Additional content for your BIM software

While most BIM applications present the user with a fairly large collection of objects (furniture, building elements, drawing details), they don't have everything. Although you can create your own symbols, library objects or families in the software, this is beyond the reach of the average user.

This is where content libraries step in. While there have been CAD-drawings available for many manufacturers since quite some time, they are usually DWG or DXF drawings in 2D and do not integrate as well in a BIM software as actual library content.

BIMstop is an example of a recent content library, that provides objects in multiple formats.

BIMstop presents the users with freely downloadable objects
in ArchiCAD, Revit, SketchUp and VectorWorks formats
http://www.bimstop.com

The following links are some of the pages of the software manufacturers for content libraries. Not all of it is free and the quality may vary, but it can be cheaper to buy a library than to develop objects from scratch. That said, a custom and optimized object that you make for your own context, might be all you need.

For ArchiCAD specific content (in GDL), check ArchiCAD Wiki: http://www.archicadwiki.com/LinkCollection/GDLObjectDownloads

For Revit specific content (families), try Autodesk Seek:
http://seek.autodesk.com

For VectorWorks specific content (symbols):
http://www.vectorworks.net/architect/content-libraries.php

And for SketchUp (which is far from being a BIM software), there is the Google 3D Warehouse:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse