BricsCAD BIM

Considering what a hot topic BIM has become, there have been very few new software firms willing to invest in creating new BIM authoring tools. This month we report on a new product, written on a ‘familiar’ package and backed by a huge company. Could BricsCAD BIM be the one to take on the might of Revit?

by Martyn Day

It’s been 18 months since we last This was all happening on top of as an alternative for its customers to paysaw BricsCAD, from Ghent-based BricsCAD, which is a DWG drawing and ing for Autodesk’s AutoCAD on subscripdeveloper, Bricsys. The company modelling tool which offers LISP, ARX tion. Bricsys pricing is based on a perpetstarted out developing an and all the familiar AutoCAD functions ual licence and works on Windows, AutoCAD clone called BricsCAD and did you would expect. Bricsys thinks that macOS and Linux. The entry-level a great job at creating a low-cost alterna- those who have not yet made the move to BricsCAD is $825 forever; AutoCAD is tive to AutoCAD. Since then it has gone Revit, may have more 2D processes and $1,575 per year, LT is $390 per year. beyond AutoCAD and developed all be happier doing their BIM modelling in Bricsys also offers subscription at $312 sorts of original functionality to its base a familiar environment, with the added per year, if that’s what you would prefer. platform application. Although the com- advantage of it being cheaper. As things Bricsys works out a lot cheaper than pany is dedicated to maintaining com- stood 18 months ago, however, the BIM Autodesk Subscription for AutoCAD. patibility with DWG and AutoCAD, it functionality seemed all rather basic and Hexagon was perhaps the biggest thirdwants to be perceived as a CAD develop- there was evidently a long way to go. party developer to realise that it could er in its own right and from what we saw use the familiar APIs that AutoCAD has, at the firm’s recent London event, there is A new owner to port its existing applications to good reason. At last month’s Bricsys conference in BricsCAD and offer to save its customers

Bricsys is not new to AEC or BIM. It London, the first big news was that the money on their AutoCAD subscriptions. developed TriForma which Bentley company had been acquired by Hexagon Systems sold as its core BIM application for an undisclosed sum. For those unfa- BIM and development in the 1990s and then its own tool called miliar with Hexagon, it is a global giant of What a difference 18 months makes. Architecturals in the 2000s. The firm a firm, that operates in construction, engi- From seeing the initial BIM development recently developed a SketchUp work-a- neering, mining, automotive and plant work to what was presented on the stage like BricsCAD Shape. The company also and has annual revenues in excess of £1.2 in London was really quite a marked difdevelops tools for the manufacturing billion. It owns Leica, Intergraph, MSC ference. While the concept is the same, market with powerful parametric solid Software, Z/I Imaging and many others. the capability and ease of use really blew modelling (based on ACIS) and sheet metal applications. ‘‘ With a low price point, innovative machine us away. At its core, you have a DWG compatible, and very capable, drawAEC Magazine saw the company’s formative new BIM tools 18 months ago. learning development, this is a BIM product to watch. It’s the most promising modelling tool we ing platform. Bricsys has harnessed the ACIS solid modelling kernel to enaThe demonstration have seen in BIM in the last ten years ble designers to create showed rectilinear ACIS solids being used to model a building and then the user While Bricsys had annual revenues of ’’ incredibly complex shapes, using booleans, workplanes, chamfers, surfaces, complex applying IFC definitions post modelling. £13 million, now it is under the Hexagon wireframe manipulation - the usual This turns products like Revit on their umbrella it will have all the resources it gamut of modelling tools. heads, as instead of using a palette of pre- could ever need, plus access to markets as Designers can create anything they can defined and customisable objects to a mature, trusted CAD platform. envision in geometry. So, now comes the model with, like Lego, BricsCAD BIM Hexagon also has a reputation of leaving real magic. Bricsys has utilised machine was model first, then define. The benefit the brands it buys alone to carry on learning to start the process of turning of this approach was that the conceptual developing semi-autonomously. these models into BIM. Using the ‘BIMify’ phase didn’t require the architects to Hexagon previously ported its button, the software will analyse the worry about object definitions, just AutoCAD-based plant application, model and turn the geometry it finds into define the forms. CADWorx Plant Design Suite, to Bricsys rooms, floors, slabs, columns, walls, doors,

windows – regular IFC components.

