AEC Magazine September / October 2023 by X3DMEDIA

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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THE FUTURE OF AEC technology

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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Industry news 6

Springtime in Paris 30

AMD and Intel launch workstation CPUs, Leica and Faro unveil new scanners. Vectorworks and Allplan release 2024 BIM software tools, plus lots more

For the visualisation team at WeWork, a technology rethink has allowed creativity to take flight in the City of Lights

Cover Story: USD and the AEC industry 12

Nemetschek’s take on the digital twin 36

Could Pixar’s USD and the newly formed Alliance for OpenUSD deliver a widely accepted standard for interoperability?

Building a digital twin requires many different disparate software and hardware data inputs. Nemetschek is adopting an open data approach

Rayon: BIM lite 16

Bentley YII 2023 38

BIM may be fixated on modelling, but not every project or every drawing really needs to be derived from a 3D model

Digital twins, AI, infrastructure intelligence and subsurface capabilities were among the key themes discussed at Bentley Systems’ annual conference

Arcol: a sneak peek 18 As several start-ups plan their BIM 2.0 beta programmes, Arcol is looking to get ahead by opening up access to its cloudbased modeller for one-week trials

Graphisoft Building Together 2023 20 Graphisoft Archicad 27 features a broad range of crowd-pleasing BIM enhancements, bulked-up MEP and some intriguing new AI capabilities

Fresh thinking for construction 26 Prototyping using student resources and working in 3D across project phases are helping construction teams discover innovative ways to build

A chance to amplify design wisdom 42 Richard Harpham on how technology can redefine architectural innovation

HP SitePrint 44 We take a look at the robot that prints 2D plans onto the floors of construction sites

DesignJet T850/950 47 Security, workflows, and sustainability with HP’s new 36-inch DesignJet printers

AMD Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series 48 96-cores meets super-high frequencies in this impressive new workstation CPU September / October 2023

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Workstation news

AMD and Intel unveil new workstation processors

Nvidia fleshes out RTX Ada Gen pro GPUs vidia has expanded its pro graphics line up adding three Nvidia RTX Ada Generation workstation GPUs to target visualisation, simulation, XR, AI and CAD workloads. The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada (20 GB), Nvidia RTX 4500 Ada (24 GB) and Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada (32 GB) fill the middle ground between the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada (20 GB) and Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada (48 GB) which launched earlier this year. The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada and Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada are identical in their cores specs, but have different form factors and max power consumption. The Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada is a full height, single slot 130W GPU designed for standard workstation towers. Meanwhile, the SFF version is a low profile, dual slot 70W GPU specifically designed for Small Form Factor and ultra-compact workstations.

MD and Intel have launched new workstation processors AMD at the high-end with its Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series and Intel at the entry-level with its 14th Gen Intel Core. The AMD Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series is based on AMD’s Zen 4 architecture and combines high core counts with high base and turbo frequencies. The chip also supports up to 2 TB of 8-channel memory and multiple graphics cards. This makes it well suited to a wide range of workflows, but in particular, those that are highly multithreaded such as ray trace rendering and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The top end model, the Threadripper Pro

7995WX, features 96 cores, 50% more than the previous generation, and clock speeds up to 5.1 GHz. AMD has also released a ‘prosumer’ version of the chip, the Threadripper 7000 Series with 4-channel memory. See page 48 for our in-depth preview. Meanwhile, Intel has launched its 14th Gen Intel Core processors, led by the Intel Core i9-14900K with 24 cores (8P+16E) and frequencies up to 6.0 GHz. While not strictly a workstation processor, these Intel chips will find their way into entry-level workstations and should deliver good performance for largely single threaded applications such as CAD and BIM. ■ www.amd.com ■ www.intel.com

AMD launches new ‘mid-range’ pro GPUs MD has launched the Radeon Pro W7600 and Radeon Pro W7500, a duo of ‘mid-range’ desktop pro workstation GPUs built on its RDNA 3 architecture. The new graphics cards are designed to target ‘medium’ workloads for 3D CAD, visualisation, video editing, and digital content creation. They follow on from the ‘ultra-high-end’ AMD Radeon Pro W7800 and W7900 which launched earlier this year (see our review in the July/August edition). The Radeon Pro W7600 and W7500 are both full height, single slot GPUs, so are designed to fit in standard desktop

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tower workstations and not small form factors (SFFs) / ultra-compacts. Both GPUs come with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and four DisplayPort 2.1 Connectors. The Radeon Pro W7500 offers 12.2 TLOPs of peak single precision performance and has a total board power of 70W, so can operate with PCIe slot power alone. It costs $429. The Radeon Pro W7600 offers 19.9 TLOPs of peak single precision performance and has a total board power of 130W, so needs a 6-pin connector. It costs $599. Look out for a full review soon.

■ www.nvidia.com

HP targets hybrid workers with Z4 Rack P has introduced the HP Z4 Rack G5, a 1U rack workstation designed specifically for server rooms and datacentres to provide 1:1 remote access for workstation users. The HP Z4 Rack G5 shares many of the same characteristics as the HP Z4 G5 desktop workstation – up to 24 cores with the Intel Xeon W-2400 CPU and up to the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU – but maxes out at 256 GB of memory.

■ www.hp.com/zworkstations

■ www.amd.com/radeonpro

www.AECmag.com

19/10/2023 17:13

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Vectorworks 2024 delivers ‘substantial advancements’ to core technology ectorworks 2024, the latest release of the Windows and Mac design tool, is said to feature substantial advancements to its core technology. The software includes a modernised UI, improved project sharing, Excel referencing, DWG import/export optimisations, and several new viewport and rendering enhancements. Meanwhile the BIM-focused version, Vectorworks Architect 2024, focuses on features and tools to save time while designing, as well as helping reduce errors in the modelling and documentation process. At the heart of Vectorworks, the reorganised View and Mode bars are designed to offer a wide range of tools for easy access and organisation. The new option to save custom viewport settings as styles are said to allow for easy transfer between viewports. Improvements to shaded rendering help designers achieve higher levels of realism and assess their designs with better shadow casting and camera settings. The re-engineered section viewport rendering makes the generation

of rendered sections and navigation of sectioned or clipped models faster. Meanwhile, Microsoft Excel referencing allows new references to be created in Vectorworks for automatic updates to referenced files. Alternatively, changes can be made in Vectorworks and the data pushed back to Excel. Finally, new optimisations for DWG import/export are designed to eliminate the tedious task of file cleanup. For Vectorworks Architect, users will

find increased detail and material specification levels for doors and windows, enhanced stair functionality, improved graphic legend capability and newly redefined parametric railing and cabinet objects. Improvements to the Wall tool allow designers to ‘switch linear and curved wall modes seamlessly’ and apply multiple configurations of wall component returns to inserted objects. ■ www.vectorworks.net

Enscape for Mac links to Archicad and Vectorworks haos has added Graphisoft Archicad and Vectorworks to the list of CAD/BIM tools that can connect to Enscape for Mac, the real-time visualisation software. Enscape for Mac’s first integration for Trimble SketchUp has also received new improvements. “Enscape takes the expertise out of

visualisation, so architects can assess the impact of design decisions in record time,” said Petr Mitev, VP product, solutions for designers at Chaos. “With our new Mac integrations, we’re bringing that power to even more people, so designers can enjoy real-time feedback from their favourite applications and operating systems.” ■ www.enscape3d.com

BuildData Group launches Research Institute with data focus mma Hooper, vice-chair of buildingSMART UK&I, is to head up BuildData Group’s new Research Institute. Hooper will be responsible for research and development (R&D) across the group’s brands, Zutec & Createmaster.

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The institute will focus on the importance of information as data, its role as a valuable asset, and devise strategies and concepts to build out an information theory that will drive better building outcomes. “Our belief is that the industry requires a centre of

excellence that looks at the bigger picture of information management and a common data framework, acting as a think tank to help educate and shape data strategies,” says Hooper. The Institute has launched with a paper written by Hooper: “Rethinking Information Management and Modelling” ■ www.builddata.se

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19/10/2023 12:14

News

SketchUp 3D Warehouse gets visual search function

Allplan 2024 BIM software launches llplan has launched the 2024 version of its interdisciplinary BIM software. Allplan 2024 can now differentiate between the following collision types: hard clash, soft clash, workflow clash, no clash. These are displayed in different colours to provide a quick overview. IFCs can now be used as a reference for a quick check without having to import the model and there’s also a technical preview of a BIMcollab Plugin in Allplan for issue management. With the new Twinmotion Direct Link, users can go from ‘BIM model to VR in three clicks’. There’s also improved usability of visual scripting. Allplan 2024 also provides workflows for ‘smooth integration’ of the design to its context, through a cloud-powered GIS connector tool that extracts relevant data automatically. For highways, a new solution for the parametric modelling of road intersections is designed to make it easier to create ‘type T and X’ intersections. Alllplan 2024 also adds several new features for construction.

ketchUp 3D Warehouse, the free 3D model library, has a new visually-driven search function called Image Search that makes made it easier to find models. Users can now take a photo of an object or drop and drag an existing image into the 3D Warehouse’s search bar, and AI will sift through millions of pre-built models to find matches. The new feature is designed to help architects and designers more easily specify new

products for their designs. “Now, designers can more easily source 3D models or find alternatives for their clients who are often looking for very specific objects to incorporate into their designs,” said Steve Guzman, product manager for 3D Warehouse. Meanwhile, Trimble has launched SketchUp Viewer for Meta Quest, for an immersive way to view and present 3D SketchUp models in VR. ■ https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com

Drone gets autonomous indoor scanning he Leica BLK2FLY, the autonomous flying laser scanner from Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, now has the ability to scan indoor spaces. The new feature, which can be delivered through a free firmware update for existing customers, is designed to provide expanded coverage for complex

scanning projects, including digital twins. The BLK2FLY can now scan in areas without GNSS availability, opening reality capture opportunities in new settings and with new applications. The new capability relies upon advancements to Hexagon’s visual SLAM system and real-time spherical imaging ■ www.leicageosystems.com

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Bond Bryan Digital rebrand

Users upload PDF project documents, such as site reports, contracts or design codes. The AI then processes the data so it can generate answers to specific questions posed by users. This could be querying deliverable due dates, through to extracting information on geological conditions from site investigation reports.

uildData Group is bringing together two of its brands – Bond Bryan Digital and Createmaster Information Management – to improve the way building information is specified, delivered and managed across the whole life of an asset. Bond Bryan Digital will now be renamed as Createmaster Information Management, a specialist in digital handover.

■ www.civils.ai

■ www.bondbryandigital.co.uk

Civil engineering AI co-pilot updated ivils.ai, the civil engineering focused AI tool that applies a large language model to help reduce the time it takes to search for information in construction project documents, has delivered several new updates in its 2.0 release. These includes management improvements and new geotechnical engineering tools.

■ www.allplan.com

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News

ROUND UP HxDR digital twin

Leica BLK2GO Pulse scanner streams 3D data to phone

LocLab, part of Hexagon, has launched LocLab Cloud, a cloud-based platform powered by HxDR that is designed to offer a secure end-to-end solution for 3D digital twins. The platform is said to offer an innovative new way for using, managing and sharing 3D digital twins ■ www.hxdr.com/loclab-cloud

Matterport + Procore Matterport has extended its collaboration with Procore Technologies, so users of Procore’s construction management software can now use features such as RFIs, observations, and coordination issues directly within Matterport’s ‘digital twins’ ■ www.matterport.com

eica Geosystems has expanded

TestFit deployment Global ‘real estate’ firm Prologis, has deployed TestFit’s real-time AI to help better judge the feasibility of new warehouse sites. The announcement follows the 2022 investment in TestFit by Prologis Ventures, the venture arm of Prologis ■ www.testfit.io

NTI acquires Bluegfx NTI, one of Europe’s largest Autodesk resellers, is entering the UK and Ireland market with its acquisition of Autodesk Gold Partner Blue Graphics Ltd and Blue Graphics (Europe) Ltd (Bluegfx), putting it amongst the largest Autodesk partners ■ www.nti-europe.com

City planning Nottingham City Council is combining MetroVista 3D mesh models from Bluesky International with existing photogrammetric 3D modelling to visualise new developments in an immersive realworld environment ■ www.bluesky-world.com/metrovista

Global elevation data Global water risk intelligence firm Fathom has launched FABDEM+, which it describes as a globally consistent and accurate multi-source digital elevation modelling dataset that can be used for site selection, planning and design, risk mitigation, asset maintenance and more ■ www.fathom.global

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describes as a unique and immersive

portable BLK scanning line scanning experience. L its with the BLK2GO Pulse, a The scanner streams colourised 3D data first-person laser scanner that combines sensor, software and autonomous technologies. The device combines Sony’s Time-ofFlight (ToF) image sensors with Leica’s GrandSLAM technology (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping). To complement the BLK2GO Pulse, Leica Geosystems has developed a companion app called BLK Live. The app runs via a smartphone (iOS or Android). Users capture data from a firstperson perspective, with what Leica

in real-time to the connected smartphone, allowing them to visualise and assess the captured information instantly. The app also offers smart scanning guidance, providing real-time notifications and instructions to users as they scan to help optimise scanning practices. The BLK2GO Pulse is enabled to upload scans from the field to Reality Cloud Studio, Hexagon’s cloud application for reality capture data visualisation, collaboration, and scan storage. ■ www.leicageosystems.com

Faro introduces hybrid mobile scanner aro Technologies has released the Faro Orbis Mobile Scanner, a hybrid scanner that can be used for both mobile and stationary data capture in one device. The Faro Orbis uses SLAM-enabled LiDAR technology and offers local or cloudbased data processing and collaboration. Operators can ‘seamlessly switch’ between walking and stationary scanning while continuously acquiring 360° images. According to Faro it is ten times faster than using a traditional static laser scanner. Faro has also announced Faro Sphere XG, the latest version of its cloud-based digital reality platform. Users can integrate data from static scanning, mobile scanning, 360° capture and iPhone LiDAR data all within a single platform.

