For almost twenty years the AEC software world was centred around Autodesk Revit and its definition and workflow of BIM. The concept was to ideate, model detail designs and create all the necessary drawings in one monolithic platform.

But software typically has a lifespan, where it needs to be rewritten or rearchitected (for OS changes, new hardware, and to clean-up years of bloat).

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Following open letters from customers concerned at the lack of Revit development Autodesk explained that it was not going to rewrite Revit for the desktop, but instead would develop a next generation AEC design environment on the cloud, branded Forma (N.B. Carl Christensen, the Autodesk VP in charge of delivering Forma, will be presenting at NXT BLD on June 11).

This gap between Revit and what will come next has presented an opportunity for new software developers to rethink BIM and its underlying technologies, to bring the AEC design software into the 21st Century. Investors have become equally excited and NXT BLD and NXT DEV will provide a unique forum for multiple startups—Snaptrude, Motif, Qonic and Arcol—to present new commercial BIM 2.0 products, with more firms in stealth, probably in the audience!

While the velocity of the startups is impressive, we need to temper expectations by pointing out that competing against established desktop BIM applications, which are 20+ years old, will take years (and millions of dollars). Over the coming years, expect to see these tools become more feature comparative.

While BIM 2.0 shifts the focus away from producing drawings, there’s no escaping their continued importance to the AEC industry. That’s why there’s also a big focus on autodrawings, as this AI-powered technology promises to massively reduce the time spent doing the mundane boring work. Autodrawings could also mean fewer licences of BIM software are required. Both Snaptrude and Qonic have developments here. However, it’s quite possible that autodrawings and AI will become cloud services that don’t need to be in an all encompassing BIM platform.

At NXT BLD / DEV you can meet and engage with all these firms, plus many more individuals innovating in the AEC space, such as Antonio González Viegas of ThatOpenCompany and Dalai Felinto of Blender bringing the benefits of impressive Open Source tools to our industry. We hope that you will join us.

NXT BLD 2025
London
11 June 2025
www.nxtbld.com

NXT DEV 2025
London
12 June 2025
www.nxtdev.build

Arcol

Based in New York, Arcol is headed up by Irishman, Paul O’Carroll, who brings a games development background to BIM and 3D. One of the earliest to profile its approach as ‘Figma for BIM’, the company has attracted investors such as chief executives of both Procore and Figma.

Arcol has focussed heavily on concept design for its initial offering, enabling live in-context modelling with building metrics and data extraction and collaboration built-in. The software supports complex geometry, an easy to learn UI, board creation for presentations (which can be shared by just sending a link), live plans and sheets. It integrates with Revit, SketchUp and Excel. Reports are highly visual and Arcol see it as a replacement for PDF as well. The solution is aimed at architects, developers, general contractors and owners. Arcol will be officially shipping by the time of NXT BLD.

Motif

Motif is headed up by former joint CEO of Autodesk, Amar Hanspal, who has assembled the old gang to finish off a task he started in 2016 – the rewriting of Revit as a cloud application.

Motif is also pitched as Figma for BIM and is backed by Alphabet (Google) with a sizeable war chest. In stealth for the last two years, the company has been working with signature architects to learn what a BIM 2.0 application should be able to do – the idea being that by catering to the most demanding customers, the software should benefit everyone.

The company has just launched its first version but recognises the journey will take many years. The feature set of version 1 lends itself to design review and client presentations, taking aim at Miro, but with some Speckle and Omniverse like capabilities.

Qonic 

The origins of Ghent-based Qonic go back to TriForma, a BIM system which co-founder Erik de Keyser created and licensed to Bentley Systems. de Keyser then created BricsCAD and Bricsys – a DWG and formative BIM tool, which was later sold to Hexagon.

Many of the Bricsys team then started up Qonic, a cloud-based BIM 2.0 competitor which initially (and uniquely) focuses on the model and data interface between architecture and construction. Qonic can load huge Revit models and lets users fly through them with butter smooth refresh rates on the desktop or mobile. The program also has powerful solid modelling core for geometry edits, as well as supporting IFC component labelling. The initial release is exceptionally easy to use to see, manipulate and filter BIM data, as a CDE on steroids. The team is working on architectural tools, smart drawings and a range of features to expand capabilities.

Snaptrude

Snaptrude has the accolade of being the first BIM 2.0 startup that AEC Magazine discovered. CEO Altaf Ganihar was first to demonstrate cloud-based collaborative working on Revit models and has gone on to raise $21m in VC funding.

The New York-based company seeks to be a one stop shop for conceptual, detailed design and drawing production, while linking to all the common tools – Revit, SketchUp, AutoCAD, Rhino, as well as Nemetschek’s Archicad. Snaptrude currently offers the widest range of BIM 2.0 features from concept to AI renderings and drawings and looks as if it will probably be first with feature parity to Revit for Architecture, with plans to also support MEP and structural. With the biggest development team in the BIM 2.0 space the company is moving at pace to deliver on its aims. The company is soon to announce a range of major new features.

Main image caption: Antonio González Viegas, CEO of That Open Company, the creator of free and open technology that helps AECO software firms and practitioners create their own AECO software, will be speaking at NXT DEV again this year.