The user can then edit or add objects that the automation didn’t classify or omitted. This is seriously impressive and, unlike the first demo we had, it works well on some pretty crazy geometry. Zaha Hadid would have had some fun with this tool. This is a fantastic solution to the problem of linking conceptual modelling to the creation of BIM models, together with the added benefit of the backend processes such as drawing production being all in one package.

The curtain wall capability is also powerful; model your spline geometry, select face, create a grid and then dynamically manipulate to make traditional or freeform curtain walls. The software will generate all the frame elements, which of course can also be edited.

But as we all know, architecture is really only one component in the mix. Bricsys demonstrated some intelligent modelling of HVAC components within a BIM context. Automatic sizing and connections, together with some elementary auto complete capabilities gave a good indication of the way development was heading. Bricsys isn’t looking to deliver for the front end of the building process, but throughout all professions, including structural and site development (it even handles point clouds).

Because BricsCAD BIM is built on a DWG platform, it’s at this point that you really see the benefit in workflow vs something like Revit. We have lost count of the number of firms we have visited who take their Revit drawings into AutoCAD to finish off the documentation. This breaks with the BIM process as, if there are any changes, then the additional hours of drawing in AutoCAD need to be repeated. BricsCAD BIM is already inside its DWG documentation world and this destructive phase of using other tools than Revit can be avoided.

Speed was also very impressive. During the day’s talks all product demonstrations were done live from laptops. The underlying BricsCAD platform is a modern CAD product, it is fast, uses multiple cores and benefits from fast GPU graphics card accelerators. While one would assume that modelling architectural elements in full on solids over lightweight geometry would lead to hefty and unwieldy models, that certainly does not seem to be the case.

Parametrics are also built-in systemwide and can be used in a very intuitive fashion when designing. The ability to quickly model floors and partitions was

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1 The BricsCAD BIM interface 2 24/7 is a cloud-based collaboration tool, which is free to those on maintenance 3 BricsCAD BIM includes poweful curtain wall tools 4 BricsCAD BIM includes a feature called A.I propagate, which uses artificial intelligence to replicate component details throughout a model 5 6 BricsCAD BIM is not just for architects — it covers all professions, including structural, MEP and site

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fabulous and at all times the mouse and here (see bricsys.com/bricscad). However, the driver for the acquisition was that drawing lines give real-time feedback on one feature that we did see is indicative of being a great developer was not enough relative geometry. Floors can be replicat- the kind of tools under development. We for success; marketing and sales required ed in just a few clicks. In 2011, Bricsys had seen BIMify; now there’s ‘Blockify’, investment and as things stood, would acquired the intellectual property rights huge models, 2D or 3D, measuring in the have diverted R&D funds to enable that. from Russian developer Ledas, which Gigabyte range, automatically turned into Bricsys had been seeking investment and developed very high-end 2D/3D con- blocks, drastically reducing the file size. Hexagon had been interested since it straints tools and set up a technology Again, machine learning at play; the soft- ported its plant products to BricsCAD. division in Russia under Dmitry ware automatically detects equally shaped Allen explained that Hexagon was Ushakov. This move also enabled consid- solids in a model and replaces them by keen to offer customers a choice and with erable advances for BricsCAD Platinum block references and searches the drawing Autodesk’s pricing changes, subscripfor Mechanical Design, which is aimed at for an identical set of a 2D entities and tion-only and potentially web-only prodthe DS SolidWorks and Autodesk replaces them by block references. Just ucts in the future, Bricsys would be there Inventors of this world. look at AutoCAD 2019’s new feature set to offer an alternative. In the process of

