Industry news

Chaos and Enscape to merge to form arch viz giant and address broad set of workflows

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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 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 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.

ROUND UP

Landscape design

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

AMD launches Radeon Pro W6400 pro GPU for $229

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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 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 50 for a full review.

■ amd.com/RadeonProW6400

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 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.

Disaster recovery for virtual desktops According to IMSCAD, V 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

Mixed reality software accelerates layout on site

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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 stepby-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

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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 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

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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, 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.

ODA kickstarts scan-toBIM SDK

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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.

■ opendesign.com/scan-to-bim

iPad concept design tool enhanced

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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.

■ spacesapp.io

ROUND UP

VDI in Dubai

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

Compact HP workstations pack big graphics punch

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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 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

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 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

Dynamic asset placement for Enscape more. Everything that is E 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