The post Future BIM voices at NXT BLD / DEV appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Beyond Legacy Thinking
Altaf Ganihar, founder and CEO, Snaptrude

Beyond the Familiar Crisis: Understanding the Root Cause

We’ve all seen the reports. We know the AEC industry struggles with productivity. We’ve read the McKinsey statistics and heard about budget overruns countless times. Yet despite this awareness, the same problems persist.

Why? I believe we’re focusing on symptoms rather than the disease. The real issue isn’t just poor collaboration, it’s a broken information chain throughout the building lifecycle.

Think about it: decisions made during early design affect a building for decades. These choices impact construction costs, energy use, maintenance expenses, and occupant health. Yet our current systems break this chain at every link, especially in the critical early stages where decisions have the most impact.

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The three-dimensional disconnect

The AEC industry suffers from what I call a “three-dimensional disconnect” that prevents smart decision-making:

1. Disconnected tools: Our industry uses specialised software that’s great at specific tasks but terrible at talking to each other. Existing tools force design teams to wait weeks to bring designs up to basic specifications before gathering feedback. Even tools from the same company often can’t share information without someone manually converting the data.
2. Fragmented data: Critical building information is scattered across dozens of systems in incompatible formats. Requirements, floor plans, 3D models, renders, and presentations exist as separate files in separate programs. This makes it nearly impossible to see how a change in one area affects everything else.
3. Isolated people: Most importantly, our technology keeps experts apart when they need to work together. For an industry that thrives on collaboration, with multiple stakeholders working across geographies, there’s no reliable platform for real-time collaboration. Architects, engineers, clients, and contractors use different systems that reinforce silos instead of breaking them down.

In an industry where the impact lasts for years, this lack of actionable feedback and limited collaboration causes decisions to get severely delayed, resulting in massive cost implications for retrospective corrections.

The cloud-native foundation

Seven years ago, we began with a dream of a connected ecosystem for the AEC industry, which evolved into our mission to connect people, data, and tools. We recognised that this would only be possible by building natively in the cloud.

This cloud-native foundation enables several critical capabilities:

• Universal representation of data across the lifecycle, enabling:
  –  Atomic changes to designs with real-time feedback on cost, climate, and carbon impact
  –  Seamless interoperability with legacy tools to enable easy transition from old workflows to new
• A powerful geometry kernel optimised for web-based editing
• Practical automations that enhance rather than complicate the design process

Today, I’m encouraged to see the entire industry, including incumbents and startups alike, converging on this worldview. The debate is no longer about whether we need a connected ecosystem, but how quickly we can create one and what specific approaches will work best.

Reimagining the early design process

We recognised that the most critical phase in a building’s lifecycle is the early design stage, from RFP analysis to schematic design. This is where the most impactful decisions are made, yet it’s also where our disconnected tools create the greatest financial strain on firms.

According to a recent AIA report, 15% of the work that architecture firms do is not compensated, a staggering amount of lost revenue. Much of this unpaid work occurs during early design phases, which have become increasingly unprofitable. While incumbents are rushing to rebuild legacy systems on the cloud, this approach misses the fundamental opportunity. The industry doesn’t just need faster horses, it needs automobiles.

Cloud foundations are like inventing the steam engine; they enable entirely new possibilities rather than merely improving existing ones. What the industry desperately needs is a reimagined approach to early design that connects the disjointed steps from requirements to presentation, a unified workflow that connects people, their tools, and the data they need for the most decisive phase of building design. By focusing on where decisions have the greatest impact, the early design process, we’re addressing the industry’s most pressing challenges head-on.

The AI inflection point for AEC

The emergence of advanced AI capabilities represents both an opportunity and a challenge for our industry. There’s a saying circulating that “people who use AI will replace people who don’t.” While oversimplified, it captures an important truth: AI will fundamentally reshape AEC workflows, but only in connected ecosystems with structured data that can leverage its full potential.

While the cloud foundations are like the steam engine, AI is like electricity, transforming not just how we power our work, but fundamentally changing what’s possible in every aspect of the design and construction process. We as an industry are uniquely placed to see this transition happen simultaneously, unlike other industries where it was clearly sequential. We’re witnessing large firms investing heavily in proprietary AI systems built on their internal data. While commendable, this approach is ultimately unsustainable. Building reliable, maintainable AI systems requires expertise that, while possible for AEC firms to develop, distracts from their core competency of designing better buildings.

At Snaptrude, we’ve invested heavily in AI for practical, urgent industry problems. For example, our agent that helps firms create program requirements by analysing RFPs gives teams a solid foundation to begin their design process. Similarly, our investment in AI-powered rendering tools achieves state-of-the-art performance in adhering to geometry and design intent.

Real transformation requires new foundations

The future of BIM isn’t about incremental improvements to existing tools but a fundamental reimagining of how we design, build, and operate the built environment. By creating a platform that connects stakeholders, streamlines workflows, and harnesses the power of data and AI, we can address the industry’s most pressing challenges.

At Snaptrude, we’re proud to lead this transformation, particularly in the critical early stages of the design process. Our platform is already delivering measurable value to firms today, with customers attributing project profitability directly to our deployment. But we’re just getting started.

