Software
Autodesk Tandem Previewed at Autodesk University in 2020 and launched recently, Tandem is Autodesk’s cloud-based digital twin technology platform. Martyn Day talked to the development team to find out more
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efore we start, I know what you ings or existing brownfield facilities. As are thinking: ‘Digital twins, here it has become more widely adopted it’s we go again - the next over- also being used for bridges, roads and hyped industry buzzword!’ even cities. The model can be augmented Having watched a fair number of with connections to remote sensors, feedindustry hype-cycles, I completely ing back operational live data. Assets understand that point of view. Typically, stored in the database can be tagged with there is a nugget of reality to some firm’s QR codes for quick referencing onsite product launch, it gets some using mobile devices. traction, then every firm sudThe digital twin utopia denly re-pitches their own that we are being sold is a Even if you product so they can get a dynamic reference model think you have where usage and perforpiece of the action. Digital twin is falling prey no interest in mance can be seen in conto that and it’s going to take a either historically, curdigital twin or text, while to really work out rently or even predicted. facilities exactly what technologies Autodesk is not first to and firms play in this space. I management, market from the CAD space. find it helps if you think of Bentley Systems (see page 24) this article digital twin as the converbeen championing digi(and Autodesk has gence of BIM and facilities tal twins for a number of Tandem in management on steroids. It’s years now with its iTwin not for everyone, or every technologies aimed at large general) still project, but new business infrastructure projects, has a lot of models are evolving, and it which also reflects the prorelevance to addresses a market of owner/ file of its customers. those who use operators that have been When Autodesk gets into underserved for decades. a market, it’s usually a sign Revit. So, I Even if you think you have that it is, or it is set to would urge no interest in digital twin or become, a volume play. you to read on Enter Autodesk Tandem, facilities management, this article (and Autodesk the company’s cloud-based Tandem in general) still has a platform which, in its first lot of relevance to those who use Revit. version, is primarily aimed at greenfield So, I would urge you to read on and con- projects created using its popular design sider the creation and reuse of data, authoring application Revit. together with how you view big Revit Tandem development models. The basic concept of a digital twin is to Development of Tandem started in produce a reference model from design, February 2020 and came out of discusconstruction and service data, which can sions on the continuity of data in the AEC serve as a dashboard and database for lifecycle, between Autodesk CEO Andrew assets that need tracking or maintaining. Anagnost, the AEC leadership team and It can be applied to greenfield build- Bob Bray, now senior director & general
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September / October 2021
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manager, Autodesk Tandem. I’ve talked to Bray before when he was Sr. director preconstruction at Autodesk, involved in figuring out the issues created from the convergence of construction and manufacturing. Bray seems to get involved in a lot of the projects which require blended solutions, harnessing Autodesk’s internal technologies to bring out a product response to new market segment needs. (tinyurl.com/ digitalfab-AEC) Bray explains his analysis behind Tandem’s development, “The key issue was how do we help our customers move their data more fluidly from the beginning of the project lifecycle, all the way through to handover, that would generate a richer deliverable. “For sure, digital twin is the hot topic in the industry - it’s the buzzword out there - but you’re not going to go and buy ‘a digital twin’ from a single vendor. We had to figure out what’s our place in that ecosystem. “As we started to look at this eighteen months ago, if you asked ten people what a digital twin was, you would easily get ten different answers! And while that still may be true, it is starting to crystallise and become clearer with time. “As I looked at all of these [digital twin] solutions, pretty much all are bespoke today. There’s a lot of bespoke data collection, with ‘duct tape and bubble gum’ to glue systems together to create a digital twin. It’s not very repeatable. “My realisation was that a lot of the data that’s foundational to those digital twins is data that’s created, designed or captured in construction. We can better stitch the data together through the design lifecycle if we begin with that end in mind. We could create a repeatable www.AECmag.com
02/10/2021 15:46
