Twinview

BIM has always held so much promise for the whole building lifecycle, from design through operation but has so far failed to reach most owners/ operators. Fortunately, there’s a new service offering to do exactly that

by Martyn Day

In the early days, moving to BIM Aided Facilities Management), but on form, as it has a core set of model and was sold as a way to get automatic steroids. Unfortunately, the tools to create data viewing functions with four distinct and coordinated drawings. In a con- these twins have been specialist, or have modules, the number of which will tractual world where drawings been components which would still expand over time. were the deliverable that was a big bene- require programming to create a bespoke The base platform ‘Access’ will take fit. However, as the industry has moved solution. Many of the examples for Digital BIM models from Revit or IFC, uploaded forward and embraced the model as the Twin applications have been oil and gas or or hosted on web servers such as BIM digital prototype, resulting in so much within really large real estate owner/ 360, bring in associated 2D drawings more information being added to the developers. It is not yet mainstream. sheets, COBie data etc. and then stitch it design database, handing over drawings Enter Twinview, which is part of Space all together as a viewable, queryable makes little sense. Group, an architectural practice in model. This can be filtered, slice and

The Government’s mandate for BIM Newcastle upon Tyne. Many of you might diced, dynamically sectioned and interrolevel 2 in 2016 added the deliverable of a know Space Group’s Rob Charlton and gated at a granular, component level. In take-off layer for Government-procured Adam Ward, who are key players in the essence this is a great BIM viewing tool. buildings and infrastructure, which UK BIM scene. The ‘Manage’ module is essentially a required a COBie (Construction Space Group is not only an architectur- powerful and fully featured CAFM tool Operations Building Information al practice but also a developer of BIM which operates on the core model data. Exchange) file. This spreadsheet data for- content and applications, with bimstore Within Manage, it’s possible to see any mat contains all related project and asset (bimstore.co), and BIM Technologies asset’s history, lists of ticket issues, maininformation contained in the design by all project participants. ‘‘ Twinview is an easy way for everyone to reuse and tenance lists and any associated files with assets. Twinview can be

While COBie is a benefit from BIM model data. This functionality used as the authoring major improvement on delivering just drawings, it’s still not passing on should be in the toolkit of all architectural practices - it’s joined up thinking for BIM tool to define components that should be maintained and assign the full BIM data set and is akin to taking a fillet steak and dicing it up to make sausage. (bimtechnologies.co.uk). Charlton is also ’’ maintenance schedules, which can all be accessed onsite through the web. All There’s also the suggestion that the the driving force behind the original UK activity is logged and is traceable in an alleged consumers of this dismembered BIM conference, BIMShow Live. audit trail. In making the Twinview data do not know what to do with it, or Twinview is a model-based platform model data set, if data is being brought in simply leave it in a desk drawer on a USB for accessing, managing and monitoring from various sources, the system can stick. It’s not reasonable to expect that buildings, with a focus on optimising the import a BS1192:4 COBie file supporting end users should have an expensive copy maintenance of assets and enhancing jobs, systems and documents. of a Revit or a Solibri, or know how to use efficiency and performance. It is the With regards to component maintethem. There surely has to be a better way product of four years of work from a nance, as Space Group owns bimstore, of passing on the benefits of BIM to own- small development team, driven by the there is also access to the component ers/operators? needs of Space Group to share its project library of manufacturers’ parts, which is BIM data seamlessly with its clients for updated and maintained to be current Digital Twins post hand-over management and mainte- and includes useful information such as While there is a lot of hype surrounding nance. Twinview is a SaaS application, so price and availability. the Digital Twin concept, the benefits are is cloud-based and securely accessible One of the key tenets of the Digital real. The idea of having a ‘living’ digital online, and therefore available every- Twin, and one that takes it beyond just asset model of a real-world building is where - phone, tablet, PC. being a BIM model, is the ability to interessentially traditional CAFM (Computer Space Group calls Twinview a plat- face with live sensor data coming from

1 Twinview automatically analyses your model and classifies all elements and assets allowing you to filter by object, material or system type 2 A ticketing system is used for issue resolution, creation of maintenance jobs and tasks 3 Monitor the live status of any asset. In this example, energy usage of a pump 4 Twinview features one button BS1192:4 COBie import & export

the building. Impressively Twinview’s ‘Monitor’ module provides a way to take live feeds from sensors to display real time statistics of asset performance, and as it’s SaaS this can be all done remotely. Space Group has its HQ all wired up with temperature sensors in each room so they can optimise heating usage. In the future, buildings will be a mass of networks and subsystems which can be collated and displayed in Twinview.