The AEC industry has the potential to be more efficient, more sustainable, and more creative than ever before. By rebuilding our tools with collaboration, data, and openness at their core, we can create a built environment that truly serves the needs of both today and tomorrow.

No more broken chains. No more silos. No more disconnects. Just better buildings created through truly informed decisions at every stage of the process, starting with the most critical early design phase. I’m so glad to see that we as an Industry are moving towards this future and it may not be that far away.

Read more opinions

The startups

Breaking the compromise in digital project delivery
Erik de Keyser, co-founder, Qonic

Beyond Buzzwords: the real future of BIM
Paul O’Carrol, CEO, Arcol

BIM 2.0: why it’s time to reinvent the tools that power the built world
Amar Hanspal, CEO, Motif

The established players

Embracing AI and Boosting Sustainability Across Project Lifecycles
Daniel Csillag, CEO, Graphisoft

AI: Our Generation’s Paradigm Shift
Tom Kurke, VP, Ecosystems & Venture, Bentley Systems

The Future of BIM: Harnessing the Power of Data
Amy Bunszel, executive VP of AEC Solutions, Autodesk

Unlocking the Future of BIM with Interoperability
Mark Schwartz, SVP, Trimble

Design transformed: 2025 predictions from Vectorworks
Dr. Biplab Sarkar, CEO, Vectorworks

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Snaptrude has built an Excel-like interface directly into its BIM authoring software, to make architectural programming simpler and allow architects to quickly generate data-backed design concepts with views, renders, and drawings.

With the new ‘Program’ mode every row, formula, and update is synced live with the 3D model, and vice versa. According to Snaptrude, this means architects don’t need to juggle separate spreadsheets, ensuring real-time accuracy and eliminating the need for manual cross-checking. Users can define custom formulas and rules to fit their specific building program needs.

‘Program’ mode works alongside Tables, which is billed as a new home for all kinds of structured information inside Snaptrude.

Tables includes an AI wizard, so users can ‘quickly generate’ or refine their program with an AI co-pilot.

“Over the last 18 months, we’ve started spending a lot of time with mid to large sized architectural firms across the US and globally as well. And one thing which we constantly kept hearing is Excel is everywhere, and it’s a huge part of everyone’s workflows, and it’s quite understandable,” said Altaf Ganihar, founder and CEO, Snaptrude.

“From programming to construction, everybody knows how to use it, it’s very easy to use, and everybody relies on it. So instead of fighting it, we said, let’s just embrace it, we built an Excel like interface directly into Snaptrude.”

Snaptrude Program mode is currently in early access.

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Snaptrude is working on enhanced interoperability between its web-based BIM authoring tool and Nemetschek Group BIM solutions, including Graphisoft Archicad, Allplan, and Vectorworks.

The aim is to enable architects to more easily transition between a range of BIM tools, harnessing the strengths of each tool at different project stages.

Interoperability with Nemetschek Group software will start with the ability to export Snaptrude projects into Archicad, ‘preserving all the parametric properties’ of BIM elements.

Project teams on Snaptrude have shared workspaces that also include a centrally managed library of standard doors, windows, and staircases. Upon import, Snaptrude objects will be automatically converted into editable families in Archicad.

In the future, the integration extend to a bi-directional link between Snaptrude and Archicad for synchronisation of model data and changes. According to Snaptrude, this will further enhance collaboration and efficiency in the design process, as users will be able to switch back and forth between the programs.

Snaptrude already offers bi-directional support for Autodesk Revit (a workflow that is explored in this AEC Magazine article).

“We want architects and designers to use the best tools for their needs without any hassles,” said Altaf, Founder at Snaptrude. “Snaptrude supports bi-directional interoperability with several BIM tools and is extending this capability to Nemetschek Group BIM design solutions. This is a move towards enhancing the way architects and designers work by incorporating industry-leading tools seamlessly into the workflow.”

Snaptrude is a web-based 3D BIM tool designed for real-time, multi-user collaboration. The software recently added an AI renderer to its feature set. According to the developers, the AI renderer recognises the geometry of models, understands scale, and is trained to understand context, foreground, background and material, so users have control over their renders.

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In a mature market, developing a new generation application involves playing a long game. Even if you are already the market leader, it’s hard to compete against your own, widely adopted products, because of customer inertia and legacy concerns.

So spare a thought for BIM 2.0 startups with far fewer revenues and much smaller customer bases, who face an uphill struggle but are still aiming to reinvent modern design software.

Among the firms striving to compete against Revit as a pure-play BIM platform are Arcol, Qonic and Snaptrude. with at least three more still in stealth mode and likely to emerge in 2025.

Arcol, Qonic and Snaptrude have entered the market with limited but carefully targeted feature sets, designed to be of immediate use in existing workflows. At first glance, it might appear as if they are aimed firmly at conceptual design. But make no mistake: all three have an eye on the long game. All three intend to become leading BIM platforms.

Modern computer languages, advances in web graphics and distributed cloud compute are bringing a new generation of tools to the market. When compared feature-by-feature to industry-leading, desktop-based BIM tools, these next generation tools may, at first, look quite limited. But the advantages of cloud delivery mean that new features can be streamed and added rapidly, giving incredible development velocity. Parity of features, depth of capability, and width for edge case designs could take just three to five more years of focused development.