“[Orbis] reflects the fusion of Faro’s technologies with the capabilities brought by our recent acquisitions, GeoSLAM and HoloBuilder,” says Peter Lau, CEO of Faro. “It offers all the unmatched functionality of a mobile scanner, the precision of a tripod-based laser scanner and sets a new standard for 3D reality capture technology and workflow management.” ■ www.faro.com

www.AECmag.com

19/10/2023 12:14

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BIM LOD 350 MODEL GENERATION

Data interoperability is a persistent challenge in AEC that never seems to get resolved. But BIM 2.0 demands a solution, because continuing to isolate data in deep proprietary canyons is increasingly unworkable for firms. Martyn Day takes a look at Pixar’s USD and the newly formed Alliance for OpenUSD’s work to make it a widely accepted standard

f there’s one thing that has ham- access to and collaboration between differstrung the digitisation of AEC, it’s ent applications. At least, that’s the hope. data incompatibility. Our authorHowever, all this is some way off. For ing tools have created a landscape now, the latest open format to come to of silos. These, in turn, create in-house market is one that was never intended to and external challenges for individual be used in AEC at all. practices and the federated networks of Enter USD (Universal Scene firms that put together buildings and Description), a format developed by cominfrastructure. puter animation film studio Pixar. Its On major projects, data wranglers are original purpose was to make it easier to common, but our industry data exchange exchange complete scenes, geometry, formats still don’t work as well as we materials, lights and cameras between would like. Data should individual departments, flow to and from project allowing simultaneous participants like water, development for each and preferably not raw discipline and bypasssewage. ing the silos of proprieFounders: Currently the industry tary formats. Pixar supports a wide range of ended up building a Pixar, Adobe, Apple, standards. To name but whole workflow around Autodesk and Nvidia a few, there’s IFC, BCF, USD, which it continues CityGML, gbXML, to use today in order to General Members: OpenCDE, SAF, STEP, make movies. Cesium, Epic Games, glTF and OBJ. So it canIn 2021, Nvidia Foundry, Hexagon, Ikea, not be said that we brought USD into the Otoy, SideFX and Unity haven’t had a good old minds of architects and go at solving the issue. designers with the Unfortunately, there is launch of Omniverse, a still no format to rule them all, and I am design collaboration and simulation not sure there ever will be. And so the offering. Omniverse is based on USD, but work continues. is focused on the AEC and manufacturBIM 2.0 promises a move away from ing sectors just as much as it is on the files to databases. The idea here is that this movie industry. shift will enable granular streams of The system has been trialled by over design data to flow between users, as 400 companies, including Foster + opposed to big, lumpy files. These cloud- Partners, BMW, Industrial Light & based systems will be containers and hubs Magic, WPP and Ericsson. Plug-ins have within themselves, and APIs (application been added to the core design tools, programming interfaces) will enable including Revit, Rhino, 3ds max,

AOUSD members

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SketchUp and many others, and data is streamed to the Omniverse environment, which can handle large datasets, rendered in real time, enabling the collation of model data for whole projects, with all disciplines included. At the time of Omniverse’s launch, Martha Tsigkari, head of the Applied Research and Development Group at Foster + Partners, explained the impact of using USD-based workflows: “Omniverse is a revolutionary platform that has allowed our designers to collaborate and visualise multiple design changes to a scene simultaneously while working on their software of choice. “As we can review design options in parallel, we have much more time for creative design and visualisation. Integration of futuristic technologies such as machine learning will bring more opportunities to assist the creative process in the future.” Foster + Partners remains an advocate of Omniverse. Nvidia also launched a herculean effort to create applications within Omniverse, for compositing models from different sources, rendering and viewing, as well as for simulation — all powered by its Nvidia RTX GPUs. At launch, the industry jumped in too, with Bentley Systems, Adobe, Autodesk, Epic Games, Esri, Graphisoft, Trimble, McNeel & Associates and Blender all supporting this USD capability.

Wrangling dumb geometry Since the USD format was developed for Pixar, its core capabilities are somewhat www.AECmag.com

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‘‘

One can easily imagine an application that receives BIM graphics via a streamed USD in the background, lightweighting the application and securing original data behind Autodesk’s firewall

’’

biased towards dumb geometry, materials and rendering, and not the metadata layered inside manufacturing and BIM systems. This is an obvious limitation if you want BIM functionality, but Pixar had no need for this capability when it developed USD. Nvidia, however, was able to scrape some additional metadata from BIM models and add it to USD. This additional information, however, remained ‘dark data’ to other users with USD viewers, because it was not defined in the Pixar USD format. In other words, this was Nvidia’s ‘special sauce’. From my conversations with folks at Nvidia, obvious frustration is evident with the limits of USD when it comes to the rich data that BIM tools encompass. There has been talk of slamming USD and IFC together, but two open formats combined do not make a third open format. Plus, there is an inherent danger in software firms unilaterally extending the USD format for their own undocumented use. It’s potentially a ‘death by a thousand variants’ situation. The expansion of USD to something a bit more ‘BIMmy’ is an approach that other firms in AEC have also advocated, especially Autodesk, where development teams were very excited by USD’s potential in all the markets serviced by the company. But how was this to come about, and would Pixar even be interested? This year, a response finally came. Shortly before the computer graphics event Siggraph in August, the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) was established. www.AECmag.com

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It’s headed up by Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk and Nvidia, with the aim of augmenting and standardising an OpenUSD specification. Further out, the goal is to achieve ISO standard status. While this may come as a surprise, USD as it stands today may be open source, but it’s not a standard - it belongs to Pixar. To move from being open source to being a true standard requires a clear, agreed-on specification and a groundswell of relevant support.

Not-so-rebel alliance “The Alliance for OpenUSD is an open, non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering standardisation, development, evolution and growth of OpenUSD. Through the Linux Foundation, which hosts OpenUSD, new members are encouraged to join and participate,” explained Steve May, CTO of Pixar and chairperson of AOUSD, at the August 2023 launch. “So, why do we need an OpenUSD? Well, USD isn’t used by many companies. It is not actually an official standard. In today’s world, we have accepted standards for things like text and photos and video — but not complex 3D content.” To achieve the full potential of OpenUSD, he continued, it needs to work across many platforms, on many kinds of devices, reliably and for years into the future. “So, the job of the Alliance has two parts. The first is to take the opensource project that Pixar created and make a specification that will enable it to become an international standard, that

can be used by anyone worldwide — just like the standards we use today, such as JPEG or H.264, HTML, or other standards. And the second thing is to continue to evolve and advance USD in ways that best serve the OpenUSD broader community.” The potential applications for OpenUSD are huge, May explained, which makes its development both exciting and challenging. “USD is applicable to anything related to 3D content, whether it’s more scientific applications, or other things. A lot of these areas also have overlap. So, benefits in one field may be very specific to something like industrial applications for scientific visualisation, or also have an overlap with what we do in entertainment.” At the start, the Alliance will have its own standards body during incubation, in order to get the specification to a point where it can be moved on to a more common standards body such as ISO. At the time of launch, there were no specific plans expressed for AEC workflows, but both Nvidia and Autodesk are obviously interested in expanding its capabilities in this area.

Autodesk talks USD Speaking with Autodesk’s VP of software architecture, Oliver Goldman, I asked what Autodesk might add to USD and whether we could expect to see an AECspecific ‘flavour’ of USD. “That’s what we all want to find out,” he responded. “I think it must be a joint conversation. What’s exciting about setting September / October 2023

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up the Alliance for OpenUSD is that it’s depend on and use today to create built giving us a forum where we can work infrastructure.” with everybody involved as partners and His colleague Gordon Bradley, fellow of figure out what those answers need to be.” media & entertainment at Autodesk, Regarding the combination of IFC and agrees. “It’s about making sure that we USD, he added: “You can’t just take two don’t fragment USD, and we’re looking to standards and slap them together and do that by promoting interoperability expect to get a useful result out of it. I through standardisation. A huge piece of think we have a lot of work in front of us to this is going to be working with all stakefigure out how we can bring them together holders, including industries like AEC, to in an intelligent way. What I would also understand the things that need to be point out is that standards in the AEC common to enable the kinds of workflows space are incredibly powerwe want. AOUSD is a really ful and incredibly important great opportunity, as it’s and they are ever-evolving. kind of a missing piece of the With huge There are new standards. puzzle, one that gives us an firms backing open place to figure that out There are new versions of IFC. I think to the extent that together. Because, you and now there’s some convergence in know, if USD fragments into actively technology and maybe even all those pieces, it’s not going shaping USD, to deliver the promise. It’s industries here, we need to its future look at how to bring these not going to deliver the things together. How do we value we want.” ubiquity is evolve the standards in the With the expansion of looking like a USD, AEC world to bring in the there is also the issue good bet goodness of USD and that of how much Pixar wants to technology stack? expand the format? What Early conversations held additions to the core schema in advance of the Alliance’s founding make the most sense? One of USD’s curfocused on the complications and the sheer rent advantages is that it’s lightweight amount of work ahead. “One of the reasons and performant. BIM data, on the other we want to put this alliance together and hand, has eaten all the pies! If the aim is have AEC participate is that there’s clearly to add BIM data to USD, what are the something to do here. And yet I don’t chances of USD sinking under BIM know exactly what that is going to look bloat? Since USD variants (USDZ, like. I do think success looks like some- USDA) already exist, could there be thing that the AEC industry can see as the extensions for AEC models? next evolution of the standards that we “You’re raising several concerns – per-

‘‘

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formance, scale, size and the potential bloat of these files. And then another concern is maybe around how many extensions we have? And will that make it difficult to manage compatibility and whatnot? I think you’re very quickly identifying the challenges that we will be working on with our partners in the Alliance,” Goldman responded. “With respect to the extensions, if we end up with a case of everyone having their own extensions and we don’t have interoperable data, then we probably haven’t done customers a lot of good. And we certainly haven’t met our goals for what we want to accomplish in our AEC portfolio with Forma [Ed: Forma is Autodesk’s AEC cloud-based platform - www. tinyurl.com/forma-AEC]. We hope to very much work against that,” he continued. “I don’t see any reason that we can’t avoid that outcome with respect to the amount of data and how we integrate all of that into USD. I don’t think we know the answers to that yet. There are plenty of techniques for data modelling and data serialisation that can be brought to bear on problems like this. I think what’s great about the Alliance is being able to sit down collectively with partners like Adobe and Nvidia and others and say, ‘Okay, out of these options that we have, let’s find the one that works collectively across the board’, so that we can get that singular approach and get the consistency and make it work.” According to Bradley, the formation of AOUSD is an acknowledgement that to

What is USD (Universal Scene Description)?

USD (Universal Scene Description) was originally developed and open-sourced by Pixar Animation Studios to help its multidisciplinary teams (modellers, renderers, animators, environment artists, lighting and camera operators and so on) share complete 3D ‘scene descriptions’ between a mixture of different software applications.

This allows collaboration around work packages containing many gigabytes of data. It also means that a department could be working on the same data in Autodesk Maya, Houdini, V-Ray and Renderman, with USD storing incremental changes and tracking them. USD supports creating, editing, rendering, and simulating in a common-coordinate virtual space. It is equally applicable to other fields that use 3D, such as architecture, engineering, design, manufacturing, retail and robotics. While it is a file, USD is a multi-format framework that provides interoperability, collaboration, modelling and data interchange and could easily be applied to use in a cloud database. It has several features that make it a powerful tool for data modelling and interchange:

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The composition engine allows users to modify composed ‘scenes’ in different layers, without disrupting the source. This makes it easier to handle large, complex scenes and collaborate

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USD’s data model is fully extensible, supporting custom schemas, such as the physics schemas developed by Pixar and Apple for rigid bodies, or Nvidia’s Flow for combustible fluid, fire and smoke simulation. This makes USD suitable for a variety of applications and industries such as AEC and engineering

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USD is ‘system agnostic’, in that it is not linked to any proprietary system and enables dynamic content creation

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USD uses the Hydra Rendering Framework, which is like Nvidia’s SLI and AMD’s Crossfire technologies, with the key difference of supporting GPUs from different vendors. Hydra interactive rendering mode feeds in-viewport or external rendering engines such as Pixar’s Storm and Chaos’ V-Ray.

USD’s scalability and extensibility, combined with its collaboration potential, make it potentially a very useful format in architecture and engineering. The geometry of BIM models, topology, infrastructure, environment data, materials and physical properties can all be brought together in portable files that contain a virtual world for simulation, analysis and visualisation.

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Cover story take USD to the next level, to see it play an active role in industries like AEC and also work on browsers, mobile devices and so on, it simply can’t be owned and managed by any individual company. It can’t reach the scale it needs to become a standard under such conditions. “That’s really the big step up we’re taking here with AOUSD - moving USD out into an open standard, where we can bring the right stakeholders in around it and make good decisions together, and document those decisions, so that one pull request to the GitHub can’t break the behaviour in a web browser or in an AEC workflow.” The plan is to have a set of working groups in which stakeholders with specific domain expertise come together. These will operate under the framework of a technical advisory committee, which has the responsibility to look across all of USD and ensure that the principles of the data model are respected so that it will keep working for everybody involved.

Nvidia’s take on USD Guy Martin, Nvidia’s director of open source & standards, has a long history in open source development. In our conversation, he characterised this move as being nothing short of “the advent of HTML for 3D data.” A big claim, indeed. “With open-source development, it gets to a certain point when it needs to be standardised, as things fragment, and you can’t have that if you want wider adoption. Businesses need to feel that it’s reliable,”

he said. The problem with standards bodies, he added, is that getting anything done can take years, “so the plan is to innovate at scale with flexible governance.” The start point is to develop a core specification working group to look at the code and work out exactly what is core. Other working groups will focus on additional capabilities. And as to what these capabilities might be? “Well, it’s anything that is 3D content, up to a full virtual replica, like a digital twin or city model,” he replied. “We can’t forget that extended and augmented reality will be ready to consume this data and merge it with the physical world.” Much of what’s needed really plays to Nvidia’s strengths - GPU acceleration, cloud distribution, rendering views and interaction. And having already invested so much in developing Omniverse, wider adoption of USD as a general business consumption format for 3D would be extremely good news for Nvidia, hence the seriousness of its commitment. In passing, Martin acknowledged that the Khronos Group’s glTF standard was also a great 3D delivery format and that it is actively seeking to establish a liaison agreement that will see USD and glTF playing nicely together, as they clearly complement each other in terms of application areas.

