Draper was founded in 1902 as a manufacturer of window shades for schools. Over time we've added commercial window shades, projection screens and related products, and gymnasium equipment to our product offering. Draper is now a leader in each of these product areas. We sell our products to dealers in over 100 countries, including the United States.

Q. When and why did your company (make the decision to offer BIM objects) adopt BIM?
A.Draper has started the process of creating and making BIM objects available to the architectural community. Because more and more architectural firms are asking us about BIM, we felt it was imperative to get BIM objects for our most popular products in front of architects and designers so they have all the information they need to recommend and specify our products. We began working with Reed to create BIM objects earlier this year, and our initial objects were available for the AIA show in Boston.

Q. How has the adoption affected your company?
We've spent extra time training our sales force on BIM—both as a concept and as a Draper offering—so they understand what we're doing, and feel comfortable discussing BIM with architects and designers.

Q. Was the process of outsourcing the creation of your BIM Objects a good decision? Why?
It was necessary for us for us to outsource production of our BIM objects because we don't currently have that capability in house.

Q. What criteria did you use for selecting a BIM creation service vendor?
When evaluating BIM service providers, we felt that Reed's program was the most developed. It turned out well, because Reed was able to create accurate objects for us in a fairly truncated timeline.

Q. Do you feel that BIM will become the design method of choice within the next few years?
It's fairly obvious that more and more firms will adopt BIM, but we are curious to see how quickly adoption will take place.