Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction
CONSTRUCTION BIM Qonic goes big on detail
Autodesk University
Skema: riding on Revit Material world
Autodesk makes its play for AI
BIM tool channels design knowledge
Enhance viz scenes with free 3D textures
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THE FUTURE OF AEC technology
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Industry news 6
Skema automation 34
Autodesk introduces Workshop XR, Archicad embraces AI image generation, Twinmotion gets Lumen, Speckle delivers workflow automation plus lots, lots more
This AI concept design tool ‘morphs’ data from past projects and rapidly goes from massing to fully integrated Revit models
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Qonic: BIM with construction details 18 With construction-level details, Qonic is targetting contractors and (later) architects through its cloud-based BIM platform. We explore the beta release
Verifi3D model check 36 The BIM validation tool is enhanced with better model checking, a better display engine and more CDE integrations
Sensori: cloud photogrammetry 38
Autodesk: laying the foundations for AI 24
A compelling offering for rapid site capture that relies on low-cost devices, automation and the power of the cloud
Autodesk has made its play for AI, with granular data at the heart of Forma, its next generation AEC cloud-platform, set to play a critical and possibly controversial role
Giraffe for urban planning 40
Project Phoenix 27 Sustainability meets industrialised construction in this new Autodesk-led collaboration to deliver affordable housing to West Oakland, California
Digital twins at Turner Fleischer Architects 31 The Toronto-based practice has used Autodesk Tandem to develop a digital twin for its open plan studio. Could this lead to a digital twin service for clients?
This early-phase design suite of tools connects spatial building and city design models with GIS data and algorithms
Material world 42 Helen Reinold from Chaos Enscape shares fourteen free sources for high-quality textures for architectural visualisation
Design viz: Evermotion 48 This Polish studio uses the classic combination of 3ds Max and V-Ray and, more recently, Unreal Engine 5 lit with Lumen, to deliver its stunning content November / December 2023
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Autodesk Workshop XR offers immersive collaboration for Construction Cloud utodesk has introduced Autodesk Workshop XR, an AEC-focused immersive design review workspace that is connected to Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), the construction management platform. According to Nicolas Fonta, senior director and general manager, XR at Autodesk, Workshop XR is a natural extension of ACC, designed for seamless and immersive collaborative design review. With Workshop XR, AEC teams can review and collaborate on projects to track issues, catch errors, and gain a better spatial understanding of the design. With ‘automatically connected’ data from ACC, there is no need to prep models. Issues are automatically synced and tracked with ACC, with a view to making design reviews ‘frictionless and efficient’. Multiple disparate users can collaborate in the Workshop XR workspace using standalone VR headsets. These are connected directly to the platform via WiFi. Depending on the location of the user within the BIM model, relevant 3D model data is streamed to the device and cached. All of the rendering is done locally on the headset. For the best experience, Autodesk recommends the Meta Quest 3, but the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro are also supported. While the initial focus is solidly on VR, there are plans to broaden support to other hardware devices.
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There is a functional desktop app in beta, which will potentially be released as a tech preview. There are also plans for mobile, including the Apple iPad. Currently, teams can collaborate in VR to solve ACC issues. Alternatively, when design errors are found in VR, users can create ACC issues through a familiar ACC interface. Users get direct access to all BIM information, properties, and metadata. The current focus is on Navisworks and Revit models, but Autodesk intends to broaden the types of formats and files that are supported in Workshop XR. Workshop XR is a natural evolution of The Wild, the AEC cloud connected XR platform that Autodesk acquired in 2022. According to Fonta, the main
difference with Workshop XR is its deep connection to ACC. The Wild offered integration with Autodesk BIM 360, but this was done by syncing workspaces and models. Whenever a new Revit, Navisworks or other 3D file was published to BIM 360, data was automatically pulled in. “The source of truth for Workshop XR is your projects as they reside on ACC,” says Fonta. “It means that there is no need to wait between the time where you want to start a review session and actually being in a headset. “It means what you’re creating, building and doing in Workshop XR does not go into a separate repository on the side in a different format. Everything you
What AEC Magazine thinks Virtual Reality has come a very long way since the early days of solo experiences on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Back then data prep was a big challenge either a highly skilled manual process, or a compute intensive on-demand workflow. Autodesk’s early forays into VR were flawed. Autodesk Stingray was hard to use, and while Autodesk Revit Live had a simple push button workflow, hefty Revit models had to be uploaded to the cloud for processing. Sometimes you had to wait in a queue! For AEC projects, the focus soon
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shifted to collaborative VR. Many software developers plugged into Autodesk BIM 360, including The Wild, IrisVR, VREX, and Resolve, so VR could become a natural extension to design review. The idea was that any issue flagged in VR got automatically funnelled back into BIM 360 as a BIM 360 issue, where it could be assigned to individuals for resolution. Workshop XR builds on this idea by offering what Autodesk describes as a deep connection to ACC, making design review ‘frictionless and efficient’. It certainly makes sense to have everything fully
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integrated and accessible through a familiar environment. Just how much this improves on current third-party BIM 360 workflows remains to be seen. We suspect there could be broader benefits further down the line as both ACC and Workshop XR evolve, especially when for desktop and mobile. There are of course other routes to immersive VR in collaborative design review. Revizto, for example, offers basic VR support, but leans more towards immersive workspaces like the Fulcro FULmax or Igloo Vision. Meanwhile, Resolve, which
features a custom 3D engine that can render 600 million polygon files, allows any issues found in its collaborative VR platform to be brought into Revizto for tracking and issue resolution. But this workflow is currently file-based using the BCF format. Resolve also supports issue exports into ACC, Procore, and Newforma Konect. In addition, while Arkio isn’t specifically designed for design / review (more for conceptual design), it enables multiple participants to collaborate on Revit models in VR but costs significantly less.
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News
Archicad 27 gets AI-driven image generation tool do, for example issues - it doesn’t create a Workshop XR issue, it goes and creates an ACC issue. And similarly, anything that happens in ACC is viewable and accessible in our XR solution.” In order for ACC data to be readily available for XR consumption in VR headsets, Autodesk has spent a lot of time focusing on the data pipeline. This will also have a benefit beyond XR, as Fonta explains, “We also want to optimise the data pipeline at Autodesk in general for viewing. So, what we’re doing is optimising everything and streamlining, so we’re streaming just the pieces that are relevant to the experience and to the user in the VR headset, with the intention of reusing those capabilities across the board at Autodesk on our platform to optimise utilisation and data access.” Fonta told AEC Magazine that 600 million poly models have been successfully loaded into Workshop XR, but this is only the beginning as he explains, “We intend to continue the optimisation of our data pipeline so that ultimately, we could put in and send any model size to Workshop XR to be used and experienced. “To be clear, we’re not saying that you will see the entire model at all times; what we’re saying is that we’re optimising for the experience based on where the user is, so that the relevant data (or where the person is located) and the use case or the task at hand and what they’re trying to do, will be available.” Workshop XR cost $1,075 for a yearly subscription. AEC firms will also need to invest in ACC, although as Fonta points out there are many different levels. “Smaller firms might stick to the basic ACC and not go with things like takeoffs and all of the other products. Workshop XR also comes with a free entitlement to Autodesk Docs. “This won’t give you the full fledged capability and all the bells and whistles but at least you’ll be able to connect, share with peers and do the basics,” says Fonta. ■ https://workshopxr.autodesk.com
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raphisoft has introduced Archicad AI Visualizer, an AI-driven image generation tool powered by Stable Diffusion. The software is designed to create detailed 3D visualisations during the early design stages via a simple user interface optimised for architecture and interior design. To get started with Archicad AI Visualizer, users need Archicad 27 and Nvidia GPUs or Apple Silicon chips. Users create a simple concept model in Archicad then, using text prompts or a few descriptive words like ‘a modern office with wood surfaces,’ generate any
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number of refined design variations — without creating detailed models for each. The tool produces design alternatives in the early design phase by adding details, context, and ideas to the original concept. Prompts and results are optimised for architectural and interior design workflows. According to Graphisoft, Intellectual Property rights are fully protected thanks to the local storage of source images on users’ computers. Users can specify image sizes, vary the number of iterations to speed up image generation, edit the prompt strength for more precise results, and much more. ■ www.graphisoft.com/archicad
Cloud-based BIM tool Infurnia debuts nfurnia, a new cloud-based BIM modeller developed in India and headed up by CEO, Nikhil Kumar and co-founder and CMO Lovepreet Mann, has launched. The first shipping product covers AEC, interior design, kitchen design, and rendering. There are extensions for manufacturing outputs and panel cutlists. As is usual with BIM tools, the application lets users create designs in 3D and 2D, and generates ‘instant’ working drawings. The process starts with drawing 2D layouts (space, zoning model) or walls / doors / windows / stairs etc. It’s possible to start with sketches and 3D concept models with push-pull design. The tools are dynamic and users can
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flip between floorplan, 3D and elevation-based views. With its origins in interior design, there is a lot of focus on that discipline, with libraries and shaping tools. Infurnia wrote its own 2D drawing engine to create auto-drawings, with auto-dimensioning, which sync with changes in the model. Bill of Quantities can be generated from a single click and schedules of components can be tailored to each project, again auto-synced to the main model and any edits. Infurnia comes with photorealistic rendering and immersive 360 panorama renders and supports VR. Prices start at $125 per month. ■ www.infurnia.com
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News
Lenovo unveils workstation with 96-core AMD processor
Inevidesk offers flexible cloud desktops nevidesk, a specialist in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions designed specifically for the AEC sector, has launched Flexidesk, a virtual desktop solution designed to offer firms more flexibility when deploying cloud workstations. Instead of having to scale in batches of seven, as Inevidesk’s pod purchasing model previously dictated, Flexidesk allows firms using its cloudhosted service to scale their VDI by a single virtual desktop at a time (or as many multiple vdesks as required). New Flexidesks can be provisioned within a matter of minutes. Inevidesk tailors VMs to workflows, configuring machines with specific combinations of CPU, GPU and memory for Revit or for more demanding visualisation applications such as Enscape.
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enovo has launched the ThinkStation P8, a new desktop workstation that puts the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series processor front and centre. The new machine shares an almost identical chassis to the ThinkStation P7, which launched earlier this year with a choice of Intel Xeon W-3400 Series processors up to 56-cores. Both workstations feature an Aston Martin-inspired black and red design, which is the result of a collaboration with the legendary automaker. The ThinkStation P8 is designed to fit many different price points and workflows. It comes with a choice of AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000
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WX-Series processors with 12, 16, 24, 32, 64 or 96-cores. AMD’s new workstation processors not only offer lots of cores to accelerate highly multi-threaded workflows like rendering and simulation but they can also hit high frequencies to cater to single threaded applications like BIM. For example, even with 96 cores, the topend Threadripper Pro 7995WX processor boasts a boost frequency of 5.1GHz, which is only 0.6 GHz behind AMD’s top-end consumer processor, the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. The ThinkStation P8 can be fitted with up to three dual slot pro GPUs, such as the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation. ■ www.lenovo.com
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Fuzor 2024 uses AI for ‘4D automation’
standard desktop tower workstations. With a total board power of 190W it requires an 8-pin power connector. The Radeon Pro W7700 features 48 unified RDNA 3 compute units, each of which has 64 dual issue stream processors, two AI accelerators and a second gen ray tracing (RT) accelerator. According to AMD, RDNA 3 offers up to 50% more raytracing performance per compute unit than the previous generation. The card sports four DisplayPort 2.1 connectors, the latest version of the digital display standard.
uzor 2024, the latest release of the virtual design and construction (VDC) software from Kalloc Tech, features a new AI-powered 4D workflow designed to replace the manual task of linking 3D models to schedules. According to the developers, with Fuzor Expert AI all projects are ‘effortlessly and intelligently’ managed in seconds. Users create a private Expert AI database and Fuzor will streamline schedule validation and automatically create 4D sequences with a single click.
■ www.amd.com/radeonpro
■ www.kalloctech.com
AMD launches sub $1,000 pro GPU MD has introduced the Radeon Pro W7700, a new addition to its Radeon Pro 7000 Series of professional workstation GPUs. It is being billed as the most powerful pro GPU for under $1,000. The new GPU comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and boasts 32 TFLOPs of peak single precision performance. This is only a little bit shy of the 35.66 TFLOPs on offer in the Radeon Pro W6800, the flagship pro GPU from AMD’s previous generation. The Radeon Pro W7700 is a full height, dual slot graphics card designed to fit in
■ www.inevidesk.com
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COMPLEX BIM
IN WIRELESS VR With Resolve’s new BIM engine for VR, your team can virtually inspect a facility before it’s built and find critical issues early.
Open hundreds of millions of polygons without a PC or model prep.
Industry integrations
Collaborative XR tools
Enterprise security
Seamlessly sync data to and from your
Host virtual review sessions with your team
Resolve is SOC 2 Type II compliant and
project tools like ACC, BIM 360, Procore,
and use tools like speech-to-text comments,
has enterprise-grade features like MFA,
Newforma Konekt, Revizto, and more.
virtual measurements and passthrough AR.
team management, and MDM support.
Resolve has helped over $30B in construction projects around the world find issues faster and increase engagement with BIM. www.resolvebim.com
News
Autodesk software gets wider access to Esri’s ArcGIS geospatial reference data sri and Autodesk have entered a new phase of their strategic alliance designed to unify GIS and BIM. The firms have agreed to integrate ArcGIS Basemaps and ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World layers into Autodesk’s products. With the new integration, Autodesk users can enrich their CAD drawings and BIM models with real-world context by using Esri geospatial reference data as the foundation for their designs. Details including topology, soils, imagery, street information, and more can be added. According to Esri this can help improve decision making and project planning using dynamic, trusted, and globally sourced map layers. “Partnering with Esri is intended to combine the power of BIM and GIS, which will enable our shared customers to build anything, anywhere,” said Andrew Anagnost, CEO, Autodesk. “Our goals are to provide industry and city planners with the ability to design in the context of the real world. This will allow communities to build more connected, resilient cities and infrastructure with a focused eye on sustainability.”
