Bentley Systems wasn’t wasting time at its recent YII conference, hammering home its ‘open’ approach to data. The message from Bentley’s execs was clear: the company is putting its weight behind openness— the sub text being that some of its competitors are not.

The emphasis was hard to miss. In the first two keynote presentations alone, led by new CEO Nicolas Cumins and CTO Julien Moutte, the word ‘open’ was used a staggering 60 times.

While AI also got a strong showing with 47 mentions, it was obvious that Bentley was speaking to customers, and not trying to impress investors. The message? Openness isn’t just a token word; it’s a cornerstone of Bentley’s strategy. “Your data is your data always,” said Cumins.

Moutte outlined the three pillars of Bentley’s open approach: open standards where everybody that was granted access to the data can read and understand it; open source, where every developer can leverage that data; and open APIs, where users are free to take their data out whenever they want, instead of just being able to query it.

Cumins also touched on the complexity of infrastructure projects, which involve multiple organisations, teams, and disciplines “This complexity makes it impossible for you to rely on any single system or single vendor. Instead, you need an ecosystem that enables flexibility, integration and interoperability across different tools and platforms,” he said.

He also addressed a common concern among customers: “Don’t get locked in,” he said. “Make sure you retain control of your data.”

As AEC firms navigate the transition from files to a data-lake world, this message should resonate more than ever. With proprietary files (DWG / DGN / RVT) at least drawings and models could be accessed via Open Design Alliance (ODA) libraries. With proprietary databases, access is granted only via APIs, which are under the control of the vendor.

“We are not creating another silo,” said Cumins.

Looking ahead, Bentley is focused not just on the present, but on the long-term future. Infrastructure is built to last. “Our users must assure that this data, their data, remains accessible for decades to come, and we believe this is only possible with a truly open approach,” said Moutte.

At the heart of Bentley’s open strategy is the iTwin platform, a suite of APIs and services designed to help AECO firms develop digital twin applications for designing, building, and operating infrastructure assets. iTwin integrates data from various sources—specs, drawings, CAD and BIM models, reality captures, sensor data, inspection records, and more.

The platform is built on a schema specifically designed for infrastructure. While the majority of this schema is open-source, one component — the Parasolid geometry modelling kernel —is proprietary, as it is owned by Siemens.

As Cumins explained, “The schema goes beyond basic data exchange, ensuring that data isn’t just accessible, but its meaning can also be understood, whether you’re dealing with materials or structures or subsurface data.”

He emphasised that this schema helps engineers, constructors, and organisations maximise the value of their data. “We’re not keeping it to ourselves. We actively encourage others in the industry to adopt the schema. This is about moving the entire infrastructure sector forward together.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Cumins described AI as a “paradigm shift” for the infrastructure sector, highlighting the massive scale of data generated during the design, construction, and operational phases. “It makes infrastructure a prime area where AI can have the greatest impact,” he said.

Bentley’s investment in AI dates back several years. In 2018, the company acquired machine learning and IoT developer AIworx, which former CTO Keith Bentley described as an “acqui-hire,” meaning it was made primarily for the talent. Since then, that talent has driven several successful AI use cases, primarily in asset operations. These include automatic object classification in reality meshes and using computer vision, IoT sensors, and machine learning for predictive maintenance—detecting issues before they lead to failures.

Many of these technologies now fall under Bentley Asset Analytics, a new product line that uses AI to provide insights into the condition of infrastructure assets. “This approach is especially important for critical infrastructure like bridges and dams, where monitoring and maintenance are key to ensuring long-term safety and performance,” said Mike Campbell, Chief Product Officer, Bentley Systems.

The portfolio includes Blyncsy, which utilises crowd-sourced dashcam footage and machine learning models to automate roadway maintenance and asset inventory. “AI can help identify roadside assets and assess their conditions, everything from a broken stop sign to a faulty streetlight to a fresh pothole,” explained Mike Schellhase, VP of asset analytics at Bentley. “These insights feed directly into the infrastructure digital twin, the iTwin, and are presented in iTwin Experience to show the latest conditions and context.”

Another product, OpenTower iQ, uses drone imagery, data, and AI to manage telecom towers throughout their lifecycle, handling everything from data acquisition and visualisation to structural analysis, site design, and maintenance.