Work in progress AOUSD is obviously a work in progress, but it’s good to hear that those involved have very similar outlooks on how it

should move forward. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the Alliance to produce something that can actually be used by the industry. There’s a lot of pentup demand, after all. At the same time, IFC 5 has been specified and is in the works, and it’s looking spicy. Who knows: maybe we will be spoilt for choice? While anything designed by a committee rarely over-delivers, the founding firms are just a handful of big players, with disparate but overlapping interests, suggesting that progress may be made faster than it could be by a larger, more diverse group. Let’s not forget that Autodesk has Forma to develop. I think USD is something that company executives may be thinking of using both internally and as an interchange format. At some point, the Revit database might be unhooked from Revit and kept only within Forma’s unified database on Autodesk’s servers. One can easily imagine an application that receives BIM graphics via a streamed USD in the background, lightweighting the application and securing original data behind Autodesk’s firewall. For now, the most immediate winner will be Nvidia, as it already had the foresight to develop a USD-driven platform. Any advances in USD will immediately benefit Omniverse’s data handling capabilities. That said, anything solid could still be two to three years away. With huge firms backing and now actively shaping USD, its future ubiquity is looking like a good bet.

What is Nvidia Omniverse Cloud? Nvidia Omniverse Cloud is a cloud platform service that enables AEC disciplines to collaborate in a visually immersive environment. This realtime collaborative space facilitates seamless integration of accurate 3D data from disparate CAD and BIM tools in a collaborative virtual world powered by servers stuffed full of Nvidia RTX GPUs for massive, complex, real-time 3D workflows. Because Omniverse is based on the USD format, different users in a variety of locations, using different software tools such as Revit, Rhino and SketchUp, can collectively work on a building project simultaneously. Users can modify the models, materials, windows, lights and so on, and they can see each other’s changes in real time. Because it’s Nvidia and its powerful GPUs are at work here, the model can also be photorealistically rendered

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while all this is being built, complete with sunlight, clouds and materials. Omniverse can also serve as a platform for basic mark-up comments or to run through multiple variations of a design. Again, using GPUs, analyses and simulations can be run on anything from an individual building to a whole city, such as studies of light, solar gain, wind or pollution. It’s also an environment for third-party software developers to offer their own applications. At the heart of Omniverse is the ‘Nucleus’, a central hub for managing all the USD elements across various applications, integrating them with the platform. Plug-ins used in core design apps enable real-time transmission of modifications made in Revit, Rhino and so on to Omniverse. The Nucleus is implemented either on Nvidia’s own servers or on an on-

premise basis. It can be hosted on either a server or even a desktop, should your machine have an Nvidia RTX card. Nvidia has put a lot of effort into its USD environment and shows no sign of slowing down. The latest R&D from

Nvidia, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH in August, showed how AI could be applied to a living room scene in Omniverse, to modify brick and materials choices. It’s amazing stuff. (www.tinyurl.com/Omniverse-demo).

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Software

Rayon: Figma for AEC CAD BIM may be fixated on modelling, but the fact is that not every project or every drawing really needs to be derived from a 3D model. Traditional 2D is good enough, but when combined with the power of the cloud, there’s change coming, writes Martyn Day

EC Magazine has been keep2D CAD will always be important to does design, collaboration, and distribuing an eye on all the BIM start- the industry but other than familiarity of tion via the power of the cloud, with very ups that have entered the interface and perhaps any specialised in- little knowledge required. space over the last few years. house customisation, all the products While our gaze has focussed on the 3D listed above are perfectly interchangea- Drawing design modelling world, and those taking on ble as professional drafting tools. As you would expect there are typical Revit, software developers have not just tools like walls. These are auto dimenA new dynamic been concentrating on 3D, but 2D as well. sioned, giving immediate feedback, with This month marks the official launch Rayon lives in the cloud and is an accurate many options to change or customise the and announcement of a €4 million drawing and space planning tool aimed at look and feel with colour or hatching fill. investment raise in Rayon, a French the AEC space, with support DWG, DXF, There are options for wall alignment, start-up that is looking to take on 2D PDF and image formats. Rayon enables thickness, and other properties. Editing AEC CAD by utilising the cloud and drawings to be created and annotated and is simply grab and move. CAD users will offering a fresh outlook to bring new comes with lots of blocks and libraries of be used to the standard scale, move, smart capabilities, effortless collabora- furniture and commonly used items. rotate, mirror, copy, explode, join, trim, tion and ease of use to layextended, offset and chamout design. We have to say, fer functionality. for an initial offering, Blocks and library comRayon’s fresh clean interface, the simple and Rayon’s interface and simponents are loaded per smart tools, plus the speed and collaboration drawing, so a sub-selection plicity is exquisite. Before digging in, we capabilities make me excited about 2D again – of what you will use is must ask the question, why available – which, to be honest, I didn’t think was possible immediately do professional 2D CAD which saves trawling packages still cost so through huge libraries. much? It’s just lines, cirItems like doors and wincles, and arcs! By the time we got out of By being in the cloud, it enables real- dows just get dragged and dropped to the the 1990s, most CAD tools had enough time simultaneous collaboration on canvas and these automatically create features to do more than was required to drawings with team members from all openings which can be scaled in-place. produce 2D drawings. over the planet. This includes annota- Other content blocks, like furniture can be Looking at Autodesk’s website, full tion, live chat, comments, revisions and edited and scaled on the fly, with dynamic AutoCAD is £1,986 per year ($1,975 per one click sharing. This means you can feedback at the point of the mouse. year in the USA) and LT comes in at a rea- draw a layout or feasibility study and Zones are allocated to enclosed wall sonable £486 ($490 in USA) a year. There share it with a client and discuss the spaces. These are auto recognised and may well be considerable savings to be had design and make changes in real-time. just require a simple click, which then by moving elsewhere, with good DWG Looking at traditional AEC tool work- gives the ‘live’ area count. Zones can be alternatives, such as BricsCAD Pro flows, there is a lot of juggling of formats, coloured, hatched or images applied (like (£1,073) and lite (£517), Dassault Systèmes sending files around and the need for a floor tiling). Layers are a common conDraftSight at £380 and Ares Commander additional mark-up tools. This all adds cept for component organisation and fol(Desktop, Mobile and Cloud) from time delays and ultimately adds cost. low common CAD logic. Items can be Graebert at £300 (with floating licences). Rayon’s unique selling point is that it moved around between layers, and lay-

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ers can be locked and hidden. Comments and annotations start with dropping a pin, whereupon the user can add an associated comment. There’s also freehand drawing to show intent. On the top right of the interface there’s a share button where members can be added, together with their editing rights (admin, editor, viewer). These can also be made public through a URL link, giving the ability to view, measure and see comments/annotations. It’s also possible to make tables for lists and spreadsheets from drawing data. Rayon will automatically recognise zones, users can add property information such as a price to furniture blocks, and the system will then count and tabulate the number and value. Rayon’s Pages feature is the equivalent of a layout tool. Drawing sizes can be allocated and scale chosen as well as title blocks, if necessary. The system supports nested blocks and multiple pages can be created and outputted simultaneously.

ple and smart tools, plus the speed and collaboration capabilities make me excited about 2D again – which, to be honest, I didn’t think was possible. Did the wheel need reinventing? In the case of building layout, Rayon has confirmed the answer is yes.

BIM Lite is here

With so many start-ups concentrating on delivering new and novel approaches to rapid modelling, and now drawing, there seems to be this emerging ‘BIM Lite’ genre of products appearing. While the industry has been trying to tame BIM with varying degrees of success, for many firms and projects, Rayon, Snaptrude, Arcol or CoDesign may well be applications in which ideas can be captured and shared much quicker than by traditional BIM tools. One part of this is having interfaces decluttered as fresh code, another is limited feature sets of new apps, but it’s also down to recognising that not all nails need a Revit hammer. At some point these Impressions tools will converge and be part of the rich As a layout application, Rayon is slick, fast tapestry of tools available to designers. and quite rich for a first version. As it’s in the cloud, it is improving month on month Investment with new features. So far, the basics have This month Rayon announced it has raised been done and it’s very impressive. Is it a €4 million in seed funding, which brings replacement for a full pro-drafting tool total funding to €5.75 million. Initial inveswith four decades of feature development? tors include Norman Foster and Rasmus No, not yet, but I would hazard a guess Andersson (Figma). In this latest round that for 80% of drawing users, it’s already comes Northzone and Foundamental, the a powerful alternative, or has capabilities latter of which is also an investor in which would be a great add-on to current Snaptrude and Speckle. The new seed DWG workflows. money will be used to grow the engineerRayon’s fresh clean interface, the sim- ing team and gain growth and traction. www.AECmag.com

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Conclusion Rayon, offering to be the ‘Figma for 2D CAD’, joins the fresh start ups of Arcol and Snaptrude which aim to be the Figma for the BIM world. (N.B. Figma is a cloudbased application for user interface and user experience design, with a big emphasis on real-time collaboration). For traditional design tool developers, whose products have evolved over decades, this new batch of cloud-centric startups may currently seem to be feature-poor tools which have several good collaboration features. However, over time, they are going to become serious competitors should they gain any traction and be able to keep up aggressive development plans. By opting for the cloud and browser deployment, it’s much easier to start fresh and build up, rather than try and bolt on cloud kludges to desktop code, to emulate capability. Rayon is not only low-cost, but it’s been well thought through and implemented. It’s intriguing that Norman Foster has even chosen to invest in this start-up. That is not news one hears often. There’s plenty more to add, but the fact that the Rayon team has considerable AI experience, but has not yet deployed any of their know-how in the platform, means that one can only wonder at what capabilities will be coming to the cloud near you soon. Rayon is free, with the limitation of three models with up to five simultaneous editors. ‘Pro’ is €29 per month with unlimited models and five editors, while ‘Team’ is €59 per month for unlimited usage with dedicated support and Single Sign On. ■ www.rayon.design

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Software

Arcol: a sneak peek As several start-ups plan their BIM 2.0 beta programmes, Arcol is opening up access to its cloudbased modeller for one-week trials in a bid to achieve first-mover advantage in a fast-changing market

n recent years, venture capitalists have been reluctant to invest in desktop applications, believing that the future lies in cloud and subscription-based models. Adobe and Autodesk have paved the way with their own cloud-based offerings, but with Revit firmly on the desktop and no second generation in the works, a big opportunity stands wide open for the first company to create a truly powerful, collaborative cloud-based BIM tool. Arcol plans to be that company and, along with Snaptrude, was one of the first to come out of stealth development (www.tinyurl.com/arcol-AEC). The company’s core principle is to rethink the way that design authoring applications work. By drawing inspiration from tools like Figma, a collaborative diagramming application, Arcol aims to create a centralised BIM system, in which multiple designers can work simultaneously on an architectural project. Because it’s web-based and accessible through a browser, it eliminates the need for software installation on a desktop and supports real-time collaboration. The goal is to create a tool that contains the entire history of a project, allowing designers to easily track changes, comments, and sketches.

Revit replacements? Some people get a tad over-excited when a product is pitched as a Revit replacement or a brand-new BIM tool. The ten18

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dency is then to ‘diss’ the current functionality of that product, dismissing it as being too limited. But while BIM aspirations are indeed the long-term goal of companies such as Arcol, competing with today’s more mature solutions is going to take a number of years of hard development, not to mention a lot of cash. As these applications develop, however, it’s likely they will start to offer features that are complementary to today’s BIM apps, such as real-time sharing and collaboration of data. Or, they may seemingly be much better, more akin to a BIM-like SketchUp. This is great, but it’s important to keep in mind that it’s early days for developers at these companies, who are still looking for feedback, pointers and insight from users as to how what they’ve achieved so far could be improved, or applied to real-life use cases. With that in mind, Arcol executives have made the decision to allow interested parties to sign up and get free access for one week. This will give prospective customers a chance to play with a limited feature set, experiment with geometry creation and get hands-on with some of Arcol’s rudimentary BIM capabilities (walls, doors, windows, and so on). They’ll also have the opportunity to get familiar with a sample UI. This one-week trial is offered in addition to the direct closed beta agreements that Arcol has made with some firms. The idea is to get rapid feedback from a

broad cross-section of users, and perhaps in the process to whet their appetites for the product - all while being able to avoid exposing their application development to the masses (and critically, the competition). I suspect that the Arcol team will be running more one-week trials in future, when it has more to show. But even in its current form, Arcol is shaping up as a very cool conceptual design tool. In this early stage of development, it’s a kind of SketchUp-plus. You start by creating a new project, using a simple in-browser interface, setting project location, units and so on. There are two tabs: one for Design and the other for Construct. Design is a sketch tool, in which polylines can be used to define shapes. A closed shape can then be extruded, with opacity changes, boolean operations for complex shapes, and massing. Construction offers walls, doors and windows, and the placement of other BIM elements, all of which are editable. The software supports a layers-based system. As you model BIM components, a model tree builds in the menu for each component. If you want to collaborate, you simply share a project-specific URL with a colleague. They click on it, and suddenly they are in your session, enabling you to model and edit together. Creating walls is easy and placing components within them is fast and accurate. You can bring in 3D city data to give your www.AECmag.com

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Arcol is shaping up as a very cool conceptual design tool. In this early stage of development, it’s a kind of SketchUp-plus

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model context. The quality of the graphics is good, with accurate architectural shading of the models. The Boards concept lets the user create mood boards based on user-defined sheets, which can be a mixture of models, views, images and can be output to PDF.