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“Using GIS and BIM as a single integrated system provides decisionmakers with a holistic understanding of how an infrastructure project will impact the community and environment, supporting sustainable outcomes,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president. “Integrating Basemaps and ArcGIS Living Atlas layers with Autodesk products unlocks added context of the natural and built worlds, combining visual appeal and up-to-date maps and
layers from the global community.” ArcGIS Basemaps offer a variety of ‘highquality, up-to-date’ reference maps, such as OpenStreetMaps with streets and relief, or satellite and aerial imagery that scales from 15-metres down to 1:280 resolution. Meanwhile, Esri explains that ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World layers enhance design and engineering projects with real-world conditions including 3D terrain, soils, boundaries, and more. ■ www.esri.com ■ www.autodesk.com
LocLab Cloud to make ‘digital twins more accessible’ ocLab, part of Hexagon, has launched LocLab Cloud, a platform designed to offer a secure ‘end-to-end’ solution for 3D digital twins, allowing management and monitoring of 3D models. The platform is designed to provide asset owners with comprehensive data, enabling predictive maintenance, scenario
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planning, sustainability analysis and overall improved decision-making. Users can interact with the 3D model, clicking on an object to access relevant data sets stored elsewhere, and receive live updates from on-site sensors. LocLab Cloud can integrate data from various systems and sources, such as ERP, FM and IoT. ■ www.hxdr.com/loclab-cloud
Trimble field tests fully autonomous soil compactor rimble has completed its first test of a fully autonomous soil compactor on a live construction site. The test was carried out at the Site C Clean Energy Project, a Hydro hydroelectric dam for the Peace River in northeast British
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Columbia using the Trimble Earthworks Grade Control Platform for Autonomous Compactors on a Dynapac CA 5000 soil compactor. The fully autonomous machine completed 37 hours of real compaction work, operating ‘seamlessly alongside’ a mixed fleet
of compactors, the rest of which were running the Trimble CCS900 Compaction Control System. Data from all machines – both with and without an operator – was delivered using Trimble WorksOS Software, which is being used as the system of record for all compaction data on the jobsite. ■ www.trimble.com
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News
Epic Games brings Lumen to Twinmotion 2023.2
Markups presented in Revit / ACAD arkupX Pro is a new product designed to improve the process of working with markups for Revit or AutoCAD / Civil 3D. PDF/Bluebeam markups can be imported and viewed directly inside the AutoCAD and Revit environments, overlaid in the location of the requested change. Markups are presented in a Navigator window where they can be sorted or filtered. The user then clicks on each issue in turn and the software will zoom in on relevant part of the drawing. Comments can be added to each issue, together with a snapshot, and the status changed. When the designer completes the change, MarkupX Pro closes the issue and jumps to the next. Projects can be saved as an FLQ file, a proprietary file type that captures the status of each markup as designated by the user MarkupX Pro also gives users the ability to place Revit Families directly into Revit from a PDF.
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pic Games had added Lumen, Unreal Engine 5’s dynamic global illumination and reflections system, to Twinmotion 2023.2, the latest release of its AECfocused real-time visualisation tool. Lumen enables indirect lighting to adapt on the fly to changes to direct lighting or geometry — for example, changing the sun’s angle with the time of day or opening an exterior door. According to Epic Games, it brings new levels of realism to real-time
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applications, and enables stills and videos to be rendered with close to path-traced quality, but in a fraction of the time. Twinmotion 2023.2 also includes the ability to import Adobe Substance 3D parametric materials in the SBSAR file format and store them in the Twinmotion library; these could be materials created by the user in Substance Designer, or ones from many of the material libraries available in this format. ■ www.twinmotion.com
■ www.markupx.com
Snaptrude raises $14m in funding IM startup Snaptrude, has raised $14 million in Series A funding. This brings the total raised to $21.8M, which will be deployed to grow the product and engineering teams, and expand Snaptrude’s go-to-market strategy and provide global reach. Snaptrude is creating a modern platform
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for architects and designers to use the ‘Figma’ cloud model to change how firms design and model. The platform encourages collaboration, interoperability, and efficiency, and is an alternative to Revit, SketchUp, and AutoCAD which the company claims create disconnected workflows and impede productivity.
the level of detail of BIM, this added unnecessary time and cost. With the new CAD file add-on, Matterport says its customers can reduce design and documentation time through a one-click solution producing editable CAD drawings from Matterport point clouds.
aro Technologies has introduced Faro Sphere XG, a cloud platform that allows construction, operations, and geospatial professionals to view, measure, analyse and share reality capture data. Faro’s platform is designed to integrate data from a wide range of capture methods, including stationary scanning, mobile scanning, iPhone LiDAR scanning, and 360° photo capture over time. Data can be ‘seamlessly routed’ to the cloud for automated processing.
■ www.matterport.com
■ www.faro.com
■ www.snaptrude.com
Matterport introduces CAD file add-on atterport is working on a new CAD file add-on that will enable the ‘simple creation of CAD files’ directly from a Matterport ‘digital twin’. Historically, Matterport has only delivered CAD files as part of its BIM file add-on. However, according to Matterport, for projects that don’t require
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Faro releases ‘next gen’ cloud platform F
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Design + Review in XR Create design ideas, layer 3D models on top of reality, host design reviews and present your best work while immersed in your design. Make better design decisions faster.
@arkioHQ
arkio.is
hello@arkio.is
ROUND UP Plan management
Reality capture link for Autodesk Construction Cloud
HCSS has updated HCSS Plans, a digital plans management solution designed for construction site supervisors. Features include realtime version control; organisation and syncing of markups; and the ability to show how the planned construction looks in the field ■ www.hcss.com
Landscape design Arch-Intelligence is ramping up for the release of Environment 12.0, which offers landscape and site design within the Revit workspace. The new release features an optimised workflow that allows landscape architects and other AEC professionals to ‘seamlessly import’ Rhino3D files into Revit ■ www.archintelligence.com
GIS for highways National Highways, which operates, maintains and improves England’s motorways and major A roads, has used Esri enterprise GIS to create a single digital model of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) to provide staff with a single real-time view of a dashboard for alerts, roadworks, etc. ■ www.esri.co.uk
8 TB external SSD The Samsung T5 EVO is a new portable SSD with up to 8 TB of capacity, the largest on the market, according to Samsung. Based on USB 3.2 Gen 1, the T5 EVO is said to transfer data up to 3.8 times faster than external HDDs. ■ www.samsung.com/portable-ssd
MCAD tool for AEC Architectural practice Warehome is using PTC Creo to design a complex Paragraph 80 project and various highquality homes in London. The 3D CAD tool is more commonly used to design motorbikes and consumer products ■ www.ptc.com/creo
New carbon database The Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) is a new free-toaccess embodied carbon database designed to help drive down carbon emissions by enabling users to both submit data to, and download data from it, to facilitate consistent carbon estimating and benchmarking. ■ www.becd.co.uk
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mrax Metaroom, an iOS and
software solution A cloud-based that uses the LiDAR sensor on the Apple iPhone / iPad Pro to capture real world spaces, has been integrated with Autodesk Construction Cloud. Project managers can now visualise 3D models generated in Metaroom directly within Autodesk Build Insights or BIM 360 Project Home dashboards. In terms of workflow, 3D scans are uploaded to the the cloud-based platform, Metaroom Studio, generating ‘true-toscale 3D models within seconds’. Here the 3D models can be enriched with additional
information, such as ‘significant areas’ and then accessed through ACC. “With this integration, we are setting new standards in the digitisation and visualisation of interior spaces,” said Martin Huber, CEO at Amrax. “Our advanced features enable not just the creation of 3D models for individual rooms but also for entire floors and buildings.” “[The integration] helps teams understand the real-life context of the Issues, RFIs, Submittals and more that they track in Autodesk Construction Cloud,” said Autodesk’s James Cook. ■ www.amrax.ai/metaroom.com
Codesign adds carbon calculator and AI odesign has partnered with
Materials to bring an C 2050 early-stage carbon calculator to its concepting iPad app for architects. The company has also added a generative AI feature that turns simple massing models into rich visuals for creative inspiration. Codesign’s carbon calculator takes data from the software’s building model and combines it with user-selected properties to calculate the carbon impact of a design. Users can try different building and material types and receive quick feedback regarding those decisions. Combining these calculations with
Codesign’s built-in design options allows architects to explore more and assess the outcomes early in the design process. Meanwhile, Codesign’s integrated AI uses a natural language prompt to provide inspiration for building designs. “Using AI to provide creative ideas has never been easier,” says Campbell Yule, founder of Codesign. “Mass your building in Codesign to get size, shape, and usage in place, and from there, you can immediately use AI to provide some inspiration. “As you resolve the details of your design with Codesign features like cladding and columns, you can use AI repeatedly to explore options.” ■ www.getcodesign.co
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News
Wacom introduces compact Cintiq Pro displays
Revit driven by natural language AI ustralian firm BIMlogiq is developing an Al assistant designed to transform the way users interact with Revit within the design environment. With BIMlogic Copilot, instead of writing codes and scripts, users simply type in commands using natural language and the software executes those tasks. Use cases range from duplicating and renaming views based on a named template, to generating reports. The software is said to be ‘adaptable and intelligent’ so learns from your conversations, adapting to your processes for even swifter execution in future projects. BIMlogic Copilot is currently in early access, but BIMlogic has officially released two other AI-driven tools - Smart Annotation and Smart Schematics for pipes and ducts.
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acom has launched the Cintiq Pro 17 and Cintiq Pro 22, two new additions to its interactive pen display product line-up that share the same technology as the recently introduced Cintiq Pro 27. With colour-accurate displays capable of producing 1.07 billion colours, 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz, both products include the customisable Wacom Pro Pen 3. The Cintiq Pro 17 offers a compact 17.3inch display, while the Cintiq Pro 22 features a 21.5-inch screen for those who need more screen real estate.
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Both displays offer eight Express Keys along their back edges, which users can customise according to their preferred shortcuts. Additional customisation can be found with the multi-touch gesture support, allowing the programming of specific gestures as shortcuts or virtual buttons for added workflow efficiency. Colour coverage includes 100% Rec.709, and 99% DCI-P3 coverage. The Cintiq Pro 17 is available now and is priced at £2,350. The Cintiq Pro 22 will be priced at £2,850 and is scheduled for availability from December 2023. ■ www.wacom.com
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Analytics inside ACC
platform’ for evaluating WLC assessments. The aim is to facilitate a verifiable and transparent planning application review process for carbon, leading to a significant reduction in the WLC footprints of newly approved building designs and help local authorities meet stringent carbon emissions budgets more effectively, as they work to align with national Net Zero commitments. The introduction of PACER complements Preoptima’s existing product suite, including Preoptima Building, which enables stakeholders to make informed design choices with a clear understanding of their carbon impact, with a view to facilitating the creation of accurate WLC reports for planning applications.
onstruction analytics software company, SmartPM, has announced a new integration with Autodesk Construction Cloud designed to help project stakeholders quickly assess critical factors driving construction projects and allow more time to focus on proactive project management and risk mitigation. SmartPM’s dashboard and project workspace use graphic visualisation help bring more clarity to schedule data. According to the company, by transforming complex data into straightforward, accurate, and concise reports, stakeholders can assess the key factors driving their projects.
■ www.preoptima.com
■ www.smartpmtech.com
Preoptima to simplify carbon evaluation reoptima, a specialist in software to support sustainable building design, has been awarded a £300,000 grant from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The grant will fund the development of Preoptima’s Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction (PACER) platform, a cloud-based tool designed to help local authorities reduce the whole life carbon (WLC) footprint of building projects. Preoptima’s grant was awarded as part of the Net Zero Living Digital Accelerator. In partnership with Westminster City Council in London, England, Preoptima will develop PACER with a view to providing a ‘fast, reliable, and precise
■ www.bimlogiq.com
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Spotlight news
Speckle brings automation to AEC platform schematic diagrams. This technology could fundamentally change the way tech stacks are integrated, as well as providing obvious productivity boosts. Current automation technologies require expert knowledge and resources to host, package, and maintain. Speckle Automate is designed to reduce the knowledge and resource overhead. It aims to make automation more accessible to all in the AEC industry and start to bring some of the ‘headless’ variants of applications into use, such as Blender and Rhino. Automate can talk to ‘any API’, be that Office 365, content management systems, Slack, Microsoft Teams, messaging services, or emails. It can even connect to a n the pathway to BIM, AEC data is to enable interoperability and machine learning or artificial intelligence flows managed to get well and meaningful workflows between people. platform of choice. The possibilities truly broken. This is not ideal in Then there’s collaboration, again, with the appear pretty endless. a world where collaboration and focus on people. We’re giving customers a “With current automation technology, interoperability are paramount. Speckle new way to experience and engage with you not only have to code your started out as a geeky product, developed their projects. application, you have to compile it, by hackers in the AEC industry who “After this, we asked ourselves, ‘What if package it, host it, run it, secure it wanted to overcome such issues as we were to enable multiplayer collaboration maintain it, it’s a huge burden. It requires sharing models with others, viewing them with scripts and machines?’ As developers, expert knowledge,” says Ian Sproat, online and querying BIM data outside of we do want to bring back essentially platform engineer, Speckle. “It’s not likely proprietary applications. It has ended up developer tooling productivity to AEC and our clients’ core competency, and this all becoming an open-source, professional the world of 3D. And this is why, needs dedication and needs resources. platform providing interoperability and essentially, we’ve introduced Automate. “While there are many generic tools out real time collaboration for a growing “What it does is on every model change there that do CI/CD, they’re not AECcommunity of users and developers. The inside Speckle, you will have workflows specific, and are not built on top of company’s recent online conference, running, automatically. This means Speckle. We wanted to build something Speckle Con, introduced a new powerful essentially, no more manual labour. You accessible, especially for those that don’t Automation capability called Speckle can write the script once and automate the code and those who wish to share their Automate which will be in beta soon. boring stuff away. expertise. They might be developers, Up to this point, Speckle has been seen “All this integrated within one platform computational designers, but also other as a platform and toolkit which provides – Speckle - so we’re opening a whole new experts within companies.” connectors to extract AEC data for siloed category when it comes to data within With Automate, the idea is that Speckle applications. It ‘atomises’ the data and AEC, which kind of wraps up together customers are no longer constrained to a geometry (making what’s commonly into one lovely package, collaboration, particular machine or application on called granular data) then allows connectivity, and automation.” somebody’s desktop in an office. They can everything to be shared with a totally now run the same workflow processes for Automatic for the people different Speckle-enabled application Revit models, SketchUp models, Archicad such as Revit to Catia, or Civil 3D to Automate is an iterative tool designed for models, IFC files, or any other software that Rhino. Speckle is now going to build in developers, engineers, and architects. It can send data to Speckle. The results can be simple-to-use automation for firms to allows workflows to run automatically after viewed in your application of choice. build workflows where chains of every model change in Speckle, removing As soon as a model is updated, the functions, from all manner of tools, can the need for manual intervention. process, such as an analysis, will carry out processes to Speckle data. Speckle describes Automate as a CI/CD automatically run again and can save files “With Speckle we’ve built an objectsolution, offering Continuous Integration alongside the data, such as a PDF or based data layer for essentially 3D data (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD). When Word Doc report. These can also be and BIM models,” says Dimitri changes are made to a BIM model this can shared throughout Speckle networks. Stefanescu, founder and CEO of Speckle. now trigger quality assurance checks, There are several starter templates “We essentially decompose all 3D models code compliance, integrity checks, logical available to help kick off customers. into sub-constituent atoms and store them analyses, and clash detection, from any Demonstrations of Automate are in a database, make them available to application, through any API, within your available from the Speckle Con talk (www. Speckle clients and to scripts. Speckle network or tech stack. It can also tinyurl.com/SpeckleCon). Sign up for the “The first value proposition of Speckle automate the generation of deliverables, beta here (www.tinyurl.com/Automate-beta) is multiplayer connectivity, our aim here reports, drawings, statistical analysis, and ■ https://speckle.systems
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www.AECmag.com
27/11/2023 14:52
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Software
Qonic: BIM with construction level details
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hese are epic times for an industry that has grown to rely on digital tools. Never before have there been so many new developers looking to advance the AEC market, focusing on areas ranging from conceptual and detail design to fabrication and operation. Having previously kept a relatively low profile, Qonic has just announced its open beta programme. This will expose some of the initial capability of its cloudbased, solid modelling BIM tool. If you don’t know Qonic, the team behind this new start-up is pretty much the same group that previously managed Bricsys, creator of the DWG drawing and modelling solution BricsCAD, which was sold to Hexagon in 2018. Former Bricsys CEO Erik de Keyser used to be an architect himself, before he got into software development. His first BIM modeller was TriForma, which Bentley Systems took over. BricsCAD was originally an AutoCAD clone, but expanded to become way more than that – in essence, an ACIS solids-based BIM tool, which featured innovative AI. After the sale of Bricsys, de Keyser started work on a third-generation BIM tool, along with long-term colleagues Tiemen Strobbe, Mark Van Den Bergh and Sander Scheiris. This time, faced with no AutoCAD constraint, and with little requirement to concern themselves with supporting legacy technology, the team was able to start with a blank sheet of paper. And after two years of stealth development, Qonic is ready to open up its creation and allow the industry to try out its base functionality. And I have to admit that it’s very impressive.