Bentley plans to expand these solutions to cover a broader range of asset types, offering owner-operators increasingly advanced AI-powered tools.

Now, the company is pushing AI further into the design phase, using generative AI to automate repetitive tasks.

The first of a new generation of AI-powered design tools is OpenSite+, which is used for civil site design (including roadways, parking lots, and buildings).

The software features a co-pilot experience that taps into knowledge stored in documentation, specifications, and 3D site models through natural language interactions. “We can ask questions like, ‘Can I build a hotel in this area?’ or ‘Do I have enough parking to meet my requirements?’” said Francois Valois, VP of civil infrastructure at Bentley.

“At this stage [in the design process], we don’t know if our layout is optimal, so we build a neural network that evaluates thousands of alternatives to find the best one, optimising costs while meeting engineering requirements,” Valois explained. The software also offers AI-powered earthwork optimisation, which Bentley has enhanced by wrapping its current engine in a neural network to make the process significantly faster.

Another key feature is automated drawing production, a hot topic in AEC as it can save so much time and money (read this AEC Magazine article). According to Bentley, drawing production can account for up to 50% of a site design project’s time, and Bentley’s AI-powered tools automate annotation, labelling, and sheeting, optimising the placement of labels and dimensions, and according to organisational standards.

Currently, drawing production isn’t built directly into OpenSite+, but rather, it’s routed through OpenSite Designer, an existing power-platform based product based on MicroStation. However, as Campbell explained by going down this route, the technology can then be made available in other power platform-based applications. Watch this space.

This process will take time, as the large language model (which Campbell playfully wants to call a “large drawing model”) has so far only been trained on tens of thousands of site plans and only from North America. “We’ve got to do that for the UK, for Australia, for all of the other places, because the standards are all different,” Campbell said. “Roadway plans have a different look and feel, right? So, we’ve got to build a model for that.”

As to where the training data has come from, Campbell explained that most of it is sourced from a licensed open-source library, though some customers have granted Bentley explicit permission to use their data. “We’re not just going and taking plans from random [customer] accounts,” he said, adding that Bentley keeps track of the provenance of every data set used. If a company decides to withdraw its data, Bentley will retrain the model accordingly.

In the future, customers will be able to train the AI model on their own data. “Say you’ve got 6,000 site plans—you can put them into your own local, retrained version of the model, and that will be yours and yours alone.”

As for the future of AI at Bentley, Campbell hinted at broader applications. “Instead of using AI to generate a site, could we use AI to generate other designs, a bridge design, for example, optimise a road for – not just the obvious ones like curvature and safety, but things like carbon impact and cost and time.”

“Civil engineers can imagine a certain section of the design space. AI can imagine a much broader design space,” Campbell added. “The good news is that in engineering, we’re governed by rules of physics and standards and safety factors and all those kinds of things, so that limits it, but still, it’s bigger than what a typical engineer can think about.”

Desktop deployment

Beyond AI, one of the most significant aspects of OpenSite+ is that it’s a completely new type of application. It’s iTwin-native, so it writes directly to an iModel without needing to go through intermediary formats like DGN. Unlike many modern applications, it’s also a desktop application, rather than running in a browser.

“We’re not yet convinced that all of these engineering workloads are going to be able to work on the cloud,” explained Campbell. “We also want to be able to take advantage of local compute. And we’ve also got our eye on these new AI processors that are coming out – NPUs – and we want to be able to take advantage of that.”

OpenSite+ works both online and offline, syncing changes (deltas) when connectivity is restored. Bentley is taking the same desktop/iTwin-native approach with its new visualisation tool, Advanced Visualization, which is built on Unreal Engine (more on this later).

Campbell acknowledges that more tools are in the pipeline, either going through validation or still in the research phase, and they will all follow this same framework.

With many new AEC software tools from startups running in the browser, we asked Campbell if this would influence Bentley’s acquisition strategy. “Not necessarily, but it would be a consideration,” he said. “We certainly look at architecture [of the software].”

He also admitted that technical integration has become a key focus for Bentley, which is one reason why acquisitions have slowed over the last couple of years. The priority now is ensuring that products work seamlessly together. “The idea of convergence and integration, ensuring that data flows smoothly across applications and the lifecycle, and informs the infrastructure digital twin—that’s the goal,” Campbell emphasised.

