AEC Magazine January / February 2022

Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

BIM IS BUST

HOK on the cause and the cure

IMAGE COURTESY OF HOK

BIM meets GIS The hidden past of BIM AMD Radeon Pro W6400 GPU January / February 2022 >> Vol.118 p01_AEC_JANFEB22_CoverV5.indd 1

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

editorial

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MANAGING EDITOR GREG CORKE greg@x3dmedia.com

CONSULTING EDITOR MARTYN DAY martyn@x3dmedia.com

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Industry news 7

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Esri GeoBIM 40

Chaos and Enscape to merge, AMD unveils After four years of development, the EsriRadeon Pro W6400, iPad concept design Autodesk GIS / BIM partnership has tool enhanced, HP workstations pack big finally delivered its first offspring graphics punch, plus lots more

Cover story: BIM is bust 12 HOK’s Greg Schleusner on the cause and the cure and how we could free data from monolithic BIM silos

Beyond construction: geospatial BIM 42 To replace a complex rail bridge HNTB put ArcGIS GeoBIM to the test, envisioning a future where live sensors can be used to monitor construction

CHARLOTTE TAIBI charlotte@x3dmedia.com

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Towards an open future: Central renovation 46 Digital tools enable careful restoration Keith Bentley 20 and modern upgrade to the historic In this frank interview, Bentley’s CTO talks cloud, subscription, digital twins and the future of 2D drawings

Where is AEC software heading? 26 Richard Harpham, VP of Slate Technologies on how a BIM-centric approach throttles construction

Canadian Parliament building

Data for the architecture of the future 50 What the ‘digital toolkit’ of architects might look like in the future, and how architects can use this to their advantage

CloudFiler 52

Exploring BIM’s hidden past 30

While the digitisation of design and construction moves ever onwards, the explosion of project-related documents projects remain a considerable headache

We don’t hear much today about Rucaps, Sonata or Reflex - but all three systems played a fundamental role in the development of modern BIM

Serif Affinity 54

Autodesk Forges its future 34 There’s currently a lot of hype around Forge, Autodesk’s cloud-based development platform, and it would seem the company is betting the farm on it

As AEC IT directors feel the pinch, they are seeking powerful alternatives. Adobe Creative Cloud now has a serious threat

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 review 56 This low cost pro GPU is perfect for CAD and BIM - now and well into the future January / February 2022

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02/02/2022 20:35

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News

Chaos and Enscape to merge to form arch viz giant and address broad set of workflows haos, a specialist in photorealistic rendering, and Enscape, a developer of AECfocused real-time rendering software, are to merge. The combined company will retain the Chaos brand and has stated an intention to develop the ‘world’s greatest’ end-to-end ecosystem for visualisation and collaboration.

All products from both companies will continue to operate and be available under their respective brands, including Enscape, V-Ray, Corona and Vantage.

Peter Mitev, CEO and co-founder of Chaos, and Christian Lang, CEO of Enscape, will share the title of co-CEO for the new company. Vladimir Koylazov, co-founder of Chaos and current head of software operations, will also continue to drive R&D and innovation in a leadership position.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2022. Financial terms of the transaction

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were not disclosed.

The merger is backed by investment from global growth private equity firms TA Associates and LEA Partners. TA will join LEA, Enscape’s current majority

shareholder, in the newly-combined company alongside the management of Chaos and Enscape, who will retain a significant minority stake.

■ chaos.com ■ enscape3d.com

What AEC Magazine thinks This is an interesting move that certainly caught us by surprise.

Both firms were already leaders in their respective segments and, moving forward, should put the combined company in an even stronger position in the broader arch viz sector..

Following its launch in 2016, Enscape quickly become a firm favourite with architects and other AEC professionals, thanks to its optimised workflow that can turn BIM models into realistic renderings and VR experiences at the push of a button. With plug-ins for Revit, SketchUp, Rhinoceros, Archicad, and Vectorworks, the company has most bases covered when it comes to BIM authoring tools.

In recent years Enscape has dramatically improved the visual quality in its software, while retaining its incredible ease of

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use. The integration of technologies like GPUaccelerated real-time ray tracing now allow architects to deliver results that could previously only be achieved by viz specialists. For many AEC firms it has changed the way visualisation is used throughout the design process.

Chaos, on the other hand, with its legendary V-Ray product, has been the tool of choice for many arch-viz specialists for over 20 years. And the classic combination of Autodesk 3ds Max and Chaos V-Ray remains a firm favourite for those seeking the highest levels of photorealism.

In recent years the company has looked to expand the reach of V-Ray beyond its traditional customer base and there are now versions available for SketchUp,

Rhino, and Revit that have a simplified toolset to make them more accessible to architects.

More recently, the company launched a V-ray for Unreal, which is particularly relevant as Chaos faces increased competition from Epic Games’s real-time engine.

The growing importance of real time visualisation is not lost on Chaos. In 2020, the company introduced Vantage (previously Project Lavina), which allows users to drag and drop huge V-Ray scenes to explore in real time. More recently the company introduced V-Ray Vision, a realtime visualisation capability built into V-Ray 5 for Revit, Rhino and SketchUp, that allows architects to get immediate feedback on their designs, before moving on to full photorealism with V-Ray’s final renderer.

With the merger of Enscape and Chaos, the combined company now has an expansive toolset for arch viz that should appeal to all kinds of users in the AEC sector, from visualisation novice to the most advanced digital artist.

By addressing the arch viz market from the top down and bottom-up, Chaos has all bases covered. It will be interesting to see what happens when V-Ray and Enscape meet in the middle.

An optimised workflow from Enscape to V-Ray is sure to be high on the agenda, just as it has been for Epic Games with its architect friendly Twinmotion and viz platform Unreal Engine.

Beyond AEC, there is also scope to enhance workflows in Visual Effects (VFX) and Product Design, verticals that Enscape doesn’t currently play in.

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ROUND UP Landscape design

AMD launches Radeon Pro W6400 pro GPU for $229

Arch Intelligence, the developer of landscape and site design software “Environment for Revit” has enhanced the workflow between Revit and Civil 3D. The new export LandXML feature allows users to export the face of a Revit floor as a LandXML surface ■ archintelligence.com

Anglian Water Anglian Water’s @one Alliance is to use collaborative VR software Resolve to help reduce construction rework and improve operations efficiency and safety. A pilot project found it helped operations staff have a more active role in the design process ■ resolvebim.com

Noise reduction NBS, the construction data and specification platform, has teamed up with Quiet Mark to help architects focus on noise reduction in buildings.

The new partnership will enable practices that use NBS to create specifications to easily find Quiet Mark certified products and materials ■ thenbs.com ■ quietmark.com

Rapid feasibility Matterlab has released Unitize, a free Revit plug-in designed for architects to help make site feasibility analysis faster and simpler. The software can automatically generate residential layouts for building masses from a set of parameters predefined by the user ■ matterlab.co

Point cloud for Revit Matterport has released a new BIM add-on that brings Matterport generated point cloud data into Revit.

According to the company, the Matterport BIM files are of verified schematic-design-level fidelity (LOD 200). Arup is one of the first AEC firms to adopt the tool ■ matterport.com

Revit to IFC Open Design Alliance (ODA) has added IFC conversion to its BimRv Software Development Kit. BimRv SDK is ODA’s standalone solution for reading and visualising Autodesk Revit files. It also offers limited creation support for Revit files ■ opendesign.com

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MD has launched the Radeon Pro W6400, a low-cost professional GPU designed for CAD, BIM and entry-level visualisation workflows.

With an aggressive price of $229, the W6400 will complement AMD’s higher spec ‘RDNA 2’ pro graphics cards, the Radeon Pro W6600 ($649) and Radeon Pro W6800 ($2,249).

With a low-profile form factor and up to 50W of peak board power, the Radeon Pro W6400 can be used in both Small Form Factor workstations such as the HP

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Z2 SFF, and full-sized towers.

It comes with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR6 graphics memory and is ISV certified for many pro CAD and BIM applications.

Unlike other GPUs in its class, such as the Nvidia T600, the Radeon Pro W6400 has hardware ray tracing built in. This should provide a good degree of future proofing as software developers, such as Autodesk, start to build ray trace rendering capabilities into their CAD and BIM tools.

See page 56 for a full review.

■ amd.com/RadeonProW6400

Disaster recovery for virtual desktops DI specialist IMSCAD has launched a desktop disaster recovery solution aimed at providing companies with a cost-effective back-up for virtual desktops / workstations in addition to data.

IMSCAD is positioning the new solution as an insurance policy for customers of physical on-premise environments or datacentre hosted virtual solutions. According to the company, most customers implement structured redundancy measures for their infrastructure and

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critical data, but that does not necessarily extend to desktops.

IMSCAD’s desktop disaster recovery solution uses Microsoft Azure on a ‘Pay If You Use’ basis, so customers only pay for the virtual desktops in the event of a disaster and the only recurring expenditure is for the infrastructure and storage. This is in contrast to replicating the entire physical capacity in a datacentre, where firms have to commit to substantial costs for hardware that could potentially sit there for years and never be used.

According to IMSCAD, with its desktop disaster recovery solution the infrastructure remains always on while the desktops sit dormant, ready to burst and scale as required in the event of an outage. IMSCAD will endeavour to do this within hours, but guarantees full functionality within two working days Once desktop failback has completed, all running instances except for that of the infrastructure will be turned off and deallocated, keeping costs to a minimum.

■ imscadglobal.com

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News

Mixed reality software accelerates layout on site

ODA kickstarts scan-toBIM SDK pen Design Alliance (ODA), the provider of interoperability solutions for CAD and BIM, has started development of its new Scan to BIM SDK (Software Development Kit).

The Scan to BIM SDK will convert point cloud data from 3D laser scanners into parametric Autodesk Revit and IFC models.

Applications of Scan to BIM include as-built documentation, project additions and renovations, and facility management.

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■ opendesign.com/scan-to-bim

rimble has introduced a new mixed reality solution to help accelerate layout on site. The FieldLink MR app is built on the Trimble Connect collaboration platform and runs on the Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2, a hardhatintegrated mixed-reality device.

FieldLink MR is designed to help construction site teams more easily visualise construction data without having to rely on a handheld controller for step-

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by-step navigation to locate each point.

Visual cues presented through the XR10 are said to ‘naturally lead’ workers directly to each point for them to physically lay out pertinent information on site.

According to Trimble, as attracting and retaining skilled workers remains a key challenge for many contractors, reducing the complexity of layout in the field will be essential to enable less experienced staff to deliver quality work the first time.

■ fieldtech.trimble.com

Digital Blue Foam platform launches eb-based generative design tool Digital Blue Foam (DBF) has launched, following an investment of over two million US dollars over the last couple of years.

The DBF platform is an early-stage building design tool made for architects, planners, developers, and educators. It brings together software, artificial intelligence (AI) and data, and aims to make

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sustainable building design accessible.

DBF is said to integrate the core elements of the design process – data collection, 3D modelling, sustainability validation, city score, project comparison, and drawing production – within a single online tool. The software syncs to various BIM tools including Archicad, Revit, Rhino3D and SketchUp. ■ digitalbluefoam.com

3D monitor primed for giant point clouds errasolid TerraStereo, which is designed for visualising very large point clouds of up to 50 billion points, has been officially certified by Schneider Digital for use on its 3D PluraView monitors.

The 3D monitor can be used for the visualisation of stereo LiDAR,

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iPad concept design tool enhanced erulean Labs has updated Spaces, the architecture-focused iPad app for conceptual design that turns 2D sketches into flexible 3D parametric designs.

The 1.2 release introduces two key new features: the ability to cut sections through designs so the user can further explore their form and integrate with their surroundings; and project sharing, where those on a paid subscription can share their projects with other stakeholders.

Other features, such as Shadow Studies and cloud backup, are coming soon.

Spaces is built from the ground up to take advantage of the iPad and Apple Pencil.

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■ spacesapp.io

photogrammetry, GIS and BIM datasets.

When used with TerraStereo, users can visualise buildings, topographies, railway and tram infrastructures, including power lines, corridor analyses, and road surface conditions. Precise 3-axis measurements can also be taken in a 3D space.

■ 3d-pluraview.com

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News

ROUND UP VDI in Dubai

Compact HP workstations pack big graphics punch

IMSCAD has launched an ‘end to end’ VDI solution based out of Dubai to serve the Middle East.

Customers can service users of 3D CAD, BIM and other demanding applications with ‘powerful desktops’ running either in the private cloud or on-premise ■ imscadglobal.com

Machine control MC-Max is a new scalable machine control solution based on Topcon’s MC-X machine control platform. It is backed by Sitelink3D — the company’s real-time, cloud-based data management ecosystem — and can be used for mixed-fleet heavy equipment environments ■ topconpositioning.com

Autodesk acquires Autodesk is acquiring ProEst, a cloud-based estimating solution that helps construction teams create estimates, perform digital takeoffs, generate detailed reports and proposals and manage bid-day processes. ProEst will be integrated with Autodesk Construction Cloud ■ proest.com

VR bundle Collaborative VR software developer, VREX, has partnered with HP to offer AEC firms an all-in-one solution for VR. The new HP VREX bundle includes a pre-configured HP Notebook, VREX software, and one HP Reverb 2 VR headset ■ vrex.no

Twinmotion 2022.1 Arch viz tool Twinmotion 2022.1 includes simultaneous multi-sync connectivity to Archicad, Revit, Rhino, SketchUp Pro, and Vectorworks; a new path tracer and HDRi skydomes for final-pixel imagery and orthographic top views with accurate lighting ■ twinmotion.com

Electronic signoff Corecon’s cloud-based construction estimating, project management and job cost software suite now includes a new integration with DocuSign eSignature. The new feature allows Corecon subscribers to securely obtain and track electronic signatures on construction documents ■ corecon.com

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P has significantly boosted graphics performance in its compact desktop workstations.

With redesigned chassis, both the HP Z2 Mini G9 and HP Z2 SFF G9 can now take larger and more powerful GPUs. The HP Z2 Mini G9 can go all the way up to the Nvidia RTX A2000, a powerful low-profile desktop GPU with hardware ray tracing built-in. This not only means significantly more performance for ray trace rendering, VR and real-time viz applications but users should also be able to easily swap out graphics if required.

With a double slot design, the Nvidia RTX A2000 GPU is thicker than most low-profile GPUs, so it appears that HP

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has had to make some small compromises. The HP Z2 Mini G9 chassis is around 10mm thicker than the previous generation HP Z2 Mini G5, but is still small enough to set on or under a desk, or behind a monitor using a VESA sleeve.

The HP Z2 SFF G9 is a step in size from the HP Z2 Mini G9 but is still 50% smaller than an equivalent tower. It is the first small factor workstation from a major vendor to support a full height, full length graphics card, up to and including the Nvidia RTX A4000 (16 GB). This gives users a significant uplift in terms of memory and performance for more demanding graphics intensive workflows.

■ hp.com/zworkstations

Dynamic asset placement for Enscape nscape 3.2, the latest release of the real-time visualisation, 3D rendering, and VR software, includes a new Dynamic Asset Placement feature that allows users to select, place and edit assets directly inside the Enscape rendering window.

Previously, asset placement could only be done in the 3D modelling

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software (Revit, Rhino, Archicad, Vectorworks or SketchUp), which could break the visualisation workflow, especially when working interactively with clients.

With Dynamic Asset Placement users can drag and drop assets from Enscape’s Asset Library which includes over 2,700 3D models of people, vegetation, furniture, accessories, lighting, and

more. Everything that is added to the rendering is ‘instantly’ reflected in the modelling software, offering a two-way asset placement. Users can rotate, scale, and delete an asset, and all changes will sync back to the project.

Enscape explains that the exact editing functions and capabilities will depend on the modelling software used.

■ enscape3d.com

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Feature

How should AEC data work?

If all BIM software were developed fresh today, with modern computer science we would not face the limitations of tools and formats we have inherited. Greg Schleusner, director of design technology at HOK talked with Martyn Day on how we could free data from monolithic BIM silos

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t NXT BLD 2021, we invited with our process. It’s all built for throw- what and who can change what.

Greg Schleusner, director of ing over a fence in a very linear, transacToday’s platforms can’t properly audit design technology at global tional process,” explains Schleusner. changes, there’s no global track history of design, architecture, engi- “But, in reality, in design construction who did what. “This approach is a poor neering and planning firm HOK to come you have this overlap, where construc- match for technology, and we should over from New York and give a presenta- tion planning needs to start during never have to rely on these sort of arcane tion on some of his R&D projects design phase and yes, unfortunately the overlays of ‘let’s be friends’ to get a pro( n x t b l d . c o m /v i d e o s /g r e g - s c h l e u s n e r ) . design is going to change. ject to work”, explains Schleusner.