A successful stage one

Arcol has a solid vision for its Stage One. This covers the whole conceptual design phase, with a product that claims to be a mixture of Revit, SketchUp, Adobe Indesign, Bluebeam and Miro, all in one web-based collaborative package – and it’s impressively responsive for a 3D cloud application. For me, some aspects of the UI are not perfectly intuitive (booleans, in particular), but I did manage to use 95% of the feature set without having to refer to the manual. Trying to select nested geometry in some of the demo models was sometimes frustrating, but this might have been down to my poor ability to manipulate the views. Arcol is actually not that far off now from hitting its initial Stage One objective for massing and simple building design. It’s hard to estimate product velocity, because company executives are secret squirrels regarding the hitand-run preview, but I can see that the team is focused on delivering the basics well and in-depth, as opposed to going broad and thin. ■ www.arcol.io

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Feature

Graphisoft’s

Building Together 2023 At an event held at its Budapest headquarters in early October, Graphisoft unveiled its latest release, featuring a broad range of crowdpleasing BIM enhancements, bulked-up MEP capabilities and some intriguing new AI capabilities, writes Martyn Day

Meanwhile, Autodesk appears to be to these needs by creating new layers, raphisoft enjoys a solid reputation for delivering consistent slowing development of Revit as it tran- using hotlinks, or requiring a current value with every annual sitions to a new cloud-based platform copy of the model to be created, on which experiments could be carried out. That’s release. This year is no excep- called Forma. As it stands, DDScad now lives a dual not very efficient and, frankly, highlights tion, with the Hungary-based developer of BIM software (part of the Nemetschek existence, both as a standalone product the fact that the software hasn’t been group) unveiling useful enhancements to and as a part of Archicad. Graphisoft built to address these critical points. In response, Archicad 27 now offers a its core Archicad, BIMcloud and BIMx executives say that they are committed to programmes for design, collaboration DDScad’s existing customer base and its Design Options feature. This enables product development roadmap, even as architects and multidisciplinary teams to and project management, respectively. Let’s start with design. Archicad is a they work to broaden its appeal for a efficiently evaluate and communicate a tool that has historically done well with more BIM-focused audience. The latest range of design options to clients, hopefularchitecture firms, having successfully version of DDScad introduces access to ly reducing the time required to find the manufacturer data, best alternatives. In the mechanical CAD carved out a dual Apple/Windows niche out-of-the-box for itself. Since last year’s release, intended to simplify the MEP design pro- (MCAD) world, this Design Options Graphisoft has been on a mission to sig- cess. New product data technology approach is known as branching and nificantly expand the programme’s fea- enhances the openBIM capabilities of the merging, and it’s really powerful. As an ture set, adding a raft of MEP capabilities product, giving engineers greater free- example, take a look at PTC Onshape enabled by integration with fellow dom and flexibility when it comes to (www.tinyurl.com/onshape-branch), where branching and mergNemetschek stableing supports the quick mate, DDScad. iteration of ideas and With this year’s When it comes to AI, Graphisoft presents a timely brings the best of Archicad 27, the reminder that it’s not necessarily going to be thirdthese back into the company continues its journey to party developers or miracle start-ups that will disrupt design. For now, Design empower architects the market, but perhaps established incumbents Options represents with better tools and Archicad’s first take deliver strong capaon this capability, and bilities for multidisciplinary teams, both in MEP and struc- design. And DDScad in Archicad brings it’s got some way to go yet. But what’s new intelligence as MEP piping is laid offered here is a solid foundation for furtural workflows. This presents a direct challenge to out and size changes are required. ther refinement of the idea. Graphisoft There have also been updates to executives, incidentally, claim that competitor Autodesk Revit, the market’s 800-pound gorilla, which has always Archicad’s Structural Analytical Model, Archicad is the first BIM tool to offer this benefited from offering a broad, multi- designed to enable seamless collabora- kind of capability. In fact, it’s been includdisciplinary feature set. Graphisoft’s tion between different disciplines for effi- ed in Revit since version 6 (which dates decision to fold in DDScad functionality cient project execution and more success- back to 2003), although not many users and build strong links to Nemetschek’s ful outcomes. A new manual adjustment may be aware of it. Frilo, Risa and Scia brands will broaden feature helps users to achieve a continuArchicad’s appeal and enable the pack- ous structural-analytical model on com- AI visualisation age to compete feature by feature with plex projects. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot As a design progresses, there are criti- topic in this marketplace for a few years Revit. It’s a significant industry play. With each new release, Archicad is cal points in the process where important now and Graphisoft is one of the first to becoming more than just ‘Archi’, and will decisions need to be made and, often, add sprinkles of AI to its core design tool. be better able to compete with Revit as a some variances need to be trialled. My feeling is that these were added late in Typically, Archicad users would respond the day, bearing in mind the lack of proddesktop BIM tool with cloud capabilities.

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uct information available beyond a quick demo. But essentially, what the company has developed is its own version of Veras (www.tinyurl.com/veras-AI), an AI-based renderer for BIM models created in Revit – but, of course, Graphisoft’s version is aimed specifically at Archicad users. The problem with bare-bones conceptual image generators and ChatGPT text descriptions is that they are hard to control and don’t always deliver consistency. But by using a BIM model as a constraint, you can focus the power of an AI renderer to automatically generate all sorts of architectural treatments to a proposed building. And without having to become a rendering nerd, a user can harness AI to get new inspiration when it comes to environments, materials and styles, delivered in the form of photorealistic output. AI visualisation is part of the product roadmap that Graphisoft released last year (www.graphisoft.com/product-roadmap/ under-research). Historically, the company has tended towards a secret squirrel approach, revealing new features only on a year-to-year basis. But with the trend towards subscription-based licensing, and in order to satisfy a customer base that increasingly demands open dialogue with vendors, the company has outlined some broad ‘buckets’ into which it will pour its development efforts. AI is clearly going to be one of the biggest of these buckets. The company’s product roadmap clearly states that it will look at, “the use of AI and machine learning to assist designers, allowing them to focus on the creative and value-adding aspects of their profession.” The examples the company gives of AI-assisted tasks include “design optimisation, sustainability, documentation, and automation of other time-consuming tasks.” It is also worth noting that Graphisoft has doubled down on its work with www.AECmag.com

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Enscape, the real-time visu- Archicad’s new AI renderer bles real-time collaboration uses a BIM model as the alisation software, to build a between team members, source for the automatic more streamlined connector. which comes in handy on generation of all sorts of It’s now possible to map any architectural treatments to large projects or for teams a proposed building Archicad object to any highwhose members work in difpoly Enscape asset, giving ferent locations, which these users the best of both worlds. Enscape is days, is most teams. also now available for the Mac OS platThe latest updates focus on enhancing form and is available for Subscription, security, a crucial concern for design Forward and SSA users. firms in a digital age. Multi-factor authenThere is also new native support in tication has been introduced to ensure Archicad for the import/export of indus- data protection and secure access to try-standard FBX files to augmented and shared projects. It’s also great that virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, with BIMcloud is available for both private smart meshing on hand to generate mod- and public cloud configurations. els that deliver the best performance. In project management, the latest Other enhancements in Archicad 27 updates to presentation and coordination focus on project manageability, with app BIMx bridge the gaps that often exist additions to the attribute management between design studios, client offices and workflow. Architects can now organise construction sites. There are some new more attributes by folders to improve issue reporting capabilities, which aim to design team efficiency. The upgrade also reduce the time it takes to resolve probincludes new productivity tools, such as lems discovered on construction sites or distance guides for placing elements. This during project coordination meetings. aims to make the design process more Architects, clients, and construction enjoyable and intuitive for architects who teams can now communicate and address might be transitioning from other plat- issues more effectively, leading to forms. Version 27 now supports RFA and smoother project execution and improved RVT Geometry Exchange with Revit overall quality. 2024 and is equipped with the IFC4 file Here, it’s worth mentioning that import and export certification. Graphisoft now offers a subscriptionThere’s also the new, intelligent based bundle for small firms, Archicad Archicad Tracker, which includes its own Collaborate. This includes Archicad, calculator, allowing users to multiply, BIMx and also BIMcloud SaaS, with divide, add or subtract functions directly BIMcloud SaaS included as part of the from the Tracker. Archicad subscription price. That’s an The new GDL Editor, meanwhile, deliv- unusual step in this market, where ers easier navigation, thanks to syntax Autodesk and others charge additional highlights, which are shortcuts for editing fees for cloud services, but one that lowcommands. These improvements make it ers the barrier to entry for small firms. harder to create poorly written GDL. GDL From a look at the price list, it seems that Archicad Collaborate costs pretty much Editor also supports dark mode. the same as a standard Archicad subBIMcloud and BIMx scription licence, making the former a noMoving on to collaboration, let’s look at brainer for firms that opt for a subscripBIMcloud. This cloud-based solution ena- tion approach. September / October 2023

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Feature

Conclusion It’s clear that Graphisoft is doing a lot of reconfiguring, rearchitecting and remodelling when it comes to its most popular products. That may have been the case before – perhaps the company was just more covert about it. But I suspect it’s a proactive response by Nemetschek and Graphisoft to a rapidly changing market, one in which opportunities are opening up. In order to make the most of them, Archicad needs capabilities, cloud extensions and bundles that give it more appeal in an uncertain BIM landscape. When it comes to AI, Graphisoft presents a timely reminder that it’s not necessarily going to be third-party developers or miracle start-ups that will disrupt the market, but perhaps established incumbents. Graphisoft, Autodesk, Bentley and others are all looking for ways to incorporate AI features in ways that complement their existing toolsets, often with a view to delivering productivity benefits, or new ways to experiment with ideas. It will be interesting to see if, in the future, they choose to disrupt themselves, as AI becomes increasingly capable of delivering true automated drawings.

The new Design Options way makes sense: desktop, After all, that’s one of the core feature enables architects cloud, on-premise, off-premtenets of BIM; but it might and multidisciplinary teams ise, Windows Intel, Apple also result in fewer seats of to efficiently evaluate and Mac and even Windows BIM and CAD software being communicate a range of design options to clients ARM in the future. In other needed by customers. words, it’s all about giving While Autodesk is clearly going down the ‘cloud is everything’ customers options. That’s clearly going route and will take time to cross that to involve a lot of code-juggling for the chasm, Graphisoft is wedded to a more vendor, but it’s also a clear differentiator flexible vision of the future, in which for Graphisoft. users can access their data in whatever ■ www.graphisoft.com

Looking ahead with Márton Kiss of Graphisoft In Budapest, AEC Magazine got the opportunity to sit down with Márton Kiss, vice president of product success at Graphisoft, to discuss aspects of this latest release and the company’s future product development plans. As we pointed out to him, it seems as if Graphisoft has moved away from delivering ‘big theme’ releases (for example, focusing on retrofit), in favour of more iterative development of software features. But is that actually the case, from his perspective? “Last year, we unveiled our public roadmap. This has been super useful for us, because whenever we visit a client, right away they have the roadmap there, and they can tell us this feature is irrelevant for them or not,” he said. That process brings with it a lot of customer intelligence regarding what the user base considers important or not. Take, for example, search capabilities: “Putting the right search in the right place can be a huge productivity benefit for daily users,” he said. “Once you have a major solution,

these ‘big bang’ features that we cook internally might take us off track compared to where the industry is going. It’s far better to have a dialogue, because everybody utilises new innovations in different ways, and we really need to see that pattern. While we, and most software companies, have the means to collect that usage, human conversations always give us qualitative input for our development story,” he continued. “From a Graphisoft side, I think we will do more of these micro roadmaps of functionality with close iteration, because that’s really solving the problems of our users. In the background, obviously, as new technology comes in, then the big bang approach to adding functionality has a role.” For example, the AI trend is about looking for a silver capability out there, he said. “In this release, we have AI rendering, and the focus was to first of all get this framework into Archicad, so that we can connect an AI conceptual rendering engine. In our case, we opted for Stable Diffusion, but there are many. Once

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we get it out there, we will see where people take this.” With AI under discussion everywhere, one of the main concerns often raised is where the technology could cross over, going from simply being an aid to taking control of complete portions of the workflow. The most obvious area in which this could happen is AI drawings. While BIM’s initial reason for existence was to automate drawings production, it seems that most people in the industry were dissatisfied with the quality of automated output. So, while BIM increased the speed of documentation, it also increased the number of documents and the amount of editing needed for manual drawings, which kind of broke the link with the model. AI promises to fix drawing layout and production in the nottoo-distant future, with many firms working on it, and some attempting to include modelling as well, such as Swapp

(www.tinyurl.com/swapp-aec). But how does Kiss envisage AI documentation redefining industry workflows? “I’m with you that it’s going to reshape roles. Modelling, documentation — for any mundane task or any repetitive task, technologically, you can build an AI to do that, so long as there is proper training data,” he responded. “But while you may have AIgenerated outputs, how do you control the quality? After all, you are liable for this! So maybe the architecture and the designer roles will shift focus to early modelling concepts, steering decisions that are inputted to the AI tools. While lots will be generated automatically, then the role will be proofing and checking quality, to make sure everything is right. I think this is going to also apply to construction, because it’s the weakest point in the whole building industry and you need to qualitycheck the real world against the design documents.”