Back into BIM?

Bentley once held a strong position in architecture, especially in the early 2000s with MicroStation and GenerativeComponents, a pioneering computational design tool that preceded Grasshopper.

However, in recent years, the company has shifted its focus away from this market. Given the growing interest in next-generation BIM tools, the question arises: does Bentley have aspirations to get back into BIM?

“Our focus right now is absolutely on horizontal infrastructure, and there’s plenty there to keep us busy,” said Campbell.

“But I’m reluctant to say never, especially in light of the sentiment of the broader AEC ecosystem. In particular, I’m thinking about open letters, I’m thinking about the AEC spec [AEC Future Software Specification]. I’m thinking about what their vision is for the tools they’ll use in the future. And I’m thinking about the tools that we’re building. And when I read that spec and I look at our strategy, it’s not dissimilar. It’s not a slam dunk, but we’re in the ballpark.

“The data lake, the elements of openness, design in context and at scale. That’s in the AEC spec.”

Geospatial – giving assets context

Last month, out of the blue, Bentley Systems acquired Cesium, developer of an industry cherished 3D geospatial platform – Cesium ion – with an ecosystem of open standards, including Cesium.JS and 3D Tile technology. (To learn more about the acquisition read this AEC Magazine article).

“With the acquisition of Cesium, we are now able to provide a 3D geospatial view of infrastructure,” said Cumins. “We are effectively changing the vantage point of an infrastructure digital twin, from the engineering model of the infrastructure asset to the planet Earth, upon which we geolocate the engineering model and all the necessary data from the surrounding built and natural environments.”

However, as Cumins explained, perhaps the most significant aspect of the acquisition is that Cesium as a company, perfectly aligns with Bentley’s vision of open standards and interoperability.

“The combination of Cesium plus iTwin enables developers to seamlessly align 3D geospatial data with engineering, subsurface, IoT, reality, and enterprise data to create digital twins with astonishing user experiences that scale from vast infrastructure networks to the millimetre-accurate details of individual assets—viewed from land, sky, and sea, from outer space to deep below the Earth’s surface to support engineering workflows.”

Cesium’s 3D Tile technology makes light work of huge geospatial datasets by streaming only what the user needs for any given view.

It uses a concept called hierarchical level of detail (HLOD), where you basically have a tree of tiles – the root being the least detailed version, the branches adding more detail, and the leaves having the highest resolution.

3D Tiles can handle a whole smorgasbord of 3D geospatial data including point clouds, reality models (derived from photogrammetry), and 3D buildings. Through its recent AECO Tech Preview Program it can also handle BIM models (IFC and Autodesk Revit), complete with metadata which can be used for querying, filtering, styling, and analytics.

The long-term plan is to unite the iTwin and Cesium Ion platforms, but as Patrick Cozzi, CEO of Cesium and now chief platform officer at Bentley, explained nothing will be done without input from the community. The potential is limitless, he said. “We can add voxels for biometric visualisation, for subsurface, we can add Gaussian splats for higher visual quality for point clouds; we can do temporal tiles to help show the change in construction sites over time.”

Building on this geospatial focus, Bentley announced a new strategic partnership with Google which will integrate Google’s comprehensive repository of 3D geospatial data with Cesium and Bentley’s iTwin platform.

“Consider a large urban development project where multiple infrastructure systems are used – roads, bridges, energy and water networks – that must be coordinated across various stakeholders,” said Cumins. “By integrating Google’s vast 3D geospatial data with Bentley Cesium technology and iTwin platform stakeholders can visualise their assets, both existing and plan in full real-world context.”

Advanced Visualization

Cesium 3D Tiles and Google 3D Tiles play a key role in Advanced Visualization, a new product from Bentley powered by Unreal Engine, designed to overcome the challenges of creating immersive, interactive, and photorealistic infrastructure experiences.

This software integrates seamlessly with iTwin for live access to up-to-date project data, enabling users to navigate massive models in real time using Cesium 3D Tiles.

As Greg Demchak, VP, emerging technologies group at Bentley explained, users can enrich their scenes with additional context and content: “Context in the form of Google 3D tiles, and content in the form of easy to place trees, cars, scale, figures and equipment.”