The BIM 2.0 company with the most venture capital backing ($21.8 million) and the biggest development team is Snaptrude, headed up by CEO Altaf Ganihar. So far this year, Snaptrude’s BIM SaaS application has seen 26 releases, with another 16 planned before November 2024.

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The story so far

At AEC Magazine’s NXT DEV event, an industry figure who will go unnamed described Revit as “1970s thinking delivered in 1980s coding.” With many mature users demanding more updates and renewed software architecture, Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost stated there was to be no next generation of Revit, or in his words, “no faster horse”.

Instead, Anagnost presented the prospect of a cloud-based, data-centric tool called Forma. So far Autodesk has delivered a concept engine, which we believe will be fleshed out to become a cloud hub for what comes next in AEC at Autodesk. Meanwhile, Autodesk is busy architecting a data bridge between the Revit desktop and its Forma cloud back-end.

Snaptrude, meanwhile, has been developed to work and play well with Revit’s RVT file format and to find a niche in today’s BIM workflows. With its current feature set, it best fits workflows that involve rapid concept modelling and loading an RVT into the cloud for collaborative working with mark-up and editing capabilities.

Snaptrude is especially useful in space planning, but not as an end-to-end solution. For now, you would have to go back into Revit for coordination and documentation using the bidirectional link.

However, Snaptrude’s development is, by any measure, happening at high velocity. Ganihar compares his extensive development team to six internal startups, all working on different areas of the programme and delivering continually. Now that those developers have mastered the quality assurance that this parallel process demands, they can create a new release every week. And they do all this at the same time as supporting customers and using their feedback to drive the development cycle.

Mastering rapid development means that Snaptrude claims it will be able to deliver schematic design tools by the end of the year. This development may take most of next year to perfect, but the expansion enables Snaptrude to start work on developing different disciplines, such as structural and MEP capabilities.

The end goal for Snaptrude is big, Ganihar claims. “We want to be the OS for construction, which means using the same model to do clash detection, create the drawing, the quantity take-offs, costing take-offs, to produce the bid documents. We can actually do the full gamut, because we are not based on files. It’s a single database. And each one of these is just an instance of our database representation.”

But Snaptrude isn’t just an in-the-cloud Revit clone. The philosophy of the software is to drive productivity through automation of workflows, both micro and macro. As Ganihar states, “Next year, I think we’ll be very close to completing the schematic workflow. While we can replace like-for-like, we are also automating the design process. We are automating concept modelling, the visualisation and the drawing process.”

Growing portfolio

So far, Snaptrude’s customers have started pilots or used the software on live projects because of its promise to cut nonbillable hours. This is achieved by reducing the number of buttons that need to be pressed; the number of applications required; and the speed of output, whether the deliverable is an area model, a presentation, a render or a drawing. The target benefit that Ganihar cites most frequently is one-tenth of the time.

Snaptrude is also deploying AI. “The most successful feature we launched recently was area modelling. You can bring an area list from a spreadsheet programme and it automatically creates the blocks. Then you can automatically block and stack them, based on adjacencies, into a building footprint. This is done through physics-enabled AI, not the GPT kind. It’s logically solving the problem using daylight simulation, adjacencies, etcetera,” he says.

Snaptrude also has its own AI rendering technology, which utilises Nvidia graphics and Stable Diffusion, bypasses 2D-to-3D conversion, preserves a design’s geometry and is less likely to ‘hallucinate’. Drawings, however, is the most-often demanded feature. While Snaptrude is developing its own automated drawing capabilities such as auto-dimensioning, auto-tagging and auto-labels, the company has also licensed the DWG engine of Graebert, developer of Ares CAD, which is one of the most widely used DWG engines in the industry (as seen in DS DraftSight, Solidworks and Onshape).

Ares is designed for the cloud, desktop and mobile, which means Snaptrude can easily connect to it via API. The first stage will be a connection between a live link between Ares and Snaptrude. Graebert has also been working on autodrawing technology to accelerate drawing production. It looks like Snaptrude will be first to bring that to market in a BIM context both through its own internal work and through partnerships.

Ganihar sees this as a key technology to add and sees potential adoption in markets like Asia where Graebert Ares is popular, and AutoCAD and Revit LT are under market pressure. Snaptrude has managed to sign up Datech Solutions (part of TechData and distributor of Autodesk products) for distribution in Asia Pacific. Ganihar explained that there is great potential in cost-sensitive markets.

What’s next?

Snaptrude’s next big feature release should be live in October. It will support presentation drawings, instant renders and enhanced graphics. There have been improvements to real-time data for areas, costing and take-offs, as well as interoperability advances supporting Revit and Rhino, better geometry and BIM capabilities. This work connects the workflow from early RFPs to schematic designs.

Along with feature updates like coloured and monochrome massing, better snaps, drawing offset mode, select to move, offset and voids on masses, the Sketch-to-BIM capability has been enhanced to support Revit families and curtain walls.

In workspaces, imported Revit files will have families extracted and added to your team library with a single click. These can be managed from a single space. There will now be a command line (because CAD folks will never give this up!), but this will be AI-enhanced and more powerful.