Development directions Before diving into Qonic’s product, it’s worth addressing the software development process. From a number of conversations I’ve had recently, it seems that many people assume that when a new BIM modeller comes to market, it should be capable of replacing mature products like Revit or Archicad from the start. This simply isn’t the case. While it’s not hard to find podcasts and videos in which featured participants find it incredulous that they would replace their current BIM system with a 18
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start-up offering (which at best may rival SketchUp), developing a professional design software system can take many years. Decades, in fact. Established systems in use today are typically products underpinned by fifteen to twenty years of hard effort. That’s what enables them to offer a wide range of capabilities and still have the flexibility to deal with edge-case situations requested by customers. New BIM 2.0 start-ups, by contrast, mostly began this journey two or three years ago. And because most have chosen the cloud as their platform, developers have not only needed to build the core functionality and model logic, but also wrestle with creating a performant platform for delivery to browsers and desktops. On its journey to becoming a Revit competitor, or indeed a rival to any other established product, any new product will at an early stage resemble a concept tool, a SketchUp competitor, or a collaboration-based common data environment (CDE). It will most probably lack complex curved forms. It may offer limited drawing or documentation functions. These initial offerings are entry level, a skeleton with just the basics of what will eventually be developed on top. Rome wasn’t built in a day. That leaves start-up leaders trying to figure out what it is they actually want to build on top. Arcol, for example, is targeting conceptual designers. Snaptrude is looking to gain traction in Revit collaboration. Qonic is initially focusing on construction BIM, and specifically, quantity estimation and scheduling. In short, they all have different angles — but in order to shape their tools to meet industry needs, they require users to download their early-stage products, try them out and offer feedback that will shape further development. In the case of Qonic, “Our first target firms are contractors, to enrich existing BIM models,” explains Tiemen Strobbe. “But that’s definitely not the end goal. We will start by building architectural modelling tools, but it’s just a matter of setting priorities. We want to grow step by step. The first focus is now on enriching existing models but it’s our goal to add architectural modelling tools like
Qonic is targetting contractors and (later) architects through its cloud-based BIM platform with construction-level details. Martyn Day explores the beta release and chats with the team at the AEC start-up wall creation tools, window creation tools, we already are working on it.”
Introducing Qonic beta Qonic’s long-term goal is to create a platform where cooperating on design and building projects doesn’t mean starting from scratch each time a project advances between project players. All too often, BIM models get recreated due to lack of trust between collaborators, or they are created to perform specific tasks at different stages in AEC processes. Qonic has been developed to reduce this need for multiple BIM models, and in the process, to drive efficiency. Qonic is a cloud-based modelling application. It runs on Windows, MacOS, web browsers, Android, and iOS. It has a granular database (‘atomised’ at the component level), with a modern, clean interface. It’s available to everyone with a cloud connection. You can import IFCs or RVT models, and it breaks these down to a component-based database. It doesn’t need a separate model manager, because revision management is built in and users can view the entire change history of a model. Even though BIM models are typically large, Qonic’s display and manipulation of large datasets is highly performant, irrespective of complexity. In the past, De Keyser utilised a solid modelling engine for both Triforma (Parasolid) and BricsCAD (ACIS), so it comes as no surprise that Qonic has followed this same path. This means it can support complex www.AECmag.com
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As our first set of modelling tools are aimed at enriching existing models, there are no conceptual modelling tools, there are no create wall tools, there are no create slab tools. The intent is to start from an existing imported IFC model, and then enrich it through editing to make it ready for quantity take-off Tiemen Strobbe, Qonic
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Getting to grips with the Qonic beta Qonic’s beta software is available now and comes with a sample project and model. Users have full access to the dashboard where they can upload their own models, set up access rights and permissions and share models. Current limitations mean that modelling modifications will not be saved and will be reset on reload. For now, users must use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers on a desktop machine and the mobile version is not ready yet. The Revit plug-in installer is not yet available, either, but will be made available as the beta develops. ■ https://app.qonic.com
geometry and NURBS curves/surfaces and offers precision material reporting by volume. The aim here is that users can focus on geometry element assemblies, while the product also enables them to position different wall or layer combinations over a single-length wall. This initial beta is not the commercial release. That is expected in early 2024. For now, the beta focuses on design coordination, supporting existing IFC or RVT design models and enriching them with extra numeric and geometrical data. This might include detailing missing properties, adjusting inconsistent attributes and allowing walls and slabs to be split and made into assemblies with separate components. The underlying ideas here are to improve imported IFC or RVT models so they can be used for accurate quantity take-off; to add classification codes and material information from universal libraries; and to calculate precise quantities based on multiple measurement standards. A design coordination workflow would start by a user importing an IFC or RVT into the Qonic environment. They would then go through the model, looking for missing information and poorly labelled components, and eliminate attribute inconsistencies (such as missing fire ratings, for example) and improve the quality of the overall model for downstream use. While most architectural BIM tools take no heed of how core components (such as slabs) are manufactured on site, www.AECmag.com
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Software Qonic offers tools to make assemblies “In the future, we will also look at ability to take in architectural BIM and and better tailor a BIM model for use in spaces. If they exist, then we can use add construction-level details and store construction. In this sense, it is a little spaces to also find connections between these for quick embellishment. This like Solibri, in its ability to identify quali- other elements and do more. You can points to a future Qonic BIM system ty issues. Solibri, however, just generates also start querying the models in terms of that could go from conceptual to fabricaa report. In Qonic, by contrast, the user spaces; for example, ‘Give me all the tion level, spanning a chasm that no can actually make necessary changes to details for all the office spaces in the other BIM software firm has yet manthe model, which are reflected in the ver- building’, and these kinds of queries will aged to bridge. sion history for all to see. be possible. It’s not yet in this beta verOne of the core founding concepts of “As our first set of modelling tools are sion, but on the roadmap. When a Revit Qonic was that it is IFC-centric. This aimed at enriching existing models, there or IFC model is updated, Qonic will just means that, in time, should users ever are no conceptual modelling tools, there import what has changed, maintaining want to move to different software, any are no create wall tools, there are no cre- Qonic embellishments, but this is not data they create will be stored and ate slab tools,” says Strobbe. “The intent currently in the beta release.” retrievable in an open format. is to start from an existing imported IFC As development has progressed, native model, and then enrich it through editing Conclusion support for RVT and a Revit plug-in to make it ready for quantity take-off.” Qonic is very impressive in all respects makes sense. De Keyser explains that Similarly, for quantity take-off, the and this beta more than whets the whis- while Europe is very much on board with user starts by importing an IFC or RVT tle. Data fidelity is great. The look and IFC, the US market is locked into RVT. model, then applies With this Revit plug-in, classification codes and all Revit metadata — material information properties, buildings, Qonic has a granular database (‘atomised’ at the drawn from projectstoreys, materials — get component level), with a modern, clean interface. imported, too. wide libraries to components such as acousQonic is currently You can import IFCs or RVT models, and it breaks tic panels. They can working with architecthese down to a component-based database then calculate the quantural firms, but the tities of materials needmajority of its current ed and export. beta testers are contracThe workflows highlighted above may feel of a rendered 3D environment feels tors from all over the world, principally seem a far cry from what can be support- crisp and architectural. And, and as you Europe, Asia-Pacific and the US. ed by a full BIM tool — but you get a good zoom in, it really does get down to conQonic gets full marks for supporting feeling when it comes to the high fidelity struction-level details. In fact, Qonic curved geometry in its first beta release of the imported BIM data, not to mention already feels like some of the established — that’s probably a first among the cursome of the tools on offer here. The beta mechanical CAD applications, like rent batch of BIM 2.0 start-ups. There’s shows how great geometry editing and Solidworks or Catia. one caveat, however: questions remain creation is in Qonic, and it’s not too great The user interface is really simple; it’s around 2D drawing/documentation. a leap to imagine it as a powerful author- easy to understand and it gives a great Qonic has not focused on that at all and ing tool in future. feeling of connection between objects instead suggests using BricsCAD or a But in terms of importing, does Qonic and their attached metadata. This makes DWG editor. This is a potential weakness rely on defined pre-spaces in the BIM Qonic accessible and useful, not just for if the system is to be creating models that model? “We do some automatic detec- specialists and Revit experts but also require documentation, even if only for tion of spaces on the fly. We try to detect participants from the wider AEC com- contractual reasons. With AI and drawgeometrically connected walls, automat- munity, such as quantity surveyors, ing automation in development, this ically finding all the connected walls project engineers, property owners and might well become a non-issue in future. and adding them to a layer, instead of so on. In other words, folks who don’t But for now, it’s an omission that users individually having to do that one by typically live in BIM systems. may well question. one,” answers Strobbe. I’m particularly fascinated by Qonic’s ■ www.qonic.com
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BIM 2.0 at AEC Magazine’s NXT DEV and NXT BLD
At AEC Magazine, our goal is to keep you up to date with the latest action in the emerging BIM 2.0 market.
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All the major players - Snaptrude, Arcol, Augmenta, SWAPP, Hypar, Skema and Qonic - attended our NXT BLD and NXT DEV conferences. events in June 2023. Delegates were able to see presentations given by executives from most of these companies. AEC Magazine readers can now watch them on-demand. In many cases, they represent the first
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public demonstrations of what these companies are working on. Likewise, Qonic CEO Erik de Keyser’s presentation on his software-development journey is not to be missed. NXT BLD (Next Build) explores emerging technologies for the built environment, beyond BIM 1.0. NXT DEV is where design IT
directors, venture capitalists and developers meet to discuss the needs of the AEC industry, in conversations that cover everything from granular data to pricing models. Next year’s NXT BLD and NXT DEV events will take place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London from 25-26 June 2024. ■ www.nxtbld.com ■ www.nxtdev.build
www.AECmag.com
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AEC Magazine Nov_Dec.indd 1
11/9/2023 11:26:33 AM
Sketch to BIM Workflows
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Snaptrude allows architects to focus on designing with ease and efficiency, while creating intelligent BIM models and collaborating with the entire team. It is a tool that has the potential to transform the architecture industry, while seamlessly integrating with existing workflows.
-ArchDaily
The Galaxy SOHO project by Zaha Hadid Architects, modeled on Snaptrude
What’s new?
Arc Tool Arcs can be used to define a space, draw next to an existing space, and split one or multiple spaces. New guides and snaps have been introduced to draw arcs tangentially, make semicircles, co-centric and concentric arcs. Parametric Properties
Draw tab for BIM objects Snaptrude has a new and improved BIM object classification system. Use the Line and Arc tools to draw Spaces, Walls, Slabs, Columns, Beams, Floors, and Ceilings. Data Management A comprehensive and expandable data management system has been introduced for Team Libraries to manage costs, product or material specifications, vendor details, etc. These properties are customizable, making them globally accessible for automated BOQ calculations.
Parameters are defined for each object type like spaces, walls, curtain walls and staircases to enable flexibility and control. For example, Spaces can be assigned function, type, height, material, and label. Walls are created based on a 2D curve or 3D profile and a wall type, thickness, and material. Smart Layouts While making interior layouts, furniture can be aligned with each other, arrayed with just one click, and rotated using the spacebar. Clicking on a piece of furniture also allows you to replace it with other similar options in the library.
Real-time Collaboration and Insights with Snaptrude
Design Faster: Intelligent automation and parametric modeling help you speed up the design process for projects of all scales. Design Smarter: Leverage BIM data to control costs and design sustainably. Gather real time insights from automated BoQs, site topography, and more. Design with Other Tools: Import from Revit (and Autocad, SketchUp, or Rhino). Export directly into Revit without any data loss.
Invite your team: Being a web-based application, Snaptrude unlocks the potential of getting to a better design by working together as a team in real-time, on the browser, from anywhere in the world. It allows creating teams, sharing models with just one click, brainstorming and commenting live on models. Shared libraries: Snaptrude also features an extensive library of built-in and custom components shared by teams. Custom libraries allow importing objects and assigning essential information like cost and vendor details. Real-time data: Get live data calculations for areas and BOQs with charts that adjust as per the design to provide up-to-date data. Change logs keep track of all changes, big and small, over time.
Snaptrude Raises a $14M Series A Funding
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Snaptrude’s inventive conceptual design methodology, paired with its impressive market momentum, firmly establishes it as a pioneer in catalyzing transformation within the AEC sector. We wholeheartedly embrace their vision and are excited to remain steadfast in our support for their journey of expansion and innovation.
3D Render: With Snaptrude’s built-in 3D Render engine, you can share realistically rendered models directly with clients with one click.