Schleusner has been exploring how the “These iterative changes set off a series “There’s this fundamental problem digital tools we use today act as barriers of continuous updates to files. In the way where our data needs to become distribfor collaborative design and pondering if our world works, every one of these uted but not particularly owned. The way something can be done about it updates is a copy and, every time some- it works today just enforces an inefficient In his insightful talk he looked at ineffi- thing changes, we end up with potential- linear process. I’m wondering if we can ciencies in creating 2D representations, ly having to redo our work downstream get the software to work independently of problems with annotation, the massive because you’re not in control of that data. the way people work. amount of data duplication, lack of knowl“Our solution for this technology prob“What we really want is to have a feededge capture and reuse, back loop, which we can’t and the lack of openness. do at all today, because of If you have not seen the all sorts of limitations - the There’s this fundamental problem where our very nature of files, propripresentation, it’s probably data needs to become distributed but not a good idea to watch this etary formats, incompatinow, as the rest of this artible applications, deeply particularly owned. The way it works today cle is a continuation of that siloed data, poor interoperjust enforces an inefficient linear process thought process, based on ability… the list goes on. We Greg Schleusner, HOK Schleusner’s subsequent have to think differently. research.

“What’s happening to When most people talk our world is it’s becoming about their frustration with BIM tools, it lem are legal agreements. This is a coun- unbelievably highly packaged, where usually concerns speed, the need for ter productive way to think about how we everything is highly recursively related, workarounds and the cost of ownership. can solve our issues, literally hoping to as the project progresses, each discipline But if we are to seriously address the change the legal system. This leads to dis- requesting changes to the design through problems the industry faces today, we cussions about better contracts, and the the phases. This process is accelerating, have to take a lower-level approach. hope that high-level trust agreements can but our data structures and everything We should not just expect faster evolu- be signed, where you let other firms else are structured to support a linear tion of tools used commonly today but access and edit your data, which only process. There’s still no easy way for a question the very data structures on works in a very small number of cases.” contractor to suggest a change that’s easiwhich they are built. We have plenty of ly adopted by a design team. formats; we also have plenty of incompat- Data distribution “Changes come in many scales. It could ibility, data loss, data overshare, data Schleusner sees all kinds of problems be a material choice or it could be as comwrangling and data in proprietary silos with the technology solutions we have plex as redesigning a whole roof structhat inhibit collaboration. today for collaborative working, defining ture or a façade system.

“Our data functionally doesn’t work rules on partitioning, as to who can do “If you look at something as simple as a

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HOK’s Circadian Curtain Wall concept draws on biophilic design to offer building occupants abundant natural light while minimising solar heat gain Images courtesy of HOK

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Feature

Decision making latency - data silos within the AEC industry

door, in our current design process even that has a sort of recursive nature. You place a door, you have an external driver that client has a preference for - frame styles or particular hardware. Then, the building code or egress needs drives other functionality drivers on that door, which might need to update the door capabilities and other design issues might feed in which mean you have to go back in time to change the style. The point being - this is a nonlinear recursive process.

“Now add construction into the mix and you just get more of the same. We need to think about how to handle the fact that this is a distributed problem; not one person, there is no single entity that owned that door completely through the project. In fact, it has five pieces of data which have been owned by different groups. We have this distributed responsibility problem which we haven’t really addressed.

“My best example is architectural finishes, products

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and materials. There are at least thirteen owned by the architect, but slabs are also different places they could show up in owned by other disciplines. “There is a project data, with unique representations need to separate ownership and existence and or owners. In the US the specifica- out from these representations,” explains tion will describe its finished quality, its Schleusner. “Design systems need a contesting criteria, and so forth. It shows up cept that sits external to all this, a root in the product list, cost, what it looks like object slab, without the geometry. It’s not in a rendering, its environmental capa- any particular discipline’s representability or impact etc. Just tion, it’s just a node telling this one material has so the world that if you want many representations. to describe me further, HOK is first Then you get a problem this is what you attach to. looking to where the way we handle “You may want to this, is to use humans as the address internal imbue it with spatial interoperability layer. workflows with addressing, to automatiEvery representation of that associate represenRevit and other cally data exists in some applicatations from two separate tion-specific format that applications. The software tools, but then basically then has to be goal then will be you can hang all these interpreted and recreated to start a global interdisciplinary, internal by a person. The chance of and external pieces of discussion with data on top on it. Even for errors multiplies with the firms that are complexity of the project.” something like a slab, a material specialist interested in External framework might own the LCA [Life developing this cycle assessment] inforSchleusner thinks there are further many things that should be mation about associated part and parcel of how data materials, the architect works: distributed decision might be responsible for making, linked datasets, infor- life safety attributes beyond the geometmation distribution, change ric representations. control and versioning.

“As you build this out, there’s at least Today’s software creates three or four structural representations ownership through repre- or design representations, classifications sentations. For example, a and building codes and all the good stuff.

Revit version of a slab is “What’s nice about this approach to data

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All the data, decisions and processes attached to the lowly door throughout design and construction

is, if you externalise the concept, any one of these representations can calculate the graph [model]. The clash filtered variant will show what kind of clashes for classification can be done. Fabrication geometry could be another representation. Using this tree graph structure, the other benefit is you don’t have to keep it up to date all the time. Let’s make our data capable of working independent of ‘a product’.

“There are advantages at working at a file per object level,” explains Schleusner.

“This way, you can assemble the required representation, such as requesting to see the structural model or run a query ‘what elements changed this week?’ It’s representation on demand.

“The really important thing is, if we were to output a single IFC file it’s just too latent to be useful. “If we go granular and move to a partial IFC file per representation, we can do close to real-time exporting of just changes, not full monolithic files.”

Looking at a demonstration, Schleusner showed me a Revit user in an office, using a plan view to move furniture around, while at home, another session of Revit is updating in real-time as it receives a stream of partial IFC updates. This is a proof of concept and doesn’t have to be the same BIM system, or discipline.

for BIM were all about the single building model. A concept that seemed to make sense but in retrospect was flawed because it meant shoving all data, from all disciplines, into one file.

These files were proprietary and got very large, very fast and the systems were not even originally designed for teamwork. All of today’s BIM systems are designed to ultimately produce drawings and, as a result, the industry has managed to drown itself in those.

Near future requirements of the industry go significantly beyond this and links between BIM and digital fabrication are embryonic, and that’s another silo problem to throw into the mix.

The AEC industry is unfortunately too

broad to have ‘one format to rule them all’. Externalising the data framework from today’s monolithic tools can lift the data out of the proprietary silos and be used to connect disparate applications via a distributed link to a multi-part, multi-graph solution.

In his research, Schleusner is also not looking to completely reinvent the wheel and seeking to embrace open formats and services: IFC, IFC.JS, USD, MaterialX, GBxml and Speckle, to name but a few.

Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but they offer ways to extract information now from today’s proprietary tools.

Looking at Speckle and IFC.JS, it’s now possible to have ‘mini-servers’ as plugins, broadcasting every design change

By taking a granular by object approach to data, Epic Games can get incredible performance on massive datasets in Unreal Engine 5, as demonstrated in Matrix city

Game changer To me, this as a concept seems to be a fundamental game changer. Early visions www.AECmag.com

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Feature

from each application to a Common Data Environment (CDE) or straight to another enabled application.

For instance, IFC.JS can ‘live broadcast’ BIM geometry changes from Revit to Archicad, streaming IFC component information and updating the models in real-time. Schleusner is looking to combine this with an external multi-representational granular graph representation to disrupt the current limitations on collaborative working by having a shared representation, which doesn’t require editing each other’s models or drawings.

He envisages the system will also track all changes across a project at a granular level. And, once you get all that data out of these proprietary systems and hold it externally, there is potential to do all sorts of interesting things.

Development HOK is pushing ahead with fleshing out and developing Schleusner’s in-house concept, and the global firm is connecting to many of the developers that offer open solutions who are interested in addressing this fundamental issue, or who they can learn from. For instance, this granular by object approach to data is how firms like Epic Games can get incredible performance on massive datasets in Unreal Engine 5, which can be seen in the recently released Matrix city (tinyurl.com/MatrixCity).

For now, Schleusner is building proof of concepts, while fleshing out the functionality of the external system. There are immediate issues that he is looking to address in HOK’s own internal workflows with Revit and other applications, and so will be their own proving ground.

Schleusner says, “The goal then will be to start a global discussion with firms that are interested in developing this further.”

Conclusion As an industry we are in interesting times.

While the construction industry rushes to digitise its entire end-to-end processes the tools on which this is being built are already creaking and built on concepts of file-based data which creates silos.

Looking at the cloud-based systems these are just enhancements to the current document-based workflows which are one of the fundamental reasons the industry is so inefficient. For now, ensuring a worker on site gets the right PDF is progress but everything up until that point does not flow smoothly.

CDEs are a necessity because we live in a land of Babel. Models need to be broken 16

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AEC data structures: how data can be linked to a slab node

The distributed definition for a slab

down because we are trying to stuff too much data into archaic schemas. The contractual and legal issues strangle collaboration and, even then, there is little trust between parties, causing rework and the creation of multiple BIM models.

While products like Revit are 20 years old and there are no 2nd generation plans, it’s easy for the industry to fixate and look for the ‘next Revit’ or evaluate other BIM solutions. Here, Schleusner’s opinion is that we have to address the problems at a much lower level than ‘authoring tool’ and establish data structures that fit the way the business works bypassing the productivity-killing problems that the current generation of tools have bequeathed us.

The beauty of his approach is that there are early wins with the current generation of tools. It will even help those who are just using one in-house BIM system, make integrating tools from different

vendors less of a headache, enabling parallel development without the project file merry-go-round and actually having all project teams working together to flesh out the model definition, with a full transaction log.

The industry needs to look forward to an open approach to data as soon as possible. Ultimately an external database, using open formats, will help break the bonds of deeply resented proprietary lockins, draining the silos and levelling the playing field. While HOK is developing this to smooth its own data flow issues, it’s great that it recognises that the industry at large could benefit and is driving for practice collaboration on its development.

Check out Greg Schleusner’s NXT BLD 2021 talk - nxtbld.com/videos/greg-schleusner He also gave a recent presentation on this topic to buildingSMART - tinyurl.com/schleusner www.AECmag.com

03/02/2022 15:00

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Interview

Towards an open future:

Keith Bentley interview Following on from Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure event, AEC Magazine interviewed CTO, Keith Bentley on a range of topics facing the AEC sector, software companies and customers, from virtual events, cloud and subscription to digital twins and the future of 2D drawings

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e’re now into our second year of the main AEC software developers hosting virtual conferences instead of physical conferences. At the tail end of 2021, Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure event was broadcast from the company’s Exton-based headquarters (yii.bentley.com).

The primary content covered the projects, customers and winners of the annual Year in Infrastructure awards.

Unusually there wasn’t a technical keynote from the company’s CTO, Keith Bentley. However, AEC Magazine did get an opportunity to catch up with him and discuss a wide range of issues that are currently on the minds of the editorial team.

AEC Magazine: With YII being run again as a virtual conference, how have you found the switch to online?

Keith Bentley: I miss sitting down in the same room with real users who say, “Hey, you’re not working on the right stuff ”, or “How is that new stuff you’re working on relevant for this problem?”. You just don’t get that feedback from people sitting in their homes, while staring at screens or listening to recordings. Virtual events make it easier to consume but it 20

January / February 2022

doesn’t have the same interaction value.

Once a year I would get ‘readjusted back’, to aim at the right target because I spent enough time hearing from customers, sitting at lunch with someone who says, “You guys are so foolish!”. That is the kind of feedback that is invaluable and for us, it hasn’t happened for two years.

We are winging it now. You could say that every one of our developers has a great opportunity to connect with any user because they’re just click away and you could schedule a meeting. But I just don’t think it happens, it doesn’t happen anywhere near as frequently as I hope it would. There are certain things that just don’t happen over ‘Teams’ calls. Virtual events have lots of value, but I don’t think they replace physical events. I very much look forward to more physical events.

While I don’t like the flying part of it, I do like being in some city where you’re disconnected from your normal routine.

You have to a plan for it. So, I have to get everything done before that week. It becomes a stopping point. I like the fact that you have to disconnect to go to a conference. When I get home and I think about all the feedback I’ve gotten, you know it forms the next year strategy.

AEC Magazine: We are picking up lots of complaints

about software companies in general from customers. Whether that be their software provider’s business model dictating when they upgrade, lack of development, changes to licences etc. The top 20%, the mature users are wondering what they are getting for these increases in fees, where’s the value? And I know from talking with publicly traded CAD companies there is pressure on to show similar profitability to shareholders that Autodesk is delivering.

Keith Bentley: Looking at desktop versus cloud I think it relates pretty well with people’s mindsets about their concept of ‘value’, what they get for their dollars (£).

If I sell you a cloud service, then www.AECmag.com

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IMAGE CREDIT: POWERCHINA ZHONGNAN ENGINEERING CORPORATION LIMITED

I believe the answer is cloud when you want, but be able to pull your data out of the cloud. Take the program that understands and interprets that data, run it on the desktop, disconnect from the cloud

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there’s no way you could do anything unless you pay your bill, because I, the software vendor, turned you off?

Whereas before, when you used your own licences, people would have the copy of the software that they owned on their desktop machine, and they could do whatever they wanted because it’s already paid for. So yeah, with desktop applications there was always a relationship with the vendor about upgrades and support, and you got new features, but customers felt like they at least had their destiny in their own hands.

When I hear people talking about how great the cloud future is, I agree. There are now a lot of wonderful things we can do by connecting people together www.AECmag.com

through a cloud service. But I put myself in the shoes of someone who says, ‘If my only choice is something that runs only on some computer that I don’t own - and unless I pay my bill (and I don’t know how much my bill is going to be next year versus this year) then aw, geez, don’t sign me up for that!’

When I hear other vendors talk about their ‘great new cloud based everything’, I say no thank you. I believe the answer is cloud when you want, but be able to pull your data out of the cloud. Take the program that understands and interprets that data, run it on the desktop, disconnect from the cloud. People get on airplanes, perhaps not as much anymore [because of Covid], there are disconnects.

There are reasons why the computer on your desktop is a better computer than the one you rent in the cloud, and I say you should have that choice.

Microsoft has Office products for desktop and the cloud. Have you ever used PowerPoint in the cloud? I find the PowerPoint version that runs in the cloud unacceptable - it’s slow and there’s always these big, vague pauses whenever you work on something big. You’re sharing time with everyone else in the world with their Azure account.

If you just wait for that download to happen, and you have that the PowerPoint file on your local drive, you are not subjected to any internet outages; you have total control. I always use the January / February 2022

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Interview desktop product, so I always tell every- file, and you use a BIM application, and body we have to make software that you perform whatever operation you works really well when you are connect- want. And then you’re done, and when the ed but has the possibility that you can project is complete you archive the file. disconnect. And one of the reasons I When you talk about digital twins, think it’s important for people to be able you’re talking about something you’re to disconnect is because they want to dis- going to run your infrastructure compaconnect from us. If they want to say ny on it. It’s not an application. A digital ‘Bentley, I don’t want to have a relation- twin is not a tool for a specific type of ship with you anymore and that data that user; it’s a theme that, I think, will form I created using your products, that’s the basis for people’s IT departments. IT mine, not yours’. departments are going to be their digital If this were to only work through a twin departments, because there’s going cloud service - and there are many to be no boundary between the data that examples of vendors who are creating is consumed in their digital twin applicaproducts that are cloud only - what are tion and the data that’s consumed in their those people [customers] going to do business applications. when they get upset with those vendors?

There is hype about digital twins Export the data in some neutral format? everywhere and I limit the scope of my That’s unacceptable! Stop paying and hype to be about infrastructure assets, you can’t use any of that software that large-scale things that have a fixed posiyou taught all your users how to create tion on the earth. I’ll call that infrastrucand consume this data. ture, and not just public I’m very, very adamant infrastructure. There are that our users won’t There are many companies that run that choose to use our prodand, in many cases, the examples of ucts unless we give them infrastructure is owned by vendors who are governments, so they’re the choice to stop paying us and nobody, no one, creating products even more concerned wants to hear that. We’re about future proofing this that are cloud in business to make information system, where only. What are money. So, when I say the they can combine all their those people way that we will make the traffic management sysmost money is by making tems, the digital twin of a [customers] it possible that people going to do when city or even, as you know, a don’t have to pay us, region. they get upset nobody believes me, and People think today of the with those nobody really wants to GIS system as being the envision a future where vendors? Export centre of a lot of connectusers walk away from us. in government the data in some edness But I say they’re not going agencies, government neutral format? business. In the future, the to walk away from us if we That’s treat them fairly. They’re GIS is just going to be a not going to walk away part of their digital twin. unacceptable! from us if we’re giving For us to be relevant for a them the greatest value government, a large owner for their dollar. They’d only walk away or even a contractor who wants to particifrom us if we stopped doing that. Giving pate in that ecosystem, we have to be able customers a choice of being able to walk to say to the customer, with a straight away from us means that at least they face, ‘If we don’t give you the most value, trust us to use our tools to create the you can use your data and our software most value that they’ll ever create. against us’ and believe that. This is the point you’re making about people getting AEC Magazine: There is still a lot of mad at their lock-in. That’s what it is, negative reaction to Digital Twins as a that’s the reason Autodesk can charge technology and, from what we can tell, a more for a product. People probably say lot of confusion with what BIM is and this about us too - they can sit there and what a Digital Twin is. say, ‘what’s your alternative? What are you going to do? What are your options?

Keith Bentley: We could talk about Is there a different Revit?