Bricsys demonstrated something it calls and wonder where the new features are, porting CADWorx to BricsCAD, Bricsys A.I propagate, which uses artificial intelli- vs enhancements to existing ones. was incredibly responsive and over eight gence to replicate component details million lines of code were ported in nine throughout a model. Simply select a com- 24/7 collaboration months and the product is stable. ponent, plus the elements you want it to Not just content with developing products Allen, while predominantly dealing propagate over, and the computer does the for every vertical market, Bricsys offers a with the plant side of Hexagon’s busirest. It also supports the import of RVT cloud-based collaboration product called ness, sees the Bricsys acquisition as a components, live building grids and ceilings. This can drastically speed up ‘‘ Using machine learning, the software will play in all areas BIM, manufacturing, drafting, as well as plant. Allen modelling. The user interface also really gives a clear indication of where analyse the model and turn the geometry it finds into rooms, floors, slabs, columns, walls, doors, identified that Revit, while popular in architecture, isn’t in other prothe propagation of objects windows – regular IFC components fessions and they have will take place. When at the documentation stage, BricsCAD has some fabulous 24/7, which is free to customers on main’’ picked up on a lot of end user dissatisfaction. While Hexagon will certainly focus on capabilities for multi-view layout and for tenance. It’s a global document manage- AutoCAD seats in its process plant cusautomating call-out details. Again, all in a ment system for 2D drawings and 3D tomers, not just CADworx, Hexagon is DWG workflow and so common AutoCAD models, which supports multiple roles looking at a much broader play. commands are used for drawing. and access for defined users and has a De Keyser estimated that Revit had

BricsCAD BIM is $2,275 a seat, for a graphical widget application development only hit 16% of BIM penetration of all the perpetual licence with one year’s mainte- ability to automate repetitive tasks. The possible users and in certain geographies nance. Alternatively, it can be subscribed system has version control, activity logs it was not the No.1 choice, with to for $910 a year. For comparison, Revit is and search capabilities. For BIM users it Vectorworks, Graphisoft and Allplan all currently $2,250 a year or $6,075 for a has a fast 3D data viewer, model annota- occupying decent market share. de 3-year subscription. tion and DWG/ xref management. Keyser stated that with Hexagon behind 2D CAD Management Q & A the market with the sales pitch being BricsCAD started off life as an AutoCAD Bricsys CEO, Erik de Keyser and ‘you don’t need to leave DWG or translate clone. The company then went on to Hexagon’s Rick to/from DWG. The workflow stays in develop functionality that you won’t find Allen, PPM one format as you move in AutoCAD. As Autodesk went off to executive vice from application to develop or acquire other tools (Revit, president application - at a fracInventor, Fusion etc), the mentality that answered tion of the price. We AutoCAD was the hammer that hit all questions on will win one customer nails disappeared. Bricsys is of the men- the surprise at a time.’ tality that its DWG CAD platform can be acquisition Looking forward, de extended to solve BIM, MCAD solid mod- (this came as a Keyser stated that with elling and other verticals. In one respect shock to most IFC 4.0, it will become at least, the persistence of drawings in Bricsys harder for firms, such our new 3D modelled world, would back employees as Autodesk, to trap this view up. too). de Keyser customers in proprie-

BricsCAD v19, the new version, will explained that tary offer a range of powerful tools but we don’t have room to highlight them them, Bricsys would aim for 20-25% of

file formats, as substantially more of the of AutoCAD customers currently use. ple platforms, with unique BIM workdata will be transferable. We are in strange times. Autodesk’s flows, in a single environment, with

While it’s the plant division of Hexagon move to Subscription without question machine learning cleverness, powerful that led the charge to acquire Bricsys, increases costs to users in ownership over MCAD part and assembly modelling, Allen made it clear that all divisions of three years, compared to the traditional Autodesk APIs and even collaborative Hexagon would have access to the tech- historic buy and upgrade cycles of around cloud-based management. nology and the buy-in was not simply cost three years. Subscription does offer suites At the wrap up from the event, de justified on the benefit to the plant divi- but that comes at a cost and not many uti- Keyser took issue with the company sion. The company is taking aim at lise many of the products they get. being called a ‘clone developer’ by the Autodesk and all players in BIM, mechan- Autodesk’s channel is showing signs of press during that day’s tweets. He feels ical, plant and drafting. With Autodesk rebellion, after years of deflating mar- the development teams are now way dominating so many areas in the built gins, with one or two now offering beyond performing that work and are space and with Autodesk Subscription AutoCAD clones as alternatives to developing new functionality in all vertiincreasing the cost of ownership, Hexagon AutoCAD LT. This is a clear and present cal areas. Even though the origins of the is out to offer a lower cost alternative with danger, as we estimate 40% of all company are certainly defined by the enhanced functionality. Conclusion ‘‘ It works well on some pretty crazy geometry. work it has done on mimicking DWG functionality, it’s true that Bricsys is Many years ago, we watched Dominic Gallello, then Autodesk VP of Zaha Hadid would have had some fun with this. It’s a fantastic solution to the problem of linking now defining a unique path. de Keyser quipped, “We are not a clone develMechanical, launch conceptual modelling to BIM model creation oper, we are a cyclone in Autodesk Inventor. This was a big deal for Autodesk as it was the first new code Autodesk licences are AutoCAD LT. ’’ the industry!” For now, BricsCAD BIM is certainly something to watch. Revit stream the company had delivered since Revit’s development velocity has slowed has decades of development work put AutoCAD decades before. At the time, and many are wondering when it will be into it and I can’t see many switching like Autodesk was trying to get into the 3D re-written as the core is 20 years old. The for like. However, with the velocity comes modelling market and had established conceptual side of BIM has never really a trajectory and backed up with Hexagon, players such as SolidWorks, Dassault been solved by anybody who can take with a low price point, innovative Systèmes, Siemens, PTC etc. all with that data on to be used throughout the machine learning development, this is a mature CAD products. design and documentation workflow. BIM product to watch. It’s the most