The iconic 520 West 28th in New York modeled and rendered on Snaptrude
-Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel
snaptrude.com
Feature
Autodesk: laying the foundations for AI At Autodesk University, Autodesk made its big play for AI, with granular data at the heart of Forma, its next generation AEC cloud-platform set to play a critical and possibly controversial role. Martyn Day and Greg Corke report
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ne of the exciting things perate need of productivity gains, which Artificial Intelligence about Autodesk University AI can furnish. The net result will be Anagnost launched the brand ‘Autodesk (AU) is that you never know more projects getting pushed through AI’. Given that there has been a sprinquite what Autodesk will the system. Anagnost has also expressed kling of AI capability in construction prolaunch or focus its stage time on. In May that AI will eliminate some of the grunt ject management software, Construction 2023, Autodesk released Forma, its next work, allowing for more creativity with IQ, as well as AutoCAD, Forma and other generation cloud-platform for AEC, so less time spent working with ‘click and products for quite a while, and AU didn’t we were expecting more on this, and point software’. deliver any new AI capabilities, the Autodesk didn’t disappoint, while also On the AU stage, Anagnost set the con- branding is somewhat retrospective. And elaborating on its new granular data text for AI in design, “We’ve been work- at this stage, the message is probably model, upon which Forma is built. ing to get you excited about AI for years. aimed more at shareholders than customFurthermore, the main spotlight was on But now we’re moving from talking about ers. Autodesk is essentially stating the Artificial Intelligence (AI), its influence, it to actually changing your businesses. intent to add more AI capabilities into the and the advancements made by And maybe you didn’t believe it before. mix from henceforth. Autodesk in this sector. But I’m pretty sure all of you are starting As one nameless delegate quipped, “The From the get-go, Autodesk CEO, to believe it will transform the landscape problem is, with all the hype, adding AI to Andrew Anagnost, anything is about as brought AI into focus, meaningful as adding addressing the audithe word ‘banana’ to Forma is based on the new Autodesk Data Model ence, “You know that your brand’. and because data is stored granularly, users don’t that future that all of While we strongly us thought was going have to download gigabytes of data in big files. It can concur, we think that to happen, sometime while Autodesk was stream or just send the data that is required in the future? …it is ahead of the game on already happening. AI in many ways, prior We’ve seen governments struggling to that you all design and make things in. to the public being exposed to ChatGPT, regulate it, schools are uncertain how to “And let’s be really clear here. Done AI was seen as an even greater threat and contain it, and Hollywood was going on badly, AI absolutely leads to bad out- unknown, allowing our imaginations run strike over it. It is affecting our view of comes. Done well, it has the transforma- away to dystopian futures. Singing and what’s real. For better or worse, AI tive power to understand and address dancing about AI in front of customers, has arrived.” the capacity issues that all of you face led to feelings of insecurity. Now the bubIn previous keynotes, Anagnost has the challenge of doing more, with less - ble has been burst, we are all marvelling speculated that AI and automation will less labour, less resources, less money, at what clever monkeys we are, rapidly create more jobs, as almost all other and less friction - like the friction of developing something which can fool us impactful technologies have done. moving your data back and forth and/or improve our productivity, AI has However, he recently admitted on between all the tools you rely on, that become cool. If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Bloomberg TV in April 2023 that AI will burns up the time and money and the certainly require fewer people per pro- people that get thrown at a project. AI Autodesk AEC ject. Nevertheless, our industry is facing can solve these problems and make your Anagnost set the scene for Forma, saying a severe capacity problem and is in des- work more meaningful.” it’s ‘BIM reimagined’, powered by
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Jim Lynch, executive VP Autodesk construction solutions on the stage at AU
Autodesk AI. Since its launch, Forma has seen a +500% increase in adoption. The product originates in the company’s acquisition of Spacemaker in 2020. The team ported the conceptual design tool to the cloud where it’s the first tranche of Autodesk design technology to be 100% cloud-based. While the original version was biased towards property developers, the program has since seen a lot of capabilities added to appeal more to architects. As well as providing outcomes like the number of rentable units in a building, it also relays the amount of sunlight in a design’s indoor spaces, or even how to position solar panels for maximum effect. Users can analyse and test different concepts and forms (although this appears to be rectilinear at present). Forma’s built-in AI tools let users understand the impact of their decisions. Amy Bunszel, EVP of architecture, engineering and construction design solutions, said that while today, Forma is aimed at early-stage planning Autodesk doesn’t intend to stop there. Forma will expand to infrastructure and water. And development teams are building connections with Revit and Construction Cloud, with more to come. Bunszel would not be drawn on what those capabilities might be. In the press Q&A that followed, she told AEC Magazine, “We’re figuring out how we connect and build hybrid workflows between Forma and our existing products and what capabilities make sense to become Forma-native over time.” Bunszel emphasised that Autodesk is building Forma to be open, interoperable, www.AECmag.com
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and AI powered to serve you (the users). She mentioned the biggest requested integration for Forma was with McNeel’s Rhino, “You can bring your geometry from Rhino into Forma and can instantly analyse an impact of a design with factors like sun, wind and noise. And you can bring Forma terrain and surrounding building data into Rhino. This saves time and lets you work with your current tools.”
A granular backbone Forma is based on the new Autodesk Data Model and because data is stored granularly, users don’t have to download gigabytes of data in big files. It can stream or just send the data that is required. The plan, of course, is to plug in Revit to the Autodesk Data model, but Revit data has not yet been made granular. According to Anagnost, there are many technical reasons why, “It is structured in a way that makes it harder to pull data out,” he said. Here, Unifi, the company that Autodesk acquired earlier this year could play an important role. The software is used to organise and manage content in Revit, particularly in relation to Revit families. “One way to make more granular data in Revit is to turn more and more of it into families,” said Anagnost. We understand there is beta code out there with about fifteen customers, testing out translation between RVT and Autodesk Data Model. It seems that the Autodesk Data Model, which we have previously described as the ‘Unified Database’, is actually going to
be known as Autodesk Docs, in which all project data will be stored. Docs connects data across disciplines and phases across the entire project lifecycle; data that is relevant, actionable, structured and available in files and file less. According to Autodesk, Docs is central to how you work today, and how you will work in the future. Regardless of what products you use - AutoCAD, Revit, Civil 3D, Construction Cloud or Forma - the future repository will be Docs! In a future release, all Autodesk Docs users will get access to Unifi Pro, which helps firms organise, access and manage BIM content, including Revit families and AutoCAD blocks, all in a central location. Bunszel wrapped up saying, “I believe that AI should augment you, not replace you. That’s why over the next year, we’re expanding the already powerful AI capabilities and format. “With generative sight studies, you will be able to test multiple layouts that include bridges, roads, vegetation, and more. And with our building detailing automation, you’ll be able to test the impact of wall thickness, window placement and even materials. “And for those of you looking for more, you will be able to leverage third party generators like TestFit for parking lot design. The power of AI Forma will fundamentally change how you work.”
Data: make or break for AI For Raji Arasu, Autodesk’s Chief Technology Officer, this was her first AU in the spotlight. She explained how for November / December 2023
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AI, data is make or break and dependent sheets and bills of material (BoMs). It is a on data being granular, accurate and serial process. And that’s what we’re tryextensive. And oh my, how much data ing to change. Autodesk has! “Imagine a world where you kick off Arasu explained that Autodesk has your design, and through the design proover 40 petabytes of customer data on its cess, you’re looking at a digital twin of an servers, which she described as being the existing structure. All your data is in the equivalent of 160,000 photos per day same place. It’s cloud-connected, it’s over a whole life. granular, and is available in real time. Many firms we’ve spoken with are con- What does it do? It allows your teams to cerned as to what Autodesk’s End User collaborate much, much faster, at the License Agreement (EULA) implies that same time. And that’s what we’re making the company can do with customers’ possible with the Autodesk Data Model.” models and drawings, especially with Arcadis seems to have had early access training generic AI (see box out page 29). to the Autodesk Data Model, leveraging Arasu said that Autodesk was ‘com- the granular data to provide insights to mitted to the highest standards of gov- its global clients and help track progress ernance so that we can actually treat against the sustainability projects. The your data securely and responsibly’. global design and engineering company Running through the AI ‘hits’, has been running data extraction jobs on Autodesk has applied AI in the manufac- thousands of models on a weekly basis. turing-focused Autodesk Fusion for Since adopting Autodesk’s model, Arasu automating the creation of drawings and claimed Arcadis’ BIM managers have toolpaths. In Media and Entertainment, seen a 40% productivity increase. Autodesk is using AI to analyse and optiLooking at interoperability, Autodesk mise production schedules, while in has been releasing more and more cloudForma, AI is augmenting the creative based data exchange connectors. These process during early-stage planning. connectors allow customers to share And not forgetting Construction IQ for design data across a variety of tools project management. which teams use every day, whether they Arasu said, “There is no AI without are Autodesk products, or from other actionable data. That’s why we are developers. Autodesk has launched investing in Autodesk platform services about a dozen connectors so far. Some of (APS – Forge) and the Autodesk Data them are bi-directional, some are not. Model, storing project data in granular These will enable better integrations of bite-sized chunks that can be accessed in customers’ data with ERP systems, BoMs real-time, via a knowledge graph that sits and dashboards. in the cloud. “Let’s say you’re working on a large Outcome-based BIM building project. And you have all the The AI theme continued with Nicolas information about the HVAC system, Mangon, VP of AEC industry strategy. He you’re connected to manufacturing, you emphasised how AI needs data to train have operational data on the and said, “As Autodesk AI workflows maintenance schedules, and Enhancing learns about how you work, the between Forma and much more. Today, teams pull Revit is a major focus context of your projects, and for development this information into spreadyour desired outcomes, it will
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help you develop better and more sustainable results for you and your clients. He explained that for AI to work effectively, it needs to learn and to learn, it needs accessible data, a lot of data! “That is where we see the most potential to transform our industry,” he said. Much has been said in industry about data being the new oil. “Well, today, we have an oil boom,” said Mangon. “There are over 15 billion files created by Autodesk software. And these files contain data from existing conditions, past and current projects, GIS, IoT sensors, workplace management systems, stakeholder sentiments, whether geotechnical, pollution etc.” Much of that data is high value for AEC firms, he said, and “also for Autodesk AI to leverage.” “Imagine being able to run your project reviews within a full virtual experience, bringing together the real-world context data with your project, or to create a digital twin of a metro station that uses IoT data to trigger maintenance algorithms. These kinds of capabilities are only possible when data is precompiled and broken into logical, granular elements.” The problem, as Mangon sees it, is that data is locked inside these files and models and Autodesk’s customers realise this. Autodesk’s new strategy will be putting all the data in one central repository, Autodesk Docs. Mangon claimed that Docs was open, secure and accessible. The data within Docs will be stored granularly, at the object level and will be ‘decoupled’ from applications and file. This means the data can move from application to application, or team to team. For instance, data created in Revit, is no longer tied to one application to ‘load it’. “In doing this, we are freeing data to fuel AI and this AI will give you an additional and new way of working,” he said. Autodesk is calling this new way of working ‘Outcome-based’. “This is not a replacement of product testing that you’ve been doing for many years with Navisworks. Revit and Civil 3D. It’s a powerful additional capability that will complement your model-based approach,” said Mangon. “It’s not going to be Revit or Forma, it’s going to be Revit and Forma working together. So now with atom-based BIM, Autodesk will augment your capabilities and will co-create with you. Mangon made the point that the longer firms wait to make a decision, the more expensive and disruptive the decision becomes. “What if you could immediately see the impact of your decisions?” he www.AECmag.com
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Project Phoenix: sustainability meets industrialised construction
Autodesk put the spotlight on ‘Project Phoenix’, a collaborative effort between MBH Architects, Factory_OS, and Autodesk Research designed to make housing that is less expensive, faster to design / build and more sustainable. According to Autodesk, the project is about 50% less in terms of time, cost and carbon footprint than traditional housing in the San Francisco Bay area. Like many western regions, California has a shortfall of homes – estimated to be 3 million, in fact. Project Phoenix is a 316-unit modular housing development in West Oakland on a site that is heavily impacted, both from congestion and noise pollution. Targeting carbon neutral, the housing units feature innovative materials, including facade panels made from a core of mycelium, the rootlike structure of mushrooms. The panels themselves are carbon-negative, as the process of making them involves more carbon absorbed than emitted, due to the large volume of plant-based material that drew carbon out of the air as it grew. Design to site time is claimed to have been crushed from two years to one year and all the modules are constructed offsite, including the external cladding panels. Factory_OS, a Californian off-site firm (in which Autodesk has made multiple
investments) is making studio apartments, one bedroom, twobedroom interlocks with housing modules that can be assembled onsite ‘like Lego’. This is not a one size fits all approach to factorybased industrialised construction. MBH and Factory_OS have
developed about 25 different modules, which can be stacked in different ways to create different building types. “Our goal is to really address collectively, a housing crisis and environmental stewardship, and at the same time, not have it be a race to the bottom so that your dwelling units are awful, ‘but we did it modularly”. The idea is to raise the bar,” said Andrew Meagher, vice president of design and engineering, Factory_OS. “We don’t want to have a McDonald’s type approach. where it’s ‘oh, I recognise that building, no matter where you are in the world.’
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“The building envelope is determined by the designers, the site designers, and hopefully if you’re using this facade panel, this is just one version. So over time, you’ll be able to have any kind of configuration and articulation of this facade panel bay windows, decks, recesses, notched - but the core dwelling unit stays the same.” From a software perspective, MBH Architects used Forma for early-stage design and Revit for detailed design, with data shared with Factory_OS via Autodesk Construction Cloud. Forma is used to navigate trade-offs between things like operational carbon, embodied carbon cost and liveability.
MBH Architects can rapidly explore a huge range of options such as adding a floor to a building, nudging the structure’s position north or south, shifting a playground or greenspace from the edge of the development to the middle. Tim Haley, director, technical; architect, at MBH Architects was effusive in his praise for Forma. He told AEC Magazine it saves an incredible amount of time at the very beginning of any project, “We can figure out the parking, we can figure out some of the energy used. The best time to make a decision about sustainability is the very beginning. If you have to reorient your building five months into the construction schedule [it’s too late].” ‘Project Phoenix’ is only just the beginning, as David Benjamin, who leads applied research on net-zero buildings at Autodesk Research explains, “We’re trying to address the one-off nature of (generally) construction and allow software to play a role in helping to do those things quicker. “What we’re experimenting with here will allow other projects in the future to be designed more quickly with more intelligence and more data, including the carbon in numbers. “We’ve been working as a team to basically figure out what are the rules of stacking the modules and can we put that in algorithms so that you can do that on the next project? “What is the carbon footprint of both the existing materials in the factory but also the new innovative materials and can we make that available to other designers on other projects in the future?”