Digital Twins as hype versus BIM. Back in Suppose you’re a Revit shop. You’ve got the day, we knew what BIM did, every- all your data in RVT files and you’ve got body knew what BIM did: you create con- all your training around Revit, so the cost struction documents, you take your BIM to switch is way higher than the pain of

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January / February 2022

your Autodesk bill and they know that.

Autodesk has managed to make, much to my chagrin, Revit a standard, an accepted interchange format and people use Revit for lots of things today that there probably isn’t a good alternative for.

Fast forward 20 years from now, there’s not going to be that [one] tool Revit or the equivalent Bentley tool. We can’t only fault Autodesk for this, because it’s all the vendors. I think there’s going to be a suite of tools and the tools will all look basically the same (or maybe not look the same but work the same) because they’ll be based on an open standard, something that nobody actually owns. Anybody can get the source code to it. The key topic around information software is data. Data drives everything.

That’s why Revit is so immovable, because the RVT file.

AEC Magazine: There’s a lot of talk that, in moving to the cloud, there won’t be files anymore.

Keith Bentley: Think of what you have on your local drive and, as I said, I believe people covet the possibility of being able to extract their data from the cloud to have on their local computer to access it and use it for a period of time. At some point they’re going to synchronise their work, but what you have on your local disk is going to be a file.

It isn’t that there won’t be files in the future, but the boundary of what’s in a file and the format of the file, I think is going to all be governed by external forces. Vendors like us won’t necessarily have the ability to decide how or where to store that data, because there’s going to be one ‘open body’ that says what it should look like. What is that file format going to be today? I don’t think there is one. There’s nothing we could look at today and just use it.

AEC Magazine: What about USD with ‘BIM’ or additional AEC extensions?

Keith Bentley: USD has some virtue. It’s good but you can’t do engineering. You know a USD file is a mesh, so you could export to USD. It’s geometry, it’s a mesh, it’s visualisation and very good for that.

Bentley uses USD, a lot of our users are exporting to USD. I think there needs to be a higher level, or different format.

When you talk about an engineering model there’s a lot of data, such as analysis, as to why something is (as it is). You don’t put that in a in a USD file. So, there’s the connections between things, www.AECmag.com

Bentley ‘Going Digital’ awards in infrastructure winners 2021 IMAGE CREDIT: NETWORK RAIL + JACOBS

Winner - Rail and transit Network Rail + Jacobs Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) Location: Manchester / Leeds / York, United Kingdom Project description The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a GBP multibillion railway enhancement program designed to double capacity, reduce carbon emissions, and cut journey times on commuter routes between Manchester, Leeds, and York.

When completed, the 100-kilometre route upgrade will improve connectivity and provide economic benefits to the North of England. To bring togeth-

HDR Diablo Dam Digital Twin Modelling Location: Whatcom County, Washington, USA

IMAGE CREDIT: COMPANHIA ÁGUAS DE JOINVILLE (CAJ)

Project description After the overtopping of the dam in Oroville, California, Seattle City Light initiated major safety reviews of its six dams, including Diablo Dam on the Skagit River.

To improve survey safety and efficiency, as well as minimise risks inspecting the 160-foot-high dam amid a global pandemic, HDR’s team was asked to provide aerial drone services to supplement physical inspec-

www.AECmag.com

tions. They wanted to use the captured data to create a digital twin model of the structure.

They selected ContextCapture and the Bentley iTwin platform to create a digital twin, accurate within two centimeters, from over 82 million survey points.

The team could merge architecture, engineering, and construction data with artificial intelligence across the lifecycle of the structure, identifying current and future maintenance and repair needs to ensure safety.

The digital twin provides a single reference point for the owner to understand the structure and reduce project costs, while increasing surveyor safety and facilitating decision-making.

IMAGE CREDIT: HDR

Winner - Reality Modelling

er the large volume of data and disciplines involved, Network Rail tasked Jacobs with implementing a routewide digital twin.

Acknowledging that paper-based processes and Excel spreadsheets introduced unnecessary risk and inefficiency across the team, Jacobs used the Bentley iTwin platform with ProjectWise, ContextCapture, and other integrated applications.

Using the digital twin meant over 1,300 staff could track, contribute, and analyse design data and asset information in real time.

Improved access saved the team 20,000 hours in the first six months, worth an estimated £1 million.

Overall, the digital twin will save approximately £15 million.

Winner - Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Networks Companhia Águas de Joinville (CAJ) Contingency plan to ensure supply in the event of drought (Joinville-Santa Catarina) Location: Santa Catarina, Brazil Project description The city of Joinville experienced its worst water crisis in 30 years.

Responsible for supplying water and sanitation services to approximately 600,000 residents in the municipality, CAJ-Joinville Water Company initiated a project to develop a contingency plan to maintain water supply during worsening drought conditions. They evaluated three alternatives in the preliminary study. However, their ini-

tial solution yielded insufficient flow transfer, water shortages at the weakest points in the supply system, and a reduction in water transport efficiency. As a result, they needed to implement a more comprehensive study of the municipality’s entire network.

CAJ-Joinville Water Company used OpenFlows WaterGEMS to create a digital twin of the distribution system, modelling 285km of network. Using the hydraulic model to simulate a new contingency plan, they determined an optimal solution that guaranteed supply in the event of severe drought, while saving approximately BRL 4.5 million compared to their original proposal. The Bentley-based scenario improves flow efficiency, reduces pumping costs, and cuts energy consumption by 574 megawatts per year.

January / February 2022

23

Interview there’s relationships between things, companies, I would be alarmed because I everything. But you only get that local then there’s the schematics that control don’t want that to be our hallmark. copy by connecting to some service somewhy something is the way it is, and There are lots and lots of users for where that has the main branch and you there’s lots and lots of properties that whom digital twins can be a huge benefit. synchronise your changes. It’s the way don’t show up in a visual view. Then of It doesn’t have to be the size of a city or programmers have worked for years, so course there’s the 4D dimension, if you’re large firms. Think of water companies; I’m 100% sure it’s got to be right because talking about a digital twin of something, are those big enterprises? I don’t think so. with our projects, it’s very distributed. you’re going to engineer it in phases, it’s Our go-to-market plan has evolved We always have lots of branches; nothing going to change due to external influenc- substantially from the beginning when is linear in software development. es over time etc. we were just trying to make it. Nobody I think engineering design and digital A static digital twin is an oxymoron. had ever heard of it before, and no one twin design will follow that model, quite There’s no such thing. You must always could understand the reasons behind it! nicely. But it’s definitely going to take a consider time and all the formats that So, we had to explain it in great detail. different generation of applications from exist today, except for possibly one (I Nowadays you can get started with our the ones that exist today. think you know which one - Bentley’s iTwin products without spending a lot of In my opinion, what I tell people, is the iTwin.js) haven’t been designed to antici- intellectual horsepower understanding iTwin platform isn’t just a consumer of pate that there’s change over time. how it all works. I think it’s the greatest BIM data created externally, it is a generThere’s a federation of data sources, as opportunity we’ve ever had to try to ator of information. Long-term, I talked not everything always goes in the same make our solutions more consumable in to users in our roadway design world and location. A digital twin is not a BIM smaller bites. their projects are today all conceived model. A digital twin is lots of other around the workflows of drawings. data streams, connected, such as IoT AEC Magazine: It’s not even straightContracts are issued based on the numsensors etc. forward to take a BIM model and ber of drawings; litigation is always You don’t put that ‘in a file’. A digital repurpose it for a digital twin. BIM around. How did the actual construction twin is an eclectic mix of lots of data models are not really being developed differ from the design? And the answer to sources. There are two things that are in a way for them to be taken forward that question is always ‘what does it say really, really important. One is you need in a process, they are an end in them- on the drawings?’. And I think there’s a to have a way to take a local copy of it so selves, to produce drawings. future where there’s no drawings. you can disconnect and have a The drawings are artefacts. session; the other is that we They come into existence when are going write lots of softthey’re needed. And then There are reasons why the computer ware that pulls data from nobody needs paper, and on your desktop is a better computer everywhere and combines it. nobody needs PDF. The PDF People talk about the future only saves trees. It doesn’t save than the one you rent in the cloud, and of ‘all technology’ and how it’s time. It doesn’t save errors.

I say you should have that choice going to be machine learning Once you export into a system and the input to machine as a PDF, you now have the learning is data in some intelliproblem of what’s the vintage of gible format. We are going to need lots of Keith Bentley: I think this plays in to this piece of virtual paper? And that’s data and a platform and a programming what is the future of files. Today we’re where the value is. You can’t query why basis to start from. Nobody wants to start saying your digital twin originates from something was calculated that way, or get from just Java script or JSON. applications that were conceived before all the kinds of information flows that can The evidence from the world today, digital twins were a thing — Revit, happen when you talk about a database from when we first started talking about AutoCAD and MicroStation etc. versus a report from a flat file. this (about four years ago), leads me to Basically, all of our products were develIf you don’t want to call it a digital twin, believe it’s maybe going take a longer oped in an era where files were the thing fine. But it’s something that takes into contimeframe than anybody cares to admit, and the cloud didn’t exist. Basically, the sideration the history of all the existence but it’s going to happen and is happen- applications had a ‘desktop mentality’ what’s there today, why it’s there today, ing. The real-world examples we gave at because that’s all there was. There was no feeding back the traffic flow, do an AI YII were pretty good evidence that the concept that you could either store the study on it. There’s all kinds of workflows theory is right and the uptake is real. data off the desktop, or that you could that should be different than the ones that consume a service that wasn’t an applica- exist today. But I think it probably takes a AEC Magazine: Because of the type of tion installed on your local machine. breaking point for people to decide to do customers Bentley has - multi-nationals, I think the future is applications that this next project a different way. This is governments, owner operators - there is are digital point applications. You were what we’re trying to show people and are concern that digital twins are not for asking about what’s the long-term future already starting on that. firms such as architects etc? of Revit? Well, I don’t know what it’s The day I started doing this, 35 years going to be, but I don’t think it’s going to ago, the drawings were physical pieces of Keith Bentley: Well, you are right. Our be a desktop application only. I think paper, and we always talked about how user base tends to be larger firms and there will be a desktop component of fast you could you issue a new drawing. have larger projects, so that tends to be everything. As I said before, there will be 25 years from now, I don’t see that being our natural first focus, but if I thought we always be a need, that when you discon- the case, there will be no drawings on any were working on something that was nect you have a local copy of what you infrastructure project. only applicable to large projects or large need, but you don’t have a local copy of ■ bentley.com

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January / February 2022

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Interview

AEC software: how far have we come in 20 years, and where are we going?

The industry’s current focus is on perfecting BIM workflows. But these are still very drawing-centric and mired in fallible historic working methods.

Martyn Day speaks with Richard Harpham, VP of new start-up Slate Technologies on how a BIM-centric approach throttles construction 26

January / February 2022

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www.AECmag.com

03/02/2022 15:29

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ichard Harpham has been an instrumental figure in the AEC software industry for as long as I can remember. We first met in London in 2002 when he showed me a new architectural design solution called Revit. Harpham then went on to join Autodesk and move to the USA to manage the introduction of Revit into North and South America. Subsequently, he led worldwide marketing for both AutoCAD and then all AEC products.

More recently, Harpham led the software commercialisation efforts for shooting star construction startup, Katerra. www.AECmag.com

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Now, along with a team of Silicon Valley Alumni and renowned data scientists, he is part of a new technology company called Slate Technologies that’s currently beta testing new software with some of the largest construction companies in the world.

Martyn Day: A lot has happened since we first met to talk about Revit. How do you feel about where AEC technology is today?

Richard Harpham: Obviously, technology has brought many great things to

architects, engineers, and contractors, not least of which is the emergence of new career opportunities directly attributable to technological advances. Also, there is no doubt that working conditions have been improved, and cleaner, more attractive career paths have created a more diverse working population.

However, it’s remarkable to me that most of the basic productivity, waste, rework, error, and cost issues remain largely the same as when Revit was first introduced. It’s also surprising that most of our information still lives in 2D documentation in an incredibly fragmented January / February 2022

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03/02/2022 15:29

fashion. As an industry, we may have adopted 3D models, but we still seem to be slaves to 2D, all while leveraging decades old single-core software.

Martyn Day: I remember Revit before the BIM term was created. Why did the BIM idea blossom, and why do you think it became so central to the industry?

Richard Harpham: As soon as Revit was acquired, Autodesk internally wrestled to position it as something different to their existing CAD and 3D solutions.

Fundamentally, AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop and Revit were all built to deliver coordinated documentation.

Users found it easy to see how Revit greatly improved drawing coordination, but just being better at delivering drawings was a very limiting market position.

So, the Autodesk team created a new term, Building Information Modelling, specifically to better position Revit’s capability to host data. I remember there was debate about using the term Single Building Model (SBM), already widely used for 3D building models, but that term had heavy association with Graphisoft.

After a lot of marketing effort, the BIM term became adopted by some of the more rebellious technologists in large AE firms, with a key moment being a presentation of how BIM was used for the Freedom Tower in New York.

Then, almost overnight, any serious architect technologist had to explain their BIM strategy to their firm’s partners, and the first BIM managers started to appear.

BIM was a competitive separator for forward thinking firms and was used extensively to promote their technical prowess at delivering modern design services. Remarkably, this BIM centricity has pervaded almost every aspect of AEC technology development since, both inside firms and in software developers. But, during the last few years, I’m seeing the generally accepted premise, that a ‘BIM’ should be the data core during building production, is now being challenged. Many now argue that it has become more of a millstone than an enabler.

Martyn Day: Do you think focusing on BIM may be the wrong approach?

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Richard Harpham: I’d rather not say it’s wrong to utilise BIM, just that it needs to be positioned as one of many contextual sources that can be leveraged during building production. A single project BIM, where all project data must append to a single 3D model, almost never happens, and each profession ends up creating their own 3D model due to contractual risk or lack of trust. That, combined with the sheer file size issues of a centralised BIM, has us searching for software to solve collaboration challenges that do little to advance productivity.

This issue of BIM collaboration has created a ‘throttle’ in maintaining the

One from the archives: the term BIM really took off in 2005 when Revit was used for New York’s Freedom Tower

pace of workflows during building production, which usually means information ‘falls out of 3D’ into 2D documentation to keep pace with the project.

Martyn Day: I don’t think you are saying much new there about today’s issues, but what are you now focusing at Slate on to address the bigger problems?

Richard Harpham: We’ve spent considerable time speaking to firms that are

overwhelmed by their digital data, including BIM, finding surprisingly little of it is being used during critical decision processes.

We’ve also proven that simply digitising our legacy processes, as most current construction software does, is not providing the productivity returns we’d hoped for. We may be at an important watershed moment, where existing and trusted methods, based on a human’s cognitive abilities, may have reached their limit.

The team who formed Slate became increasingly interested in better understanding how our legacy processes and decision-making habits might hold the answers to improved software design. Numerous studies have proven that humans generally focus more when trying to avoid losses than find gains, sticking to the original plan whenever possible. This decision bias, when multiplied over weeks and months of decisions during building production, crushes most attempts to improve productivity.

Almost every software tool out there is trying to keep you on the original schedule or minimise change as it could increase costs.

In AEC, we have inadvertently taught ourselves and our software that change is something to be avoided, as we can’t predict how good or bad a change might be.

We experience similar illogical human behaviour in everyday life, where someone might say, “I know there is a new road that is bound to be faster to the shops, but I’ve always driven this route, as I know the way and how long it takes.” Of course, most of us now trust the software in our car or smartphone that suggests ‘change opportunities’ all the time like ‘take the next exit for a faster route to avoid Traffic.’ GPS software is built to predict and imply positive change opportunities.

You still get to decide whether to take the advice, but at least you now know.

Martyn Day: So, you are implying this is a process design problem, and we need to move away from trusted methods that have worked in the past?

Richard Harpham: Well, in almost every other human industrial endeavour, we are moving towards more agile context driven decision processes that www.AECmag.com

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see ‘change’ as an opportunity to improve, not an as an issue or event to avoid. Many professionals, tasked with digital transformation, are looking for solutions that help them improve governance of the very processes that discourage change occurring during building production.

When did we decide change was always bad? If you were relying on that GPS to steer you away from traffic, you’d be annoyed if it told you after the change opportunity. ‘I knew there was traffic ahead, but I kept you on the same route, because you always go that way.’

The new generation of software tools need to be a real-time assistant helping you make better decisions. Just as when starting a car journey along a GPS planned route, the moment you kick off a building project, all the context just changed. So, just like a GPS, your digital building decision assistant needs to search for patterns that can predict positive change opportunities, presenting them at the right time to improve outcomes.

Martyn Day: So, this is what we can expect from your new company, Slate.

From the sound of it, you’re proposing yet another AI/ML solution?

along with their vendors. While working with several General Contractors, we’ve discovered a massive existing resource that might provide huge value in delivering decision context. One common example comes to mind. Nearly every firm I’ve talked to creates a form of ‘lessons learned’ document after a project, but none I’ve met have leveraged these as a resource for future work in any systematic way.

While Slate is not just for discrete decisions, we’ve started by trying to understand what individual personas in the building process might benefit from for decision assistance. We’ve seen firms build ‘Mission Control’ approaches to centralise decision making, but this has proven expensive and hard to implement.

