Openings Studio is the key to the ‘golden thread’ for architects and specifiers

ASSA ABLOY Project Specification Group is calling for architects and specifiers to use Building Information Modelling (BIM) to provide the ‘golden thread’ between door design, construction, and compliance.

The ‘golden thread’ approach was outlined by Dame Judith Hackett in her report, ‘Building a safer future’. She recommends the introduction of a ‘golden thread’ as a tool to manage buildings as holistic systems and allow people to use information to design, construct and operate their buildings safely and effectively.

Essentially, the ‘golden thread’ is both the information that allows you to understand a building, and the steps needed to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future.

Paul Thompson, BIM Manager for ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions, explains: “In order to manage a doorset as a holistic compliant solution and meet these expectations, all components need to be managed through a single platform - from specification to installation and ongoing inspection.

“This eliminates the risk that doors are pieced together as an assembly of parts from various sources or maintained and repaired as a collection of individual parts.”

With this in mind, ASSA ABLOY’s Openings Studio™ BIM application integrates with design software to create and visualise openings for complete door, frame and hardware schedules and specifications.

The platform enables seamless extraction of door design intent and all relevant interfaces to assist architects and specifiers to seamlessly develop complete door requirements that meet building regulations.

Product information, performance data and budget information are captured within the BIM design environment. Through real time, collaborative working, these designs can be validated for compliance, functional performance, and aesthetics plus presented as 3D views that can be fully re-integrated into the overall project design.

With linked internal systems, ASSA ABLOY use this final schedule of information to manufacture the complete doorset solution, including the leaf, frame and all specified hardware.

Paul adds: “This is a unique collaborative tool for all project stakeholders, helping to minimise costs and streamline the data sharing process throughout the entire project lifecycle – from the initial design, right through to construction, delivery, asset management and beyond.”

Furthermore, an extension to Openings Studio™ has recently been developed, which offers a mobile app that directly accesses this data for use during the door installation process, ensuring full validity of the finished product prior to project completion.

The app offers an easy to use ‘check box’ system to carry out and capture detailed inspections based on the specific details of each door included in the schedule.

This report validates if a door has remained compliant, or identifies what elements need to be corrected or replaced to return the product to the standard required, providing full traceability and ownership of all changes at all stages.

Paul concludes: “Openings Studio™ is the only software of its kind on the market and is already being used by thousands of architects and specifiers across the globe to truly capture and translate their vision through each stage.

“The application is designed to ensure our customers can focus their time on the design and creation of a building and the details that are most important to them, safe in the knowledge that any specification meets the required standards to keep occupants of the building safe, now and in the future.

To find out more, please call 0845 071 0882 to speak with an experienced Project Design Consultant, email ukspecification@assaabloy.com or visit www.assaabloyopeningsolutions.co.uk/specification.