A good façade is not a collection of individual products. It is a system of materials and accessories that need to work together. This is exactly where Utopis supports Plastica.
Plastica centrally manages its product data in Omiteo. Utopis retrieves the required data and enriches it with knowledge about applications, product relationships and valid combinations. This turns existing product data into the foundation for a smart online façade configurator.
Good, up-to-date product data is the foundation of any configurator. Plastica centrally manages this information in Omiteo, formerly known as ProPlanet. Utopis retrieves the required data through an integration.
But for Utopis, that is really just the starting point. In construction, it is rarely about a single product. A façade consists of different products and accessories that need to work together technically. Utopis therefore adds relationships and rules to the product data. This creates knowledge about which products form a suitable solution together and which combinations should be excluded.
At ZeeBoer, this is what we call system thinking: not only recording what a product is, but also knowing how products work together in an application.
This system knowledge forms the basis of Plastica’s façade configurator. Users do not need to understand all the technical relationships within the product range themselves. Based on a series of choices, they are guided step by step towards a suitable façade solution.
Utopis safeguards the relationships between the selected products. Which façade cladding suits the application? Which profiles and other accessories are then required? By capturing the rules behind the product range, the configurator helps prevent incompatible combinations from being selected.
This allows Plastica to make its own product expertise available online. Not as a long list of products, but as practical advice that users can immediately put to use.
Good advice does not end with selecting the right products. The resulting information also needs to be useful throughout the construction process. Utopis can therefore translate the selected solution into, among other things, STABU2 and NL-SfB specifications.
Plastica’s configurator demonstrates where Utopis adds value. Existing product data provides the input, while Utopis adds knowledge about applications, systems and product relationships. This turns product data into practical construction advice.
Especially when dealing with complex building products, that makes an important difference: you can manage a product, but a good solution needs to be configured.
This project was developed by ZeeBoer’s colleagues Antoon and Jeroen, in close cooperation with Gert Snoeren from Plastica. Together, they created a smart, user-friendly, low-maintenance tool that helps specifiers make informed decisions.
Interested in using an advisory tool or specification service? Check out our free whitepaper for a quick start.