www.AECmag.com

19/10/2023 15:37

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Feature

Nemetschek’s take on the digital twin Building a digital twin requires many different disparate software and hardware data inputs. Nemetschek is looking to bring an open data approach to an increasingly proprietary digital twin market, writes Martyn Day

ndustry interest in digital twins continues to gather pace. While postbuild workflows, involving the combination of BIM, GIS, service information, asset logs and live sensors have yet to gain serious mainstream traction, products are maturing as the market gets educated on their potential benefits. We are seeing new players joining the market. Nemetschek, the German-based AEC/O software house, which owns brands such as Graphisoft, Vectorworks, Allplan, dRofus and Bluebeam, is aiming to make a major play in the digital twin segment, with products to help manage the lifecycle of built assets. The company is unique in the BIM market, in that it owns three separate BIM modellers. Not only that, but it’s Digital twin of an umbrella for some 13 subMagazine caught up with companies, which each operate Glasbokkene Trinn 2, Rodriguez and Graphisoft CEO a large 50,000 independently and address a square metre hospital Huw Roberts to talk about digifor children and very broad range of needs. To tal twins, the Nemetschek teenagers, based in name but a few, these include Group’s approach and what Bergen, Norway real estate management, conthey believe the company’s struction management, document genera- ’special sauce’ will bring to this market. tion and management, structural analysis Twin development tools and rendering engines. In short, Nemetschek has always From speaking with firms currently trydipped its fingers into all aspects of the ing to sell digital twins over more tradidigital AEC/O ecosystem. So digital tional computer aided facilities managetwins represent a natural next step, espe- ment (CAFM) solutions, it seems like it’s cially given that between them, its com- hard work right now to find buyers or pany brands already own some impor- architects who want to expand their clitant component technology. ent services by leveraging the BIM data As proof of its commitment to this new they create. opportunity, the company this year hired As Rodriguez explained, “A year industry veteran Cesar Flores Rodriguez before I joined Nemetschek I was already as its chief division officer (CDO) for a consultant for the company. Digital Operate & Manage and digital twin — a twins was an area I was evaluating and I role that involves him wearing ‘multiple had exactly the same questions. Digital hats’. Rodriguez takes on responsibilities twins are not suited to serve every single previously shouldered by Viktor segment within the AEC/O space. That’s Varkonyi, who recently left the company just not realistic.” after 20 years. As with any new piece of software, he At the recent Graphisoft Building continued, it’s a question of identifying Together event in Budapest, AEC the right segment, starting with owners 36

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and operators. “Within these, we pick the ones that are really asset-intensive. Long-term owners and operators of buildings, hospitals, airports and universities all do their own extensions. They all have their own kind of business motivations. Here, a digital twin makes perfect sense. That’s where we believe we need to start,” he told us. “We have conducted lots of interviews around the industry, including with architects and engineers. All of them were looking for new kinds of services to offer, along the whole lifecycle, and not only focusing on the design phase, for example, but going beyond it.” Surveying the market today — and in particular, observing Autodesk rapidly develop its Tandem offering — it’s interesting to see a company build off its proprietary BIM file, in Autodesk’s case, RVT, in order to cater to AEC/Os. Support for open standards like IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) were not an early consideration. But BIM is only part of the data contained in a digital twin. “Nemetschek overall, as a group, is focussed on openness and this applies to www.AECmag.com

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our vision for digital twins. We are going to enable digital twin creation in an open and completely neutral way,” explained Rodriguez. “That means even for Revit data, and any other format can be stored in our app or referenced. The data really is in the possession of the actual owner of the data, wherever it may be — whether it’s the building owner, the architect, we don’t care. And it can be downloaded locally, whatever the customer wants to do with it. I think that’s important. And it’s not caught up in a proprietary environment.” CEO Huw Roberts added that openness is central to the company’s value proposition — and not just because that’s the opposite of what its competition is doing. “We don’t want to have our value tied to being a ‘data holder’. We want to provide workflows, tools and capabilities to use that data,” he said. “As to adoption, it’s about educating our industry. But that has been the truth on many, many occasions already before, from paper to 2D drawings, from drawings to BIM. It’s an education. We are not the fastest moving industry in terms of digitalisation. As software providers, we need to help the industry to solve or mitigate its current pains, and it’s about how we can help companies to create more business and increase their proportion of the value chain.”

An owner/operator focus Having such a diverse portfolio of software firms, which all participate in the creation and use of building data, Nemetschek has some insight into which customers are keen on developing digital twins. From the company’s perspective, the important early adopters are owner/operators. “While we have architects, engineers and contractors, we also have owner/operator customers and there’s a bit of difference maybe to the other twin developers,” Rodriguez told us. Here, Nemetschek offers the Spacewell (www.spacewell.com) platform for FM/energy and asset management software, and also products from property/real estate management company, Crem (www.crem-solutions.de). “Are we as broad in our access to operators as Bentley Systems? No. But do we have access, and do we understand them? Yes! And we know how to find them, which is the most important thing. From speaking with them, we believe that we understand their pains,” he explained. One reference case is the Glasbokkene Trinn 2, a large 50,000 square metre hospital for children and teenagers, based in Bergen, Norway. “This is how this whole www.AECmag.com

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digital twin project came into life at mats, we were wondering how Nemetschek Nemetschek, where this owner/operator was handling using a wrapper to hold all of was pushing the whole value chain to a digital twin’s data. Rodriguez explained, establish a digital twin, a golden thread of “We’re not going to create any sort of ‘extra information, across the whole lifecycle, level’ of a file. The idea is really about the from very early on,” said Rodriguez. deep digital twin brain, where we connect “That meant that the people who were all the dots together.” taking care of facility management at the Take, for example, all of the BIM modvery end had to approve every single doc- elling data, point clouds, images and so ument, to guarantee they could operate, on that feed a digital twin. According to based on the information created and pro- Rodriguez, all of this is overlaid and vided in the design and build phases.” combined through GIS coordinate posiHere, Huw Roberts picked up on the tioning. “We can really combine the data company’s approach, “Fundamentally, without adding additional proprietary we don’t see digital twin as ‘more features problems, and it can be stored, like an for BIM’. I think our competitors do. extra file that is related to the digital Bentley’s place with digital twin. You can create twins is building off their reports from it, or use the modelling platform data. built-in user customisable Through its Again, with Autodesk Revit dashboards, alongside any and Forma, the approach is broad range of sort of analysis tool.” building off their own data Roberts added, “We recAEC/O and their ownership of that ognise that the software that acquisitions, data,” he said. is creating the data, acting While BIM data is a key on the data, is going to be Nemetschek contributor, he added, “so is permanent change. Every already has a photogrammetry, point one of those many data lot of the clouds, sensor data, inspecsources is going to be havtechnology for ing new versions, new tion data, spreadsheets, cost databases, user requireupdates, new enhancecreating the ments, documentation, ‘golden thread’ ments, all the time. When a etcetera. This knowledge is customer comes back to act of building the key to entry into the digon that data, in a more lifecycle ital twin commercial space.” robust way than digital twin use, who knows if that applications Going to market is a year from now or five With such a new market segyears from now? We don’t ment and a fair degree of want, on the one hand, to complexity in producing a digital twin lock in that data to a new format of our from multiple sources, we asked Rodriguez own. On the other hand, we don’t want to if Nemetschek’s approach to the market restrict users of that data from adapting would be more services-based or by going their own technology choices along the through traditional resellers. way, over time, either. It’s not just that the “We are a software vendor, so that’s data is not locked in. The tools that you’re what we are going to deliver. The big job using are not locked in either.” is building up the ecosystem surrounding Through its broad range of AEC/O it. So that’s service providers, consult- acquisitions, Nemetschek already has a ants, data capture companies, and so lot of the technology for creating the forth, and we’re already very close to ‘golden thread’ of building lifecycle applithese. We are already writing, signing cations. By encouraging cross-brand techcooperation contracts with many of these, nology sharing, the company has created so that they can build their services on a blueprint for an evolving, open digital top of our software platform,” he said. twin platform. “We’re also talking also to architectural The company’s approach to handling companies, as they have been asked to the collation of data appears unique and support hospitals, airports etcetera, and worthy of further investigation. The we need to know how to help them in the software is currently being used to monifuture, because there’s always massive tor Nemetschek’s own headquarters extension programmes running. There in Bavaria, which has been twinned, are certain areas that we have done and wired up and ‘dashboarded’ for further that they would like to have our advice development. upon. They’re all into it. They would like to position that kind of service as part of We plan to bring you more in-depth analysis of the overall portfolio to the owner.” the software’s capabilities in coming issues. With its commitment to open file for- ■ www.nemetschek.com

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Feature

Bentley Year in Infrastructure 2023 Digital twins, AI, infrastructure intelligence and subsurface capabilities were among the key themes discussed at Bentley Systems’ annual conference, held at the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. Martyn Day reports

ingapore is a city, but it also feels part-machine. To be strictly accurate, it’s a city-state, one of only three left in the world, along with European cousins, Monaco and the Vatican. Singapore’s machine-like qualities derive from the density of its infrastructure. It occupies 682.7 square kilometres, criss-crossed by 3,000 kilometres of roads and 200 kilometres of rail on which some 3 million users travel daily. That’s made it a Mecca for a company like Bentley Systems, according to Greg Bentley, CEO of the infrastructure engineering software company. Plus, much of Singapore’s infrastructure has already been digitised. Here, the benefits of going digital for planning, building, operations and maintenance can be seen everywhere — in the city-state’s public transport, roads and buildings. The efficiency metrics speak for themselves. In 2022, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) train network clocked 2.48 million train-km between delays. There was 38

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just one breakdown exceeding 30 minutes that year, across both the MRT and LRT (Light Rail Transit) networks. This remarkable reliability is down to regular maintenance and generous incentives to operators. Arriving in Singapore just as the UK government kiboshed half of the planned HS2 project because we couldn’t manage the budget properly, it wasn’t hard to feel as if the UK as a nation is rapidly devolving. And that’s without mentioning the UK’s water treatment plants, which now use rivers and beaches as part of the general sewage infrastructure. Such situations are further complicated by a profound skills gap, as Greg Bentley pointed out to attendees at the company’s annual Year In Infrastructure (YII) event held at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in mid-October 2023. The infrastructure industry, he said, faces a 10% engineering resource capacity gap, leaving it struggling to meet demand for maintenance work and new projects. Against this backdrop, doing more with

less remains as critical as ever, perhaps even more so — which to Bentley’s mind, means adopting digital tools that can deliver new efficiencies. In line with that thinking, project submitters at this year’s event were asked to quantify the engineering savings they had achieved by adopting digital processes. Among those able to make that calculation, the median savings were 18%. Switching tack to look at AI, and the hype surrounding it, Greg Bentley acknowledged that generative AI would be a big theme at the event, with a particular focus on what he terms ‘infrastructure intelligence’. The company plans to roll out a range of capabilities and strategies to get the most value out of infrastructure engineering data, he said, and AI is part of this. “Generative AI is a reminder that there’s lots of unrealised value to be compounded from the data we’re accumulating, even in ways we couldn’t anticipate.”

Changes underway In 2020, Bentley Systems went public and listed on NASDAQ. Between Covid, www.AECmag.com

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retirements, and employees cashing out, vert projects to iTwin workflows. This may the executive team has been transformed not sound like a huge change, but it is a funsince that time, to the extent that it almost damental shift that will assist in moving feels like a different company now. customers from file-based working to This year, Kristin Fallon joins Bentley streamed, rich databases. as chief marketing officer, coming from As Bentley CTO Julien Moutte GE Healthcare. Chris Bradshaw who was explained: “MicroStation remains the CMO, now takes the role of chief sustain- MicroStation that users have always ability officer. Oliver Conze joins as sen- used. It’s based on the power platform, it ior VP, Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, and produces DGN files. What’s new is that it Colin Ellam becomes chief executive offic- includes a plug-in that can synchronise in er of Cohesive, Bentley’s global systems parallel to what you’re doing with an integrator. iTwin locally on your machine. It’s not a Last year saw founder and all-round cache. It’s not a choice of file versus datamensch Keith Bentley retire, with Julien bases. It’s the file and the database being Moutte taking the CTO role and Mike created and synchronised at the same Campbell joining as chief product officer time. So, when you design, you produce a from PTC, a mechanical CAD and PLM DGN file, but you also produce an iTwin, software developer. The net result of these and it’s transparent for you as a user.” changes is a resurgence of focus and enerWhile the DGN remains “the source of gy. There certainly feels like there’s a new truth”, he said, “when you check your velocity and purpose within the company. DGN back into ProjectWise, then One of Bentley’s key new areas of focus ProjectWise and MicroStation collaborate is subsurface capabilities. In 2021, the with each other and ProjectWise knows company acquired Seequent, a leading 3D that it doesn’t need to convert the DGN to modelling software for geosciences, for an iTwin in the cloud, as it was already $1.05 billion. This has led the company done on the machine. When you push into a whole new underworld. Digital your changes to your iTwin, it’s as if you twins and infrastructure projects, after are pushing your commits to a Git-hub all, are often more about what’s under- style repository, that goes into the cloud, ground, rather than above it. and that keeps your iTwin up to date. But This year, Bentley Systems announced the DGN remains the source of truth.” its acquisition of Flow State Solutions, a So why keep DGN, in that case? Because provider of geothermal simulation soft- a lot of users still need DGN and Bentley ware. This move reinforces Seequent, to Systems doesn’t want to disrupt their further boost the company’s claim of hav- workflows, he said. “What we want to do is ing the most comprehensive suite of sub- to make sure that it’s as easy as possible for surface tools in the geothermal industry. customers to get started with iTwin. The Combining the capabilities digital twin should be proof Flow State Solutions’ duced transparently and sysVolsung portfolio with tematically for users. With Seequent’s expertise, the iTwin, there’s a lot of value With more acquisition creates an end-tothat we can then add on top of data being end solution for reservoir that comprehensive database, stored in the as it has a lot of new capabilianalysis, asset development iTwin format, ties, and a lot of new features and optimisation. By integrating the detailed subsurface Bentley now are going to be exposed on top models created in Seequent’s of the iTwin and the iModels.” faces new Leapfrog Energy with Flow As a result, customers will opportunities get many new features that State Solutions’ simulation environment, meanwhile, will only be possible because to apply AI users can develop a full across entire they have a database and a understanding of geothermal new kind of data format. And projects and they will have the possibility asset performance. drive new When it comes to digital to use those new features, twins, one of the key technolotogether with MicroStation, automation gy announcements this year because the iTwin and the was that the iTwin format will DGN are on the same be built into Bentley Systems’ machine. “For the users, it’s core modelling and drawing platform, completely transparent. They get the iTwin MicroStation. Because MicroStation is the created, and they have a lot of new features fundamental platform that underpins all of that will give them a reason to start to use Bentley Systems’ open platforms, this the iTwin more and more,” he explained. makes iTwin workflows an alternative to With the industry moving from files to file-based DGN. In other words, users are databases, this is a significant move for no longer required to specifically save/con- Bentley. Files are big lumps of data and

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every designer from each discipline generates their own files. Databases, by contrast, are transactional and easily shared, in order to hold one version of the truth. By moving to a modern database infrastructure, data can flow between all project participants, through the managed environment, while tracking changes, with high throughput at component level. By ensuring there’s a local iTwin copy, it enables users to work offline, not having to always be connected to the cloud/project management host. But when it does connect, it can synchronise with all the project information. So what are the benefits? As Moutte explained, “For a user, as you work with MicroStation, and you have this iTwin being created locally, you get features that are all ‘Git-like’ with your design.” In other words, they can see their list of element design changes (history); they can review them; and they can push those changes to the iTwin (collaborate), exactly like a software engineer working with source code. Trying to make DGN work this way would be clumsy, because it was never designed to do that. “It will be possible to work with another designer such as an (AI) co-pilot, analysing the model that you are creating, this is done while sharing all the changes that you do in the iTwin,” Moutte continued. “Being able to understand your design intent and try to automate and provide recommendations is much easier and much more efficient to do on the model and the database, than doing this on top of a DGN file. We have the full context. We have all the data from all the disciplines. We can understand the impact of changes that others have made. So that’s why I’m saying that you will have new features coming into MicroStation, made possible because we have the iTwin and iModel created behind the scenes, versus what you’re doing today.” It’s worth pointing out that Bentley has open-sourced its iTwin format. This is another big move, especially in an industry that has previously locked customer’s data into proprietary formats and leveraged business models off of that.