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said. “For instance, the orientation and the best sun exposure for a rooftop swimming pool,” adding that Forma’s real time analysis capability, based on predictive AI, gives users that ability. “It’s like a crystal ball,” he said. “And it’s available right now with the outcome-based BIM, since we define their desired outcomes from the very beginning of a project, and then we’ll ask Autodesk AI to help them identify not the first or second option, but the best option, all in one environment without users having to convert models or build new ones for analysis workflows.” Mangon believes these capabilities will reimagine how the AEC industry works across all disciplines and project phases, while connecting current model-based BIM workflows. “As we continue to build out Forma, we will support more and more outcomes,” he said. “Things like building performance, sustainability, industrialised construction, structural resiliency, cost or even social impact. “Outcome-based BIM will help you deliver on more projects and develop better assets for your clients. To truly realise the evolution of BIM that we are envisioning with Forma, we recognise that our open ecosystem approach must embrace more tools across the industry. That’s why we are opening up our plat-
forms so that anyone you, Nemetschek, Trimble, Ansys, McNeel, can contribute to seamless exchanges of information.”
Automation of design Racel Amour, Autodesk’s AI development manager, picked up the AI story, focusing on the automation of design. “We’re on the verge of industry transformation, like you’ve never seen before”, she said. “As compute power and data stores grow, AI has finally scaled to where it can train against the complexity of 3D models. And the user experience has improved to the point where the technology finally feels accessible.” Originally an architect, Amour headed up the development of Forma’s rapid operational energy analysis tool, which helps designers understand the carbon impact of a building’s design in real-time, as the design changes. It’s possible to optimise the building’s energy efficiency and performance at the very beginning of the project, when decisions have the most impact on time and money. Results are delivered in a matter of milliseconds without having to interrupt the design flow while simultaneously running analysis. Amour ran through a few other sprinkles of AI in Autodesk products, such as AI-powered smart blocks in AutoCAD and Dynamo’s node autocomplete which
uses machine learning that’s been trained on years of real Dynamo graphs. Autodesk is currently working on an AI-powered chat-bot called Auto AI. Auto AI leverages large language models to understand AEC terms, processes and rules, as Amour explained, “Imagine a future where a cost estimator could simply ask Auto AI, ‘Can you build me the door schedules for all the buildings in my project, then use that information to quickly estimate the cost of the doors’. That’s game changing!” Auto AI will go into beta-testing next year.
Handover to construction Lalith Subramanian, Global VP, product and engineering presented the latest developments from Autodesk Construction Cloud, including a new fast mobile viewing platform which can handle huge models, which is currently in beta. In the same pre-construction vein, Subramanian talked about Navisworks, which he said was so popular that ‘some people have decided to even try to copy it’, probably as a reference to Revizto, Verifi3D and a slew of other tools. We would probably say here that the industry moved on while Navisworks didn’t, but there now seems efforts to concentrate on this area of VDC within the construction team. AI raised its head here too, with Subramanian stating, “We’ve been doing
Keeping one eye on manufacturing While AEC Magazine focuses on architecture, engineering and construction, there is always much to learn from Autodesk’s manufacturing division. Jeff Kinder the EVP for product development and manufacturing solutions, provided interesting facts on how Fusion, Autodesk’s oldest cloud-based modelling tool, and its ecosystem had panned out. This should be of particular interest to AEC / Revit customers that might be struggling to get their heads around how Forma will develop and replace their current desktop-based tools in the future. Fusion is the poster child for Autodesk’s cloud-first future. Kinder explained that the automotive industry is in the midst of a once in 100-year
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change, moving from fossil fuels to electric platforms. One of Autodesk’s customers, Rivian, is using the full Fusion techstack to connect the design and production engineers, with design data flowing seamlessly. Autodesk Fusion is ten years
ahead in cloud development compared to all of Autodesk’s other verticals. It breaks silos, means designs can be managed, distributed, iterated faster, simulation-enabled, including electronic design, 3D print, CNC and VR (or mixed
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reality) - all cloud-based. On AI, Kinder stated, “By the end of the year, we will launch automated drawings in Fusion to translate your 3D models into fully dimensioned drawings with a click of a button”. This is one of the top asks from delegates at AEC Magazine’s NXT BLD and NXT DEV events and there are now many software firms seeking to develop this for AEC. It’s total conjecture but we assume Autodesk is also working on this for its AEC customers. It would be better to disrupt its own sales of AutoCAD and LT, than have someone else do it to them. Bentley Systems, Swapp, BricsCAD and Graebert are all actively looking to apply AI to drawings. Kinder also talked about the
recent acquisition of BlankAI for conceptual design which is a generative AI technology which augments the work of automotive / industrial designers, enabling them to create 3D concepts in milliseconds (pictured left). The AI lets users generate and edit proportional 3D models via semantic control and even allows automotive firms to incorporate their own historic design DNA in the AI. It’s very impressive. BlankAI will be debuting in Autodesk’s automotive design studio next year and while the main focus is currently on automotive, Stephen Hooper, vice president of design and manufacturing at Autodesk, says there’s no reason it couldn’t be applied to other products, such as furniture or packaged goods. We wonder if this technology could also be applied to buildings.
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Concerns around Autodesk AI Fear of AI has been widely acknowledged, but having watched the presentations at AU, some firms have since expressed concern that their hosted project data could used by Autodesk AI for training and used to develop Autodesk products and services. As AI requires large amounts of data to learn from, Autodesk is claiming that it has it all. With so many presentations referencing the huge amount of data that Autodesk hosts, perhaps it didn’t truly consider the impact that these words might have on its users? But this data is the IP of its customers. It would be a bit like OpenAI presenting to all the book authors of the world, and saying we will train our AI on your IP. AI and IP abuse is one of the key areas that governments are highly interested in protecting and introducing legislation on. There are many architecture firms that absolutely do not want their data used to train any generic Autodesk AI. Some have started going through the Autodesk EULAs (End User Licensing Agreements). Having had a cursory look ourselves, there doesn’t seem to be any specific clause giving Autodesk explicit access to customer data for AI training, but in the Terms of Use in the Special Terms segment for Autodesk Construction Cloud, Autodesk Build, BuildingConnected, PlanGrid, ProEst, Pype, and TradeTapp products, there is this wording: “In addition to any rights granted in the General Terms, Autodesk may also perform certain data analytics or other analysis on Your Content, use the resulting data and insights for our internal purposes, and disclose insights derived from Your Content on an aggregate and anonymous basis to third parties or publicly. Autodesk will not disclose specifics about Your Content except to You as part of the Offerings at Your direction or upon Your consent.” While we are not lawyers, it could be interpreted that Autodesk has the right to run analytics, to train and improve software, although we are not sure if this applies to Autodesk BIM 360 or Docs.
Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost
From the presentations many would infer that Autodesk is going to access and use a wealth of customer information for some deeper insight. There already is a long list of tech companies that are rushing to give themselves the right to use people’s data to train their AI – X, Microsoft, Meta, Zoom have all updated their EULAs to broaden their licence to access public or private data to train and maintain proprietary AI models, using vague language. In the case of Zoom, due to kick back from customers who were alerted that their calls would be listened to, the company had to make a hasty retreat. In the press conference, CEO Andrew Anagnost was asked about customers’ IP and AI by industry consultant Allan Behrens. Anagnost replied, “It’s not ‘our’ data it’s their data. And we work with them to decide what we should train on and what we shouldn’t. “I think the discussion here is what’s the intent? Our intent is not to train models that take the secret sauce of some of their intellectual property and expose it to the rest of the world. Our intent is to train models that allow people to build 3D representations, detailed 3D representations of their ideas, faster. That helps everyone. So initially, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be training on datasets that represent a broad set of how a model is assembled, not how a particular system is designed. “Now it doesn’t mean we won’t get to how a particular system is installed. But once we get into the systems level, I think we’re going to have a very different relationship with our customers. And it’s going to be one where we got this foundation model and rapidly creates models. Do you want a systems solution for you?
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Here’s your version of that model. Let’s train a system solution for you. And that is a very different approach. That’s where the IP comes in, because it’s in the systems thinking and how you integrate these things and where some of the novelties are created. “We really care a lot about this. We care about doing this right and bringing the customers along.” Later in the press session, Anagnost added, “We have to get people comfortable with how much of your data do you want to share with the greater good versus what you want to keep for your own proprietary abilities. That’s part of the mindset shift that has to happen, because it really is hard to create the first iteration.” For Anagnost making that first foundational AI model will be key, as he explains “Those who understand the AI ecosystem, know creating a foundation model is incredibly expensive, refining a foundation model is not. “Once you get to a point where the model is intelligent enough to glean the abstract concepts, putting more abstract unstructured concepts into it trains the model better and at significantly less cost.” At the AEC press conference, Jim Lynch, executive VP Autodesk construction solutions and a key proponent of Construction Cloud, explained that because firms have issues with having their data trained on ‘we really look at single customer’s data’. “We don’t anonymise a bunch of data and look at it that way,” he said. “I think it’s unfortunate, because I think when we can do
that, when our customers say yeah ‘anonymise our data’, I think it’s going to drive greater outcomes for all of our customers, because all of a sudden, now our algorithms are learning from a very, very, very large data set. We’re not there yet.” It’s clear that Autodesk knows the value of having a huge amount of customer data, and it wants to develop AI tools based on this data. But it also seems to recognise that not all customers want to share. For now, it’s engaging with individual firms, who give their permission, as in Construction IQ or ACC in return for specific benefits. It will be interesting to see how it engages with customers to make that first leap to build the underlying AI model. Either Autodesk feels it has this covered in the existing EULA, or it just accepts it has to do engagements on a case-by-case basis. Of course, there is always the option of updating the EULA in the near future, for all customers. The bold aspirations of having data-galore for training AI communicated on the mainstage presentations, didn’t quite match the caution expressed by the executive team in the press conferences under questioning. It will be interesting to see this evolve and how customers react. Maybe this was Autodesk trying to get the discussion going ‘if only we could access all your data, imagine what we could do?’ The problem is, when it comes down to a generic AEC AI, customers are more concerned about negatives than positives, at the moment.
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AI for a while, and you’ve already been using it. Autodesk brought AI to construction five years ago with Construction IQ. More than 12,000 projects have already taken advantage of construction IQ. “Construction IQ uses AI to analyse data, and give you critical insights on project risk. Crucial information from the quality of work to the safety of your teams. Your project leaders are no longer having to sift through thousands of issues. Construction IQ instead uses that AI to help them find the ones they need to resolve first.” ACC also uses AI to automate manual work, such as symbol detection in drawings, saving hours in take offs. With an upcoming specification tool, machine learning will automatically take a spec and organise it into important sections. Autodesk is also developing new AI for intelligent search and ‘chat’ with ACC. “In a future release, you’ll simply be able to ask ACC, how much time does my concrete need to cure before I can build on top of it? It will give you an answer,” explained Subramanian.
all goes well, Forma might be available Despite having built on the benefits of for general use as early as Spring 2024. the popular proprietary formats of DWG This will be interesting as RVT ‘files’ will and RVT, Autodesk really seems to be translated and stored on the fly within mean it, and is backing up the words the new granular database. This means with actions. huge globs of customers’ Revit data can The whole idea of Suites, Collections be stored in the new data format, poten- is to keep customers within the ecosystially leading to swathes of data to train tem. With truly open API access, cusAI on. How free customers will decide to tomers will be more free than ever to be with their data remains to be seen. We choose to build tech stacks on best in explore this in more detail on page 29. class solutions, which will not all come Granular data also potentially means a from any single vendor. Is this extreme whole new range of cloud applications confidence in these new cloud-services that can be integrated and collaborative granuthrough APIs to access lar workflows, perhaps project data, as opposed to AI code that’s in Autodesk really the having to sit on top of development? Autodesk is banging the desktop Revit. seems intent on levelling open drum AI for existing developthe playing field on which ers with evolving or mature open APIs, open it had a distinct and tightplatforms are more likely to held advantage. formats, cutting ly Elsewhere, be applying AI with light Mangon’s deals with sprinkles here and there, as framing of outcome-based Autodesk has done. competitors for BIM was an interesting The danger to Autodesk take on performancemutual data is that a startup firm with based design. access, even no legacy is going to come The amount of coverage inviting along and punch out parts that the company gave to of today’s workflows. With competitors like Forma at AU was excepConclusion so many now chasing the tional. Up to this point, Snaptrude to At AU, the big push for AEC was obvi- prize of truly automating conceptual design was exhibit at AU ously AI, Forma and, surprisingly, drawings in AEC, what pretty much based on Autodesk Docs. We felt that the original would a cloud-based app massing models and launch of Forma back in May pulled its that converted models to building envelopes. punches. The presentations at AU made drawings (to the exact specifications of the Now there are a range of tools to examup for that. It’s pretty clear the new user) do to today’s software developers? ine conceptual designs with real time Unified Database or Autodesk Data How many 2D CAD seats would be analysis tools, to refine and qualify Model is now the technology which lies needed? As today’s BIM tools are focused design ideas. underneath Docs and will become ever on modelling to produce drawings, how Autodesk is in the position of having to more important to every customer as many BIM seats too? evangelise new capabilities and technology Autodesk moves to be more cloud-first Autodesk really is banging the open which the vast majority of users have not with its actual applications, as every- drum — open APIs, open formats, cut- had access to as part of their collections. thing eventually becomes a ting deals with competitors for While talking with your design softAutodesk is working cloud service. mutual data access, even invit- ware might be holy grail of design, hard to streamline If Arcadis has been testing ing competitors like Snaptrude Autodesk, and the industry, has a long workflows between Forma, Revit and Docs, and if to exhibit at AU. way to go before it really creates an allForma and Rhino knowing AI to design buildings. What we can see today, are discrete capabilities driven by machine learning and AI to give design feedback on specific aspects. Amour gave a tantalising insight into the ability of asking the software to interrogate and format queries and documentation which typically take ages to prepare. Autodesk obviously wants to go deeper and broader with artificial intelligence across its AEC applications. It first needs to cross the large dataset issue with the owners of that IP, then the ultimate aim seems to also be to look to extend the opportunity for customers to train AI assistants, based on their own project data. So generic AI to specific AIs.