Gallello’s pitch was don’t judge us by Bricsys now has a giant backing it up. promising modelling tool we have seen in the current feature set, judge us on the A giant that sees an opportunity in BIM in the last ten years. product’s ‘velocity’. Gallello was telling Autodesk’s base. Bricsys offers low-cost, Next year will certainly be an interestus the development team had new ideas AutoCAD func- ing one in the BIM market. Hexagon has to crack old problems and would be tionality with come to the table with Bricsys and a very delivering on new functionality in a way perpetual impressive development team. We hear the mature competition was not. licensing (or Dassault Systèmes has a construction

With BricsCAD BIM, we see that devel- subscrip - BIM tool coming out. Siemens and opment velocity. In just 18 months the tion), on Bentley continue to dance together and software has gone from being formative multi - are working on many joint developments. building modelling to offering something Nemetscheck has a new Allplan and really different and innovative for BIM Vectorworks and Graphisoft are continuworkflows. At the same time, it bashes you ing to execute well. Things are hotting up over the head as it’s all happening in an and new and innovative solutions are still AutoCAD work-a-like, which is commit- coming to the market. AEC Magazine will ted to supporting all be here to keep you up to date. the 2D processes millions Download a trial version of BricsCAD BIM at

■ bricsys.com/bim

iModel unleashed

For over 10 years, iModel has been Bentley’s format for exchanging project information between design, construction and operations. It has expanded into a fundamental platform in its own right. But, what we didn’t expect, writes Martyn Day, was for Bentley to open source its development

Out of all the firms we cover in but developers or customers will be free suite of tools that can interrogate a stagthe industry, Bentley Systems is to ‘iModel enable’ any application they gering array of project information and perhaps the most cautious and want. Customers of custom web applica- metrics, including project history and long-term developer we have tions that wish to use iModel will have to changes. In short, adopting iModel.js gives seen. While others all around are changing take up an iTwin subscription with access to the iModelHub and opens a wintheir file formats with every other release, Bentley to host the data. dow into the live Digital Twin data in a or buying applications and never integrat- Bentley picked Java as it is the most flex- completely web friendly way, and at no ing the technologies, I can only remember ible standard for modern cloud and web cost to the developer. two file changes from Bentley in my life- development. It is written in TypeScript Keith Bentley told AEC Magazine that time and everything eventually works on and leverages open technologies including the development landscape has changed the MicroStation backbone. With co- SQLite, Node.js, NPM, WebGL, Electron, and, with the Googles and GitHubs of this founder and CTO Keith Bentley still writ- Docker, Kubernetes, and of course HTML5 world, development tools are predomiing code and actively involved in the sys- and CSS. The same codebase can produce nantly free. He posed the question, how tem architecture, the company just doesn’t cloud services and web, mobile, and desk- would you get a developer interested in do short-term software architecture. top applications. The source code is host- using your tools if there was an upfront iModel has become a growing differen- ed on GitHub, a platform for hosting soft- cost to become an accredited developer? tiator for Bentley, with wide adoption in its base, as well as other AEC devel‘‘ Adopting iModel.js gives developers access to Bentley also explained that as a programmer it’s more exciting to get tools opers like Topcon, building an ecosystem of firms which actively want to the iModelHub and opens a window into the live Digital Twin data in a completely web which you can look into and edit as you wish. The net result will be something share BIM data, despite friendly way, and at no cost to the developer interesting, he said, adding being in competition. At last month’s Year In Infrastructure (YII) event in London, ware code — especially open-source pro ’’ that by giving iModel.js away as open source, he hopes to proliferate the format but also iModel became even more important. It jects — and is distributed under the MIT enable innovation in our space. became the connection between all project licence. GitHub was recently bought by One example of how iModel.js could be participants and the hosted Digital Twin, Microsoft for $7.5 billion. used was given by Shenzhen Expressway though the new Bentley iTwin services By opting for an open source deploy- Consulting Group, which already uses offering, which connects Bentley’s iModel- ment, developers are also free to alter the iModelHub and sees a use of iModel.js for Hub, with a Connected Data Environment code and Bentley will have to do the job of crafting a custom web-based tool for digi(CDE). Attendees witnessed Microsoft, policing and maintaining its open devel- tal handover, after the completion of a Siemens and Topcon all buying into the opment platform, as well as collating wish project. It would enable visual operations Azure hosted Digital Twin strategy. lists and changes which it will incorporate. and maintenance, feeding from data