Advanced Visualization functions either as an out-of-the-box solution or as a flexible platform for building custom applications and is currently in Early Access.

Up front carbon analysis

One of the key challenges in achieving sustainability on infrastructure projects is the time-consuming nature of carbon reporting, which is typically handled by specialists.

Kelvin Saldanha, associate director at WSP, elaborated: “Once you’re ready to measure carbon, it needs to go through a rigorous quantity take-off process, including design compilation and data cleansing, before that data can be used in third-party software.”

This process can cause significant delays. As Saldanha noted, “A lot of times that delay means that the design team doesn’t know what the carbon score is until the design is very mature, and you kind of miss the opportunity to reduce your carbon score.”

He emphasised that the best opportunity to make a meaningful impact on carbon reduction is in the early stages of a project’s design cycle.

WSP has been testing new carbon analysis capabilities in iTwin Experience through Bentley’s Early Access Program, which Saldanha said gives the design team much-needed transparency in the earlier phases of a project. “Continuous calculations during the design process allow for accurate carbon reports to be generated much earlier in the project lifecycle,” he added.

What truly sets Carbon Analysis apart, according to Saldanha, is the software’s visualisation capabilities. “Instead of sifting through spreadsheets and tables, designers can now exchange data directly with EC3, view heat maps, and interact with them to quickly identify where they’ve got carbon intensive features on their project, and then they can target those.”

Bentley’s new Carbon Analysis capabilities are available to iTwin Experience users at no additional cost, though a separate licence is required for carbon assessment calculators like EC3 or OneClickLCA.

Conclusion

While many AEC software companies talk openness, few demonstrate the same level of commitment as Bentley – though open standards, open source and open APIs.

At YII, Bentley’s executives made this abundantly clear with deliberate, impactful messaging: “Don’t get locked in,” “Your data is your data,” and “We’re not creating another silo.”,

This was a strong signal to customers that the keys to their data must remain in their hands, a crucial point as the AEC industry transitions from file-based systems to data lake environments.

Of course, Bentley’s approach isn’t purely altruistic; as a company with shareholders now, it stands to benefit from the industry moving towards storing data in its model wrapper.

And while third parties can choose to use the open specification to create an iModel / iTwin independently, Bentley has a suite of mature data management, authoring and analysis tools and services ready to go.

But with this open approach it’s clear that Bentley is playing the long game—a smart strategy considering the long lifecycle of infrastructure assets.

Cumins pointed out that the software and platform used to manage these assets will evolve considerably over time. “So, by ensuring that our systems remain open, we allow organisations to adopt new technologies and innovations while still being able to access and build on their historical data,” he said.

Of course, it’s possible that future platforms may not even be developed by Bentley, but the key takeaway for customers investing in the Bentley iTwin ecosystem is this: they will always have the freedom to choose.

The post Bentley Systems: the promise of data freedom appeared first on AEC Magazine.

WZMH Architects has launched Giraffe, an independent software company aimed at enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and collaboration in building design and construction.

This launch builds on the foundation laid by sparkbird, the firm’s R&D lab established in 2017 to drive innovation in IoT (Internet of Things), design efficiency, modularity, and sustainability.

Giraffe takes this one step further by blending practical architectural and construction expertise with advanced AI and digital twin technology. It tackles critical challenges in the AEC industry, including fragmented design processes, inconsistent standards and documentation, workforce shortages, and the need for greater automation.

The company offers eight technology solutions.

doton – a digital construction measurement and inventory tracking solution that utilises standard camera technology and unique markers to enhance measurement accuracy, locate and determine the final placement of materials and construction site safety.

ska-ana – a tool for autonomous site navigation, real-time data collection, and remote construction monitoring, designed to reduce operational time and increase efficiency.

AiM (Ai Massing) – an AI-driven planning tool for rapid generation and adjustment of real estate development massing models, integrating creative vision with technical specifications.

PARRiT – a centralised platform for managing design and furniture information, facilitating real-time updates and collaboration across project stakeholders.

SOVAi – a site surveying tool that leverages advanced environmental analysis to provide ‘rapid, comprehensive’ BIM models and reports, enhancing project planning efficiency.