At Slate, we are attempting to introduce something much easier to adopt by individuals using their mobile devices, focused initially on augmenting decisions before, during and after their scheduled tasks. We’re also evolving easy to implement cross firm data integrations, intersecting multiple data We may be at an important watershed streams to reveal valuable moment, where existing and trusted methods, opportunities that otherwise might never have based on a human’s cognitive abilities, may been found fast enough to have reached their limit impact outcomes.

Richard Harpham: Yes, we are all getting a little fatigued with those terms.

These are early days in even understanding how best to employ ML and AI. Yes, we have several BIM-focused, ML/ AI driven image capture for comparing progress on site to sequenced models.

But, for those solutions to be successful, we must wait for the model versions to catch up, to check that the construction is keeping up with the schedule. It makes my head hurt to think of how much additional effort and cost they could introduce if we try to do it with the current BIM tools.

At Slate we started by first studying why decisions are made the way they are during building production, so we can understand why seemingly avoidable issues occur repeatedly. We clearly found that many of these repeated inefficiencies result from human behaviour, rather than digital inefficiency. So, before we train our ‘machines’, we’re making sure we better understand what machines need to do well to overcome what humans do badly. www.AECmag.com

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Let me give you just one example. A prize-winning study from Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons deals with the effects of cognitive illusions. They studied two fascinating human behaviours: Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness. These have evolved over millennia to help people deal with the overwhelming amount of data our eyes are presented with, leading to very narrow cognitive focus.

Unless it’s something like a tiger attacking you from your side view or something moves so slowly it is not a threat, your brain just won’t see it. While this helped us not get distracted in the jungle, this auto-filtering can blind us to potentially valuable decision context during our working day.

Computational machines, such as we are building at Slate, do not need to filter visual information in the same way. Once trained, they will be able to see, count, relate, introspect everything presented to them in their focal range, then predict

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potential issues or opportunities without bias, without missing anything.

In this way, Slate’s goal is to reveal valuable insights that a building professional would not ordinarily be aware of, helping either avoid issues or take advantage of opportunities to improve outcomes.

Martyn Day: It sounds like it’s going to take a lot of data, and in a process that has 28 firms not sharing data that well (or happily) how can these AI/ML solutions get a clear picture of the overall project?

Or is this only for discrete processes?

Richard Harpham: While we do have a data sharing and access problem, we don’t have a digital data shortage problem. Recently, data-specialist Splunk Inc. released a study stating that as much as 55% of potential data in an organisation is considered “dark”, that is, data that is unknown, undiscovered, unquantified, underutilised or completely untapped.

They coined the term ‘Dark Data’, to describe data held in siloes and software, scattered across a firm’s ecosystem

Martyn Day: What can we expect from Slate’s commercial solutions?

Richard Harpham: Early this year, expect our ‘mobile-first’ solution that can provide immediate value to decision makers during the pre-construction and construction phases, giving individuals immediate decision context during their everyday tasks. Slate then leverages its proprietary dynamic scheduling capabilities to ensure resulting change decisions can immediately update the overall schedule as well as the order of individuals’ tasks.

Soon to follow, Slate’s increasing number of integrations with subcontractors and material supplier’s software and systems, will create data insights, valuable to the Executive suite as well as the individual executing tasks.

I firmly believe we are at the start of a significant shift in how we deliver buildings, where a new set of ‘machines’ works hand in hand with humans, to support the industry in its long overdue increase in productivity and profit.

■ slate.ai

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Exploring BIM’s hidden past We don’t hear much today about Rucaps or Sonata or Reflex - but all three systems played a fundamental role in the development of modern BIM and were largely driven by one man, Dr Jonathan Ingram

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here are only a additional 3D representations, an idea erate construction plans, sections and 3D few individuals proposed by Ingram. perspectives, with design changes autofrom the field of At the time, limitations in computing matically updating on all views.

BIM who can power required Rucaps to be split into Additionally, object-oriented design boast of inter- more than 30 individual modules and allowed for both quantity take-off and n a t i o n a l programmes. Working mainly on his construction sequencing to be achieved. acclaim that own, Ingram successfully built a bolt-on Sonata even had its own in-built renderextends beyond module for Rucaps that allowed 3D mod- ing engine — an area of particular interthe BIM niche. els to be generated from the 2D objects. est to Ingram, who wrote his PhD thesis These individu- However, these objects were neither para- on that subject. als are most often recognised for their metric, intelligent nor did they contain At first glance, the features and workremarkable efforts in transforming the any metadata — features that later came flows of Sonata show a striking resemconstruction industry, through the inven- to define BIM objects. blance to modern building modelling tion of ground-breaking technologies. Dr While engaged on the Rucaps develop- applications such as Autodesk Revit, Jonathan Ingram is one such person. ment, Ingram began envisioning the despite the fact that Revit was first In 2016, Dr Ingram was awarded the concept of a single federated model, with released some 15 years later. According to prestigious international award, the integrated parametrics, coordinated 2D Ingram, he came close to an acquisition Prince Philip Gold Medal. This prize is and 3D views, clash-detection, construc- agreement with Autodesk in 1987. This only bestowed occasionally, to individu- tion sequencing and rendering. In the fell through at the very last minute, as als who are deemed to have made excep- end, his obsession with the concept news of the Black Monday historic finantional contributions to the field of engi- drove him to quit his job, in order to cial crash broke just as the deal was neering. In Ingram’s case, this involved pursue his own vision. about to be signed. working on 3D technologies way back in As a young man of 24, Ingram was able Back in the attic, Sonata underwent 1986, at a time when the industry was to secure a bank loan that gave him suffi- years of development, evolving into the still in awe of 2D AutoCAD, first released cient leverage to purchase a desktop more complete and user-friendly applicajust three years earlier. workstation, placed right in the middle of tion Reflex. This was sold to PTC in 1996, Unlike most inventors toiling in base- his attic sanctuary. After two years of in a deal that also saw Ingram become ments or garages, Ingram chose an attic hard work, Sonata emerged in 1986, just CTO at the acquiring company. At the for his workplace, where his passion for one year before the first release of time, PTC was perhaps best known for its computational design nudged him into Archicad. Sonata included all of Ingram’s Pro/Engineer application, which later a hermit-like lifestyle. Prior to this, he envisioned features and sent shockwaves evolved into Creo. This came to enjoy was employed at GMW Computers, through the industry. While there is still such a dominant market share in where he worked on the mechanical engineering that CAD application Rucaps, PTC resolved to expand into the a recognised forerunner construction market in order to In a sense, Sonata was an application of BIM applications. maintain growth.

At this time, the cornerThe mid-1990s was a defining ahead of its time. It was launched to a stones for 3D CAD promarket that simply wasn’t ready for it, in age in the development of BIM. grammes had already It was a time when the largest terms of hardware resources and skills been extensively develplayers in the industry orchesoped and conceptualised trated a series of major software during the 1970s and acquisitions to safeguard their 1980s, in applications such as Rucaps, as some public debate on the matter, it was market dominance. According to well as BDS, GDS, ARK2 and Gable CAD arguably the world’s first true BIM- Ingram, this was the main driver of Systems. In fact, the theoretical concepts capable application — an innovation rec- PTC’s $30 million acquisition of Reflex of what we have come to associate with ognised by both the Prince Philip Award — but even with Reflex and Ingram on modern BIM practices had been laid out and an Innovation Award from the its side, PTC struggled to make much by the father of BIM, Charles (Chuck) British Computer Society. impact in the construction sector and the Eastman, in the Building Description strategy was sidelined.

System (BDS) software in 1974, almost a Sonata’s contribution Just two years after the acquisition of decade before the public release of 2D Sonata was such a robust application that Reflex, two PTC employees left to found AutoCAD. it was still in use 35 years later at major their own company, based on the develBut while these applications all repre- customers in the UK. Unlike line-based opment of a building modelling applicasented ground-breaking advances in 3D CAD, it introduced early definitions of tion called Revit. According to Ingram, CAD, none of them qualified as BIM. parametric solid modelling and object- they carried out their work with access to Rucaps, on which Ingram worked at oriented design, where individual object a non-exclusive licence of Reflex, initially GMW Computers, was primarily based categories would adjust differently offering Ingram a role in their endeavour. on the ‘21/2 D’ concept originally proposed depending on their relation and interac- But after more than a decade of intense in BDS. This refers to the concept of 2D tion with other object categories. software development, he felt overplan, section and elevation views being One example is how windows and whelmed and burnt out, he says. attached to individual objects to show doors automatically embedded into walls Embarking on yet another adventure of detailed representations of the object in and generated the associated details. this kind simply felt too much. The rest, different perspectives. Rucaps sought to Through Sonata’s object-oriented design as they say, is history. innovate the 21/2 D concept by adding approach, it was possible to rapidly genReflex and Revit shared a myriad of

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features — so much so that it is fairly clear where the Revit team found much of its inspiration. That said, the 1990s were a time of fierce competition between large software rivals, all drawing on each others’ ideas, in their battle to dominate the new and hugely lucrative 3D domain.

Some failed. Some were acquired. Some succeeded. But Revit excelled, thanks to the introduction of an ingenious feature: the family editor.

The family editor revolutionsed objectoriented design, enabling professionals to easily create, manipulate and schedule parametric objects in a simple and consistent way. It made reusable object libraries easy to generate and share across projects. The consistency in the parametric structure of these objects made it possible to perform various types of analysis based on object metadata .In other words, the family editor feature came to capitalise the ‘I’ in BIM, making rapid design iterations possible.

Hidden history Given this illustrious background, why have so few people today heard of Sonata, Reflex, or Rucaps? The answer may be multi-faceted, but it is not particularly complicated.

Today, the benefits of BIM remain under debate across the industry. Architects may have pushed for the transition, but clients, contractors and consultants have been slower to follow and more hesitant to adapt to new practices. In short, it has taken decades for the industry to reach its current level of BIM maturity.

For many practices, it has been an undisputably bumpy road to success.

Even today, maturity levels vary vastly from country to country and from company to company. Back in the 1980s, this situation was much more pronounced, with only a small percentage of professionals familiar with computers and software expertise a rare and expensive skill.

In addition, the licensing costs associated with pre-1990 building modelling applications like Catia, Archicad and Sonata were steep. These programmes

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required very expensive desktop workstations to run on.

AutoCAD, on the other hand, was sufficiently light to run on IBM’s first PC, which sold at an affordable price and was thus more widely accessible. And, more obviously, AutoCAD was easier for the industry to adapt to than the 3D CAD programmes of the time, as it did not impose any radical changes on established workflows.

Fast-forward to today, and the same debate between 3D versus 2D still rages, despite most of the industry having already realised the benefits of 3D. In the mid-1990s, when affordable PCs became sufficiently powerful to run 3D building modelling applications, the big software companies had enough momentum to take on the competition with full force.

In a sense, then, Sonata was an application ahead of its time. It was launched to a market that simply wasn’t ready for it, in terms of hardware resources and skills. And, at the same time, BIM workflows, guidelines and industry standards had yet to be formulated at an industry level. Once the market finally caught up, so had the competition.

Reflex entered the battle with too little momentum to lead the shift to BIM, and was swallowed up before it ever got a chance to gain a foothold.

All that said, Sonata and Reflex still managed to attract a worldwide user base, particularly in China and the UK — but as is often the case, they have often

been left out of the historic spotlight, while attention has been lavished on their more successful rivals.

Either way, the pioneering innovations and legacy of Dr Jonathan Ingram, which played such a defining role in the history of BIM, are indisputable. For those interested in learning more about his story, Ingram’s new book Understanding BIM is a recommended read. And the next time anybody refers to BIM as a new ‘technology’, readers can confidently inform them that, in fact, BIM has existed and matured alongside CAD for more than 35 years.

This article, first published in Building Smart Korea, Autumn 2021 (Vol. 24) edition, was written by Kasper Miller, an editor and researcher at the publication and a Certified Architectural Technologist. Miller previously worked as Head of BIM at a Dublin-based architectural practice, leading the firm’s transition to Revit, training 40 employees and supporting the development of around 20 medium-to-large projects.

1 On its launch in 1986, Sonata sent shockwaves through the industry 2 Sonata evolved into the more complete and user-friendly application Reflex, which was sold to PTC in 1996

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Autodesk Forges its future

At Autodesk University 2021, the main hype was around Forge, the company’s cloud-based development platform for developers and customers. Launched in 2015, it’s been a long-time in the making, and it would seem the company is betting the farm on it. Martyn Day reports

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t Autodesk University 2021, the company’s CEO Andrew Anagnost dispensed with pushing Autodesk’s core design and collaboration products.

Instead, he, along with the executive team, spent time eulogising Autodesk’s cloud services, connectivity tools and the development platform that enables this, which is called Forge.

Autodesk has been building the Forge SaaS cloud platform for years, but until now it’s mainly been marketed to developers. Because the Forge development suite is so different to anything else on the design market, it needs careful explanation. Autodesk now needs to introduce its customers to new ways of thinking about design tools, data and how they should expect the Autodesk development community to plug into their digital ecosystems.

Covid certainly forced AEC firms to sink or swim and pivot their entire IT systems to serve more distributed users, scramble to buy workstation-class laptops and accelerate cloud-based collaboration tools. Sure, in this process, many firms found new bottlenecks and had to rapidly deploy a whole new way of working but, amazingly, the industry managed.

Autodesk feels this baptism of distributed working fire has forever changed the way firms work and now appreciate the flexibility and resilience of design firms having a cloud back-bone.

In his keynote, Anagnost wanted to get customers to look beyond this conversion to cloud adoption; stage one of which is the distribution of files, “We’re going back to work. But we’re not going back to the way we used to work, we’re 34

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certainly not going to stop storing our data in the cloud or collaborating in the cloud. If anything, we’ll be doing more of that. But when exporting, uploading and sharing giant files doesn’t produce giant returns, maybe it’s time we face a clear reality. It’s not our files that are valuable, but the data that’s locked inside them.”

Autodesk’s advice for leveraging the value from latent customer data is to utilise its Forge platform. Up until this point, Forge was mainly talked about in the context of developers and APIs (Application Programming Interface) for cloud applications.

Turning the promotion of Forge to customers seems like a big jump for developer tools as, I would suspect, very few users would currently have the ‘programming chops’ in-house to utilise it. But clearly, much of the messaging from AU was explaining to customers how Autodesk will be delivering a phase change in accessing authoring tools, cre-

ating data, collaborating around data, and applying technologies like machine learning.

Autodesk is certainly the most clouddevout out of all the CAD firms. As others mainly focus on cloud servers and collaboration / connectivity, Autodesk is looking to completely move the centre of design away from distributed, desktop, file-based networks to a cloud-centric common data environment. Anagnost refers to these as information models.

A Forge-centric future isn’t just a bunch of APIs and tools, it means an end to filebased working as we know it. Anagnost succinctly expressed how he feels about the potential of Forge, “No matter what industry you’re in, no matter what products you use, or where in the world you are, making data more accessible, more extensible and more open will help unleash your talent, connect your processes, automate your workflows, and unlock valuable insights.” www.AECmag.com

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So what is Forge?

services which can be called on, in almost In the same digital twin market, Space In the old days of programming, applica- a plug and play manner?

Group in Newcastle upon Tyne created tions such as AutoCAD were one big monNew products could be assembled from an exceptional digital twin platform olithic lump of code, comprised of millions standard common components, from called Twinview (aecmag.com/technology/ of lines. AutoCAD was written like this up across Autodesk’s entire portfolio of capa- twinview), mixing its own cloud developed to R12. In creating the R11 to R12 update, bilities. Autodesk’s developer community software with the Autodesk Forge Viewer the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the could move to creating applications which and the Autodesk BIM 360 API. time, John Lynch, once explained to me utilise actual Autodesk services within In this issue of AEC Magazine we also how editing and updating that new their next generation products, saving feature GeoBIM from Esri, the first cloud release, using this procedural program- them time and ensuring compatibility. to cloud collaboration between software ming methodology, was getting harder Forge is a set of these core discreet sub- giants, which utilises Autodesk Forge and harder and taking longer to do. It was systems with APIs which can be wired components. The application enables becoming a ‘rats nest’ of code. together in a myriad of configurations to users to combine information feeds from When it came time to create AutoCAD provide core functionality. No more rein- Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIM R13, and facing the pain of refactoring the venting the whole wheel as all products 360, with GIS data served up by Esri’s old code and now a port to Windows, the will mainly be made from a kit of stand- ArcGIS servers. decision was made to redevelop AutoCAD ard parts. Enhance a Forge component Users don’t have to upload any files, and modernise the code to components, with new capabilities, and all applica- just simply select data from hosted prousing object-oriented C++. This made add- tions built with that get that update. jects to see the resultant co-ordinated ing and removing new capabilities and When Autodesk now makes any acqui- combination of BIM and GIS in enhancements much easier. sition, the proviso is that the application Autodesk’s Forge Viewer.

Autodesk stumbled by releasing R13 will be reworked to utilise Forge compoThis approach to Forge and application too soon. But, once stabilised, subsequent nents and unique new functionality will development also means new business AutoCAD releases benemodels for Autodesk, its fitted from having better ecosystem of developers underlying structured and potential competition.

Autodesk has an ambitious cloud strategy. It and managed code.