AI and automated drawings Artificial intelligence featured heavily at YII this year. Attendees were given many examples of customers already using AI in the inspection and analysis of infrastructure projects, such as bridges and dams. In the Transport category, this was a bit of a repeat from last year’s AI-related presentations, but the one big difference was that more of Bentley’s customer base are obviously using the technology now. There were more far-reaching potential use cases provided for AI this year, espeSeptember / October 2023

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Feature cially in discussions of AI co-pilots aiding designers in the modelling process and in automating drawing output. “Right now, this is research,” said Moutte. “It will be a discovery, as we try to understand what the places are where we can bring the most value. Right now, what we’re exploring is how we can help designers while they do the design, to explore more alternatives and understand why those alternatives could be more beneficial.” Some of those capabilities already exist in some of Bentley’s products, he said, but they are based on generic algorithms that try to come up with the best possible design in one given location. “What we want is the co-pilot to work a lot more with the engineer, as some kind of cooperation game, where the designer and the agent are working ‘against’ the design space,” he said. In other words, this is a process of examining the searchable space for possible designs and alternatives and identifying the best one by combining the expectations of both. This was not something that Bentley was doing before, he said. “We were searching for the best design, but we were not taking the feedback from the designer into consideration. So the idea of a co-pilot is really to do that. The designer knows what they want to do, which suggestions they will reject. While AI might find an optimal solution, it may look bad, or not be convenient, or not be usable - so the designer can make choices and guide the AI on optimising towards that optimal solution.” At AEC Magazine, from talking to design IT managers, we found that one of

the biggest wish list items for BIM users is truly automated 2D drawings. There are already a number of firms working on this, such as SWAPP (www.swapp.ai) and Graebert (www.graebert.com). One of the key areas for research, mentioned by Bentley’s CTO, was indeed the application of AI to automate 2D output, drawing sheets, title blocks, views, dimensions, details and so on. Moutte elaborated on the company’s research into automated drawings. “What we’re looking at right now is how can we automate the production of drawings for site engineering first, because there’s a lot to be done there. And how can AI models be trained to look at the past designs and past drawings and try to understand the style, requirements, the layout etcetera, and try to automate some of those drawings,” he said. “Now producing drawings for any kind of design is a challenging task, because you need to have a lot more data first to learn each kind of drawing that you will need to produce for all the different disciplines. You need to understand each domain’s requirements, because a structural engineer, an architect, a mechanical engineer, electrical - all those drawing types - are different. Also, to start with, you need to have the model with the necessary level of detail to produce those drawings.”

A cure for sceptics For us at AEC Magazine, the really good thing about Bentley’s Year In Infrastructure event is the opportunity to meet with the customers who use the technology — seeing their projects and understanding the scale at which the

software is being used. On top of that, we get to hear about the company’s development directions and how it plans to drive digitalisation further, extract benefits and shine a light on dark project data. For those who have doubts about the benefits of digital twins, YII is a certified cure. Bentley’s advanced customers model roads, railways, water treatment plants, tunnels, airports, train stations, bridges, power substations and cities — all managed assets with inspection and maintenance needs. So much of the development work that Bentley showcases is about making the most of digital twin data to optimise real-world performance. Creating digital twins is now easier, and a collaborative system architecture certainly helps in that process. DGN isn’t dead by any means, but it’s clearly destined to become a legacy format. It’s still amazing that Bentley has only altered the format twice in 36 years; the most recent being in 2001, when V8 was released. By contrast, Autodesk AutoCAD’s DWG has changed 18 times since its first version was released. With more data being stored in the iTwin format, Bentley now faces new opportunities to apply AI across entire projects and drive new automation. While all this may sound a little space age to the uninitiated, the recognition that drawings are not going away but could actually benefit from the application of AI will possibly broaden Bentley’s appeal to the mass BIM AEC market. After all, there are many companies here searching for the same benefits. We will wait and see what develops. ■ www.bentley.com

Singapore digital twin benefits At the 2023 Year in Infrastructure conference, a number of impressive Singapore-based projects were showcased that use digital twin technology to optimise decisionmaking and operations. PUB, the Singapore national water agency, is collaborating with Bentley Systems on a research project funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation. This system is intended to detect and localise water system anomalies and leaks in near real-time. Relying on a digital twin, AI-based predictive models assist in hydraulic network model calibration and simulation. SMRT Trains, the leading multimodal public transport operator in

Singapore, is using AssetWise Linear Analytics software as the basis for its Predictive Decision Support System, allowing it to meet service reliability targets through optimised maintenance deployments. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority has utilised Bentley Systems’ EMME and DYNAMEQ mobility digital twin software for long-term and short-term planning requirements, including operational traffic models for traffic impact and scheme analysis. The Singapore Land Authority has been a leader in digital twin adoption, with Dr. Victor Khoo, its Director of Survey and Geomatics discussing Singapore’s digital twin journey.

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SMRT Train leaving Expo station

This has included the creation of a 0.225-metre accurate nationwide reality mesh, derived from aerial surveying,

which is shared with multiple agencies and research institutes to support Singapore’s sustainability initiatives.

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18/10/2023 11:49

Opinion

A chance to amplify architectural design wisdom: IMAGE COURTESY OF MARTIN AUCHENBERG

Using technology to redefine architectural innovation Dortheavej Residence by Bjarke Ingels Group

The adoption of modular principles is transforming the architectural field, demanding architects to adapt their roles to harness the full potential of modular, generative design. Thought leaders like Bjarke Ingels, Neri Oxman, and Patrik Schumacher, as well as technological advancements in parametric design and digital fabrication, provide valuable insights and software for architects to navigate this transformation, writes Richard Harpham

ne of the most significant shifts in the architectural landscape in recent times is the increasing adoption of modular principles in architectural design and construction. The confluence of technological advancements, environmental considerations, and changing societal needs has generated new energy around modular design. Modularity is more efficient, more cost effective, and is inherently adaptable. But it requires architects to change how they approach design. To effectively inte42

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grate modular principles into their designs, architects must adapt their practice to leverage the knowledge gained from previous successful projects. In this article, we will explore how architects’ roles are evolving to facilitate the reuse of knowledge from past projects and how thought leaders in architecture and technology are guiding this transformation.

Deep-rooted practices Before we go too much further, we need to examine why it’s been so hard for archi-

tects and contractors to learn from modular trailblazing done by more efficient industries, like manufacturing, aviation, and automotive. There are two primary reasons. First, contractual frameworks require architects and engineers to spend exasperating time documenting designs, rather than exploring how to better make and construct them. Couple that with design software that still emulates the drawing board, and we have an incredibly inflexible core ‘operating system.’ These legacy processes hinder the building production industry’s ability to transform. Consumers, meanwhile, have become accustomed to mass customisation, rapid change, and fast results. It seems that our industry is completely out of step with the rest of the world. 20 years ago, in their book, ‘Re-fabricating Architecture,’ Kieran and Timberlake explored the potential of prefabrication in architecture and advocated for a fundamental shift in design and construction processes. They asserted that an industry-wide failure to look at process has led entire generations of architects to overlook how to transfer technologies and processes from other industries. They called for a re-evaluation of our traditional approaches to architecture. They noted that figuring out all of the physical joints on the site during construction takes the most time, leads to the most problems, and is the most expensive option. Instead, the designer should ‘chunk’ buildings up. By prefabricating these chunks, builders have fewer physical joints to figure out in the field. While re-fabricating architecture focused on the physical world, it can also be applied to the virtual world.

Innovation through modular principles: design and technology Emerging thought leaders in architecture and technology have taken Kieran and Timberlake’s ideas further, inspiring new ways of thinking, driving innovation, and encouraging the integration of modular principles. Bjarke Ingels, an influential Danish architect, is known for his innovative approach to design. His architectural www.AECmag.com

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firm, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is renowned for merging sustainability, functionality, and aesthetics. Ingels’s work often challenges traditional norms while embracing technological advancements. He envisions designs that can be broken down into adaptable modules, facilitating efficient construction and versatility. Neri Oxman is a trailblazer at the intersection of architecture, design, and technology. In her work, Oxman explores biomimicry and digital fabrication. Her intricate and adaptable structures blur the boundaries between art and science. Likewise, scripting and digital fabrication tools are starting to encourage architects to create intricate forms and structures that can be inherently modular. In fact, since the late 1990s, the availability of Grasshopper and Dynamo scripting has revolutionised elements of architectural design and construction. Patrik Schumacher and other leaders in this field advocate for the integration of these tools to achieve modular flexibility and efficiency in a style known as ‘Parametricism’. But architectural roles and processes are slow to leverage this concept, probably because software providers have yet to provide the easy-touse software that allows every designer in the practice to benefit from generative design methods, not just that specialist team of scripting ‘coders’ with powerful computers.

Five ways modular will change architectural practice The good news is that architects are reexamining their roles to effectively integrate computed modular principles into their designs. A review of recent published ideas and proposals revealed five interesting assertions being tested: 1. Knowledge curation and analysis: Architects must establish a digital repository of knowledge from previous projects. This repository should encompass models and data from previous successful modular designs, including structural systems, materials, and construction methodologies. By analysing the performance of modular components in various contexts, architects can make informed decisions for new projects. 2. Design frameworks and standardization: Architects must evolve from designing standalone structures to developing adaptable design frameworks. These frameworks consist of standardized modular elements that can be combined in different ways www.AECmag.com

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for each new project or proposal. Architects create these frameworks by extracting designs from successful past projects and incorporating them into a modular toolkit. 3. Innovative adaptation: In manufacturing, mass customisation is possible due to highly adaptable materials and components, without taxing supply chain and fabrication resources. Similarly, architects must adapt existing modular components to address unique project requirements while ensuring compatibility and efficiency. This approach promotes innovation within the boundaries of established modular frameworks. 4. Parametric design and digital fabrication proficiency: Architects are evolving into tech-savvy professionals who can generate complex modular forms and optimise them for fabrication and assembly. They need a new generation of tools to integrate parametric design and digital fabrication into their practice. Now software providers must respond with solutions that make algorithmic and modular generation of designs as easy as lines, arcs and circles. 5. Design for constructability: Thought leaders emphasise early interdisciplinary collaboration, and architects must once again have the ‘Master Builder’ skills once typical for an architect. Architects must effectively convey their modular design to prefabricators, engineers, and contractors. This ‘Design for Constructability’ principle ensures that modular components seamlessly integrate into the offsite manufacturing and onsite construction processes. So why is now the right time for step change in architectural means and methods? Technologies that automate the complex process of reusing model and project data for new projects are coming into the market. With them, designers can rely on automation to rapidly complete time-consuming tasks like shuffling modules and components into optimum layouts, drawing door schedules, and churning out construction documents. Only then can those designers focus more time on the aesthetic and qualitative elements of building design. Document creation tasks can soon be a thing of the past. They are being replaced by procedural and AI solutions that capture and reuse previous design knowledge under the guidance of a new generation of true architect designer professionals.