The trials and tribulations of getting good quality COBie asset data from all project participants and systems can be the stuff of nightmares for project managers. While Twinview supports the import and export of BS1192:4 COBie, the ‘Capture’ module, currently in beta, repurposes Twinview as a single authoring space to collate data from Asset Information Requests (AIRs) and assign them to be filled by specific team members.

As data is input Twinview will validate it. There is a live dashboard for information managers to see the status of the COBie for all the defined stages and an audit log tracks who added what, when, as well as who is responsible for missing information. This application of Twinview makes it useful in design development and during construction, not just at handover. Although should there be extensions or rework of a building at any time in its life, this module would also be useful.

In use Twinview has a simple web interface. On logging in, users are shown a map which pinpoints geographic locations of buildings together with an associated project list. Select a building and the interface changes to the model display. The model view will quickly render the 3D view of the building in an isometric perspective. This is currently using Autodesk’s Forge viewer, and that comes with a familiar interface: pan, zoom,

Twinview can aggregate BIM models from a variety of sources - Revit or IFC

orbit, walk, camera views, measure, sec- maintainable equipment. The interface tion, model tree browser and explode – also has tabs for contractor firms and any which literally breaks apart the model quotes that have been raised. like a Haynes manual. The IoT module will display live data

My MacBook Pro has a decent proces- from any active sensors, tracking and sor, but crappy Intel graphics and perfor- logging performance. This can be a dashmance was actually not bad considering board or filtered on specific component the size of the model I was looking at, but feeds by space, category, owner or status the Forge view does have a tendency to (active/inactive or archived). The perforregenerate objects that aren’t strictly in mance is time logged and graphed. There the view. are all sorts of possibilities for this, but

Alongside the model view, a dialogue hooking these feeds in is perhaps for the offers insight into the metadata informa- more technically advanced. In the not too tion on any component or group of components selected. This can be COBie data, ‘‘ This is the first distant future this will be commonplace. A Project Reporting feaOmniclass identity tags and Digital Twin ture breaks down the buildanalytical information. If the data parameter required is not there, it can be added. platform we have seen at ing into components by software category, material or systems. These are disTwinview supports saved AEC Magazine, played in the 3D view, useviews which can take you to predefined viewing positions within the model in a blink of which is aimed at the masses ful for quick filtering to see all the doors, or isolate the MEP system as examples. an eye. Obviously, these can be created using the sectioning, explode and first-person view tools. Conclusion Twinview is incredibly impressive, one ’’

The associated high-resolution 2D of the most interesting applications I drawings can be pulled up at any time have seen for a long time. It has a heady within the workspace, which can be made mix of capabilities; it’s a veritable Swiss full screen, offering pan, zoom or used for Army knife for owner operators. It measurement. assists in raising the quality of BIM data

The CAFM system has a comparatively and projects it forward, through the lifedense interface but it offers a lot of func- cycle of a building. It’s a Common Data tionality. There are five functions: create a Environment (CDE), a CAFM system, a new ticket, a new issue, a maintenance job, COBie authoring platform, maintenance add a new asset or add a new piece of manager, BIM model viewer, Digital equipment. Below it you can see the activi- Twin interface, complete online project ty log, together with search, as defined by document repository – and all geospaspace, or category (planned/unplanned tially and component referenced. maintenance), owner, priority and status This is the first Digital Twin platform (pending, in progress or completed). we have seen at AEC Magazine, which is

While new assets and equipment can aimed at the masses. Architects or concome from bimstore, if it’s not there, there struction firms that are devout BIM users is the ability to add completely new need to think about how they can expand their revenue streams and business beyond traditional engagements. Using something like Twinview can bring a whole new potential income to leveraging all the BIM data that doesn’t get used post construction. This service is just as applicable for a single building as to serial developers or large estate owners. Obviously the benefits increase as more buildings are held within the platform.

While many have been talking about how CAFM will really take off with BIM, in reality this hasn’t been the case - no more than it did when CAFM systems were 2D. Twinview clearly leverages the asset info in BIM, and combined with an accessible, easy to use interface, can make the identification, location, history, technical specifications and even live performance of assets accessible from anywhere.

The only core feature I felt was missing was the support for point cloud data, which would bring the as built to sit alongside the architect’s original BIM model definition. I am sure this will come in time.

At the moment, BIM as we know it, is really one hand clapping, especially when one considers that most of a building’s cost comes in its lifetime operation through to decommissioning. If BIM data can cross over the current post-construction chasm, without getting diced up, and play a meaningful role in the lifecycle, the value in creating the data in the eyes of all owners will go up. Twinview is an easy way for everyone to reuse and benefit from BIM model data. This functionality should be in the toolkit of all architectural practices - it’s joined up thinking for BIM. With God knows what kind of economy lying ahead of us, if you will let it, Twinview will extend business possibilities, into ‘architecture as a service’.