Snaptrude is working towards a philosophy it calls ‘LOD hopping’, which means that, at any stage, the user can hop to a different LOD level to make design iterations, without having to worry about corrupting the model or downstream

In drawings, labelled drawings can now be created directly within Snaptrude, along with the ability to generate sheets in various sizes and scales and export them as PDFs.

In AI rendering, users will be able to create photorealistic renders and artistic graphics for their designs while respecting geometry, and soon, materials. The system is intelligent enough to understand BIM data, which Snaptrude plans to leverage in future releases to enhance quality.

There’s a new Rhino import capability, too, which uses a dedicated manager. Users can bring in geometry from Rhino, edit geometries currently supported inside Snaptrude and eventually take the detailed model to Revit for further documentation. Export of models to Rhino is performed through fbx or obj exports.

In parametrics, curtain walls and stacked wall parametrics are now supported. The new parametric wall graph will enable parametric editing in BIM mode for walls, floors, slabs in massing mode and on imported Revit projects. The graph will form the foundations to support other parametric elements in future releases. Snaptrude is working towards a philosophy it calls ‘LOD hopping’, which means that, at any stage, the user can hop to a different LOD level to make design iterations, without having to worry about corrupting the model or downstream.

Conclusion

With the industry looking to collectively move from desktop file-based design documentation BIM solutions to collaborative, cloud-based BIM databases, there is a lot at stake for the dominating industry players — Autodesk, Nemetschek, Trimble, Bentley Systems — especially with so many interesting start-ups that make their ultimate objective to replace existing seats.

Core BIM code is being rewritten. BIM formats are being granularised, collaboration is being built-in from the ground up and, in various ways, automation is going to play a big role in reducing the time spent doing donkey work.

While end goals may still be documentation and drawings, ways of getting there are going to be less distributed and more self-managing.

For Autodesk, it’s going to be especially interesting, as the Forma vision needs to be fleshed out and expanded beyond concept to indicate that the company is working on a broader development.

Every time Autodesk has addressed next-generation BIM, the company has acquired the technology (Softdesk = Architectural Desktop, Revit = Revit).

Autodesk purchased Spacemaker in 2020, which then became Forma.

But Spacemaker wasn’t a cloud BIM tool; it was for conceptual, early-stage design. To scale that up to being a cloud BIM tool will take time and resources. We will have to wait and see what’s shown at Autodesk University this year to rate Forma’s development velocity. But whatever happens, it’s clear that the competition – including Snaptrude – certainly isn’t hanging about.

Main image: Snaptrude is designed to play well with Revit

The post Snaptrude advances appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Snaptrude, a BIM startup dedicated to helping AEC companies build more efficient and sustainable buildings faster, has announced it has raised $14 million in Series A funding from the following VCs: Foundamental, Accel, with Fortius Ventures also participating.

This brings the total raised to $21.8M, which will be deployed to grow the product and engineering teams, and expand Snaptrude’s go-to-market strategy and provide global reach.

Snaptrude is creating a modern platform for architects and designers to use the ‘Figma’ cloud model to change how firms design and model. The platform encourages collaboration, interoperability, and efficiency, and is an alternative to ‘legacy’ tools such as Autodesk Revit, SketchUp, and Autodesk AutoCAD which the company claims create disconnected workflows and impede productivity.

The platform provides instant feedback on real-world parameters, supports all leading design file formats, and now leverages generative AI for building design to improve the design process and reduce the time and money it takes to go from design to construction.

This new funding will be used to accelerate Snaptrude’s go-to-market efforts, expand the sales/marketing teams globally, and support the development of their modern platform for the design-construction workflows.

Altaf Ganihar, founder and CEO of Snaptrude, said, “We’re delighted to have the renewed support of our investors Accel and Foundamental. When I set out to build Snaptrude, I wanted to improve the broken and complex construction design journey by creating a seamless, interoperable, cloud-based tool that could support architects and designers to focus more on what they do best instead of grappling with legacy tools. With over 20,000 users across the world, we’re making great strides to democratise good design and this new funding will support us in continuing to build the software and tools to continue to transform the AEC industry for the better.”

Shubhankar Bhattacharya, general partner at Foundamental, noted, “Snaptrude has emerged as the global front-runner in creating the next-generation design stack for the AEC industry.”

AEC Magazine covered Snaptrude back in 2022  and the company participated at AEC Magazine’s inaugural NXT DEV event this June, where it launched V2 of its platform. The presentation can be watched on demand here.

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For those not already in the know, Snaptrude is a new, parametric, cloud-based BIM model ling package attempting to give Revit and other established BIM tools a run for their money.

Released at the end of 2022, Snaptrude v1.0 can be used as a BIM modelling tool in itself, but in its first incarnation, it also serves as a collaboration companion and cloud extension for putting Revit models in the hands of all project stakeholders. And, as such, it packs quite a punch.

This focus on collaboration makes a lot of sense. Design-to-construction is a complex process involving many stakeholders, but despite recent advances in cloud and web technologies, legacy tools and formats continue to hold the AEC industry back. These lead to misunderstandings, project delivery delays and costly repercussions.