Software - ushering in a new era of architectural innovation If software solutions can curate knowledge and help develop adaptable design frameworks, they will foster innovative adaptation in both process and design outcomes. Recently, I have worked with several innovators pushing in this direction. Altaf Ganihar, the founder and CEO of Snaptrude, has spent six years developing a true cloud-based architectural design solution that can integrate information from all the current BIM solutions in the market, removing the need for tools like SketchUp, ensuring early design ideas can quickly move into Revit BIM models. While his team has made great strides this year, one solution cannot solve the myriad needs the architects require. Another solution aims to improve design workflows by augmenting what Revit does well with solving productivity issues it has not improved in design practices. Recently, I had the pleasure of getting reacquainted with Marty Rozmanith, a former colleague from Revit Technologies and the original product manager for Revit. We each went on from Revit to work in Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, and Katerra, among others. Now, we have brought our perspectives together to birth a new solution called Skema. Skema executes the early tasks of delivering design proposals with dramatic efficiency. Skema aims to digitally leverage model and specification data from a firm’s previous projects to accelerate early design, delivering a reliable LOD350 BIM model in days rather than weeks. These proposals are then easily adaptable, and responsive to changes during the typically expensive process of refining final designs to the client’s needs. Skema’s cutting-edge technology packages up the embedded knowledge in design responses that architects have already created in previous projects. As recently highlighted at AEC Magazine’s NXT BLD and NXT DEV events in London, and within the Design Futures Council, architects are making it clear that they need federated solutions that integrate with each other and respond to the way they want to deliver designs. Both Snaptrude and Skema can work separately, in combination, and with solutions like Revit to solve and extend productivity in architectural workflows, while still working well with the huge investments in software and training our industry has made getting this far. These solutions are built to fit into the architect’s world, not the other way round. This seems like good news to me. Richard Harpham recently cofounded Blue Ocean to bring Skema to market. September / October 2023

18/10/2023 18:05

Technology

HPSitePrint It’s been a year since HP first announced HP SitePrint, a robot that prints 2D plans onto the floors of construction sites. Now that the product is shipping, Greg Corke caught up with HP to find out what makes this neat little three-wheeler tick

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obots for construction have had their fair share of headlines in recent years. We’ve had robots that 3D print buildings, robots that tie rebar, robots that lay bricks, robots than bend metal, even robots that walk on all fours with a laser scanner strapped to their back. HP’s take on the construction robot, HP SitePrint, is unassuming – less C3PO and more R2D2, if you like. It’s essentially a printer on wheels that prints site layouts directly onto the floors of construction sites. The aim is replace slow, error-prone, manual layout to help general contractors, specialist contractors and construction management firms set out the location of building components quickly and precisely, making the site ready for the trades to come in. The initial focus was on internal partitions / drywalls, but has since progressed to formwork structure, pre-cast concrete, and Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP). “We’re taking the digital file, which was printed on paper, and now printing it directly on the site,” explains Daniel Martinez, general manager, global head of large format printing at HP. “All those lines are being done manually today, with chalk or with pen. It’s a very tedious process.” It’s also hard to find the people to do this work. According to HP’s recent ‘State of Construction Productivity’ survey, which canvased the opinions of construction workers and decision makers from the US, UK and Germany, 88% have had challenges staffing layout tasks – a combination of both a lack of skills and a shortage of labour. According to Martinez, it is this labour crisis that has in part led to productivity in construction declining since the 1960s. “We think that with HP SitePrint we can really start to change that trajectory,” he says. “On the one hand we’re able to do layout ten times faster than the manual process, but we’re also now able to bring a lot more information into the layout process.” By this, Martinez means arcs, circles and text, which are difficult to do by hand, especially if lacking the necessary skills, but also ‘smart text’, as he explains, “Imagine a case where you’re able to print a QR code, for example, and now suddenly you have all the services that you can start to build on top of that capability.” ‘Smart Text’ could be used to show which specific door or window needs to be installed. “The communication process now is going to be relying much more on the information that you can lay on the ground,” says Martinez. www.AECmag.com

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“We also think that it’s going to have upstream implications in terms of how the CAD drawings are designed, in order to better take advantage of that capability.” In other words, firms will begin to create CAD drawings specifically for HP SitePrint, introducing best practices. This is especially relevant to general contractors that handle multiple trades, and whose drawings can become incredibly complex. Best practice drafting could be as simple as drawing all the constituent parts of a drywall on different layers. It means that any data that does not need to be printed on site can be easily turned off, rather than having to delete unwanted parts manually, line by line.

Getting connected HP SitePrint can currently work with DXF and DWG files, the latter of which is pushed to the project-based cloud platform via an Autodesk AutoCAD plug-in. The next step is an Autodesk Revit plugin, which is coming in a few months. While many contractors still use AutoCAD or an equivalent 2D CAD tool, support for Revit is an interesting addition. It should automatically help streamline data preparation thanks to having object-based modelling at the heart of the BIM tool, plus there are many potential uses for the metadata that can be embedded within those objects. Of course, all file-based workflows have limitations – the people that typically use SitePrint don’t have access to desktop CAD and BIM tools (nor the skills to use them) and there’s no automatic revision control or traceability. So, are there plans to integrate with construction management platforms like Autodesk Construction Cloud, Procore and others? The answer is yes. “We’re definitely working with

Autodesk. We envision it [HP SitePrint] sort of expanding to become more of a connected platform where it will communicate with Procore, it will communicate with the likes of Dropbox and Box and that sort of thing,” he says.

Speed and accuracy According to HP, SitePrint can improve construction productivity up to ten times compared to the manual process. But what about the firms that have been using it? General contractor Skanska says 45 mins instead of 7 hours; framing and drywall contractor PDC quotes three days instead of three weeks; specialist contractor L5 Drywall says seven or eight rooms laid out, instead of two or three, and that it can be done with ‘one guy instead of three’. Accuracy is also critical. HP quotes that prints are accurate to within plus or minus 3mm, but this in only part of the story. According to Shaun Carollo, VDC manager, Hoar Construction, using the HP SitePrint robot also cuts down a lot of the room for error. “If we can be more precise, more accurate, we can be faster and more efficient, then the owner and architect’s design intent is going to be a lot closer by the time we are done with the project.” This sentiment is shared by Garret Wheat, project manager, Hoar Construction. “Being our first time we double checked almost every single point and we’ve been within, I believe, one sixteenth or one sixty-fourth of an inch on every single point, well within tolerance.” Of course, not getting things done right, first time can have much bigger implications, as Gerado Rivera, VP operations, L5 Drywall explains, “Challenges that typically come up on the jobsite [using manual methods] are delays due to walls not being in the right place, measureSeptember / October 2023

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HP SitePrint might not grab the imagination in quite the same way as a robotic dog from Boston Dynamics, but its beauty lies in its simplicity. In many ways, HP is mirroring what 2D CAD did for manual drafting, except on a much larger scale

Software

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ments not being accurate. If a line is in the wrong place, then that wall might have to get torn out. That’s costly for companies like us because four or five errors like that, your profit margin shrinks.” HP has shared some industry numbers to put everything in context. According to its ‘State of Construction Productivity’ survey, on average, impacted construction employees saw delays of over 15 days caused by layout (or setting-out) errors, with some (5%) enduring interruptions as long as three months. The cost of these reworks amounts to 9.4% of the total project budget on average and a fraction under a fifth (19%) of the project’s profit margin.

robotic dog from Boston Dynamics, its beauty lies in its simplicity. In many ways, HP is mirroring what 2D CAD did for manual drafting, except on a much larger scale, and forty years later. Because SitePrint is easy to use and should fit quite seamlessly within established 2D workflows, it seems likely that it will deliver immediate productivity benefits for contractors. And since layout is on the critical path for construction projects, any time saved from speed of layout or reduction of errors can deliver huge rewards. HP is not the only company doing this – Dusty Robotics and Rugged Robotics also have similar offerings. We don’t know Conclusion much about these firms, so can’t comment While HP SitePrint might not grab the on their products, but one has to imagine imagination in quite the same way as a they will have their work cut out compet-

ing with the might of HP. HP not only has the name and the pedigree in printing but, perhaps more importantly, the clout to make important connections within major construction software platform vendors. Loading up 2D DXF files is one thing, but the biggest efficiencies will surely come when data flows seamlessly from platform to platform in an optimised design to construction workflow. ■ www.hp.com/siteprint

HP SitePrint combines capital outlay with a pay per use model. In the US, the robot costs $50,000 and then most users pay 20 cents to print per square foot, which includes software, service, maintenance and supplies. There is also special ‘per day’ pricing for firms that just print points or low-density – large areas without a lot of linework, for example, such as a data centre.

The four elements of HP SitePrint 1) The robot The HP SitePrint robot is basically a printer on three wheels. It has a 50mm print head on the underside, in a fixed location so no calibration is required. There’s a single ink cartridge to make changing easier (rather than an ink tank which was used in early prototypes). The robot uses water or solvent-based inks so it can work in a variety of environments and surfaces. This includes porous (concrete, tarmac, plywood, pavement) and non-porous surfaces (terrazzo, vinyl, epoxy). Solvent is more durable, but harder to rub out if it needs to be reprinted due to last-minute design changes. Inks come in different colours – red, blue or black – which can be useful for marking up different trades. The robot has an integrated prism, which is used by the robotic total station to track, and a total of seven sensors. Four of these protect against falls. If it senses a ledge more than 2.5-inches high, it cuts the drivetrain. The other three are for detecting unknown obstacles that are not in

the CAD file, such as tools or building materials left on site, or even people! If the robot spots an obstacle, it simply stops printing, moves around the object, continues on the other side, and flags it up in the software. The operator can then move the object and send off the robot to reprint that small section. The robot comes with two batteries. According to HP, each of them can perform constant construction layout for up to four hours. There’s also a 4G modem inside to connect to the HP SitePrint cloud platform

2) Robotic total station To control the robot on site you need a robotic total station, a survey tool that measures angles and distances from the instrument to a specific point (in this case the robot’s tracking prism). Here, HP has partnered with the major players and supports the following devices: the Trimble RTS 573, Topcon Layout Navigator (LN-150) and Leica TS16 and Leica iCON iCR80.

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For orientation on site, two to three control points are required – typically prisms or acrylic targets. These can be placed within the CAD file, and you then use the total station to lay them out. The total station needs to be between 15 feet and 300 feet from the robot. For longer distances, you’d typically move the total station and set up in a different location.

3) Web-based UI The robot and print jobs are controlled through a simple webbased interface, which typically runs on a tablet. HP doesn’t provide one, a ruggedized tablet typically come with the robotic total station. You can use the software to set up the robotic total station, although this can also be done through the Trimble, Leica or Topcon software. You then select the print type, which dictates how much ink comes out. To print you can select the whole job, individually pick which elements you want to print, line by line, or sketch out an area with your finger.

From there it creates a flight plan of sorts, working out the most efficient way to print the area. Then after a quick calibration to orient itself on site, it will start to print the first element.

4) Cloud platform The HP SitePrint cloud platform manages all of the project data. It can be used to estimate the cost of the print job (HP Site Print charges per square foot – see above), how long it will take to print and how long is left at any point in time. If obstacles have been defined within the CAD drawing, such as an internal walls, lift shafts or the perimeter, it will tell you how many times you will need to set up the total station, in order to maintain line of sight with the robot. According to HP, the robot can usually run through columns. If it breaks line of sight for less than three seconds, which is usually OK thanks to predictive tracking on total stations, then it just carries on. If it doesn’t regain it after five seconds, the robot will stop.

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Technology

HP DesignJet T850 / T950 For the launch of HP’s new 36-inch DesignJet printers, Greg Corke caught up with HP’s Daniel Martinez to talk security, workflows, and sustainability

peed increases are a given for any new large format printer, and HP’s latest DesignJets – the T850 and T950 – deliver significantly more A1/D prints per hour than the T830 they replace (90 and 120 PPH, compared to 82). But throughput didn’t even get a look in at the launch event at HP’s Palo Alto headquarters. Instead, the spotlight was very much on productivity, security and what HP is doing around sustainability. The HP DesignJet T850 and T950 are large-format technical printers designed to serve small workgroups of around ten architects or engineers. Both models are also available as multifunctional printers (MFP) with built-in scanners. The HP DesignJet T850 and T950 offer a single roll of media, up to A0, but the real innovation comes when handling A3-A1 documents. “What used to happen, especially in small offices, they were printing the A1s on the large format printer and the A3s on the laser, but if you look at the results, they’re completely different. You don’t get the level of precision on a laser that you get on an inkjet,” explains Daniel Martinez, general manager, global head of large format printing, HP. HP went some way to solving this issue a few years back with the DesignJet T830. The MFP supported A3 and A1, but the user needed to manually select media for each print, which took more clicks. There was also no automated stacking, so A3 and A1 prints fell into the same basket requiring manual sorting. The new DesignJets offer what Martinez describes as seamless printing across A1 and A3. You can send different types of files at once and you don’t need www.AECmag.com

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HP DesignJet T950

to specify the media size. The software automatically selects the right paper (A1 from a roll and A3 from a tray), and the prints are then sorted and stacked (N.B. sorting is standard on the T950 and an optional extra on the T850). This streamlined workflow only works with PDFs. Any number of PDF files can be dragged and dropped into the ‘HP Click’ desktop application and, with a single click, the software does the rest. HP Click is available for Windows, but a Mac OSX version is in development. According to HP, it’s significantly easier to print PDFs with HP Click than it is with Adobe Acrobat or Reader. Users can also print direct from CAD applications using the standard HP DesignJet driver, but that needs more clicks and automatic switching is not supported.

Security Security is a rising concern in the AEC sector. Indeed, a recent survey by Egnyte and Dodge Construction Network (DCN) found that 59% of design and construction firms had experienced a cybersecurity threat in the last two years. The DesignJet T850 and T950 are the first large format printers to have HP Wolf Security protection built in, for ‘endpoint protection and resiliency’. The same technology is used in HP workstations and laptops, which are obvious targets for attacks, but as Martinez points out you’re only as strong as your weakest link. “69% of IT managers tell us that they don’t necessarily think about large format printers as a potential risk. And a lot of these machines are going to SMBs that don’t really have an IT manager, so there-

fore it’s even more important for us to make the products more secure, so that they don’t have to worry about it,” he says. “With HP Wolf, we’re basically moving from a defensive play which is trying to avoid these attacks, to now being able to detect an attack because we’re monitoring the network from the device. And those cases where the threat actually reaches the printer, we’re able to isolate that threat, and the printer will automatically reboot into a secure state.”