PLAiNNED – an AI-powered app that simplifies architectural design by quickly generating building code-compliant layouts for complex building components, epitomizing efficient ‘design by spreadsheet’.

mySUN – an ‘eco-conscious gaming app’ that tracks and suggests improvements to users’ environmental footprint, encouraging sustainable daily choices through automated activity.

VOLPAi – an AI-powered application that addresses RFI management in the construction industry by expediting responses to improve project flow and serving as an educational resource on design and construction practices.

Giraffe has undertaken pilot tests and collaborations with firms such as Infrastructure Ontario, RBC, Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations and major general contractors and subcontractors.

It is currently carrying out ongoing beta testing and plans for commercialization by 2025.

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Sterling, a specialist in cost and carbon estimating solutions for the engineering and construction industry, has formed a strategic integration with Building Transparency’s Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3).

The integration enables Sterling DCS users who have access to EC3 to gather and assign A1-A5 carbon data to their construction estimate resources, while Sterling’s platform manages the entire carbon life cycle, including B1-B6 and C1-C4 (see below for definitions).

According to the company, this integration allows estimators and construction companies to accurately estimate both costs and carbon emissions across the full project life cycle.

“Our partnership with Building Transparency marks a significant step forward in our commitment to enhancing efficiency and sustainability within the construction industry,” said Steve Brunning, CEO of Sterling.

“By integrating our comprehensive estimating platform with EC3, we are providing our users with the tools they need to make informed decisions that balance cost and carbon impact.”

 The integration with EC3 allows Sterling users to search, import, and assign carbon data for construction materials within the A Categories. Additionally, Sterling’s platform helps ensure users can also access and manage the B and C category data, providing what the company describes as a comprehensive solution for estimating carbon across the entire project life cycle.

According to Sterling, this holistic approach eliminates any gaps, enabling accurate and detailed cost and carbon assessments for all project phases.

Capital (A1-A5)

• Raw Material Supply (A1)
• Transport (A2)
• Manufacturing (A3)
• Transport to Site (A4)
• Site Energy (A5)

Through Life (B1-B6): 

• Use (B1)
• Maintenance (B2)
• Repair (B3)
• Replacement (B4)
• Refurbishment (B5)
• Operational Energy Use (B6)  

End of Life (C1-C4): 

• Decommission/Decontamination (C1)
• Transport to Disposal Facility (C2)
• Waste Processing for Reuse,
• Recovery, or Recycling (C3)
• Disposal (C4)

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Chaos has introduced Enscape Impact (beta), a real-time energy modelling add-on for Enscape 4.1, the latest release of its BIM-focused visualisation software. Developed in partnership with IES, Enscape Impact is designed to make building performance analysis more accessible for architects and designers, by simplifying the analysis process.

With Enscape Impact, architects and designers can quickly view the energy performance of their building and optimise it within their usual design workflow. The software is integrated with Archicad, Revit, Vectorworks, SketchUp and Rhino, but only on Microsoft Windows, not on Mac.

Enscape Impact is not intended to provide building performance certification directly. Instead, it aims to offer real-time feedback that brings architects ‘close to certification-level accuracy’. According to Chaos, what used to take several hours or even days can now be done in minutes.

The software allows users to calculate and benchmark key performance metrics, such as peak loads and total carbon emission. The data is presented within Enscape’s real-time visualisation environment, making it easier to comprehend and communicate the impact of design decisions.

There’s also a dials panel with ‘easy-to-read’ charts and diagrams that display how geometry adjustments impact building performance

According to Chaos, the unified energy analysis and visualisation workflow is not only important for architects, but also for engineers working on a project, significantly cutting down the cost and time required to bring a poorly performing project back into meeting sustainability goals.

“Previously, the design process was separated into architects using BIM for design, while engineers conducted performance analysis separately in software like IES offers”, explains Ruth Kerrigan, chief operating officer, IES. “This led to duplicated visualisation efforts and frequent misalignment between design intent and analytical models. Thus, the loop of recreating and aligning took long and engineers’ reports were often too technical for clients and architects.”

The free trial version of Enscape Impact will be available for anyone who upgrades to Enscape 4.1 until October 2024.

To learn more about the aims of Enscape Impact, read this AEC Magazine article.