In the CAD software involves moving its customers’ data from local market, nearly all CAD AutoCAD updates subsequently came out more to hosted, going from files to databases, desktop developers protected who regularly. For software and could not develapps to client, file exchange to API, proprietary could firms, making these kind op on their desktop systo open, all while maintaining existing tools, of architecture changes tems. Many times, popular for products with millions AutoCAD applications legacy formats and working methodologies of users is like changing a were bought by competityre at 100mph. Code tors, and they were quickly maturity and inevitable underlying plat- be used to create new services. An analo- stripped of their accredited developer staform changes, lead to big decisions for gy would be the Borg in Star Trek, the tus. With Forge, combined with the busisoftware firms.

‘Forgeification’ of CAD applications ness outlook of Anagnost, cloud-based Fast forward 20 years and Autodesk assimilates and standardises all the design data changes the rules of engagenow has multiple applications in multi- design functions Autodesk creates or ment, as he explains, “We don’t really care ple disciplines, multiple platforms, mul- ingests on its forty year journey. We can who builds [using Forge], people are going tiple code bases, multiple file types - all see this with Plangrid, Assemble Systems to build things that compete directly with requiring dedicated development teams, and expect to see Spacemaker’s technolo- some of our products and we’re OK with each tending to their unique products. gy also added to the Forge stack for more that, because one of the things that is super Projecting forward, it was clear that widespread use. critical here is that this move from files to the cloud would play an important part As Forge has been in development for APIs has to catalyse a greater movement in delivering software. Mobile computing quite a while, there are numerous AEC inside of the industries that Autodesk was becoming increasingly widespread applications which utilise a number of alone cannot solve. and, while today’s software can utilise common Forge components. Autodesk’s “It’s going to require a lot of people the Internet as an exchange server, mono- new digital twin platform, Tandem, coming together and moving the induslithic file-based paradigms are a hin- (tinyurl.com/Tandem-AEC) is a great exam- try to different ways of thinking and drance to distributed computing. ple. Here the team rapidly developed a working so look for that ecosystem to If you took all Autodesk applications, new application for an emerging vertical grow and grow and grow over time. More in-house or acquired, there are common market in just 18 months.

APIs and people will be able to do more capabilities, such as read and write Using pre-developed capabilities such powerful things.”

DWG, viewing 2D and 3D models, man- as the Forge Viewer and API access to age changes to designs, render, generate Autodesk Construction Cloud and BIM Openness CNC, point cloud support, file transla- 360, it meant Autodesk could get alpha For a whole industry that literally has a tors, PDF output – the list goes on. If versions of Tandem in the hands of cus- business model based on trapping cusdesktop software needs to be refactored tomers exceptionally quickly, gather tomers in their proprietary silos, this for this new cloud platform, then why not their feedback and start building deeper will be met with a healthy dose of sceptibreak down functionality to universal layers of capability. cism, and it will be a case of action

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speaks louder than words.

Openness has become a common theme for Autodesk and the definition of openness could be debated. But Anagnost was emphatic, “We’ve reached out to embrace all the important standards. IFC, obviously is something we’re leaning pretty heavily into. We believe this is important. We don’t believe open standards can do everything, they never do, but they’re critical to catalysing the transformation that I’ve been talking about in the industry.

“Without the support of open standards, we can’t get the whole industry wrapping around what the future looks like, and how these workflows should work in the future. It’s critical that we’re open, that we support open standards, that people get more APIs of the data that we create, so that they can do things with them. Otherwise, we’re not really going to accelerate this transformation. It’s still early in the journey. We’re not done yet, but we’re making lots of progress.”

Anagnost also explained that he knew open APIs would mean competitors would ‘consume data from his world into their world’ and he said he was OK with that. If they had reciprocal open APIs, Autodesk will talk to them. “We will always be living in a heterogeneous world. So, the more we embrace the APIs, and the more we embrace the connectivity, the better off we’ll all be.”

Anagnost doubled down, “We’re not going to stop anybody from using the

environment, the way they are, we’re just determined to be better than them.”

In its first and most common incarnation, IFC is a file-based format, and historically a very low common denominator. It has improved with each revision, but still can be the source of great frustration.

Autodesk’s implementation of IFC in Revit developed a negative reputation, but last year Autodesk licensed the Open Design Alliance’s (ODA’s) IFC libraries which, once implemented, should hopefully raise its game.

The bigger issue is the potential trap of being owned by a software vendor. With all your data in their cloud, is it easy to leave? In the future we will probably be less worried about file exchange and more concerned about depth of integrations between AEC ‘cloud islands’ of data and capability.

While there is a big issue about openness between competing products, Autodesk with its historic ‘code of many colours’ had data interoperability problems between its own applications. With industries like manufacturing and AEC converging, not being able to connect designs between important disciplines is not going to be an option.

Here again, Autodesk is looking to use Forge and standardisation to remove its in-house silos of design data. Amy Bunszel, executive vice president of Autodesk’s AEC design solutions stated that the company was using Forge to

build fluent workflows between Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Inventor, the mechanical CAD tool. “With Forge we are unlocking Revit data for use in nonAutodesk applications. Just like data flows between Revit and Inventor, soon Revit data will pass directly to Microsoft Power Automate, making BIM data available for a wide variety of uses, giving granular visibility into projects and making it easier to supply up-to-date information to partners without having to pass files back and forth.

If an object parameter changes in a model, a supplier won’t have to dig through a huge file to find the change.

Instead, designers will be able to create an automation to instantly give their supplier the exact information they need. That’s just one example. But with Revit data unlocked, you will not be limited to the constraints of a proprietary file format.”

Customers & Forge With the target audience for the Forge message at Autodesk University being customers, it was intriguing to hear Autodesk pitching Forge as a consumerlevel tool. Looking back, AutoCAD eventually supported a plethora of APIs (Arx, Lisp etc.), but few customers went beyond creating simple scripting macros. Forge would surely only appeal to a minority?

Anagnost responded, “In terms of how many customers are going to natively build off Forge, it’s going to be 20% of cus-

The origins of Autodesk Forge Computer science usually advances through evolutionary phases. Examples of the evolutionary approach would be updated Operating Systems (Windows 3.1 to Windows NT), increases in the number of transistors in CPUs, or hardware refinements such as Solid State Drive (SSDs) over Hard Disk Drives (HDDs).

Small to medium technology changes which occur year to year might not seem significant but, over five years, looking back we can see progress. Looking inside any computer, you are just seeing the latest instalment in open warfare between thousands of

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hardware and software developers to go faster, do more, to be the best.

It’s always amazed me how we grow and adapt with this computer arms race, changing the way we work and the structures of how our data is organised. Who would have thought those early 2,800 baud modems would eventually revolutionise phones, shopping and allow us all to work at home during a pandemic, while Boris Johnson partied, and others tracked down online supplies of horse worming pills?

However, less frequently, computing will see generational change, in which some-

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thing happens which turns existing paradigms on its head.

In CAD, the move from expensive UNIX systems to DOS / Windows PCs provided an opportunity for a startup called Solidworks to create a solid modelling application which undermined the highly expensive and dominant UNIX-based CAD software developers. Like the dinosaurs, some became extinct.

The Forge platform has been out in the open for seven years and has its origins in the development of Autodesk Fusion 360, which, amazingly, was launched back in 2013. Fusion was Autodesk’s

third major attempt to create a product design system for manufacturing (its first being Mechanical Desktop, based on AutoCAD, and then Inventor).

In manufacturing, Autodesk was always, volume wise, fourth behind the main pack of Dassault Systèmes (Catia, Solidworks), Siemens (NX, Solid Edge) and PTC (Pro/Engineer, Creo, Onshape). The management at Autodesk believed that whoever would be first to deliver on the next generational change point, from desktop to cloud, would be the new dominant player.

Autodesk started to develop

a new cloud-capable manufacturing tool which became Fusion 360. With that work, Autodesk experimented and formulated how a cloudbased application with a thin desktop client should be architected.

Anagnost commented on this synergy, “Forge, and its relationship with Fusion, is quite deep and quite intense and there’s more Forge integrations with Fusion than there are with any other stack inside the company right now. Forge is playing a critical role in enabling simultaneous collaboration across various capabilities and providing fluidity of the Fusion

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tomers. There’s a lot of them actively building right now. But that’s not the point to Forge necessarily. We’re just going to underpin these vertical environments that we have facing the various industries.

“As a result, it’s going to allow us to automate and create transparency between various disciplines and designs in a way that you just can’t see today. And it’s going to allow a new ecosystem of third-party developers, because the old ecosystem has faded away in many respects.

“Thirty years ago, AutoCAD spread all over the world because of its developer ecosystem. Since then, that ecosystem has kind of plateaued. It’s not growing and changing like it was before. But this new ecosystem that we’re going to create through Forge APIs, it’s Autodesk’s move to cloud going to be, I believe, firms who want to create has been many years in the incredibly vibrant, and it’s their own workflows, they making: here is CEO Andrew going to create an opportucan have their base subAnagnost at AU 2018 setting nity for our partners, for out his vision for Architecture, scriptions and then craft new entrants, for customers Engineering and Construction - their own applications and AKA Project Plasma to do things they haven’t plug in their own data tools done before.“ using Forge APIs. Anagnost envisages the majority of It’s going to be interesting to see how users will benefit from Forge through his Autodesk decides to separate out functioncompany’s in-house developed services ality, bundling in these future Forge and add subscriptions to the services of replacements for today’s applications. their third-party developers. For example, There is a danger that some customers will in the case of digital twins, customers feel concerned that Autodesk is expecting would subscribe to BIM 360 or them to ‘finish off’ the applications they Construction Cloud, and they would have bought, in a kind of Mr Potato Head way. a choice of using Autodesk’s own Tandem These thoughts lead on to what will be the or Space Group’s Twinview. For large changes in the business model and cost?

data across various disciplines from design to manufacturing, into electrical design and all the things associated with that.

“Forge is going to play an increasingly more critical role in that, across everything that our customers do, and across all the application stacks.

You’ve heard us say, over and over again, more and more of those stacks are going to start consolidating in a way that looks much more like Fusion.

It allows us to not only simplify what we present to our customers but ensure that we’re leveraging the full power of the cloud to the customers’ benefit ultimately.”

Business model Autodesk is renowned for evolving its business model. We went from perpetual licences to suites, to subscription, collections, named user licences, loss of network licences, pay per use. These have all been pushed through the user base, leaving many in license hell, running multiple products on multiple licence types.

All this time Autodesk has known that its ultimate objective has been to host customers’ data and deliver apps and services through a cloud-based system.

Anagnost was asked how customers would access Forge capabilities, “Sometimes pay (per transaction), sometimes simply available to [under] the

Fusion has been an important learning step for Autodesk as a proof of concept for its cloud-based aspirations. It was at this point that Autodesk started to make some foundational decisions which are reaching maturity almost 10 years since it started. The company embarked on a development plan to turn all its discrete software components into an array of cloud services with customers’ data at the centre, in the cloud.

If you want a bit of a looking glass into how Autodesk’s Forge applications will act when replacing the desktop applications, it’s worth getting a demonstration of Fusion.

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Feature

umbrella of a particular subscription. a native SVG/SVG2 format, someone dynamic, thin client style applications, I The idea is the customer is going to get will pay for that transaction, either suspect that some of this user frustration to choose how they access some of these when the model is viewed or uploaded to comes from hearing the Forge utopia, but things, but we’re definitely going to BIM 360. Micro transactions are going having no explanation or timeline as to bring capabilities to whatever you need to be an important part of Autodesk’s how Autodesk plans to migrate from the and those capabilities will range from business model in the cloud. current applications to Forge. Anagnost’s rendering, scheduling and all things Some developers who have looked at ‘don’t fixate on your authoring tools associated with that. creating Forge applications which require brand’ message is very significant.

“What we won’t do is sub divide them a high level of model transactions and proThe AU focus on Forge felt like the so much that customers are pulling up cessing through certain Forge services start point of that conversation and readdifferent environments and apps for dif- have told me that it can get prohibitively ing between the lines we are a couple of ferent things. As we move into the expensive with scale very quickly. years out before there will be much to future, certain capabilities will be preFor IT design managers, centrally host- show in the AEC space. sented to them as they need to work ed data and applications hopefully nix With no next generation of Revit conthrough things. Some will be available the current hassle of managing licences firmed and a concentration on construcsimply under the umbrella of their sub- in an enterprise. However, the nature of tion, it’s going to be very interesting to scription. Some people will choose only transactional micro payments could see how Autodesk defines its future to use our products and the pay per use prove to be an issue in tracking and mon- AEC-focused information model and mode because that’s what they want if itoring usage. I hope Autodesk has a workflows. they only use it once in a while. managerial system to enable customers If the problem is tackled with a con“Our goal is to offer maximum flexi- to stay in control and cap spending. struction centred information model, as bility to our customers with regards to opposed to design driven, this could be how they access and use these capabili- Conclusion an issue for architects. The industry is ties, by making it easier for them to find There is no doubt as to the importance to crying out for expanded capabilities what they need to do their jobs. Not have which Autodesk is placing on its move to beyond the current limitations of today’s to sift through dozens of products, but the cloud. It involves moving its custom- BIM tools (see AEC Magazine’s ‘BIM is Bust’ log into an environment, start getting ers’ data from local to hosted, going from cover story on page 12). their work done and often, The initial concept of the in many, many cases, be transition to Forge was a presented with what they huge call. Autodesk’s comAutodesk’s transition to cloud is going to take petition is taking very difmight need in order to solve a particular probmany years and customers do not like to feel ferent routes. I am sure lem.” customers will tranas if they’re being herded in a direction where many How pricing might sition without really they feel they have less control or choice change in the future for thinking about it. Some customers is a little fuzzy, may be concerned about but Forge enables much Autodesk not just owning more transactional charging. If your data files to databases, desktop apps to client, their design tools but also their process is held in Autodesk’s cloud, and you want file exchange to API, proprietary to open, and all their supply chain / ecosystem. to run generative design, rendering or all while maintaining existing tools, lega- Wherever data authored by its customsome kind of structural analysis, cy formats and working methodologies. ers goes, the micro transactions will be Autodesk will now be able to charge per It’s going to take many years for this generating revenue for Autodesk. individual calculation or result. Of course transition to happen and customers While a Forge-centric environment is this brings to light Autodesk’s token sys- do not like to feel as if they’re being still some years off, AU this year gave tem, which will be used to charge custom- herded in a direction where they feel users a picture, painted with words, of ers for services beyond their subscription they have less control or choice. There the direction of its development and level. was some reticence about moving to what the company envisages for the Third party developers have already cloud-based storage prior to Covid. That future of design tools. It also produced been using Forge to create applications. quickly evaporated when offices shut. some definitive statements on As the platform is transactional, fees can The next phase is to educate and make Autodesk’s intent to be open, which are be due for using certain APIs and free for customers aware of what kinds of things welcome and, until proven otherwise, others. At the moment, accessing BIM are possible. have to be taken seriously.

360 data is free, while some of the other The current challenge for Autodesk For twenty years the BIM market has APIs, such as the model derivatives API, will be trying to maintain its ageing been suffering a lack of interoperability. will charge the developer credits each desktop products, which will be Now Autodesk, Bentley, Trimble and time a model is sent to be processed, and absorbed into the Forge platform. Nemetschek have all stated they will vary depending on the complexity of Autodesk still needs to persuade custom- embrace open formats. It will be interthe model. ers they’re getting value for money with esting to see how portable customers Other free to use APIs in Forge the updates they get. data is and should they wish to leave a include the highly popular viewer.

As Autodesk has clearly stated it Forge platform, what technical challengHowever, as models need to be converted intends to eventually replace the current es they would face. through the model derivative API to get generation of desktop products with more ■ forge.autodesk.com

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Software

Esri ArcGIS GeoBIM At Autodesk University in 2021, the most interesting product announcement wasn’t from Autodesk, but from GIS (Geographic Information System) developer Esri.

After four years of development, the Esri-Autodesk Partnership has finally delivered its first offspring

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t Autodesk University in 2017, Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost and Esri president and co-founder Jack Dangermond sat on the mainstage to announce that the firms would be working together to build a bridge between AEC and GIS and, more specifically, between BIM and GIS. The initiative was a genius combination of effort from the world’s biggest AEC and GIS software houses. The aim was to work together to better integrate their respective technologies, sharing APIs, and to develop integrated workflows between their products, as well as doing some joint development.

In October 2021, Esri finally announced ArcGIS GeoBIM, the first product based on the agreement, fusing Esri’s ArcGIS mapping service with Autodesk cloud-based BIM data.

For those that don’t know Esri, it’s the

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global leading mapping and spatial analytics firm. The company’s flagship application is called ArcGIS, which is a server and online GIS system. It was originally launched in 1999 under the Arc/Info brand.

While Autodesk once dabbled in mapping, with AutoCAD Map (and Map 3D), it has never really held any serious pretentions to getting into the professional GIS space, with the two firms keeping to their own markets.

With convergence, accelerated by digitisation and an increasing appetite for spatial data, the partnership made perfect sense. Even before the announcement of the partnership, Esri had delivered a free plug-in for AutoCAD in 2014 called ‘ArcGIS for AutoCAD’, which brought maps, imagery, and geographic features from ArcGIS into the AutoCAD drawing environment. However, with the widespread adoption of BIM and 3D, and

the rise of digital twins and city scale modelling, Esri has pursued a development strategy to get its tools to play better with BIM data.