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Digital twins - Tandem at Turner Fleischer Architects Digital twins got very little airtime on the main stage this year, but AU is about so much more than the keynotes. There were plenty of digital twin presentations throughout the event, with Tandem, Autodesk’s Revit-centric digital twin solution, front and centre. AEC Magazine caught an excellent presentation from Brent Mauti, chief technology officer at Turner Fleischer Architects about the development of a digital twin for the practice’s new open plan studio in Toronto. The twin has delivered huge benefits, helping Turner Fleischer get the most out of its space, enhance wellness and bring new efficiencies to facility management. Mauti, a highly engaging speaker, shared the journey of how the firm started with a Revit model and transformed it into a digital twin complete with IoT integration. For the architects in the room, his presentation will surely have been an inspiration for practices looking to explore new revenue streams through additional services to offer to clients. For monitoring air quality, IoT sensors capture temperature, humidity, pressure, CO2, particulates and more every five mins. Data can be visualised though a Microsoft Power BI dashboard or live streamed into Tandem which Mauti describes as a game changer. Tandem can be used to visualise heat maps of the sensor data to understand conditions at any point in time, as Mauti explains. “I swear every morning when I open up my computer, I pull up the temp map, and I either smile or I go, something’s wrong. What do we do?” “When I see temperature fluctuations, humidity fluctuations, the facility manager and I can analyse. Is there a problem? Is there something we have to change? Our meeting room number three is perpetually hot, we’re on it!” At the moment air quality needs to be actively monitored, but can you put any alerts on any of the sensors so if it reaches a certain level, it informs you? “I think that’s a feature request,”
says Mauti. “So alerts are hopefully coming soon.” For Turner Fleischer, hybrid working post pandemic has thrown up a whole set of challenges to ensure the space is being used effectively. The company uses Tandem for desk management to help ensure the right people and technology are available at each physical location. By adding metadata to objects within the Tandem model, such as the department of a person,
At Turner Fleischer, Tandem can even be used to help optimise IT networks. As Mauti explains, IT managers want similar traffic on each network switch, “I can now, at a glance, do an analysis and understand do I have balance? Was one heavier than the other? All that just based on metadata.” What struck us about the project was the level of detail that resides within the digital twin, particularly when it comes to
the manager of that person, who the person is, the firm now has the ability to experiment with the best location for staff when working in the studio. “Let’s see everybody based on department, so we colourise by department, we want to see where do I have clumps of colour together? Am I encouraging collaboration?”
asset management. Almost every item within the building – and we mean everything – is referenced within Tandem. This includes manuals and maintenance records for building objects or office equipment – printers, smart windows that change colour, water coolers, coffee makers, bike storage, gym treadmills, even green walls, as Mautio explains, “There’s how to maintain the leaves. What trees do we have? What colour are they going to become? How much water do they need? Are they gonna smell? How long should the fan be running? All of this information is associated
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to that one little model element that’s a rectangle.” Manuals and maintenance records are stored in SharePoint, and Tandem simply acts as a gateway to that information. The facility manager or other stakeholder can virtually walk through the studio in first person view and interact with any of the elements to quickly access the required information. Tandem is even being used to help track inventory, by linking to a third party service called Sortly. “It allows us to track the assets which we would never model, like stationery, swag, printing supplies, free-weights in our gym, kitchen supplies, etc.” says Mauti. Management of stationery is done in real time as staff are required to use the Sortly mobile app, “I walk into the room, just scan a QR code, grab three of them, boom, boom, boom, done,” says Mauti. Developing the Tandem digital twin has been a huge learning journey for Turner Fleischer, but the benefits can’t be overstated. One delegate asked if the practice is looking to offer this as a service to clients and Mauti admitted it’s a real possibility, “I present it to open eyes, the clients, and then to say, hey, we can be there for you, let’s design the solution,” he said. “This is a workable solution for a single studio office. Awesome. You give me five studios, you give me fifteen stores, give me a campus of university buildings. All possible — it just has to be built properly.”
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he technology evolution of the AEC industry started with the digital replication of 2D drawings with desktop CAD. Twenty years later, the next phase, called Building Information Modelling (BIM), introduced the concept of modelling buildings and infrastructure in 3D, to derive 2D sections and elevations for general assembly drawings. While BIM assisted in the production of coordinated document sets, it did little to connect the digital thread in construction. Roll on 20 years later and today these now old BIM software tools have failed to offer significant additional productivity benefits. The bulk of the industry is still fixated on the production and distribution of plan, sections and elevations via PDFs, when advanced AEC firms are looking for model-based workflows, to work from design to fabrication, to Digital Twins and lifecycle use. To make matters worse, complex geometry cannot always be defined in today’s mainly facet-based BIM systems and additional packages are required to sculpt or generate complex surfaces found in todays’ expressive architectural vocabulary. This means, that
BIM models become a combination of ‘smart’ objects and dumb meshes. Today’s BIM tools were designed to be all about documentation and were never intended to drive downstream fabrication processes, leading to the proliferation of multiple models, at various levels of detail. With these limitations, mature, AEC firms have started evaluating next generation tools, termed BIM 2.0, to improve performance, increase design efficiency, drive sustainability goals, enable seamless collaboration and connect models to digital fabrication systems. Paris-based, Dassault Systèmes has been developing convergent, market-specific flavours of its 3DEXPERIENCE platform to bring the same, industry proven design, fabrication and Digital Twin tools, used by firms such as Tesla, Honda, Boeing, Ford Motor Company and Ferrari, to designers and fabricators in the AEC market. The incumbent AEC software vendors are only now starting to develop their next generation tools and hope to offer cloud-based collaboration, database-centric modelling, and links to CNC/ gCode/ for digital
fabrication. These capabilities have already been built-in to Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE Platform for over a decade and tried and tested by the world’s most advanced engineering firms.
DASSAULT SYSTÈMES IN AEC Historically speaking, Dassault Systèmes tools are no stranger to being used to solve the hardest problems in AEC. Until Frank Gehry’s practice adopted CATIA, contractors’ bids priced out many of his complex designs from being built due to the risk of bidding on his designs from 2D drawings. By explicitly modelling his buildings in CATIA, his practice de-risked his designs for contractors, despite their complexity, as every component was modelled and could be quantified. On projects like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, this meant all the contractor bids dropped to within 1% of each other. The Museum was delivered on time, inside six years, and cost $3 million less than the $100 million budgeted. On the Taiwanese Denjiang Bridge project, Zaha Hadid Architects used
Dassault Systèmes - a quick history For those of you unfamiliar with Dassault Systèmes, while the business was incorporated in 1981, the company started in 1977, when Francis Bernard and 15 engineers from Avions Marcel Dassault, set about developing a new generation of 3D CAD system to assist in aircraft design. The boss of the company, Marcel Dassault, at 88 years old, was so impressed with the software, he decided to spin it out as a separate company, Dassault Systèmes, with Bernard heading it up. The product was named CATIA.
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As essentially Dassault Systèmes was an engineering software developer, it teamed up with IBM to handle global sales and marketing. Within ten years the software was a mainstay of large aerospace and automotive firms such as Boeing and Mercedes-Benz, expanding to markets such as consumer goods, machinery, and shipbuilding. The company invented the concept of the Digital Mockup (DMU, now called Virtual Twin or Digital Twin in AEC) as well as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) - the
process of managing a product and all its related data, from initial ideation, through development, service, and disposal. Dassault Systèmes acquired Solidworks in 1997, which went on to be the market-dominating mid-range 3D CAD system for product design, and still is to this day. SolidWorks plays a key role in the fabrication of many manufactured building components, from windows to facades. Today, Dassault Systèmes has 22,500 employees, across 197 global offices and
a market capitalisation of $49.39 Billion. It offers a wide range of solutions for manufacturing, infrastructure and cities, life sciences and healthcare based on its 3DEXPERIENCE(3DX) collaborative platform, which connects people, ideas, data and solutions to accomplish business-critical tasks. At 42 years old, having gone through several major rewrites and journeyed to the cloud, CATIA is still at the core of Dassault Systèmes engineering and construction 3DEXPERIENCE ecosystem.
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Dassault Systèmes AEC and Infrastructure key concepts
Image courtesy of Morphosis Architects; CATIA model of the Kolon One & Only Tower in Seoul, Korea
3DEXPERIENCE CATIA on the cloud, to talk the same ‘infrastructure’ language and collaborate with structural Engineer, Leonhardt and local engineering consultants Sinotech Engineering. The practice uses 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA on projects which have high fabrication needs. SHoP Architects, a distinguished architectural firm based in New York, recognised the need to better manage the collaboration between various disciplines involved in their projects and handle the copious amounts of data generated throughout the design process. The practice were keen to move away from typical section, elevation output, to create digital build models for fabrication. To address this challenge, SHoP implemented Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform with the Design for Fabrication industry solution. (www.tinyurl.com/ShopArchitects) Firms do not need to be signature architects to benefit from using 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA. London based Innovative boutique design firm, KREOD, Chun Qing Li exclusively uses 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA to regain the role of ‘Master Architect’, modelling projects at 1:1 scale, to drive through to fabrication (DfMA), as well as to de-risk projects by modelling every detail, including bringing in laser scans from site to their models. (www.3ds.com/insights/ customer-stories/kreod). While architects enjoy the powerful modelling, 3DEXPERIENCE is also driving business process improvements in construction. Bouygues Construction chose Dassault Systèmes as a technology partner, to develop a broad digital transformation strategy to move from BIM to Virtual Twin and adopt automation with industrial methods of fabrication. The firm makes use of 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud with ENOVIA and DELMIA in addition to CATIA, ‘industrialising’ its project management, anticipating the various phases of a project and planning their on-site implementation in
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3DEXPERIENCE platform is Dassault Systèmes’ core SaaS-based platform that integrates all software applications together into one place. It is the single social collaborative environment and first point of contact for all Dassault Systemes’ products. There is a huge catalogue of ‘Apps’ providing design, collaboration (no silos), simulation and project management tools. As it’s cloud-based, it can be used from anywhere on any device.
fine detail. All data related to a construction project, from the design to the execution phase, to the operation and maintenance of the building are now located in one platform. (www.3ds.com/insights/customer-stories/ bouygues-construction)
CONCLUSION With the digital convergence of AEC and Manufacturing, the key deliverables of design and fabrication change. Historic workflows and tools become less useful, as they still concentrate on 2D information exchange, while the process inherently becomes increasingly model-centric, to drive the fabrication processes and Virtual Twin processes beyond. Traditional AEC/ BIM developers are scrambling to come up with ways to connect low-level of detail architectural BIM design models to modern fabrication systems. The truth is, it’s only engineering design software like 3DEXPERIENCE that can offer AEC design through to fabrication in a single platform. Dassault Systèmes has decades of manufacturing knowledge, spanning multiple industries and already has turnkey solutions for the built environment ready to go. Finally, while CATIA is a high-end manufacturing application, with appropriate pricing, Dassault Systèmes recognises that the cost dynamic in the AEC space requires a lower pricing model (without loss of functionality). Dassault Systèmes tools for AEC customers reflect typical price points of solutions from other mainstream, professional AEC software suppliers. To learn more about AEC pricing in your country, visit this website https:// discover.3ds.com/my3dexperiencecontact-sales
www.3ds.com/industries/architectureengineering-construction www.3ds.com/products-services/catia/ disciplines/construction
CATIA is the flagship Dassault Systèmes software dedicated to the design and engineering of all things. Based on the industry-leading CGM geometry kernel, CATIA supports surface and solid mathematically defined geometry with exacting precision. The applications are packaged up into commercial products called ‘Roles’ for users, to fulfil certain design roles in a workflow, tailored for various industries, from Aerospace and Automotive, to Ship Building, Civil Infrastructure, Buildings and beyond. CATIA Building Designer is a dedicated AEC Role, which is a special interface and group of ‘applications’ specifically created for AEC design. This brings a familiar set a building design tools and components, reminiscent of traditional BIM applications, but these can be customised and developed by the designer and are more powerful in defining complex geometry, such as facades. This can be combined with CATIA xGenerative Design to define all the geometry in one place, by one application. CATIA xGenerative Design (xGen for short) is a browser based generative design application, native to the platform and combines visual scripting with interactive 3D modelling, combine parametric with algorithmic design. Think of this as Rhino Grasshopper for CATIA. Building Design for Fabrication is a solution for integrating building design for manufacture and assembly, featuring 3D modelling for DfMA, architectural design, computational design, structural design, 4D modelling, clash management, PLM portfolio management. From Experience to Construction offers a range of tools to productise project deliverables using modular, per-project, configurable sub-components. Integrated Built Environment is a web-based, project and asset information solution, for Virtual Twin data exchange, design reviews, data analytics and integrated project orchestration amongst stakeholders. ENOVIA is the SaaS product lifecycle management backbone of the Dassault Systèmes portfolio, for design management, product planning, Bill of Materials management, configuration change management, quality compliance, project management and execution. (www.3ds.com/products/enovia) DELMIA is a digital manufacturing planning, simulation logistics solution, with supply chain optimisation and planning. DELMIA has been used to devise and optimise off-site AEC fabrication, to optimise factory layout and flow of parts. (www.3ds.com/products/delmia)
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Software
Skema beta: design automation
In a flurry of concept design tools, Skema stands out from the crowd, morphing data from past projects and rapidly moving from massing to highly detailed and integrated Revit models, writes Martyn Day
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n the AEC industry, much of the frustration associated with BIM relates to a lack of innovation. The process of moving models to documentation remains fundamentally unchanged from ten years ago. Year after year, existing features simply get enhanced. But with AI and a wealth of new start-ups on the horizon, this is set to change. In fact, there are already a number of BIM 2.0 revolutionaries looking to hotwire the process of design to documentation. Skema is one of them, just out in beta. This is a quietly revolutionary tool for conceptual design that stands alone, but also seamlessly integrates with Revit. To the uninitiated, it may look like just another cloud-based conceptual massing tool. But underneath lurk some outstanding knowledge reuse ‘smarts’, which will allow conceptual designs to leap into Revit (or any other BIM tool) as fully detailed models. Skema empowers architects, enabling them to recapture the best elements from past design successes, while simultaneously giving them the freedom to adapt those design components to fit fresh concepts. In short, Skema is a ‘knowledge reuse engine’. Its first public demonstration was given by founder Marty Rozmanith at AEC Magazine’s NXT DEV event in June 2023 and can be viewed on-demand. (www.nxtdev.build/view-on-demand) What Skema offers is nothing short of a major productivity benefit. For certain types of buildings, it could squeeze project timelines from months to weeks. It also allows architects to remain longer in the conceptual phase, carrying out more analysis, trying out more concepts, confident in the knowledge that the detail modelling phase will be automated by at least 50%. Skema also allows more flexibility should a design need to change. As it progresses, typically more work and data is added to a BIM model. This escalating effort over time typically means rework or moving back a few stages and comes with higher costs — but Skema aims to flatten the cost/time impacts of making changes. 34
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Regular AEC Magazine readers may be aware of another start-up covered here, called SWAPP (www.tinyurl.com/swapp-aec). This takes very simple space layouts and promises the complete automation of detail modelling and full production of all BIM drawings using AI. Skema, by contrast, was born from the idea that architects still need a space to ideate and experiment before kicking off the BIM modelling and documentation process. So, while SWAPP is about crushing the time between concept and documents (which works well for highly standardised designs for the likes of hospitals or student accommodation, for example), Skema is more about saving time during the detail modelling phase. However, like SWAPP, Skema is somewhat limited to particular building types - ones that are pretty rectilinear and repetitively created. And it doesn’t claim to handle all the detail modelling. In conversation with Rozmanith in March 2023 (www.aecmag.com/technology/ blue-ocean-aec/), he told AEC Magazine that the software didn’t rely on AI so much, but instead takes a procedural approach to model generation, on the basis that AI output can be a tad unpre-
dictable. Since then, I note with interest that Skema’s new website does now mention AI. I presume that this is a result of the general blurring of what computer scientists define as being AI, and what the AEC industry is adopting as AI, which can also include solvers and procedural automation (for example, TestFit – www.aecmag.com/tag/testfit). As a start-up, if you don’t say you have it, then everyone assumes there’s no automation at all. Normally, an engagement with the Skema team involves the sharing of two typical past projects for any firm, so not huge amounts of data. The knowledge that has been encoded in those models is used by the Skema team to derive bespoke rules-based automation of detailed modelling for that firm, and for that building type. While firms remain concerned about sharing project information, the service appears to be bespoke and is not driving the creation of a generic architectural tool.