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IES has signed a strategic partnership with French software company Octopus Lab to bring better indoor air quality simulation to a wider international audience. Octopus Lab’s Indalo software uses Inca-Indoor, which is claimed to be the world’s only validated indoor air chemistry calculation engine.

IES’ Virtual Environment (VE) software, which is used for building performance analysis, currently simulates the ventilation and impact in terms of internal CO2 concentration, allowing VE users to set external concentration levels, test ventilation strategies and simulate occupants CO2 release to calculate indoor CO2 levels. However, CO2 is not the only chemical that impacts human health and comfort, and occupants are not the only source of chemicals.

The integration of Indalo into IESVE will allow VE users to simulate the concentration of over a thousand pollutants, taking into account various parameters such as emissions from materials and furniture, ventilation strategy, outdoor pollution, occupancy and planned activities.

Indoor Air Quality has become a major global health concern. New or recently renovated buildings are becoming increasingly airtight in response to today’s need for energy efficiency. While better insulation helps to reduce heat loss, it is often forgotten that it also prevents the proper renewal of indoor air.

Poor air quality can be the cause of many health problems, ranging from simple temporary tiredness to serious respiratory diseases.

Indalo is designed to enable building designers to make the best possible ventilation and material choices in order to meet indoor air quality objectives (regulatory or certification) in future new or renovated buildings. The solution also makes it possible to predict the risks of mould and viral infections and identify the most appropriate ways to limit them.

The Indalo plugin exports all relevant information from the VE model to Indalo, with all necessary data provided in the VE via IES’s Navigator technology. Geometry, ventilation flow rates, and occupancy is already simulated by the VE and the results can then be exported. Additional information such as materials’ emissions, filtration and external pollutants’ concentration, can be input via the VE Navigator to complete the required data for the Indalo calculation.

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Chaos has shared more details about its partnership with IES designed to bring real time building performance analysis to its real-time rendering tool Enscape.

The public beta of the new Building Performance module, covered in detail in AEC Magazine last month, will be available in the second half of 2024, with the commercial release to follow. The initial release will be available for free to all Enscape users.

The integrated solution will allow users of all Enscape-supporting CAD platforms on Windows (Revit, Rhino, Vectorworks, SketchUp and Archicad) to conduct energy, daylight and thermal comfort analysis during any phase of design.

The software is designed to shorten the feedback loop between analysis and decision and create a streamlined workflow where design visualization and performance analysis work hand-in-hand.

“This is an exciting step forward for sustainable design. Our customers will be able to visualise the performance of a building while designing, with a focus on criteria such as energy usage, thermal comfort, and daylight in real-time,” said Petr Mitev, VP product, solutions for designers, Chaos.

“Better sustainability insights mean better buildings. By empowering architects and designers to make informed decisions from the beginning, they will be able to make more sustainable design recommendations. We hope that by using Enscape’s forthcoming building performance module, architects can substantially reduce energy consumption in their buildings while also reducing costs for the building owner.”

Ruth Kerrigan, Chief Operating Officer, IES, said, “This venture will enable architects and designers to identify the impact of design changes to energy efficiency, dynamically adjust modifications, and empower informed decision-making as it democratises building performance analysis.”

Enscape: building performance analysis

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The dawn of auto-drawings
Several CAD software firms are making real progress in drawing automation in the race to eliminate one of the AEC sector’s biggest bottlenecks.

Enscape: building performance analysis
Enscape is to get a new module, powered by IES technology, that gives instant visual feedback on building performance.

TestFit runs free
The Texas-based design automation software developer releases a free massing tool for architects.

NXT BLD / DEV 2024
AI, automation, digital fabrication, BIM 2.0, data specifications, open source, automation, and lots, lots more at AEC Magazine’s London conferences

Industry news
AEC technologies emerge for Apple Vision Pro, Unreal Engine and Twinmotion get new licensing, Alice uses AI to optimise Primavera P6 schedules, plus lots more

Autodesk to take over VAR payments
New changes to the Autodesk business model could be set to diminish the role of the CAD reseller.

Workstation news
Intel Core Ultra laptop processors, Nvidia Ada Generation RTX GPUs for CAD, plus new workstations from HP and Dell

Prime time for iGPU
Laptop processors with integrated GPUs are now powerful enough for 3D CAD. Dos this mean a cheaper, slimmer future?