Sustainability Printing is very much in the spotlight when it comes to sustainability, and HP is addressing this both in use and in the manufacture of its printers. The DesignJet T850 and T950 are part of HP Forest Positive, a partnership with the World Wildlife Foundation, as Martinez explains, “All the prints that are printed through our printers, we’re restoring and managing forests for that and that’s critically important for architecture firms who have sustainability goals and are at the forefront of that change. “The printers are also made from 40% recycled plastics, on the device. 80% of plastics that are visible to the end user are recycled. We’ve renewed our packaging as well to basically remove all plastic bags, so now paper bags,” he adds.. ■ www.hp.com/designjet

The HP DesignJet T850/T950 will be available at the end of October. HP has also launched the HP DesignJet XL 3800, which is designed for high throughput environments including copy shops and enterprise architects. The dual roll printer and scanner offers six colour A1s per minute and first page out in 20 seconds. September / October 2023

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Workstations

Preview: AMD Threadripper Pro 7000 WX /AMD Threadripper 7000 With its new ‘Zen 4’ Threadripper processors, AMD looks set to rewrite the rule book for high-end workstations yet again, writes Greg Corke

t’s fair to say that AMD changed high-end workstations forever with its Threadripper processors. Starting out life in 2017 as a 16-core ‘prosumer’ or high-end desktop (HEDT) CPU, Threadripper came of age in 2020 with the launch of Threadripper Pro, a genuine workstation-class processor with up to 64 high-frequency cores, up to 2TB of 8-channel memory, tonnes of PCIe lanes and enterprise-level security and manageability. And with this true Intel Xeon competitor came the major workstation OEMs. First Lenovo, then Dell, and now with the new Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series based on AMD’s ‘Zen 4’ architecture, finally HP. While coveting the major workstation OEMs, AMD ignored the ‘prosumer’ or HEDT market, eventually making Threadripper only available as a ‘Pro’ variant with a suitable Pro sized price tag. But this is no longer the case. With its new ‘Zen 4’ Threadripper processors, AMD is offering both ‘Pro’ (7000 WX-Series) and ‘HEDT’ (7000 Series) variants. And from what we’ve been shown by AMD, both product lines look hugely impressive.

ignoring customers with workflows or budgets that are better suited to lower core count CPUs. Indeed, AMD offers a wide range of Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series chips with 12, 16, 24, 32, 64 or 96 cores. But why would a customer go for a lower core count Threadripper Pro CPU when there are cheaper 12- and 16-core AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen Pro processors, based on the same ‘Zen 4’ architecture? The fact is that there are workflows, such as CFD, that benefit from Threadripper Pro’s significantly higher memory bandwidth or the ability of the platform to host more PCIe add-in boards, such as GPUs for rendering. Higher frequencies: Base and boost frequencies on the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series are significantly higher than the 5000 WX-Series. This should

Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series

benefit everyone – those with highly multi-threaded workflows such as rendering as well as single threaded workflows such as CAD. The 64-core Threadripper Pro 7985WX, for example, delivers 3.2 GHz base and 5.1 GHz boost, which is 0.5 GHz and 0.6 GHz faster than its ‘Zen 3’ equivalent, the Threadripper Pro 5995WX. Even the top-end 96-Core 7995WX delivers a whopping 5.1 GHz boost, which is only 0.6 GHz behind AMD’s top-end consumer processor, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. These significant frequency gains are in part down to an increase in Thermal Design Power (TDP), going from 280W in the previous genera-

AMD has made some rather big advancements over the previous generation ‘Zen 3’ Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series. Let’s look at each of these in turn. Core count: The past two generations of Threadripper Pro maxed out at 64-cores, but the new Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series goes all the way up to 96. This alone should deliver a substantial performance improvement in highly multi-threaded workflows such as ray trace rendering and engineering simulation, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). But that doesn’t mean that AMD is 48

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tion to 350W for all new Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series chips. Higher IPC: All Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series chips get a significant boost simply because they are built on AMD’s newer Zen 4 architecture. Compared to Zen 3, AMD quotes a 13% uplift in Instructions Per Clock (IPC), the number of instructions a CPU can execute in a single clock cycle. This should benefit all multi-core and single core workflows. DDR5 memory: The Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series supports eight memory channels, the same as the 5000 WX-Series, but now it’s 5,200 MHz DDR5 memory, rather than 3,200 MHz DDR4. DDR5 memory delivers significantly more bandwidth than DDR4, which should bring big benefits to some memory intensive workflows such as engineering simulation. However, this probably won’t make a difference in many other workflows. Incidentally, AMD decided not to go for 12-channel memory, a hallmark of its Zen 4 EPYC server processors. According to AMD, this is partly to tailor the platform to a workstation audience and partly because there is simply no room in a standard workstation chassis. PCIe Gen 5: The new Threadripper Pro platform supports 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, which doubles the PCI bandwidth to any slot on the board compared to the previous generation with PCIe Gen 4. According to AMD, this should deliver real benefit to multi-GPU AI workflows. However, perhaps this is one for the future as most current pro GPUs, including the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada and AMD Radeon Pro W7900, are still on PCIe Gen 4. With 128 lanes, the platform can, in theory, support eight double slot GPUs. In reality this is less, as it’s decided by www.AECmag.com

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the motherboard manufacturers. Most of the major workstation OEMs support two or three double slot GPUs on their new Threadripper Pro machines, but we could see boards from specialist manufacturers that support more.

What about AMD 3D V-Cache? A lot of what we see in the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series is inherited from AMD’s ‘Zen 4’ EPYC server processors. Some of the more recent models from the EPYC 9004 Series come with 3D V-Cache, a special type of L3 cache that is stacked vertically instead of horizontally, so more cache can be placed on the CPU. The 96-core AMD EPYC 9684X, for example, boasts a whopping 1,152 MB compared to its non 3D V-Cache equivalent, the AMD EPYC 9654 which has 384 MB. The benefit of having more cache is that the CPU has a greater chance of fetching the data it needs from faster cache instead of from slower system memory (RAM). And in some memory intensive workflows, such as CFD, where large amounts of data need to be fetched regularly, this can deliver a performance benefit, as demonstrated in AEC Magazine’s review of the consumer-focused AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D processor, and in this blog post about CFD software Siemens Simcenter STAR-CCM+ (www.tinyurl.com/Epyc-siemens). The Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series does not support 3D V-Cache. Instead, it comes with standard L3 cache up to 384 MB on the 96-core model. On a core-tocore basis this is the same as the previous generation. AMD said that it experimented with 3D V-Cache on Threadripper but found that there are ‘very few applications that show a material performance uplift’. Enabling 3D V-Cache also means a small drop in frequency which would reduce performance in workflows that do not benefit from additional cache.

Performance improvements As you would expect, with more cores, higher frequencies and higher IPC, AMD is quoting significant performance gains for the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series compared to the previous generation Threadripper Pro 5000 WX Series. Putting the number of cores to one side and only comparing 64-core models from both the Zen 4 and Zen 3 Threadripper Pros (7985WX vs 5995WX), AMD quotes considerable performance gains of up to: 31% in Unreal Engine; 39% in V-Ray (rendering); 27% in KeyShot (rendering); 46% in Ansys (simulation); 43% in Corona (rendering); 40% in Solidworks (CAD); 21% in Revit (BIM); and 31% in AutoCAD (CAD). www.AECmag.com

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We would expect to see similar gains at all different core counts, and of course a much bigger leap when comparing the 96-core 7995WX to the 64-core 5995WX in highly multi-threaded applications like ray trace rendering.

The Intel Xeon W-3400 Series killer? In our May/June 2023 Workstation Special report we put AMD up against Intel in high-end workstation CPUs, taking the top end models from AMD’s ‘Zen 3’ Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series and Intel’s ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Xeon W-3400 Series – the 64-core Threadripper Pro 5995WX and 56-core Xeon w9-3495X. In summary, we found that AMD had a lead in highly multi-threaded workflows like ray trace rendering, while Intel had the edge in single threaded workflows like CAD, and sometimes quite a considerable advantage in memory bandwidth intensive workflows like CFD. With the new Threadripper Pros it looks like this balance is set to shift completely in favour of AMD. With more cores, higher frequencies, better IPC and now with 8-channel DDR5 memory (similar to Intel), AMD is quoting significant performance gains across the board.

In the multi-threaded design viz tool, Chaos V-Ray, AMD says its 96-core Threadripper Pro 7995WX is up to 123% faster than the 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X. AMD is also quoting performance gains for processors with similar core counts. Comparing the 32-core Threadripper Pro 7975WX to the 36-core Intel Xeon w9-3475X, AMD says it is up to: 25% faster in PTC Creo (CAD); 39% faster in Ansys Mechanical (simulation); 44% faster in Luxion KeyShot (rendering); 45% faster in Solidworks (CAD); 20% faster in Revit (BIM); and up to 52% faster in MetaShape (reality capture).

Threadripper for ‘prosumers’ In order for AMD to be taken seriously in the workstation market and adopted by the major workstation OEMs, it not only needed great performance but a pro grade processor with Intel Xeon-like features such as security, manageability, lots of PCIe lanes and support for Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory (and lots of it). This all led to the launch of Threadripper Pro in 2020. Soon after, AMD made the decision to phase out the consumer variant of Threadripper. The problem was, consumer variants of September / October 2023

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Workstations

Threadripper (or prosumer, enthusiast, well covered by its consumer-focused HEDT - call them what you will) were Ryzen 7000 Series processors. much cheaper, and with top-end While the major workstations OEMs, Threadripper Pro CPUs going for over including Dell, HP, and Lenovo, will con£6,000 at one point, this put many of tinue to only offer Threadripper Pro, we AMD’s high core count CPUs out of the expect the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 reach of many content creators, 3D art- Series to be popular with specialist workists, photographers, or station manufacturers like design viz studios. Scan, BOXX, and Armari. For the ‘Zen 4’ launch According to AMD, workAMD’s new AMD has made the surprise stations with the HEDT move to reintroduce an processor can also be small‘Zen 4’ HEDT line up of Threadrippers er thanks to ATX motherThreadripper processors, boards that have fewer PCIe look to be which it is simply calling slots than the EATX boards incredible the Threadripper 7000 used for Threadripper Pro. Series. These processors And the motherboards and workstation will be cheaper and so will processors will also be processors, the motherboards that cheaper. AMD says that combining a house them. most motherboards will The HEDT Threadrippers support up to two GPUs phenomenal are very similar to their Pro number of cores and up to two NVMe SSDs. counterparts in terms of with boost Conclusion clock speed and cache. frequencies not On paper AMD’s new ‘Zen However, the HEDT platform only supports 4-chanthat far behind 4’ Threadrippers look to be nel memory instead of incredible workstation proAMD’s best 8-channel, so there’s less cessors, combining a phememory bandwidth; 48 PCIe consumer CPUs nomenal number of cores 5.0 lanes instead of 128, so with boost frequencies not supports fewer GPUs; and it that far behind AMD’s best doesn’t have pro management features. consumer CPUs. Five years ago, this was There are also fewer models to choose simply unimaginable. from – 64-core, 32-core, or 24-core. There Significant increases in core count, IPC is no 96-core model (so the ultimate per- and base frequency all look set to conformance crown remains with tribute to substantial double digit perforThreadripper Pro) and no 16-core or mance increases in both single threaded 12-core models, presumably becasue and multi-threaded workflows compared AMD feels that that part of the market is to the previous generation.

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In addition, while the Intel Xeon W-3400 Series beat the previous generation AMD Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series in certain niche high-end workstation workflows, it’s now hard to imagine how Intel will compete on anything other than price/performance. How much the new Threadripper Pro processors will cost is still unknown and while AMD could choose to place a big premium on its new chips, it could also choose to go aggressive on price to build market share. If that happens, perhaps we will even see the price of Intel Xeon processors fall? Interestingly, AMD is also giving itself serious competition from within, with the re-introduction of an HEDT-focused Threadripper processor. While many larger design, engineering and architecture firms will only buy from major OEMs like Dell, HP and Lenovo, others are more flexible and the ‘HEDT’ Threadripper 7000 Series presents a big opportunity for specialist workstation manufacturers. Yes, you get less memory channels and miss out on some pro features, but we expect performance in most rendering tools to be similar, if not better if machines are overclocked, something that the major OEMs simply won’t do. And of course, with lower-cost CPUs and motherboards, these workstations should be significantly cheaper. The new ‘Zen 4’ 7000 Series Threadripper CPUs will be available late November. We look forward to testing them soon. ■ www.amd.com

Threadripper Pro: all major workstation OEMs now on board When AMD introduced 1st Generation Threadripper Pro (3000 WX-Series) in 2020, Lenovo broke the mould by becoming the first major workstation OEM in nearly 15 years to launch a workstation with an AMD CPU. Lenovo was rewarded by AMD with an exclusive agreement for Threadripper Pro and the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 became an instant success. It wasn’t until 2022 that Lenovo got some real competition when Dell came on board with 2nd Generation Threadripper Pro (5000 WX-Series). At that point in time, considering AMD’s complete dominance over Intel in high-end workstation CPUs (Intel hadn’t released a major Xeon

processor for several years), we were incredibly surprised that HP didn’t come on board too. That all changes with the launch of 3rd Generation Threadripper Pro (7000 WX-Series). HP has finally joined Dell and Lenovo, with AMD now having all three major workstation manufacturers on board. Considering where AMD was just five years ago, this is major news. So far, only Dell and HP have released details of their new Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series workstations. We expect Lenovo to follow soon. The underlying theme for the new Dell Precision 7875 (pictured right) and HP Z6 G5 A is that both machines

September / October 2023

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are positioned in the middle of their respective product stacks, alongside and below those with Intel Xeon W-3400 CPUs with up to 56-cores. This positioning is dictated primarily by the expandability, serviceability and size of the machines, and not necessarily by the performance of Threadripper Pro. For example, neither vendor is making full use of Threadripper Pro’s 128 PCIe lanes, with Dell supporting up to two double height GPUs and HP

supporting up to three. By having fewer PCI slots, Dell and HP can reduce the size of the motherboard, PSU and chassis, which all help bring down the base cost of the systems. But even with this ‘mid-range’ positioning, because the Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-Series is available with 12 to 96 cores, both machines are capable of supporting a huge range of workflows, from entry-level to highend. And having a single product that can cover so many bases is always good news for the IT folks that manage these workstations.

www.AECmag.com

19/10/2023 12:07

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