A huge array of collaborative tools and common data environments (or CDEs) are already jockeying to fill in the gaps for AEC professionals. But many lack depth and can only offer the most basic model-sharing and mark-up capabilities. Frequently, firms in this sector end up relying on multiple CDEs to get work done, all with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Snaptrude is a ‘BIM modelling tool but also serves as a collaboration companion and cloud extension for putting Revit models in the hands of all project stakeholders. And, as such, it packs quite a punch

Choices here include Autodesk BIM 360, which comes in a bewildering array of versions, with an equally bewildering array of names. While BIM 360 is a powerful permissions-based, centralised filesharing service, users complain about set-up complexity, the user interface, a steep learning curve and costs.

A great deal of the ‘web’ connectivity in Autodesk BIM 360 happens behind the scenes, with desktop users unaware of how data moves between servers in the background. While predominantly used for document revisioning, sharing, aggregation and viewing, certain features of BIM 360 already compete with capabilities also offered by Revizto, Solibri, Verifi3D, Dalux and Trimble Connect, to name but a few.

Snaptrude provides a new way to deploy real-time co-authoring capabilities, similar to those seen in other industries where Google Docs and Figma are used. This eliminates the complexity of a workflow based on files, caches, copies, and project folders.

It was designed with the core beliefs in mind that collaboration is a fundamental part of all BIM workflows and that real-time, multi-user collaboration is essential for the AEC industry to remain productive and efficient in the digital, cloud-enabled age.

During its beta development phase, the company received valuable feedback from enterprise customers. These included office space provider WeWork, which has created its own intuitive design interface that enables architects to collaborate with clients and other stakeholders.

The Revit-Snaptrude bi-directional link enables users to seamlessly transfer models between the two products, granting them the ability to securely share them with clients in a permission-based environment using a URL link.

Furthermore, users can gather design feedback through in-model mark-ups, allowing clients to view a model in a high definition, real-time rendered 3D viewer, either on their desktop, tablet or mobile device. And since Snaptrude provides a data-rich BIM authoring environment, architects can even make design changes in Snaptrude, provided they have the right permissions, and reconcile them back into Revit without losing any parametric data or relationships.

Snaptrude Manager

The bi-directional link is managed by the Snaptrude Manager add-in for Revit. Once installed and authenticated, it can quickly and easily send a Revit model to a shared Snaptrude team workspace or a personal workspace on Snaptrude’s servers. It is possible to import models partially using the ‘Section Box’ in Revit, in order to selectively define which subset of a model’s geometry needs sharing. Uploaded models can be organised in folders according to the project, version, stage or according to a company’s own organisational standards, just like in Google Drive.

The Snaptrude Manager currently works for Revit versions 2019 through 2022, and the company will soon be launching an update to support Revit 2023, allowing you to stay up-to-date with the latest version.

As a native BIM environment, having deep knowledge of the embedded information enables Snaptrude to be used to study project metrics in real time, such as cost and programme-area changes. Because of its inherent BIM modelling capabilities, Snaptrude eliminates the need to switch between Revit and a model viewer with each change order, as well as the need to rework the model to evaluate the impacts of design changes. Once all design updates have been finalised, project teams can obtain a client’s sign-off directly on the Snaptrude model and send the updated data back to Revit.

Accessing Revit data

Historically, Snaptrude worked with Revit using the Autodesk Forge RVT conversion tool, which was charged on a per-file transaction basis. The company then experimented with Speckle and Dynamo to extract data from Revit sessions. By implementing the Speckle-to-Revit converter, which converts Revit data to Speckle’s own database format, the geometry and parametric data could be extracted to Snaptrude.

However, the team discovered there was lots of essential information missing. As a result, Dynamo was used to extract the missing geometric information to enable Snaptrude to generate accurate walls, slabs, floors and so on. While an improvement, texture mapping was still missing, which led to the use of Revit’s own API. Snaptrude not only extracts 3D but also 2D geometry from Revit.

Under the hood, Snaptrude uses BREP algorithms and vertical or horizontal profiles, associated parameters and advanced algorithms to reconstruct elements such as walls, floors and slabs from the Revit data. Its robust algorithms can also handle more complex elements like stacked or curtain walls, compound ceilings, staircases, and objects with cut-outs. Snaptrude’s boolean algorithms are also able to handle walls, ceilings and other elements with holes or voids. Furniture, furniture systems, assemblies, model groups, nested families, casework, railings and so on are all imported in such a way that the user can query either individual items or a larger group.

Once data is reconstructed into native parametric Snaptrude objects, the user can perform any operation as they would on an original Snaptrude project. Walls can be extended, doors can be moved, or furniture added, for example.

The net result, Snaptrude claims, is that despite being a cloud-based application, it opens RVT files between 10% and 20% quicker than desktop Revit and manages to deliver more frames per second (FPS) when manipulating the same geometry, despite being on the cloud (this is especially true in models with multiple copied objects).

So far, performance is currently optimised for Revit models up to 500 MB, according to Snaptrude, but the company will be concentrating on performance over the coming months, with larger files and better graphics performance with technologies such as the latest version of Web GPU.