Enscape and V-Ray: a collaborative future
Chaos has big plans to enhance workflows between Enscape and V-Ray, boost real time collaboration, and more.

Smart reality capture
A new integrated reality capture solution from Looq uses computer vision, AI and a proprietary handheld camera with GPS, to capture infrastructure at scale.

Treble: sound advice
New software helps analyse and optimise designs for acoustic performance.

Informed Design
Autodesk connects BIM (Revit) with fabrication (Inventor) via the cloud to support modern methods of construction.

Scaling-up on-site digital construction
Facit Homes brings new hope to the need to build houses and digitise fabrication.

The post AEC Magazine March / April 2024 Edition appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Symetri has launched Naviate Zero, an Autodesk Revit add-on for sustainable building design to address the need for reduced embodied carbon and CO2 emissions.

The software helps designers and engineers to calculate emissions, make informed, eco-conscious decisions directly within the Revit platform and use the data in full Lifecycle Assessments.

Naviate Zero focuses on the early stages of a building’s life cycle, by helping architects to make informed design and material decisions.

Users can can create an early building lifecycle assessment (LCA) on their design directly in their Revit model. They can add, change and remove data on their Revit families and materials, and see the changes as they work.

Users can compare EPDs and CO2 values to help make the right selection for their projects and connect them to different families and materials. CO2 data can be visualised with pie charts and tables by category or material.

The software builds on Symetri’s strategic partnership with One Click LCA, a global platform for lifecycle assessment, environmental product declaration, and sustainability.

By utilising One Click LCA’s databases, Naviate Zero provides architects and designers direct access to global building material data.

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Enscape by Chaos has become a firm favourite with many architectural practices. The real time viz tool transformed architectural visualisation by making it an integral part of the design process. It allowed architects to go from BIM viewport to visually-rich real time environment – on desktop or in VR – at the push of a button. Any changes made to geometry, materials, or lighting inside Revit, Archicad, Vectorworks, Rhino or SketchUp are reflected in Enscape almost instantly.

By getting highly realistic visual feedback in real time, architects can make informed decisions at every stage of the design process. It can help give answers to many questions. What will the façade look like if clad in aluminium? Will the glazing provide enough light for the interior? Would the building benefit from a larger atrium?

Chaos is now adding a new dimension to Enscape with a view to ‘democratising sustainable design’. It is applying the same principles of real time visual feedback to building performance analysis, to dramatically reduce the time it takes for architects to optimise energy efficiency in their designs.

Enscape’s forthcoming Building Performance Module will allow architects to visualise things like daylight, energy usage, comfort analysis and more, as they are designing. The idea is to help architects see the impact of every design decision from the very early stages.

“Enscape revolutionised the use of real-time visualisation,” said Kam Star, chief product officer at Chaos. “We want to do the same with building performance, with energy use, with thermal comfort, with daylight analysis – eventually carbon footprint and HVAC – all of those things – in real time. So, as you change the size of the window on the south facing side, you [instantly] see the impact.”

As a visualisation company, Chaos doesn’t have expertise in-house for building performance analysis, so it’s partnering with one of the industry’s most respected software providers, IES. Chaos describes the analysis engine being used as ‘trusted and certified’.

To make building performance analysis widely accessible and ‘architect-friendly’, ease of use is critical, as Petr Mitev, vice president, solutions for designers at Chaos explains, “We’re working very closely with IES to basically strip out as much as possible from the necessary inputs, in order to still get something actionable and valuable to the architect, without them having to take on the complexity that a building engineer would take on.”

“We want people to be able to trust what they’re seeing,” adds Star. “Of course, we don’t expect you to be able to get the certification straight out of Enscape – there will be a further step – but you will get to within striking distance, and certainly have that real time feedback based on your decisions.”

Find this article plus many more in the March / April 2024 Edition of AEC Magazine

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A single source of truth

Enscape is different to many other visualisation tools in that it maintains a ‘single source of truth’ within the CAD or BIM tool. Materials, geometry, and lighting are all controlled in Revit, Archicad and others, while Enscape updates automatically.

Chaos is taking the exact same approach with the Building Performance Module. “We want to make sure that we’re not creating or separating these sources of information,” says Mitev.