Linking BIM and GIS Esri ArcGIS GeoBIM links projects and workflows by interconnecting Esri ArcGIS with the Autodesk Construction Cloud and / or Autodesk BIM 360.

Within the application, users create GeoBIM projects, which combine ArcGIS features with Autodesk records, mutually served over the cloud and delivered in a lightweight 3D viewing application, powered by Autodesk Forge. GeoBIM offers filtering, analytics and query tools.

Autodesk Construction Cloud and BIM 360 hosts data created in AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit.

In many respects this is one of the first applications we have seen which blends cloud services from two significant vendors, to deliver a new and unique service.

GeoBIM displays ArcGIS infrastructure layers and building scene layers, alongside the corresponding Revit model, displayed side by side for coordination.

GeoBIM ‘apps’ can be run on the loaded datasets, including: documentation, site context evaluation, progress review and design and construction coordination. There is also an ‘issues’ dashboard, where project managers can monitor project progress.

One of Esri’s examples showed that, while you can link single projects, you can also look at a portfolio of assets, making connections to multiple BIM projects within Autodesk Construction Cloud.

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ress across 5, 7, 10 projects. You can see being used within Autodesk products. So DGN support for quite a long time and how many issues are open, closed, been that was part of it, to rely on what’s work- we’re actually revamping it this year. We’re completed or pending across all of your ing well within each of the systems and a part of the BuildingSMART initiative for projects. This kind of captured project just start to blend it together to make it IFC and introduced the ability to direct information is useful for future planning more easily usable.” read IFC files for the building schema.” and early problem identification. Esri The array of cloud data management Licensing is a tad complicated. Users of feels GeoBIM can help raise this rich tools that are available from Autodesk GeoBIM will need a licence for ArcGIS and project information to management level. enable clash coordination for design and an Autodesk licence and username for AEC Magazine spoke with Anthony core collaboration.

Autodesk Construction Cloud. To author Renteria, GeoBIM’s product manager at As users store their models in the projects from the ArcGIS side, assembling Esri, “People want to use the cloud-to- Autodesk cloud, then it makes sense to and piecing together links to create the cloud integration but we first wanted to link across to the information that’s GeoBIM experiences, users need a $200 make sure that we released something that being created by the GIS team. extension ($200 per creator per year). is actually going to solve some problems,” GIS is used for environmental analysis Those who are just viewing require at least he said. “Esri and Autodesk a viewer licence of ArcGIS hired Brockwell IT consulting with the GeoBIM extension, to build a prototype and we as well as access to an It shows the benefits of Autodesk partnering Autodesk subscription. By demonstrated the use of it on with Esri, the capabilities of Autodesk’s the mainstage of our 2018 using the named user authenEsri User Conference. tication, the system can limit Forge development platform and what the “It was part of a demoninformation each user brave new world of pure cloud driven third- what stration analysing a water has access to, relying on party developer applications can do project in the greater New Autodesk information manYork area. The idea being to agement structures. help show the vision for the Conclusion future. From that point on, it was about of existing conditions, surveys, and a lot gathering information from the custom- of other types of information. There GeoBIM is a first release and it’s got huge ers. That’s when we started to hear from might be reality capture datasets as well, potential. It’s more than a proof of concept some of our early adopter customers overlays such as photogrammetry, and but has a long way to go in terms of capaabout the inclusion of support for BIM mapping imagery information, GeoBIM bilities which can be added. It shows the 360, as they were using it to track issues. is the tool that enables the connection of benefits of Autodesk partnering with Esri, “We have tried to use capabilities with- those datasets with the design data that the capabilities of Autodesk’s Forge develin BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction resides on Autodesk side. opment platform and what the brave new Cloud, without having to shift informaObviously GeoBIM has its origins in the world of pure cloud driven third-party tion back and forth between the two sys- partnership with Autodesk but there are developer applications can do. tems all the time, because one of the other formats and vendors. Renteria It will be interesting to see if this is more things that we’ve heard about is this explained, “We obviously have a partner- adopted by Esri’s existing customers, tracking of issues is a key aspect and ship with Autodesk. But at the same time, extending their reach, or if it will create understanding what are the problems? we also want to make sure that we’re also demand in new market areas who have yet We didn’t want to recreate a new system listening to our customers who are asking to deploy GIS applications. to do that when there was already one for other data formats as well. We’ve had ■ esri.com ■ autodesk.com

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Case study

Beyond construction: geospatially enabled BIM To replace a complex rail bridge HNTB put ArcGIS GeoBIM to the test, envisioning a future where live sensor data could be harnessed to monitor the existing bridge during critical construction periods

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he Walk Bridge in Norwalk, Connecticut, carries four tracks of the Metro-North Railroad line over the Norwalk River. But this swing bridge, which currently swivels to accommodate boat traffic, was built in 1896 and has outlasted its intended life-span, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT).

It is being replaced by a vertical lift bridge that will ascend and descend to let ships pass through. And the entire bridge replacement project will be done while maintaining railroad traffic over the existing bridge — a complex undertaking, to say the least.

Infrastructure solutions firm Esri and

partner HNTB has been working on the replacement design for Walk Bridge for several years. One of the challenges the team has faced is connecting disparate data and systems during the design process.

After becoming an early adopter of Esri’s new ArcGIS GeoBIM on another project, leaders at HNTB realised that the solution could be used to quickly connect geospatial and BIM data on the Walk Bridge project. Not only that, but by incorporating ArcGIS Velocity to monitor live sensor data on the existing bridge during key parts of the construction process, the team recognised that ArcGIS GeoBIM could be useful well beyond the design and construction phases of the

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1 project. It could help with operations and maintenance on the new bridge as well.

“ArcGIS GeoBIM isn’t just a design tool; it’s something that owners and operators need to be thinking about using as part of their digital twin framework,” said Darin Welch, associate vice president for geospatial and virtual engagement solutions at HNTB’s Technology Solutions Centre. “If they see the value in monitoring the tilt, movement, and temperature of the existing bridge during construction, then it’s a logical next step to use this technology to monitor bridge conditions during normal operations.”

A breath of fresh air For HNTB, bridge work is its bread and butter—and has been since the company was founded more than 100 years ago.

But the transportation-focused consult-

1 Together, ArcGIS GeoBIM and ArcGIS Velocity could be used in the new Walk Bridge’s machine rooms to monitor critical metrics, such as temperature and tilt, well after construction 2 3D cylinders represent sensors that the existing Walk Bridge already has. A dashboard, made with ArcGIS Dashboards, shows the bridge’s tilt, which is being monitored using ArcGIS Velocity

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ing firm has worked on other major proj- part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud, ous types of data into formats that can be ects as well, including a multibillion-dol- and blends it with geospatial data from used in one program or another. lar passenger terminal upgrade at one of ArcGIS. For the airport project, Welch “You’re losing efficiency in the need to the largest international airports in the said he knew that integrating different constantly translate those things,” said United States. tools and systems was going to be impor- Welch. “And you risk accuracy if you’re The airport expansion and redevelop- tant, so the opportunity to explore not using the correct data or [if] somement project consists of adding new con- ArcGIS GeoBIM came at the perfect time. body is using something that was transcourses, replacing and expanding airport “We saw ArcGIS GeoBIM as a great lated and didn’t realise it should have gates, and developing a new central tun- opportunity to help visualise [design been retranslated.” nel system to convey utilities, baggage variations] because the subsurface utiliThanks to the recent partnership and passengers to satellite concourses. ties were in both CAD and GIS formats,” between Autodesk and Esri, ArcGIS To understand how each GeoBIM works with various of its design proposals Autodesk Construction would impact the airport’s ArcGIS GeoBIM is like the ultimate aggregator Cloud products, including surrounding infrastructure, Autodesk BIM 360, allowof information. We often find [data] silos in the team at HNTB took a ing BIM and GIS data to be our work, and this solution lets us bring model-first approach to the used together in collaboraproject and built a digital information together into that single interface tive workflows. twin—a 3D model that “When we first heard allows stakeholders to visuabout the partnership, it alise real-world outcomes and collaborate said Welch. “And because of the model- excited us because we could finally intemore easily. first design approach of the tunnel and grate the two solutions without having to This was the first time HNTB team how that connects to the new concourse do continual translation,” said Welch. members had employed ArcGIS GeoBIM and terminals, we needed a way for the Now, for the airport project, the team at to produce a digital twin to help ensure team to better visualise changes and con- HNTB connects ArcGIS GeoBIM users in that their infrastructure designs also flicts with the 3D subsurface utilities… a web-based environment directly to the supported location-based intelligence. like the air duct system.” project data on Autodesk BIM 360, no ArcGIS GeoBIM, a software as a serOne of the big advantages to using matter where the data is coming from. vice (SaaS) solution, integrates project ArcGIS GeoBIM is that it relieves the Stakeholders can access project materiinformation from Autodesk BIM 360, team at HNTB of having to translate vari- als, like live working files and the latest

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Case study

For the airport’s new central tunnel system, HNTB uses ArcGIS GeoBIM to evaluate how design changes would affect the underground utility network

maps, in a single location, which enables them to understand how the most recent designs for the airport’s underground tunnel would affect things like utilities.

According to Welch, ArcGIS GeoBIM also introduces the concept of a data cooperative that gives users confidence that they are accessing the most accurate information regardless of system or source. “[We’re] able to see GIS data and 3D civil CAD design, 3D architecture, subsurface GIS 3D utilities, [and more] in a single application that also lets people be notified of conflicts or item markups coming from the field,” said Welch.

“ArcGIS GeoBIM is like the ultimate aggregator of information. We often find [data] silos in our work, and this solution lets us bring information together into that single interface.”

scenario we would encounter.”

“We’re trying to really modernise our design processes and workflows here at HNTB and take a 3D model-first [BIM] and web-first GIS approach,” added Adam Horn, civil integrated solutions team lead at HNTB. “The lightbulb moment was, holy cow! [ArcGIS GeoBIM] is the realisation of web-first and model-first in one application. And we’ve never had that.”

Because the team at HNTB was already modelling Walk Bridge in 3D, using both Beyond design and construction CAD and GIS file formats, it made sense Once team members at HNTB saw how to start employing ArcGIS GeoBIM on well ArcGIS GeoBIM worked for the air- the project. But what’s really innovaport redevelopment project, they began tive—and moving ArcGIS GeoBIM into to explore other ways to serious consideration for employ the technology. continued use beyond the “We started as a movable We’re trying to design and construction bridge firm, so we chalhow HNTB is really modernise phases—is lenged ourselves to considthinking about incorporatour design er, is there a bridge design ing ArcGIS Velocity, which project where we could use enables users to process processes and ArcGIS GeoBIM?” recalled workflows and and visualise real-time Welch. data from sensors, into the The team also wanted to take a 3D model- solution. first [BIM] and demonstrate the value of “One of the challenges ArcGIS GeoBIM for bridge during construction of the web-first GIS information modelling, or new bridge is going to be approach BrIM—a type of BIM that monitoring the existing Adam Horn, functions horizontally, for bridge, since [CTDOT] is bridges, instead of verticalgoing to maintain revenue HNTB ly, for buildings. train service on the exist“We felt that if we could ing bridge during conprove [the value of ArcGIS GeoBIM] for struction,” Horn explained. “The existBrIM, it could open the door to other ing bridge already has sensors installed aspects of design engineering that we on it, so what we’re proposing to do with do,” Welch continued. “If we can prove it [CTDOT] is to use ArcGIS GeoBIM with on a large scale like an airport, which is Velocity to integrate that live sensor data almost like a small city, and we can and monitor the existing bridge during prove it on a smaller-footprint project, critical construction periods. If there’s like a bridge that still has lots of com- any movement on the existing bridge plexity, we feel like that spans the gap of that exceeds the threshold values of any design, construction, engineering baseline activity that we set during

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ground truthing, that would…stop service immediately.”

ArcGIS Velocity stores historical and current data from the sensors, which not only makes it useful during construction but also worthwhile for CTDOT to employ for normal bridge operations and maintenance.

“When we proposed ArcGIS GeoBIM as the single solution to bring all [the design and construction] data together, it seemed like a no-brainer to incorporate another Esri product that is built to ingest and harvest and manage live sensor data,” said Welch.

He thinks that ArcGIS GeoBIM and Velocity could ultimately be used together in the new Walk Bridge’s machine rooms, which control the bridge’s ascents and descents.

“Temperature gauges in the machine rooms, for example, cannot exceed a certain threshold,” said Welch. “Because Velocity is the means to share both current and historical information like that and…users can see [all this] from a single place—ArcGIS GeoBIM—it seems like a logical continued integration.”

According to Welch and Horn, team members at CTDOT are already brainstorming ways to use ArcGIS GeoBIM and Velocity to associate their inspection data and full maintenance history with all the different elements of the bridge.

“You don’t have to limit yourself,” said Welch. “We’re trying to show everyone that ArcGIS GeoBIM can be the single location where you make design, construction, operational, and maintenance decisions. It can carry you all the way through all those steps.”

■ esri.com

This case study is adapted from an article that was first published in ArcNews www.AECmag.com

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Central renovation Digital tools enable careful restoration and modern upgrade to the central block of the historic Canadian Parliament building

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he largest project of its kind ever undertaken in Canada, the expansion and restoration of the historic Canadian Parliamentary complex in Ottawa is expected to take ten years to complete.

After careful planning and extensive consultation, this substantial project, which is predicted to cost several billion dollars, has been given the green light.

The project involves the renovation of the entire Parliament complex which was originally completed in 1860 and subsequently rebuilt after a fire in 1916. The complex is made up of a Central block, an East and a West wing, together with a 302-foot-tall Peace Tower and surrounding grounds that face the Ottawa river and overlook the city.

More than 600 individuals from leading engineering, design and construction companies across the country will participate in the work. HOK Architects, together with other leading suppliers, has formed a joint venture – Centrus – which will be working on the Centre Block project for the duration of the renovations.

Advanced versioning The Canadian Parliamentary complex is being redesigned and modernised to pro46

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vide new types of spaces, as the needs of the people working for the Canadian Government have changed considerably since the last rebuild in 1916. The Centrus team is also aiming to meet stringent requirements relating to green credentials and user-friendly design. But one of the biggest challenges to date has related to upgrades to 3D models of the project.

As a result of this experience, the HOK team now uses 3D Repo as an advanced versioning system to dynamically track changes in the geometry of its 3D models.

Since 3D Repo retains full information on all previous models, the risk of data loss or corruption is eliminated.

Eliminating risk 3D Repo stores data in a local cloud-based repository. Most potential alternatives do not support regional repositories, which makes it difficult or even impossible for them to meet the Canadian Government’s request that data for the project should reside in Canada rather than elsewhere.

HOK has also been investigating the use of 3D Repo to create a supplemental versioning system that enables the team to trace its BIM related data and the Revit model specifically throughout its lifetime, so it can compare that information when upgrades are performed, or major

model changes are executed. In addition, the team has used 3D Repo alongside the Revit model to create a versioning system of the geometry and the point cloud data throughout the project’s entire history.

Improving efficiency HOK has also benefited from the new visualisation plugin that’s been developed by 3D Repo to enable streaming of content and differential checks into Unreal Engine.

“We worked with HOK on cloud-based data validation and large-scale geometry validation that otherwise would not have been possible”, explained Dr. Jozef Dobos, CEO and founder of 3D Repo. “Using 3D Repo, HOK was able to push their complicated 3D models straight from the authoring tools to the cloud for version control and federation purposes. Since all the data is available through the APIs, there is no need to re-issue the model and the data is already in the Unreal Engine and 3D Repo during run time.”

This way, client-facing visualisations can be developed and kept in step with the engineering process without any delay.

HOK is also able to retrieve 3D locations, meta-data, and other engineering information directly from the cloud without the need to build its own infrastructure.

■ 3drepo.com

www.AECmag.com

03/02/2022 15:44

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Engineering the Hux Shard from

Grand Designs

With a non-uniform geometric architecture inspired by Dartmoor’s wild granite tors, this complex home in Huxham, Devon represented a unique challenge for structural specialist TWP Consulting Engineers

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nspired by large sculptures in the countryside and the rocky outcrops of the nearby Dartmoor moors, The Hux Shard – as seen on Channel 4’s Grand Designs – offers a striking, geometric appearance.

The exterior walls are formed of 34 shard-shaped sculptural panels, set in a jagged 70 metre line following the contours of the hill on which the property stands. It is the combination of these immense-sized shards and the exposed rural landscape that was perhaps one of the key challenges behind the project, with TWP Consulting Engineers appointed as the structural engineers on the project.

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Based in Exeter, TWP, a structural and civil engineering consultancy, was tasked with engineering both the property’s superstructure and substructure, from the foundations and floor plates to the primary timber frame, supporting steel connections and exterior shards.

Speaking about the project, Nick Drew, Director at TWP said, “At TWP, we work on a wide range of projects, from simple extensions to multi-million pound commercial and industrial projects, as well as even a few art sculptures, with Tekla’s range of engineering software at the core of their delivery. This project, The Hux Shard, was certainly a fascinating and an

ambitious one, with a significant reliance on the engineering principle to create and bring the vision to life.”