When changes need to be brought back into Revit, Snaptrude uses its own RVT exporter which was originally built on Autodesk Forge and is now a Revit add-in. To accelerate the process, Snaptrude maintains element ID tags with the original Revit model and just sends back the components that have been edited.

For any given Revit model, Snaptrude is able to compare the number of objects in the Revit model to those imported into Snaptrude, providing firms with the assurance of data accuracy. Users can also access export logs that contain a list of all model changes made within the Snaptrude environment, ensuring accountability for edits. In addition, Snaptrude’s support teams are on hand to help to create BIM implementation plans, manage material and object libraries on their platform and provide on-site training to streamline workflows.

Library components are also supported, so users can save furniture families and types, standard doors and windows and material textures into their Snaptrude library with any necessary parameters. These saved objects and textures can be reused when importing models from Revit, ensuring data consistency and visual accuracy. When reconciling back into Revit, families created, placed or modified on Snaptrude are recreated by mapping them to textures and RFAs (file extensions assigned to Revit Family Files) in the user’s Revit library, allowing for a seamless transition.

Collaboration between disciplines is made easier through support for importing linked Revit models. For instance, when importing an architectural model, users can include any linked structural, MEP, landscape or other models. This includes structural columns and capitals, lighting fixtures, electrical devices, security systems, HVAC components, vegetation and more. Linked models can then be reviewed, locked or hidden as needed for further analysis.

Snaptrude’s development team has been working closely with early beta customers to guarantee that all the necessary Revit family types are imported and customise parameter sets if needed. This is especially important as every firm has a distinct approach to BIM workflows or family creation.

Looking ahead

With any young product like this, there are always big holes to fill, such as drawings. Any next-gen BIM modeller may tackle the significant challenge of developing geometry capability, but the output still has to fit into existing workflows and deliver the ultimate low-tech contractual obligation — drawings.

So far, Snaptrude has avoided this aspect, but in the next few months, the team will connect Snaptrude to an already mature and unique cloud-based DWG editor, and will offer auto-dimensioning and other drawing productivity enhancements. The team is also set to address earlystage conceptual mass modelling, more detailing tools, push/pull modelling and branching (developing alternative designs in one master model).

I can still remember having my first Zoom call with Snaptrude CEO Altaf Ganihar back in 2019. During this session, I saw a quick demo of Snaptrude’s formative capability for parametric sketching of 3D rectangles.

It really is amazing to think of what the product can do now as compared to back then. This is incredible product development velocity, in an industry where design tools have often lacked aspiration.

However, there is still a long way to go. The decades of development and inclusion of edge cases embodied by existing BIM tools will take a long time to match. For those looking for alternatives to their daily BIM workhorse, there is still no magic bullet. All new BIM start-ups have to provide the basics, and deliver them better, before they can advance.

Unlike any other tool, Snaptrude does not only offer viewing, but also live collaborative editing, which can be re-synchronised back to the original Revit model

This is where Snaptrude is being smart, as the company has not only nailed the basics, but also offers something currently unique in a shipping BIM product — it’s based on the cloud and has had built-in collaboration from the start.

So why should a Revit customer consider adding Snaptrude to their tech stack? The simple answer is that Snaptrude takes your Revit models and makes them available to other project members and clients, via the cloud.

Unlike any other tool, it does not only offer viewing, but also live collaborative editing, which can be re-synchronised back to the original Revit model. It’s even possible to start projects in Snaptrude and, when the need for detailing outgrows current capability, you can send the model to a new Revit session. In this respect, Snaptrude can be considered as SketchUp with BIM knobs on.

As mentioned, one of the early adopters of Snaptrude has been WeWork. The company needed a tool that it could use to sit down with clients, either face-toface or online, to discuss and live edit interior designs of its managed workspaces. Here, it’s possible to see a valuable extension to WeWork’s Revit workflows, leveraging the unique capabilities that Snaptrude offers.

It’s going to be exceptionally interesting to see what further capabilities Snaptrude will be able to offer the BIM community in two to three years’ time. With the knowledge that automated cloud 2D drafting (DWG) and further performance increases are expected within months, Snaptrude’s velocity only looks set to increase.

Main Image: Users can gather design feedback through in-model mark-ups

Snaptrude Q&A
with CEO Altaf Ganihar and product lead Amritha Krishnan

AEC Magazine recently had the opportunity to sit down with two of the executives leading Snaptrude’s development and find out more about where they see the product going.

AEC Magazine: In the AEC sector, performance is key, as well as accuracy of data interoperability. So is it fair to say that the challenge here is not only delivering BIM in the cloud, but also dealing with the size of models and the fact that not everyone models in the same way?

Altaf Ganihar (AG): We have optimised the product. In 2019/2020, we struggled with large-scale projects, but that gave us an opportunity to look back at the kernel and the rendering optimisation to handle those large-scale projects. And honestly, the best thing was last year having Wework become a customer. They pushed us to the limits of what can be done in optimisation, Revit interoperability, and the way that people model. I think there are people in our team who can write papers on just how many ways users model walls in Revit!

On the cloud, you can open multiple large files. Here, I have 15 large models and they can all be manipulated smoothly – and I am running these Revit models all on my Apple Silicon Macbook. There’s still a lot of room for optimisation. We have a three-man graphics team, with a leader who is ex-Sony PlayStation development, that focuses only on visuals and 3D optimisation.