He admits that in some cases an additional layer of detail may need to be added within Enscape. “Let’s say you’re working on a renovation, what year was it built in? Obviously, Revit doesn’t know, so then we have to put that in on our side. But, for the most part, we want to maintain a single source of truth for our users.”

A simulated future?

Enscape’s Building Performance Module marks an interesting new direction for a product that redefined architectural visualisation by putting simple-to-use tools into the hands of architects. The question is, can it do the same for building performance analysis?

The timing is certainly perfect, as Star explains, “We know that there are changes coming in legislation across various parts of the world that will make it [building performance analysis] a statutory requirement.

“We know this will become something that you just have to have – it’s no longer a nice to have – and we want people to be able to make better design decisions based on those.”

Of course, the AEC industry already has a plethora of tools that can be used for this task. These tend to fit into one of two camps – standalone concept design tools that offer real time building performance feedback on simple models, or more powerful applications that either work inside BIM authoring tools, offer a live link to them, or get data out via plug-ins or the Green Building XML (gbXML) schema. cove.tools, Digital Blue Foam, IES Virtual Environment (VE), Pollination and Sefaira are some examples.

As far as we know, there’s nothing else on the market that looks to connect detailed BIM models with building performance analysis in such a seamless way, as Chaos describes. When changes are made in Revit, Archicad and others, Enscape will dynamically update, in exactly the same way it does for visualisation. The idea is that architects can get instant feedback at all stages of the design process. And because it uses the BIM model as a single source of truth, it should provide a flexible pathway into more detailed analysis.

Of course there are still many unknowns about the forthcoming product. How useful will the analysis data be? How easy will it be for architects to interpret? How much will it cost? Will it provide a seamless workflow into more detailed analysis?

This new fork in the road doesn’t have to end with building performance analysis. We asked Chaos, if Enscape in the future could handle other forms of analysis, such as structural, wind or acoustic? In other words, could it become a multi-purpose window into a BIM model to give instant visual feedback on many different aspects of a design?

Mitev replied: “Our strategy has always been to be a tool that enables design decisions, not design artefacts. Without committing to something concrete, we really want to look at things that help people make better decisions faster.

“And if, down the road, what we hear from the user community means structural analysis or, I don’t know whatever else it might be, then that’s something we need to consider very seriously if it’s critical to the design decision making process.”

Enscape’s Building Performance Module is due to enter beta / preview mode in the second half of 2024.

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Chaos is working on a new Building Performance Module for its architectural visualisation software Enscape that will allow users to visualise the energy efficiency of buildings while designing in real time.

Later this year the company will also launch a new ‘story telling’ solution codenamed Project Eclipse that allow users to ‘rapidly enhance’ their Enscape and V-Ray scenes.

Building Performance Module

According to Chaos, the forthcoming Building Performance Module for Enscape will help drastically reduce the amount of time required for architects to achieve optimum energy efficiency for their designs and improve sustainability ratings.

Users will be able to visualise aspects such as daylight energy usage, and comfort analysis. The aim is to help architects see the impact of their early-stage design decisions and to help create more sustainable buildings.

“[The Building Performance Module for Enscape] will place the power of insightful decision making directly in your hands and democratise analysis,” said Phil Miller, VP product solutions for artists, Chaos.

“Bringing this to Enscape connects the BIM model with performance analysis, and within the real time visualisation mode you already know. Your analysis will dynamically update with your changes, just as your visualisation updates within Enscape.”

Project Eclipse

Later this year, Chaos will launch a new ‘story telling’ solution codenamed Project Eclipse that will accept and combine scenes directly from any Enscape or V-Ray integration, within which users will be able to ‘rapidly enhance’ their scene.

According to Miller, it will allow users to explore design variations, animate the possibilities and even orchestrate crowds and traffic far more rapidly than they can anywhere else.

“We feel this will be the perfect solution for architects and visualisation specialists to quickly tell their design stories and include far more detailed permutations and animation that is possible in any CAD tool,” he said.

Miller added that the new storytelling solution will work across all the products that Chaos supports.

Stylised visualisation

Chaos will be adding real time stylised visualisation to Enscape, that uses AI and natural language processing to give the render a hand drawn, more artistic look.

Image credits: YouTube: ChaosTV

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