Timber skeleton The building design required a series of large concrete pad foundations and steel short columns, which in turn supported the gigantic timber frame’s floor structure and roof. The primary building frame consisted of 282 glulam timbers, which were bolted together with steel brackets to form a wooden skeleton reaching over seven metres into the air. The Hux Shard’s exterior walls were then formed from 34 insulated timber shards, each around 600mm www.AECmag.com

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Case study

thick and clad in zinc, and interspersed with 46 equally complex glazed panels.

As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, the whole structure was also partially suspended, raised between 0.5 and 1.5 metres off the ground.

“Perhaps the main challenge on this project was the shard-shaped panels that formed the building exterior, and which served to create the dramatic geometric impact of the overall building,” explained Drew. “Due to the intended architectural aesthetic, there was no uniformity to the panels, no parallel elements and no true90 degrees. Each of the shards was wholly individual and unique, all at different angles to one another, and the whole property was also slightly curved on plan.

“As if those design complexities weren’t challenging enough, the shards were also incredibly large – some as tall as a twostorey house. Given the exposed and elevated hill-top location, the concern was that the shards would effectively act as wind sails, capturing a lot of wind and putting more stress into the primary structure itself. As engineers, we had to ensure that this wind loading was accounted for in the engineered design and that the shards wouldn’t place unnecessary strain and deflection on the primary structure and glazing.

“Fortunately for us, Tekla Structural Designer has an automated wind loading feature, meaning that we were able to quickly and automatically model and calculate full building wind loads. In turn, this gave us a far better economy for an optimised design – rather than the alternative of manually considering the loads, which is often based off the worst-case scenarios and doesn’t necessarily provide the whole picture.”

Clear thinking Given that every timber shard was unique, with different heights, raking lengths and angles, each panel had to be modelled and constructed individually within the Tekla modelling environment.

“This, combined with the jagged layout of the shards and the uneven ground level, provided us with another challenge –

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mainly how to create clear layers in the clients, engineers and contractors. software,” said Drew. “It was imperative “For us, we are seeing more and more that we were able to create clear layers timber being used on construction projand gridlines, as well as ensuring that ects, such as this, as people become the gridlines were named correctly, as more focused on the importance of susthis information then referenced back to tainability,” said Drew. “With Tekla’s the gridline’s respective shard. Without portfolio of software, we are able to analthe ability to clearly and concisely com- yse the timber building design in Tekla plete and model this in the software, it Structural Designer and understand all would have presented some serious diffi- forces and potential stresses. Then, as a culties and confusion that result of the software’s would have affected the emphasis on integration whole project delivery.” interoperability, we Perhaps the main and In addition to the timber are then able to export the challenge on this data and timber beams panels, there were also 46 equally large glass panels project was the directly into Tekla Tedds, interspersed throughout saving us considerable shard-shaped the Hux Shard’s exterior time. If it wasn’t for this, panels that walls and roof, designed to we would have had to formed the help draw natural light interrogate every individinto the property. building exterior, ual beam and do it all by “A priority for us as engi– a process that and which served hand neers was of course stabilibecomes incredibly time to create the ty, ensuring that the overall consuming when dealing building was stiff enough. with design changes on a dramatic Given the combination of geometric impact daily basis. glass and timber, it was “When you’re working of the overall vital that there were no difon a project of this combuilding ferential differences plexity, the ability to spin between the frames, as this the 3D model around and then ran the risk of the interact with it, really glass shards cracking or shattering,” said understanding how it all relates, fits and Drew. “Again, we were able to efficiently connects together, is invaluable. Thanks model and analyse all of this in Tekla to the software and the 3D environment Structural Designer, viewing all of the that it provides, we were able to finish loads, deflections and stresses present in our engineering work within a threethe building design.” month period – without Tekla Structural While Tekla Structural Designer is Designer, I can only imagine how long it perhaps predominantly renowned for would have taken.” its use with concrete and steel design, the software is also continuing to The Hux Shard was completed in 2021. expand its capabilities for timber ■ tekla.com design. Indeed, as the emphasis on sustainability and a building’s embodied carbon value continues, timber will inevitably become a more popular building material amongst

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Opinion

Data as a tool for the architecture of the future Håvard Haukeland, co-founder of Spacemaker and senior director at Autodesk exploring what the ‘digital toolkit’ of architects might look like in the near future, and how architects can use this to their advantage

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rchitecture is currently undergoing the next fundamental shift enabled by technology. New digital tools are transforming the way architects work, evolving from analogue 2D plans to digital, networked 3D representations, data analysis and AI-supported software applications. These new tools present challenges, but more importantly, they open up a wealth of new opportunities that empower architects to design better buildings for a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.

Architects love to draw by hand. From Piranesi to Pompidou, the pencil has always been the tool of choice for architects. A fun fact: a main image of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers’ 1970 winning competition entry for the Pompidou Centre was created in pencil on paper.

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forward way to express an idea – this simplicity is what gives the creative process the freedom it needs.

Pencil and paper have, however, been gathering dust since CAD software and 3D printing came into the picture. CAD has allowed for faster and more accurate ways of working, but it’s essentially a digital drawing that accurately reproduces what used to be communicated manually: plans, sections, elevations, details. But what happens now when this representation is no longer sufficient, when the preferred and most productive tool no longer meets the industry’s requirements? The construction industry is currently undergoing this upheaval, which means that many architects need to familiarise themselves with new digital tools.

Meeting future challenges The biggest societal challenges we face

now and in the coming decades are rapid urbanisation combined with population growth and climate change. The complexity of urban areas has increased massively and, meanwhile, climate change is fundamentally affecting the way people live and work in cities.

At the same time, the economic demands on the architecture and construction industry are also increasing.

This means the creativity of architects is being challenged to maximise building density and use of space without negatively impacting people’s quality of life and the environment.

The main digital transformation so far arrived in the shift to BIM, which offers architects comprehensive support in this increasingly complex construction landscape. What makes BIM special is the wealth of information that can be accessed quickly and clearly by everyone www.AECmag.com

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Data is game-changing as it gives architects detailed insights so they can make more informed decisions during an entire project starting from feasibility studies to evaluating building performance. Previously selected data was available to architects but in manuals, books - now it’s all around us and up-todate: think BIM databases, IoT devices, weather and traffic data, user feedback.

AI, the next evolution in the architect’s toolbox is a tool that excels at completing specialised tasks, thinking along with architects to make light work of normally time-consuming, tedious tasks. Data and AI help architects move towards a more outcome-based way of working to achieve better end results.

Technology now enables architects to digitally test a wide variety of scenarios and find optimal solutions within the chosen parameters. This risk-free testing environment, integrating design and analysis in one single platform, inspires the discovery of new creative approaches.

Designers can test and incorporate factors such as sun, daylight, noise, microclimate in real time right from the start.

This lays a solid evidence-based foundation for a more sustainable project and cost-efficient construction phase later down the line.

Expertise remains irreplaceable

involved across all stakeholdphases, it has been too cumArchitectural design has come a long way ers and disciplines - not only bersome to be used effectively since the 1970s when dimensions and quantities, but competition entries for for early-phase design, leaving also costs, deadlines, materials architects without intelligent the Pompidou Centre were created with and much more. tools, for example, for feasibilpencil and paper Meanwhile, 3D models, digiity and concept studies. tal renderings and, more recently, virtual However, precisely in these stages, it’s reality (VR) technology provide entirely essential to conduct thorough analyses; new perspectives on construction plans after all, this is where the cornerstone of and the built environment. Later in the up to 50% of the ultimate value creation building lifecycle, Digital Twin technolo- is laid. gy comes into play, where 3D digital modUntil now, such measures have been els of buildings can be used to plan day-to- time-consuming and corresponding day operations based on real-time data. work approaches counter intuitive for The accuracy, detail and information den- architects who typically design first and sity of these tools provide the foundation then analyse, not the other way around. for more efficient collaboration and greatThanks to cloud computing and the er engagement by all stakeholders. availability of digital data, this familiar workflow can suddenly be turned on its Intelligent insights head: starting in the early design phase, Even though BIM has become a natural technology becomes an enabler to superpart of the detailing and construction charge architects’ intuition and experience. www.AECmag.com

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So what’s next for the architect’s toolbox?

It’s an exciting time: architecture is moving closer to a data-driven, collaborative way of working. As mundane processes become more standardised thanks to technology and more effective workflows, this frees up more time for architects to design. The humble pencil and paper will remain the go-to tools for architects for testing ideas — but now they work comfortably side by side with sophisticated digital tools. Only by making data a tool for every architect can we meet the global challenges we currently face.

The one constant in this development is, and remains, the intuition and expertise of architects – they will never be replaced. It is the architect who has a keen understanding of local specifics and needs — be they cultural and aesthetic values, local and regional building codes, or the complex web of multilayered relationships that are key to real estate development today and in the future. In the words of renowned architect Sir Norman Foster, “The pencil and computer are, if left to their own devices, equally dumb and only as good as the person driving them.”

■ spacemakerai.com

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Next generation email management While the digitisation of the design and construction market moves ever onwards, the explosion of projectrelated documents projects are a considerable headache. We talked with industry veteran Alec Milton about his new venture, CloudFiler

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ong time readers of AEC Magazine will know Alec Milton, who managed Oasys, the software development arm of Arup, in the 1990s and 2000s. While there, Milton recognised the considerable problems the AEC industry faced with aligning and storing project related emails, along with traditional project documentation.

Columbus and then Mail Manager were developed and these low-cost, easy to use products became global players in the AEC space. Milton left Oasys to join Excitech, where he developed the popular Excitech DOCs and Excitech Mail. As Symetri acquired Excitech, Milton span himself out to carry on what has clearly been the development of a lifetime. This has lead to a ‘next generation’ email management software called CloudFiler.

problems. Quality Assurance was the big issue at the time and we wanted to treat email with the same care as other documents by filing messages to the file system alongside those documents. We also realised that when people were away from the office, they would not be able to file or search, so the tool caches filing requests and has its own indexing / search tool too.

Working practices have since changed, expanding customers’ requirements, behaviours and expectations. They not only expect to use phones, tablets, browsers, Macs etc. — because easy access to the internet has made this the norm — they also find themselves required to file content into places other than their company

AEC Magazine: What makes CloudFiler special?

Alec Milton: The management of email remains an important nut for every business to crack.

Whilst vendors of collaboration tools would like all customers to use their systems for everything, this is just a pipe dream. Customers can’t force all of the businesses they work with to cease sending them email.

Email is a common denominator which remains the dominant method of communication in business. This is what made Mail Manager and Excitech Mail popular, as they allow you to file messages to defined locations and easily find them later.

AEC Magazine: So how is your new system different or better than what people are used to?

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file systems; such as SharePoint, Autodesk Construction Cloud, CRM, etc.

This has long been a well understood problem, but we didn’t have a solution.

Let me give you some examples. Most tools work on the premise that a PC files the messages and then indexes them to provide the search capability. Indexing creates problems, as it can swamp both the network and the local PC, such as when new staff join, a machine is rebuilt/ replaced, or there are software updates that require a re-index.

If you are on a slow link this can take days and consume a good chunk of disk space too. This becomes a bigger problem

when filing to external services, as the indexing can be perceived as a denial of service attack causing the service to either prevent access or throttle it.

In today’s world, some staff don’t even have a PC as most of their work can be done on a tablet or phone.

Previous systems that I worked on learnt the user’s filing behaviours and would suggest where to file new messages, but this ‘intelligence’ is held locally to the device, so if you get a new machine or rebuild it, you lose that data and you’re back at square one. Similarly, each device learns in isolation so the suggestions on one device won’t be the same as those on another.

Ideally you want to be able to file from any device (PC, Mac, phone, tablet, browser) and for the management of suggestions to be central so that the experience is the same across all devices and you can never lose it. When you file from one device you also want to be able to search for and find that message via any of your other devices too. You not only need the software to run on all devices, you also need a single central index which is always up-to-date.

Licensing can be a frustration to customers if it constrains them and they are not in control, so we designed our licensing so that a single licence allows a user to have as many devices as they need and their management are able to see what they own, who is using each licence and can move the licences between staff themselves.

Another key area is security.

It’s all too easy to believe that things are secure but later find that staff are reading confidential emails. CloudFiler has rolebased security with PCI compliant banking level encryption both in transit and at rest. For example, you can decide that only those whose role is ‘Partner’ can file into or search the company’s business-related locations and the Managing Director can have filing locations that only he/she can access. You can even select a location and ask the system to show you who has what level of access to it.

Centralisation provides consistency, reliability and easy management. For example when new staff join a business, adding them to the environment with other email management tools can be quite a task. Ideally you want to be able to both add staff easily and control their configuration remotely so that it matches the business’s preferences.

Lastly, if your business is geographically dispersed, you want staff to have the same www.AECmag.com

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Interview high-performance experience regardless of where they happen to be at the time.

AEC Magazine: We guess CloudFiler files the messages to the cloud?

Alec Milton: Yes and no. We realised that some people would need to continue to file to their file system folders, SharePoint, etc. Often their insurers will require them to keep important data like this on storage that they alone manage, whereas others will want to move their data into the cloud. CloudFiler is unique in enabling you to file to your own storage and cloud storage from any device.

We are also not aware of any other system that then allows you to search all of these storage locations from any device. It’s the Nirvana that we always wanted to offer to customers but couldn’t make work.

AEC Magazine: It sounds like CloudFiler was technically a challenging piece of software to create.

Alec Milton: It has certainly been a journey. Building software that can run on just about any device is easier today using the latest technologies, but it can also be restrictive and that has been tough, as we set ourselves a high usability bar.

Security was the hardest nut to crack.

Not only did we need to ensure that users can only file into or search those places that they are entitled to access, but we also needed to ensure that they really are who they claim to be, and that the access points to our systems, including API access, are all equally secure.

Scalability is also not for the faint hearted, as the system needs to load balance and automatically spin up additional servers and storage to meet demand. Fortunately, we have staff in the team with plenty of experience creating and managing secure scalable banking and payment systems for high availability and high volume.

AEC Magazine: Some vendors have created their mobile apps, why aren’t you doing the same?

Alec Milton: We don’t believe that users want to leave Outlook and use yet-another system, which will never be able to catch up and provide all the features of Outlook. By creating CloudFiler as an Add-in to Outlook we ensure that it works on all platforms whilst retaining all the capabilities of Outlook.

AEC Magazine: You mentioned filing to external systems like Autodesk www.AECmag.com

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Construction Cloud. How does that work?

Alec Milton: People can find themselves contractually bound to file messages into third-party systems. This creates a concern for their legal advisors who will want them to keep their own copies for future reference. Double-filing messages is a pain, but with CloudFiler you just file once and where a copy is required in another system, CloudFiler automatically mirrors messages across. The beauty is that the user does not need to do anything and if the construction management firm pulls the plug on your access, you will still have your own records.

In the future we plan to provide connectors for most major systems like Autodesk Construction Cloud, Microsoft Teams, CRM, ProjectWise, Aconex, Procore, Business Collaborator, Box, Dropbox, etc. so that any filing location can be paired with an external location such as a document library in SharePoint. An important design decision for us was to build CloudFiler with a rich serverless REST API from day one, so that customers or third parties can build their own connectors that are fast and scalable too.

AEC Magazine: What about Google Workspace?

Alec Milton: Whilst I can’t provide any assurances, it’s something we are considering and if there is sufficient demand, we will integrate with that too.

AEC Magazine: Some customers will have significant storage requirements, do you charge extra for the storage?

Alec Milton: It’s not uncommon for services to include a limited level of storage and then charge extra for any usage beyond that limit. This can be a concern for customers as they won’t know what level of cost they may face in the future, so our service does not set a limit on the storage costs for newly created messages and there are no additional hidden costs. If customers wish to move legacy data into CloudFiler there is a small annual cost.

AEC Magazine: You mention speed and security, how can you ensure that?

Alec Milton: Obviously, our number one priority is to ensure safe and secure data.

The service is built on top of Amazon’s AWS services. There are always a minimum of three copies of every message on three separate servers and these are also backed up. For our Enterprise customers we plan to offer the option to further rep-

licate this data to another geography with an additional three copies on three more servers, providing a higher level of redundancy.

As for speed, users of cloud-based document handling systems will know all too well that downloading a document can be slow, this is typically because the system does not provide direct access to the files, so they first copy them to an open area and you then download them from there.

This all takes time. Our system uses onetime and time-limited security tokens to provide the client application direct access which is as fast as it could possibly be.

AEC Magazine: When can we expect to see the software?

Alec Milton: We started internal testing in January and hope to be moving to beta trials with early adopters later in Q1 with commercial sales starting in Q2 of this year.

AEC Magazine: How fully functioning will the first releases of the software be?

Alec Milton: Early adopters will be able to file and search from any device. Initially they will have only the file system connector as one for SharePoint and other systems are due to come later. The management portal will also be raw at this stage.

Part of the early adopters involvement will be to guide the evolution from this starting point, so whilst we have a clear idea of what we want to build on top of these foundations, we know from experience that it’s best to involve those working at the coal face at an early stage.

