open digital information flows across the built asset economy. Its mission is to proactively support industry participants who want to develop open standards for planning, design, procurement, assembly and operation of buildings and infrastructure worldwide. It provides the international network plus the necessary technical and process support. Its members, who range from across the built environment spectrum, collaborate under the buildingSMART organization. buildingSMART is engaged with other international standards bodies such as ISO, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Its core Industry Foundation Class (IFC) standards achieved ISO approval in 2012. Further information is available on the Internet at www.buildingsmart.org

About ProMaterial:

ProMaterial is an innovative technology network specializing in the online sale of construction products. Its high-performance distribution solution enables manufacturers and distributors to effectively distribute building and civil construction materials. ProMaterial enables all possible buyer groups to retrieve information about the products in the way they need them. Country and regional descriptions, rules and habits are taken into account as well as the personal relationships among the business partners. For all B2B or end customers, the order becomes more convenient and the offer richer and more transparent. The network will be launched in 2019 with 200 manufacturers and 500,000 products to be sold online by ProMaterials’ customers enabled through ProMaterial technology.