Bentley Systems then announced iMod- Keith Bentley explained that “by open- stored in its own iModelHub. Any changel.js, an open source library to enable sourcing the libraries we use to create es made and documented by the company developers to incorporate web-based hooks our ‘iTwin’ cloud services, we expect to post-handover would also be immediatethat can bring in design and project data, foster a substantial and vibrant ecosys- ly updated online. which is stored in iModels on Bentley’s tem of innovation.” Clearly this is a play iModelHub. The idea being that any devel- for Bentley to drive the standard into the Tracking origins oper can now opt to use the iModel wrap- burgeoning cloud-development fraterni- As with all Bentley innovations, it’s worth per to integrate 2D, 3D, 4D and documents ty, who have very few tools to integrate recapping on what the company delivered into custom cloud applications or services. complex BIM data into their solutions. last year, to make iModel even more poweriModelHub is secure, so permission is iModel is not providing developers with ful. Bentley has always had a passion for always required to access the model data, a dumb viewer of 3D files, but a powerful trying to capture history and provenance of

Bentley Systems co-founder and CTO Keith Bentley is at the heart of iModel development

What is an iModel?

An iModel is a Bentley authored model and project data exchange format specifically designed to work in the lifecycle of infrastructure assets. It’s not just a CAD file. Essentially, it’s a wrapper for a multitude of data types: business properties, geometry, graphics, and relationships. This means a whole project can be contained within one file, irrespective of how many sources the original data came from.

Unlike proprietary formats, iModel is open and can be used by many competitive infrastructure developers.

The format is very efficient, crushing giant files, and designed for today’s cloud-based and mobile workflows. They are secure and play well with serverlevel security.

Additional information can be added to the iModel without impacting the data originally contained within it, great for lifecycle data capture tasks.

As of last year, iModels can also contain all the history of changes that have happened in a project’s lifetime when used in conjunction with Bentley iModelHub.

iModels can be created with Bentley products, as well as those from other sources, including PDMS, Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino, ArchiCAD, IFC, JT (plug-in) to name but a few. iModels can be filtered prior to creation, limiting what data is exposed. iModels can be used for many tasks: viewing 2D, 3D data, review (desktop or on mobile), access ODBC data, spreadsheets, reports, clash detection and now as a container for access to Digital Twin models. iModel.js will mean that Digital Twin assets can be utilised in custom web applications. As iModel.js is open source, the capabilities are also expected to expand with input from the wider community.

project changes. It has delivered a number In the space of one month, I’ve heard yet to happen in this space and by lowerof capabilities over time to capture the delta Digital Twin on the mainstage at Bentley, ing the barrier to entry and being open in model revisions. Autodesk and Trimble events, as well as about who uses it, it might find it has an