AEC Magazine: Some of your early adopters are likely to have legacy messages filed with other systems. Will they have to re-file everything into CloudFiler?

Alec Milton: No, we have methods to bulk import from other email management systems, PSTs and Windows folders.

AEC Magazine: We guess the important part of this is price. Typical solutions cost from £16/device/month for the software whereas you have both hosting and storage costs to account for, so is CloudFiler going to be expensive?

Alec Milton: Our plans will start at £4/ user/month which includes everything: servers, storage, backups and systems management. And with our licences you can have as many devices as you like without paying more.

■ linkedin.com/in/alec-milton

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Software

Serif Affinity There’s no doubt that with the move to subscription, the cost of software ownership is going up, as well as introducing limitations with dynamic licensing. IT directors at AEC firms are analysing usage and need, and seeking powerful alternatives. Adobe Creative Cloud now has a serious threat, writes Martyn Day

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he software industry’s decision to move customers to subscription models has been somewhat controversial. In the past, software firms had to work to deliver features to tempt their user bases to pay to upgrade, based on the value of the new features. Subscription in mature markets with mature products is mainly based on the daily need to have access to those tools, as opposed to the excitement of product development velocity.

Software firms still develop but, from what I have seen, they tend to diversify and invest in new products and markets, to get new customers, new subscribers.

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which, at best, are of peripheral interest.

This has certainly been my experience of Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe was the daddy of the move to subscription, and it lit the path for other software giants. In our corner of the world, Autodesk was especially taken with Adobe’s business remodelling and a lot of Autodesk’s subsequent bundling up of tools to form ‘Suites’ then ‘Collections’ came under Adobe’s influence.

I first heard of Affinity in a conversation with AEC consultant, Iain Godwin two years ago. We were discussing the pressures design IT directors were under, concerning budgets and the increasing cost of ownership of their Autodesk subscriptions. It turned out that many of the software products that architects use were

now on subscription. Prices were on the increase and discounts to enterprise clients were dwindling.

Design IT directors were having to look at their tech stacks and their user needs to rationalise the number of seats and to seek less expensive alternatives where possible. Adobe’s Creative Cloud seemed to be in their crosshairs as there was a viable alternative called Affinity, offering sizable savings.

Affinity, by UK software developer Serif, offers equivalents to InDesign (Affinity Publisher), Photoshop (Affinity Photo) and Illustrator (Affinity Designer) at under £50 per single seat, per application – and that’s for a perpetual licence, with additional volume discounts available on top.

Adobe Creative Cloud costs that per month. Without taking volume discounts into consideration, the Adobe solution is 12x more expensive. If you make videos and use Adobe Premiere Pro or make use of any other packages in Creative Cloud then obviously Affinity is going to fall short, so there will always be a case for some Adobe power users. However, I’ve now come across many UK and US-based AEC firms that are adopting the Affinity suite as their default graphics tool: HOK, Perkins & Will and others. This does not just apply to small firms; a number of large practices with over 1,000 seats have made the move, saving approximately £450,000 a year.

By software developer standards, Serif is a small private company with about 90 staff, but with its incredibly low-cost www.AECmag.com

03/02/2022 17:36

pricing, it’s perhaps no surprise that it back on features and enhancements to has over 5,000,000 customers (not their core capabilities. The inclusion of counting education and enterprise). The support for DWG / DXF has come from firm was started in 1987 and aimed its that engagement and import / export is development of an application called currently under test.

Since Serif ’s apps came out there has PageStar/PagePlus to compete against Quark Xpress and the then burgeoning been a continued stream of free updates desktop publishing market on the to the products. The company admits that Windows platform, an industry that was the first versions were feature-light but, as they have progressed, users have been inherently Apple Mac-based.

Unfortunately, Serif made getting these for no addilittle impact in the profestional charge. sional-grade tool market. It 2 of the suite One customer is Version was a while before Windows due out in 2022 and who is beta became accepted in desktop promises to bring a slew publishing and InDesign was testing V2 told of new capabilities. One in the right time, right place. me it will also customer who is beta After 20 years, Serif testing V2 told me it ditched its historic code and make the switch will also make the switch from Adobe redeveloped Affinity from Adobe ‘even Designer in 2014, followed easier’, acknowledging ‘even easier’,

by Affinity Photo in 2015 and ‘grow-ing pains’ in acknowledging some Affinity Publisher in 2019, the initial transition. some ‘growing all run on Mac, PC and iPad. Obviously, in making pains’ in the All products are designed on a decision to swap out the same code-base, sharing one application for initial the same core format, another, especially based transition enabling some unique workon cost, can upset some flows, such as editing of users who images within layouts, so have training, muscle memthere’s no long winded round tripping. ory and a relationship of sorts with their Serif acknowledges that it has done leading brand. In some cases, users will well in AEC over the last few years, gain- feel devalued in having their premium ing traction in many well-known practic- brand replaced with something else. I es and this has been achieved with no think this is understandable but when focussed marketing. you look at the AEC firms that are makRealising this trend in AEC adoption ing this move, you are in very esteemed has led to the development team holding company and there looks to be a signifisessions with practices to get their feed- cant adoption trend in the industry.

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As Godwin was the one who introduced me to Affinity, I asked him for his views, “Everybody is cost conscious now with software because of the trend of increasing cost of ownership,” he said. “When you realise you can go from paying £60,000 for an Adobe licence and implement Affinity for less than £10,000, it’s incredibly persuasive.

“Migrators need to take a holistic approach and not rush deployment. I’d suggest a three-year rolling program, with adequate training. It’s also a fact you may need some Creative Suite seats for legacy and certain high-end InDesign use. The other thing, obviously, after Creative Suite, is Acrobat. Everybody’s looking for the best alternative PDF creator. Affinity don’t yet have an Acrobat equivalent.”

Conclusion Before the software industry moved to subscription, there were always firms that dominated markets and were deemed expensive. Eventually some start-up would come into the market and offer 80% of the features for a fraction of the cost and disrupt it.

Subscription is interesting as it relies on the sticky nature of professional applications, but the unhealthy trend in ratcheting up prices, while not keeping an eye on value for money will eventually openup the market to competitors with higher development velocities and a keener eye on customers’ perceived value. There are some lessons here for our dear CAD developers to pay attention to.

■ affinity.serif.com

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AMD Radeon Pro W6400 AMD’s new entry-level GPU is tuned for CAD and BIM and is very aggressive on price. Unlike other GPUs in its class, it has hardware ray tracing built-in. This gives architects some level of future proofing as their favourite design tools begin to evolve, writes Greg Corke Price $229 amd.com/RadeonProW6400

With all the exciting new developments in design visualisation, it’s easy to forget that many architects are still only interested in modelling geometry. And this can have a major influence when choosing components for a workstation While real-time viz thrives on a highend workstation GPU, the graphics requirements for CAD and BIM tools like SketchUp, Revit and Archicad are much lower. In fact, in many cases, you’ll see no discernible performance difference between a £200 GPU and one that costs ten times as much. CAD and BIM software tends to be very ‘CPU limited’, so it doesn’t matter how much GPU horsepower you throw at your models, frame rates will not increase, or only by a tiny bit.

With this in mind, entry-level workstation GPUs remain incredibly important to AEC professionals. They

LumenRT

FHD

Roundabout model 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB) AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

30.2

5

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Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

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Unreal Engine Paris interior scene (coutesy of Benoit Derau) 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

Solidworks Visualize 2021 SP3 (ProRender)

FHD

Computer model (no denoising) 1,000 passes, accurate quality (1,500 x 1,500 resolution)

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

16.0

0

typically feature fewer processing cores, workflows. Most architectural datasets less memory and lack the specialist should fit comfortably within its 4 GB of features of their high-end counterparts. GDDR6 memory, and it comes with a level Historically this might be stereo or multi- of graphics processing that should be well GPU support. More recently it’s been matched to CPU limited CAD and BIM hardware ray tracing. applications.

Nvidia, for example, has divided its pro To expand on this point a little graphics range in two. The more powerful further, 3D performance in CPU limited ‘Nvidia RTX’ series has hardware ray applications is largely bottlenecked by tracing built-in, while the the frequency of the CPU, entry-level ‘Nvidia T’ series so there is little point in does not. throwing more graphics Whereas other processing at the task. In AMD is taking a different GPUs in its tack for its pro graphics fact, when testing highfamily. All ‘RDNA 2’ class, such as the end GPUs with Revit in AMD Radeon Pro GPUs the past, we have seen Nvidia T600, come with dedicated ray as little as single digit will likely accelerators for hardware percentage GPU resource deliver ray tracing. This includes utilisation. In other words, the new entry-level Radeon the software doesn’t allow comparable Pro W6400 (4 GB), which graphics processing performance in these launched last month with an supercomputers to even today’s CAD and out of first gear. aggressive $229 price tag.

The Radeon Pro W6400 BIM software, Flexible graphics costs significantly less AMD’s trump than the $649 Radeon The Radeon Pro W6400 Pro W6600 (8 GB) (read card is hardware comes in a flexible lowray tracing our review tinyurl.com/ profile form factor, so it can AEC-W6600). It’s also half fit in both small form factor the price of the $450 Nvidia (SFF) workstations and RTX A2000 (6 GB), which is Nvidia’s standard towers. The retail box includes lowest cost equivalent. The Nvidia T600 both half and full-sized mounting brackets (4 GB) comes close on price, but does not and you’ll need a small Philips head include hardware ray tracing. screwdriver to swap between the two.

To help hit the very competitive $229 Tuned for 3D design price point, AMD has reduced the number The Radeon Pro W6400 is very much of display outputs it typically uses on its designed for mainstream CAD / BIM entry-level cards. The Radeon Pro W6400

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB) 100

150

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

811

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

157

50

Render time (secs) (smaller is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

55

0

1.23

200

434

0

200

400

600

800

1000

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

www.AECmag.com

04/02/2022 14:38

Review comes with two full sized DisplayPort outputs instead of four Mini DisplayPort which was the case with its predecessor, the Radeon Pro WX 3200.

This could be a deal breaker if you use more than two displays but, as AMD found through research, most of its customers do not.

Performance in CAD and BIM We tested the Radeon Pro W6400 using a variety of CAD and BIM applications.

For comparison, we used the more powerful Radeon Pro W6600, which has double the memory (8 GB vs 4 GB) and significantly more processing power (1,792 vs 768 Stream processors, 28 vs 12 Ray Accelerators, and 10.4 vs 3.54 Teraflops of single precision performance) — not to mention more cache and more memory bandwidth.

But, as we found out, bigger is not always better. In Autodesk Revit 2022, using the Advanced Sample Project, we saw very little difference between the two GPUs in terms of Frames Per Second (FPS). It was only in realistic view mode at 4K resolution that the Radeon Pro W6600 pulled away a bit.

We experienced similar in Autodesk Inventor 2022. Using the excellent

Revit 2022

FHD

Advanced Sample Project (shaded view mode) 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

InvMark benchmark we saw at most a 4% difference in 3D performance, even at 4K. The Solidworks 2021 SPECapc benchmark painted a different picture, with a clear performance lead for the Radeon Pro W6600, especially at 4K resolution. This isn’t entirely surprising, however. Since the 2019 release, the software has featured an updated graphics engine which is much less CPU limited than the one Autodesk uses in Revit and Inventor.

While numbers on charts are important, so is

context. And the end user experience is what truly matters. With the SPECapc Black Owl computer assembly we got a perfectly smooth 57 FPS at 4K resolution when navigating in realistic view mode ‘RealView’. Even with a highly detailed 2,300 part snow bike assembly we got an acceptable 18 FPS at 4K in shaded with edges mode. In short, unless

Revit 2022

FHD

Advanced Sample Project (realistic view mode) 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

you’re working with very large 3D CAD assemblies, the Radeon Pro W6400 should be more than capable.

Performance in viz Design visualisation software by its nature is much more demanding than 3D CAD and BIM. With a primary focus on visual quality with realistic materials and lighting, and a greater need for high frame rates, applications like Enscape, Lumion and Twinmotion generally require much higher-grade graphics cards than the Radeon Pro W6400.

In fact, we had to adjust our standard benchmarks, as the demanding datasets we typically use need way more than 4 GB of GPU memory.

Even with some lighter models, the AMD Radeon Pro W6400 struggled to keep pace with the W6600. That’s not to say that the W6400 is not suitable for real time viz. With smaller models, particularly at FHD resolution, it can probably do an OK job. Also Radeon Pro Viewport boost (tinyurl.com/viewportAMD), which dynamically reduces viewport resolution, may help here.

However, if design viz is a key part of your workflow, you’d be much better served by the AMD Radeon Pro W6600 or W6800, Nvidia RTX A4000, A4500 or A5000 — or even the Nvidia RTX A2000.

Revit 2022 Advanced Sample Project (realistic view mode) 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

8.6

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

15.8

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

14.7

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

16.1

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

14.8

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

0

5

10

15

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

Revit 2022

0

3

6

9

12

15

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

12.3

0

3

6

9

12

15

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

4K

Advanced Sample Project (shaded view mode) 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

20

4K

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

12.2

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

12.6

0

3

6

9

12

15

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

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Review

Why is ray tracing important for an entry-level GPU? like OpenGL and DirectX 11. These rely solely on rasterization, a process that turns 3D vector data into pixels (a raster image).

But CAD developers are already working on next generation graphics engines that use more modern APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan. They combine rasterization with ray tracing techniques to deliver a much more realistic viewport. The idea is that CAD users will be able to flip into ‘ray traced’ mode, in much the same way they currently do with shaded, wireframe and realistic.

The aim isn’t to use ray tracing to deliver true photorealism – for that you’d need a high-end CPU or GPU and an application like Chaos V-Ray. Instead, the raster engine will be given hints using a limited number

Autodesk’s new OGS reference application If the AMD Radeon Pro W6400 is primarily focused on CAD and BIM, and not on design visualisation, why bother building in hardware ray tracing? In our opinion

this is all about the future of CAD and BIM software.

Here’s why. Most current generation CAD tools feature graphics engines with older graphics APIs

The Radeon Pro W6400 can also be used for GPU rendering in applications that include or work with AMD Radeon ProRender, such as Solidworks Visualize, Rhino, ACCA Edificius, Cinema4D, and 3ds max. However, as we found in our Solidworks Visualize benchmark, expect longer processing times. And, because of the 4 GB threshold, you’ll probably be limited to smaller models.

Whereas other GPUs in its class, such as the Nvidia T600, will likely deliver comparable performance in today’s CAD and BIM software, AMD’s trump card is hardware ray tracing. This should prove important as tools like Revit get new 3D graphics engines that combine rasterization and ray tracing in the viewport (see box out above).

Naturally, until these hybrid viewports materialise, it’s hard to say how effective Conclusion the Radeon Pro W6400 will be at With the AMD Radeon Pro W6400 powering them. High-end GPUs will you really do get a lot for your money. likely be able to flip into ‘ray traced’

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021 FSAA - shaded with edges 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

2.28

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021 FSAA - shaded with edges 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

2.5

4K

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB) AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

1.38

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

1.5

January / February 2022

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FHD

FSAA - RealView, shadows & AO 1,920 x 1,080 resolution

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

3.30

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

3.0

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021

3.5

1.5

1,116

200

400

1,141

600

800

1000

1200

4K

(by Cadac Group and TFI)

1.76

1.0

1.23 Graphics benchmark score (bigger is better)

AMD Radeon Pro

W6600 (8 GB)

3,840 x 2,160 resolution

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB) 0.5

1,920 x 1,080 resolution

InvMark for Inventor 2022

1.23 Frames Per Second (FPS) (bigger is better)

Test machine: Intel Xeon W-2125, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

FHD

(by Cadac Group and TFI)

0

0.64

0.0

InvMark for Inventor 2022

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

4K

FSAA - RealView, shadows & AO 3,840 x 2,160 resolution

mode much quicker, just as they do now when going from ‘shaded’ to ‘realistic’.

However, it’s great to see AMD building some level of future proofing into this entry-level product.

Of course, for those that take visualisation a bit more seriously, AMD faces strong competition from Nvidia.

The Nvidia RTX A2000 looks great on paper, and while it might cost twice as much, we expect it will significantly outperform the Radeon Pro W6400 in real time visualisation and GPU rendering workflows.

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

2.38

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

0.43

0.0

Solidworks SPECapc benchmark 2021

AMD Radeon Pro W6400 (4 GB)

1.88

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

58

FHD

of precisely calculated rays to show where shadows might fall or to render reflections or ambient occlusion more accurately. The aim is to get ray tracing techniques into a real-time environment, so it doesn’t impact performance.

So how far away are we from CAD and BIM viewports getting this new functionality? We are hopeful we might see the first incarnations this year or next. In 2021, Autodesk gave a public demonstration of its new One Graphics System (tinyurl.com/RevitGPU), which should make its way into Revit, Inventor and other Autodesk applications. Dassault Systèmes has also shown Project Romulan (tinyurl. com/SW-graphics), a next generation graphics engine for its mechanical CAD software Solidworks.

2.0

1.23 Graphics benchmark score (bigger is better)

953

AMD Radeon Pro W6600 (8 GB)

996

0

200

400

600

800

1000

Test machine: AMD Threadripper 2990WX, 64GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro

www.AECmag.com

04/02/2022 14:39

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