Rethinking BIM Skema, at first glance, looks to be focused on expanding conceptual design – but here, it will come up against a huge number of new applications, especially from Autodesk Forma. But the real judo move www.AECmag.com
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for Skema is to reuse knowledge from past projects in order to populate the detail design phase. This means that architects can spend more time on what they entered the profession for in the first place - design work. And that’s far better for them than acting as a firm’s CAD jockey, a curse that has blighted the profession since the 1980s. Looking ahead, traditional BIM tools and traditional BIM workflows face a conundrum. There are new software companies emerging intent on disrupting each and every phase of the BIM playbook. Those architectural firms that work on repetitive schemes and simple geometry will have access to a wide choice of cloud tools that automate downstream processes, such as detail modelling and documentation, as well as collaboration capabilities for which current desktop apps just weren’t built. In a world increasingly populated by AI-driven tools, BIM applications that support a completely manual process will look increasingly antiquated. They will be productivity black holes. This is especially true in the design of functional buildings. Signature architects, who pride themselves on following less predictable pathways and pushing back boundaries will probably have to create and train their own subset of tools to achieve automation. It’s not only the BIM process that faces dismantling, but also the applications. As more applications move to the cloud, the choices for tech stacks expand. At the moment the market is dominated by Autodesk Collections, with users mainly deploying AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks and 3ds Max. Revit is a single environment for concept to documents — but even here, Autodesk is disrupting Revit on the conceptual side with cloud-based Forma. In future, practices will be able to pick and mix applications from many providers, knowing their data will flow from application to application through APIs. For example, a firm could use Skema for concept, then divert into Snaptrude (www. aecmag.com/tag/snaptrude) for detail modelling, which could in turn link to an AI-driven service for automating documentation. At the same time, all of the data involved here could be managed in Autodesk BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud. The future is workflow automation and ecosystem change. I hope emerging business models enable customers to make these kinds of choices.
The beta features
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Skema empowers architects, enabling them to recapture the best elements from past design successes, while simultaneously giving them the freedom to adapt those design components to fit fresh concepts
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Blocking, stacking and metrics Sustainability analysis
The beta version of Skema runs in a Chrome browser (and not in Safari on my Mac). You start off on a projects page, which lists your Skema projects along with images and location information. Here, you can create a new project or relaunch an earlier one. Skema’s interface is very clean. To the left side, there are menu tabs: Layers, Graphics, Key Figures, and Options. Along the top bar, various modelling tools appear, depending on what you are doing. On the right-hand side, you’ll find the all-important Save button, along with buttons for 2D/3D, camera control, terrain settings and various almost-instant analysis tasks (Sunlight, Vertical Sky Component, Daylight). When you hit the analysis buttons, the building geometry seems to pulse, indicating some processing is underway. Conceptual designs start off with you defining the map location and contextual boundaries of a site. You hit Create and the surrounding site is converted to block 3D. You can then start modelling, either with masses (polyline hand-drawn boundary shapes), or rapid polyline smart creation of buildings. The number of storeys and floor-to-ceiling measurements can be altered. Intuitive tools enable you to grab and edit nodes. Measurements are auto displayed. Roads are drawn in. A variety of options can be generated to quickly flip through and assess. Key Figures is one of the more important tabs. Floors are manually assigned a use — for example, office, hotel, restaurant and so on — but can also be divided for multiple uses. But what Key Figures does is provide the metrics relating to land and building usage, with areas defining accommodation schedules, developable land ratios, and so on. These metrics are filed in customisable CSVs and reports are generated. At the moment, the link to Revit seems to be an email, which sends you a RVT model of your project. The aim is to ultimately deliver blocking-stacking at Level of Development (LoD) 350 data.
■ www.skema.ai
www.AECmag.com
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Software
Verifi3D: model checking & validation With the recent redevelopment of its core display engine, broader support for CDE integrations and expanded functionality, Verifi3D offers easy-to-use model checking, validation and visualisation, writes Martyn Day
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ith projects growing ports the main design file formats (IFC, increasingly complex, Revit and so on) and which integrates with the chances of conflicts in the most popular common data environBIM data rise. Mature ments (CDEs). These include Autodesk BIM tools have developed substantially BIM 360, Autodesk Construction Cloud, over decades and are complex to learn, Procore, Trimble Connect, Dropbox, so individual skills can vary wildly Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft within any company. And while most OneDrive, Google Drive and Aconex. firms do have quality standards in place, Since the last time that AEC Magazine checking output is typically done manu- looked at Verifi3D, the software architecally and good model checking processes ture has undergone significant reworkare rare. Against a backdrop of constant- ing. This was carried out in order to ly shifting industry standimprove the system’s speed ards, it’s no wonder that when it comes to loading, BIM workflows and deliverdisplaying and interacting Verifi3D is ables are plagued with with large models. New feafast becoming tures have also been includissues of data inconsistency. With the industry now ed, including big-ticket items the Swiss working towards the goal of such as clash detection. Army knife more widespread use of digfor BIM data What’s new in Verifi3D? ital twins, it’s never been and its goal of These new features are more important that source BIM data is as error-free as apparent right from the replacing possible, from a project’s iniNavisworks, moment of log-in. Verifi3D tial design data to its as-built now supports Microsoft sinSolibri and information. gle sign-on (as opposed to some CDEs is relying on Autodesk or Conventional tools for model checking and verificaVerifi3D credentials). starting to tion fall short of what many Supporting Microsoft look pretty practitioners need today. OpenID saves a lot of time attainable They frequently run into that might otherwise be spent problems when dealing with on IT security management large datasets and diverse good news for IT admins. file formats. They require a high level of The user home screen has also been user knowledge, resulting in low produc- tidied up, essentially guiding you through tivity and error-prone outcomes. Such your workflow. Under the Organise tools, like Navisworks, are typically stan- menu, users access their projects, and dalone desktop applications, which sim- connect to their CDE, where project files ply aren’t designed for collaboration. are imported. From there, the next stage is Verifi3D is a modern, cloud-based SaaS Classify, which provides the 3D viewer for offering designed to help users overcome graphical information and non-graphical these issues. Developed by Xinaps, a com- BIM data and enables users to define elepany based in the Netherlands, it’s a rules- ments based on their properties. based checking web solution, which supOnce results come back from the
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Classify stage, the Validate stage carries out rule checks. There are four main checks: clash check, property check, free space check and (new for this release) duplicate check. Report is the final stage of the process. When a clash or other issue is found, it is added to a report and gets synchronised with a supported issues tracker. Currently these are Newforma Konekt (formerly BIM Track), Autodesk BIM 360 Issues or BIMcollab. Everything starts in the project tab. Various access rights can be allocated to project team members from Admin. Projects may be imported from the many CDEs supported or loaded from local file sources. Model Sets, meanwhile, can be built up from numerous sources, creating a federated model. Verifi3D does not alter original files in any way. When models come in with different coordinate systems — a common issue when mixing IFC and Revit (.rvt) files — elements can be relocated. Once that’s done, models are saved in the Verifi3D engine and optimised for cloud streaming by the Verifi3D service for display in a browser. This service effortlessly eats up multi-gigabyte models because the new proprietary model engine works mainly server-side — or in other words, in the cloud. (That’s a big change from the previous approach, in which Verifi3D relied on the Unity engine and thus on the CPUs and GPUs of the local desktop.) Right-clicking on any element brings up the properties section, enabling users to access all parameters within a BIM model. As Xinaps CEO Frank Schuyer claims, “We are the only developer that can merge Revit and IFC files into one federated model without losing any spewww.AECmag.com
28/11/2023 14:58
1 Verifi3D can be used to create COBie sheets. The developers are also looking to create further out-of-thebox COBie capabilitiesc 2 One of the main enhanced features for Verifi3D is its clash detection capability
cific information. If you export from native Revit to IFC, you always lose specific information. We use the Forge engine (APS) for the conversion of Revit files to IFC.” Filtering a model is based on propertybased search. Here, it’s easy to create groups of elements that can be coloured and saved for retrieval later on — for instance, all the fire doors in a federated project. Filtered group searches don’t have to be specific to a particular Verifi3D session. They can be shared, eliminating duplicated effort. Verifi3D comes with some predefined filters, so users don’t have to create them from scratch. There is also an expanded Smart Filter function. It’s quick to find elements of a model that are under-defined so that they can get classified — such as missing category and property data, for example. Beyond the graphical elements of Verifi3D, this release offers powerful new Data View property tools for creating model filter sets. A new table view of elements can be edited to display userdefined table views of the elements in a federated model, based on categories that can be sorted, grouped and coloured to quickly achieve the desired filtered view or for isolation for export. This is useful for creating quantity take-offs, for example, and also ideal for creating COBie sheets. The Verifi3D team is working on expanding this capability to create further out-of-the-box COBie and IDS capabilities. One of the main enhanced features for Verifi3D is its clash detection capability. This can perform clash detections between one or more building objects within a BIM model, helping to identify potential issues early in the design process. Clashes can be seen in 3D and 2D. They can be hard clashes, or ones based www.AECmag.com
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2 on defined tolerances. Verifi3D also offers a flexible reporting function, which collates results from all verification tests run and the resulting reports can be exported in various formats for easy sharing and collaboration. Verifi3D is probably the easiest to use application for designing validation checks for models, in order to quickly identify inefficiencies, discrepancies and duplications. These checks can be individual or based on a collection of rules, such as object attributes, classifications, families and parameters. Guidelines and rule sets are crafted in XML format and can be either exported from or imported into Verifi3D for sharing and reuse. Everybody can use the same rules and can be used on Revit and IFC at the same time. One important point to note is that Verifi3D doesn’t offer built-in issue tracking. According to Schuyer, issue tracking is something that most CDE offerings already provide. In other words, it’s a commodity feature - so Verifi3D is happy to integrate with those
CDEs that already offer it, enabling customers to make their own choice.
Conclusion As a cloud application, it’s not always obvious when Verifi3D has undergone major work. By its nature, it’s constantly under development. But this time around, there have been some big architectural changes in order to overcome previous performance limitations. At the same time, the team has gone even deeper into functionality, providing more advanced ways to filter, validate and generate reports. In this latest release, it’s clear there has been a lot of work done on the non-visual side of filtering and generating data views from federated models. This opens up new possibilities for Verifi3D in quantity takeoff, reporting and more flexible COBie delivery. Verifi3D is fast becoming the Swiss army knife for BIM data and its goal of replacing Navisworks, Solibri and some CDEs is starting to look pretty attainable. To find out more, there is a 14-day free trial. ■ https://verifi3d.xinaps.com
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Software
Sensori: cloud photogrammetry Sensori is a compelling offering for rapid site capture that relies on low-cost devices, speedy capture technology, automation and the power of the cloud. AEC Magazine spoke with the team at this New Zealand-based start-up
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echnology has a habit of transforming complex jobs requiring high skills levels and making them easier and faster. For example, today’s surveyors frequently use small, light, handheld laser scanners that enable them to walk around a site, capturing as they go. That’s thanks to the wide adoption of simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and SLAM-like technologies, and it’s a far cry from the tripod-based, stationary scanners of the past. Likewise, with photogrammetry, instead of painstakingly stitching together hundreds of thousands of photographs, handheld video can now provide enough data for photogrammetry engines to generate pretty accurate point cloud data. Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Sensori Systems is a new start-up aiming to bring persistent cloud photogrammetry to the AEC market. Founded by Brett Skinner and Roderick O’Hara, the company has already worked on some great projects: O’Hara has devised holograms and maps intended for explorations of Mars, and they both worked at digital visual effects and animation company Weta Digital, best known for its work on the Lord of the Rings films. Sensori aims to deliver rapid, accurate 3D capture of spaces and sites using photogrammetry. All you need is a handheld device with a fisheye lens (providing an ultra-wideangle view between 180 and 360 degrees), and a few target markers to aid auto-registration. You then walk around the area you want to capture, taking a video. The company recommends using a camera with a big sensor, especially when working in darker environments. To capture a 700 square metre area might take around 10 mins. The data is then uploaded to the cloud and the 38
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Sensori system creates a 3D model. This can be streamed off the server for viewing and manipulation in real time. Using streaming technology, results might start off on the coarse side, but as more data comes to the browser, fidelity improves. Once you’re happy with the model fidelity achieved, you can take measurements, add notes and get access to the embedded video frames, so the system offers a hybrid of both 3D and 2D results. Environments can be copy and pasted by links into an email or spreadsheet, bringing other users into the model at the same point, with the same v i e w . According to the Sensori team, what most contractor customers do is send unskilled workers to a site to capture video walkarounds, and then quickly download a point cloud or glTF textured mesh back at base. These can then be loaded into Revit or Rhino.