Last year’s innovation brought this pas- from Microsoft, Topcon and others. advantage over our traditional propriesion to iModel with the introduction of the According to Keith Bentley, it was com- tary industry mindsets. iModelHub. When deployed, the Hub will pletely serendipitous that both Microsoft The other benefit is that Bentley capture all the changes that happen in a and Bentley were pursuing the same doesn’t have to create all the tools that project’s lifecycle in an unalterable time- track. Microsoft has been focussing on customers want. It’s now possible for line. Just as accounting systems track the construction space for a couple of customers to create their own solutions money in and out, iModelHub provides years, everything from BIM to Digital and leverage their investment in Bentley digital security to identify what changed Cities and IoT. It has been working on back-end technology. when and by whom. It’s a journal of layers of machine learning which reside From this year’s YII, there was an overrecord and could be invaluable to identify in the Azure cloud and have been used to powering feeling of momentum behind in projects when problems occurred. With learn from big data caches on the city Bentley’s vision of Digital Twins and a machine learning hat on, that could be scale. Bentley explained to us, “It sounds iModel. For years, Bentley Systems has valuable data to use in predicting prob- like we have been working on this for a been Microsoft’s biggest, best and most lems on other projects in the future, but while together but it was only when we loyal AEC developer, but had benefitted we will come back to that later. talked about it that we discovered they little from this. iModels can now hold this data too. The had a Digital Twin strategy.” In the past, Microsoft people who covcloud is where the changes are stored but As Bentley is almost a 100% Microsoft- ered the AEC space didn’t seem to be everyone using iModels could theoretically get access to the project time‘‘ For fear of calling Bentley Systems a control fully switched on, as to trends in the industries or the technologies that were line. It’s safe, as the master is held in the cloud and the local instances are just synfreak, it would have been a huge surprise for it to open source anything, let alone something in play. The Microsoft people we met at YII were a completely different class chronised. This also works so fundamental to project collaboration to those we have met with non-Bentley products, for which it has written ‘Bridges’, so the data is collated and added based company, its choice of Azure for ’’ before, showing a deep knowledge of IoT, BIM, Digital Twins, as well as properly underto the iModelHub timeline. This capability cloud storage will also benefit, in time, standing what Bentley has developed. is unique in our industry and is yet anoth- from Microsoft’s focus on machine leaning Topcon too has really closely partnered er powerful iModel benefit. It’s similar to in the space. If the data is hosted on Azure, with Bentley and is certainly speaking blockchain to a certain degree, although special built environment-centric analysis from the same page. the authentication chain is online, and tools are in the works from both Bentley The elephant in the room was Siemens stored in one place, not in every iModel file. and Microsoft. Autodesk won’t benefit — Bentley’s giant development buddy, from this partnership as its customers’ who is increasingly looking to focus on Digital Twin data is hosted on Amazon Web Services. the AEC space. Bentley is integrating into Digital Twin has to be the phrase of the Siemens’ uber document management moment. People have almost stopped Conclusion system, Teamcenter, and even licensing using the word BIM and now seamlessly iModel.js is a big technology story from technology to Siemens. drop ‘Digital Twin’ in as a replacement. Bentley’s stand point. For fear of calling Keith Bentley told us that he likes the In many respects we welcome the substi- the company a control freak, it would partnership as it is, the companies talk the tution, as BIM is utterly meaningless out- have been a huge surprise for it to open same language and have little overlap, and side of the gleaming digital spires of our source anything, let alone something so it’s certainly helping their combined efforts enlightened object-oriented castles. fundamental to project collaboration. in Power and Governmental customers.

Digital Twin is short, simple and gives a Bentley is looking to gain traction and One wonders how long the engagement glimmer of hope that the uninitiated would proliferate its formats. It realises that goes on before there is a marriage. have some clue as to what we are on about. there is a lot of web-based development ■ bentley.com

Investing in machine learning and IoT

One of the big surprises at YII (it also surprised some Bentley employees) was the under the radar announcement that Bentley had acquired machine learning and IoT development company AIworx.

Keith Bentley gave us some background to the acquisition and the importance of machine learning going forward, “It came together very quickly, they are a great talented group of smart guys,” he said. “I’d guess in today’s terms it would be described as an ‘acqui-hire’ — we bought the company for the talent, as they don’t actually have any products.

“We had an ‘AI’ summit and invited some CIOs to shoot around ideas and the most common answer is, ‘we just want an easy button for my project’.

“In reality, firms need help to not repeat mistakes and to fine tune their performance, which is reasonable if you have enough data.

“Last year we asked firms if they would like to contribute their project data (iModelHub), but we didn’t get a whole lot of traction but this year we asked again and there seems to be a more positive reaction to pooling data, so we can machine learn. The problem now is going to be narrowing down the development opportunities,” he said.