Sensori by numbers Sensori has so far built a niche for itself in renovation work, where firms want to see post-internal demolitions to bring out the geometry. These are not survey-
level results, but they’re good enough and come at a sufficiently low cost, and may perhaps prove useful for off-site fabrication of components like steel framing. Sensori claims that the accuracy of its models is 0.1 to 0.2% accuracy down to 10mm, which, potentially, is like best-inclass mobile laser accuracy. Static total stations remain the gold standard but come with significant time and cost implications. Sensori, by contrast, is a full software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering and can handle workflows that combine survey data with its photogrammetry data for higher accuracy. The start-up has based its cost structure on an upfront processing fee, as the team wanted to avoid charging customers for accessing their own data. After all, that might inhibit the use of cloud-based models significantly. Instead, Sensori charges by the number of images or frames of video uploaded. The costs associated with a 700 square metre office, for example, would be around £120 to £150 - and this fee includes five years of hosting. Sensori is a compelling offering for rapid site capture that relies on low-cost devices, fast capture technology, automation and the power of the cloud. The company has had its service used to capture sites up to around 10,000 square metres and its connectivity to core BIM and design solutions just adds to its potential value. ■ www.sensori.systems
www.AECmag.com
27/11/2023 14:19
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Software
Giraffe for urban planning Giraffe loomed into view long before the current glut of data and analytical tools for early-phase design emerged. For over six years, this Australian developer has been quietly amassing an impressive portfolio of tools, connecting spatial building and city design models with GIS data, numbers and algorithms
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n the design software world, some tools are explicit, like BIM modellers, in that you get what you draw. Others do something akin to alchemy, aggregating disparate design and spatial information and delivering design insight. Giraffe is very much in the latter camp. It’s founded on the core concept that connecting design (drawings/models) to mathematical analysis (numbers) at the earliest stage of a project is the single best way to create a mental model of a scheme, enabling designers and clients to create better cities. CEO Rob Asher was previously design and R&D lead at one of Sydney’s most prestigious architecture firms, Cox Architecture. There, he took the lead on the practice’s use of modelling tools, Rhino, Grasshopper and design data. He explains his journey like this: “I started off doing very, very detailed architectural modelling. I love geometry. I love curves. I love ‘unique’. But in reality, a lot of what drives architectural projects is this kind of block and stack. And you need to get the fundamentals right. As Le Corbusier said, ‘Plan is the driver of form’,” he says. That prompted a change in direction. “I moved into doing more block and stack buildings, corridor planning, master planning, urban planning, as a design discipline. I was having to use Grasshopper in conjunction with QGIS and there just weren’t the tools. It was just this real nightmare of fusing BIM and GIS.”
A Swiss army knife for decisions Giraffe’s origins lie within the McNeel ecosystem of apps and Asher’s use of 40
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Grasshopper. That may well explain his use of an animal name for his company, taking its lead from McNeel’s use of Rhino, Grasshopper, Penguin and Flamingo. But Giraffe quickly became its own, wholly contained application, based on generative design code. It’s essentially a ‘Swiss army knife’ for project, design and site decisions, aimed at a broad cross-section of disciplines: developers, architects, quantity surveyors, cost planners, government officials, to name but a few. Says Asher: “Giraffe can go from literally nothing, just a map, to talking to a client about overshadowing, tenancy, floor plate, context and the financials in minutes.” This cloud-based, real-time 3D application enables users to quickly and precisely draw massing, road networks, car park layouts, apartment floor plans or structural grids within a GIS context. It can simultaneously connect a wide number of geodatabases, both internal and external. While many conceptual modellers tend to be blocky, Giraffe features a range of generative design tools for modelling buildings that offer a lot more detail, including mullion, transoms, roof structures and so on, enabling rapid modelling in situ. It’s the kind of tool that can be put in front of a client for real-time modelling and decisions. Giraffe is also a venue in which disparate project data can converge and then be analysed. Typically, that data might reside in Google Earth, Bluebeam, local zoning databases, Excel and SketchUp, among others — but Giraffe provides an antidote to this data fragmentation. Because it is cloud-based, collaboration drives co-authoring, so users can work
together. It also acts as a knowledge base, where firms can capture and retain past projects and distribute their IP or develop their own apps through API access. Already, Giraffe has been deployed in hundreds of different projects, including feasibility studies, land use planning, brokerage listings, master planning, development tracking, location intelligence and public engagement. Users use it to build layers of relevant data: GIS info, site plans, 3D data, satellite data, solar information, conceptual cost data, wind, pollution, historical weather patterns. The software provides analysis and dashboards with feedback on the metrics in which users are most interested. This can be shared with consultants, general contractors, planners and architects through an easy-to-use visual front-end and dashboard metrics. Currently there are four levels of pricing for Giraffe. First, there is a free version, which allows users to create and share one project, providing them with a taste of the platform’s capabilities. The second tier up is called Core and is priced at $1,000 per user, per year. This includes unlimited projects, access to templates and libraries, marketplace access, a kanban board for agile project management, plus in-app support. A third level, Portfolio is priced at $3,000 per user, per year and offers additional features such as workspace properties, unlimited kanbans, teams and member roles, API access and customer support. Finally, an Enterprise tier adds customer applications, SDK access, SSO and premium support. ■ www.giraffe.build
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27/11/2023 14:21
Material world 14 free sources for high-quality textures
Helen Reinold from Chaos Enscape shares her top sources for highquality 100% free 3D textures to help create highly realistic visualisations that closely mimic real-world materials and lighting
Example of a rendering with various textures used to improve realism
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rafting a beautiful architectural visualisation often relies on the use of a diverse range of textures. Each project brings its own unique demands, making a well-curated library of textures a valuable asset. The good news is, you don’t have to spend years building it from scratch. Here, we’ve gathered some of the best websites where you can find high-quality free 3D textures for your projects.
What are the benefits? Incorporating 3D textures into your visualisations offers several significant benefits, including: • • •
Faster design iteration Accurate material representation Enhanced realism
Faster design iteration: Architects and designers can experiment with different material combinations and textures in a virtual environment, allowing for quicker and more efficient design iterations. This can save time and resources during the planning and design phases. 42
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Accurate material representation: When physically based rendering (PBR) textures are used to simulate the behaviour of real materials under different lighting conditions, it is easier to showcase detail in various finishes like wood, concrete, or metal accurately. Enhanced realism: 3D textures allow architects and designers to create highly realistic visualisations that closely mimic real-world materials and lighting conditions. This realism helps clients better understand how the final project will look and feel, which can also help speed up decision-making.
Always check the licence details first Free textures are often copyright-free and provided under a Creative Commons (CC0) licence, meaning you can copy and modify them, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. However, before you download or use any of these textures, it’s always best to check the licensing details first.
While many are offered as a creative resource under free licences like CC0, some may have specific requirements or restrictions for commercial use. Always give proper credit when required and follow the terms and conditions outlined by the texture creators or the platforms providing them.
Where to find free 3D textures When searching online, it’s possible to find many websites that provide an impressive array of free textures for 3D modelling and rendering. They are often of high quality and available to download in various sizes, generally up to 8K (we tend to find that 2K resolution works well if you’re rendering with Enscape, the real-time rendering, visualisation, and VR software). Some are even photo-scanned or photographed, giving you incredibly realistic-looking textures to use within your scenes. Let’s take a look at some popular websites where you can find free textures to use in your projects. ■ www.enscape3d.com
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ambientCG No list of free 3D texture websites is complete without mentioning ambientCG. The extensive library features so many high-quality seamless textures that come with PBR maps, that you’ll likely find exactly what you are looking for in no time. Site owner Lennart Demes releases new textures regularly. To the left you can see an example of how a floor texture appears in Enscape. Amazing realism! ■ www.ambientcg.com
(Left) Example of a floor texture from ambientCG
CG Bookcase CG Bookcase is run by Dorian Zgraggen, who created the 500+ PBR textures available on the website. They come with all maps and all the textures are 100% free, with no restrictions. The site aesthetic is clean and well-ordered, and you can download the textures and all maps without having to register an account. The filtering function is especially handy, allowing you to filter texture results based on colour and resolution. ■ www.cgbookcase.com
(Left) Realistic textured wall surface applied in Enscape
Share Textures Share Textures features over 1,400 textures on its site, with new options added regularly. All of the textures and 3D models are currently available to use under CC0 licence. Whilst a large number of textures are free, some are reserved for patrons only. The team behind the website is made up of architects who work on archviz projects, so they know exactly what you are looking for. Don’t miss their blog and their YouTube channel, which are both full of great tutorials. ■ www.sharetextures.com
(Left) Floor texture example from Share Textures
Public Domain Textures Frederic Hoffmann, creator of Public Domain Textures, works in the gaming industry and understands firsthand the impact that high-quality textures have on an image. The website has over 180 free textures in a variety of categories. I especially like the snow and nature textures, which can be used to place your project in a life-like environment. ■ www.publicdomaintextures.com
(Left) Example of nature textures
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Pattern Panda Pattern Panda only has just over one hundred high-definition seamless textures, but it’s definitely a case of quality over quantity. For most of the textures and materials, owner Andreas Siess uses a Nikon D800 or Nikon D750 DSLR to capture them. Among the standard wood, metal, and stone, there’s an interesting collection of paper and cardboard textures. The site also features scratch marks, which you can add to your materials to simulate realistic surface damage, and a selection of HDRI skyboxes. Creative Commons 4.0 attribution is required. ■ www.patternpanda.org
(Right) How metal textures appear in the texture library of Pattern Panda
Texture Box Texture Box has a large collection of textures for every surface of your project, be it an interior or exterior rendering (the tile collection is particularly impressive!). A handful are available for free, for non-commercial projects. The interface makes it easy to find exactly what you need, through an intuitive search and category structure. If you want to access all textures, then you will need to subscribe for a small monthly fee. ■ www.texturebox.com
(Right) Free textures include tiles, fabric, wood, and concrete
3Dtextures.me 3Dtextures.me provides over 1,000 free seamless PBR textures, together with diffuse, normal, displacement, occlusion, and roughness maps. Each one has to be downloaded individually, but if you become a patron, then you will receive a link to the download page for all of the textures. There is an impressive list of categories, including standards like fabric, wood, metal, and dirt, but also a few less common textures, like lava, ice, and gems. ■ www.3dtextures.me
(Right) 3D textures.me feature over 1,000 PBR textures, including fabric
Poliigon Whilst only a handful of free textures (currently 55) are provided by Poliigon, they are certainly worth including in this round-up. Their textures are high quality, are easy to find, and the thumbnails and preview images make it easy (and enjoyable!) to scroll through the various options. Poliigon also offers paid textures which can be purchased for a one-off fee, or through a monthly subscription which provides access to over 3,000 assets. ■ www.poliigon.com/textures
(Right) Poliigon lists textures, 3D models, and HDRIs to download
Texturelabs Everything on Texturelabs.org is free to download for personal and commercial use at the time of writing. The textures are well organised, easily scrollable, and are available to download in a number of formats of different sizes without the need to register. You will find the usual textures that many other sites also provide, such as metal, stone, and wood, but then there are a few interesting categories, including atmosphere, water, sky, ink/paint, and soil. ■ www.texturelabs.org
(Right) Texturelabs includes some interesting categories, such as atmosphere
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Texturer
Feature
Looking for unique photographed textures? Then this could be the site for you. On Texturer.com, you can find railways, snow, pebbles, fabrics, paper, and concrete textures to name a few categories. These are currently free to use in personal and commercial projects. ■ www.texturer.com
(Left) Texturer offers some unique assets
Texture Ninja The variety of textures available on this next site is impressive to say the least. Texture Ninja has over 5,000 free textures available to download, and they are all available for use under the public domain. Although aimed largely at 3D artists, there are categories that will be of interest to designers and architects who are looking for textures such as wood, stone, plaster, metal, and brick. ■ www.texture.ninja
(Left) Texture Ninja has a massive variety of textures
3DAssets.one The websites in this list are fantastic resources, but sometimes you just don’t have time to search through a bunch of pages looking for the right texture. 3DAssets.one is a search engine designed specifically to help you find free textures, HDRIs, and assets from 13 of the largest free sites at once. Just type in a search term and get ready to find exactly what you are looking for! ■ www.3dassets.one
(Left) 3DAssets.one acts as a gateway to a whole world of free content
SketchUp Texture Club SketchUp Texture Club is a non-profit organisation managed by Image Promotion Association. You can download 15 low and medium-resolution textures per day, but if you want to access up to 50 high-res textures per day, then you need to become a Club Member for a very small fee per year ($14). There are literally thousands of textures featured on this site. The biggest category is architecture (16,000+), followed by materials (+4,000), nature elements (+1,300), and backgrounds and landscapes (+700). ■ www.sketchuptextureclub.com
(Left) SketchUp Texture Club has a whopping 16,000+ textures for architecture
Poly Haven (formerly Texture Haven) Poly Haven is a curated public asset library that provides high-quality free textures, 3D models, and HDRIs. You don’t need to register for an account — simply pick the texture you need from the 400+ available, and download away! Poly Haven offers a range of different textures, including wood, floor, plaster, roofing, and terrain. They are all categorised, so you can easily scroll through and browse the comprehensive selection. ■ www.polyhaven.com/textures
Caption: How roofing textures appear on the Poly Haven website
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Design viz Evermotion, based in Poland, has a long history in architectural visualisation, delivering a huge and ever-expanding library of models and scenes (collections), along with complete projects. The company uses a wide range of tools, including the classic combination of 3ds Max and V-Ray and, more recently, Unreal Engine 5 lit with Lumen
(Above) Restaurant interior rendered in Unreal Engine 5 (lit with Lumen) (Left) Wooden formwork of a historic hall, rendered in Unreal Engine 5 (lit with Lumen) (Right) Glass house interior modelled in 3ds Max and rendered in V-Ray
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Evermotion uses a variety of platforms for architectural visualisation — 3ds Max, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D and Blender. Projects are approached in a modular way, so they are not limited to a single software package. More recently, the company has started using Lumen, the advanced dynamic global illumination and reflections system for Unreal Engine 5. This has made it much easier and faster for Evermotion’s artists to create collections in Unreal Engine 5. “The lack of the need to bake lighting is a great plus,” says Evermotion’s Michal Franczak. “With each subsequent version of Unreal Engine 5, Lumen is becoming more and more refined and we are getting closer to the quality of offline renderers in our latest products. “Of course, not every 3D branch is using this system,” he adds. “For example, the broadcasting and virtual studios industry needs extremely optimised scenes and the absence of any artifacts during live www.AECmag.com
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broadcasts, in these projects we still use baked lighting.” We ask Franczak if Evermotion ever uses V-Ray for Unreal Engine? “We don’t,” he replies, “most of our products go to customers who use Lumen and baked lighting. In addition, Unreal Engine 5 has
a very efficient path-tracer, which is perfectly integrated and developed from version to version, so if there is a need to increase the quality even further, it can be turned on immediately, without the need for additional installations.” ■ https://evermotion.org
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Gallery
(Above) Museum / public space interior created in Unreal Engine 5 (Right) City exterior rendered in 3ds Max / V-Ray
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