Amritha Krishnan (AK): We are able to support the entire model system from the base Revit file, as well as linked models, which can all be brought together into Snaptrude as an architectural model, with the linked MEP and structural models.

AG: Performance-wise, Revit’s biggest problem is that it’s singlecore, and so therefore loads the geometry linearly. We parallelise it, even though we are on the web. We have done a lot of optimisation, so our loading speed is much faster. And even performance-wise, we get almost the same FPS or slightly better FPS. even though we are on the web.

AEC Magazine: Data compatibility obviously exceeds importing. Do you get everything out of the RVT file?

AG: For interiors, 100%. We are good. Look at the WeWork use case, which is commercial interiors. We now have multiple customers in that segment, and all of them are able to get 100% fidelity. If there are any gaps, since we know the Revit API, we can work with the customer. It might take a couple of weeks to figure it out, but we have our BIM implementation plan for enterprise customers, where we will sit with your Revit modelling team and we will make sure they match up.

For MEP, we’re treating it as geometry, but we categorise it as MEP. So users can filter, select and do all of those things. We recently tried doing a clash detection experiment on a weekend hackathon and it worked well on our MEP elements. But for the moment, we treat it as geometry, rather than a parametric BREP mesh. In our plan, Q3 this year is when we will start the work to apply parametrics to MEP data.

AEC Magazine: Potential users might be concerned about unauthorised editing. While Snaptrude can be used as a straightforward viewing tool, could the editing capability prove to be a double-edged sword for users?

AK: You can’t edit anything while it is locked, but anybody who has admin or creator access can basically decide if the rest of the team should be able to unlock the model or specific geometry — or not. There is built-in accountability across the team. When we bring in a link file, by default, they’re locked. That was one of the key requirements of our customers: that linked models should be locked and non-editable.

AEC Magazine: The ability to share portions of models is exciting, although the issue here is whether there will be common geometry between workspaces. So the big question there might be who owns a wall that extends beyond a workspace, for example?

AG: Yes, you can separate models by people as well. I can lock a certain portion, so I am the owner of it. Somebody else can lock another portion, as the owner of it. Everything can be locked. Subsequently, the data also updates the cost information areas. We implemented it by object right now. So, you can select the geometry and lock it for yourself, so nobody else can touch it, but it might also be zone-based, as you’re saying, ‘This is your zone, this is my zone’.

AK: I think that’s precisely what we are looking to handle this year, in collaboration, to improve the logistics. Zone-based gets tricky, because nothing fits perfectly.

AEC Magazine: BIM is not just about geometry but also, with Revit, support for families. How do you deal with that?

AK: Yes. Take, for instance, wall families. Select a wall in Snaptrude and you can see its object properties. It shows that it has been created with a certain name and parameters in Revit, all that all comes in. If you go further into edit structure, you can see that the components are set up exactly the way you would layer the wall up in Revit. So that same principle applies to most of our architectural elements: walls, slabs, flooring, ceilings. When it comes to nested stack walls, nested families, these are handled slightly differently. Using an asset family, for example, Snaptrude tells me that the name of the family is ‘Group 15’ in Revit and the same naming is applied in Snaptrude. If you want to see all the objects inside the group, just click on it, and you get to see.

AEC Magazine: While concentrating on Revit fidelity, I guess the issue might be getting trapped into Revit’s way of working, which in some cases, might be more for historic reasons than a sound basis for future-looking methodologies?

AK: I think our approach to parametric modelling on Snaptrude will be similar to our approach for space planning on Snaptrude. We are taking a fresh approach, while at the same time accounting for the fact that people are used to doing things a certain way in SketchUp or any other modelling tool. So, it would be a similar kind of thought process that we’re applying to parametric modelling and we are quite excited about where that’s going to go.

So, as an example, take a mass and think of it as a component of furniture and you’re designing that furniture family. I can copy it, copy the array. Once I come out of it, that array naturally becomes a parameter. I can go back and change the distance between two instances, as well as the number of copies. Every option I choose, like split, cut or join, is a parameter of that family. And you can choose which to expose and which to hide. That is the approach. It’s basically like SketchUp, but you can go back and change any of the steps in that stack of operations.

AEC Magazine: Looking at the bidirectional link between Revit and Snaptrude, I guess it can’t work with just RVT files on their own? You need to have a Revit licence?

AG: We do exchange through a Revit plug-in only for now, in terms of import, because anybody who has a Revit file and wants to only collaborate will have a Revit subscription. But it means it’s possible to also share the model with others who don’t have Revit subscriptions or skills.

AEC Magazine: People model in so many different ways in Revit, is that a problem?

AG: A BIM implementation plan is so helpful. It’s less about supporting new geometry types. It’s just about seeing the client’s modelling process, to check they’re not modelling in an unusual way. In one case, we had two teams, and one had a very precise way in which they were modelling, the other team modelled walls with plaster and paint as not part of the wall. They were, in fact, modelled as separate walls. They asked us to combine those walls and load it as one wall while Snaptrude was reconciling it. It wasn’t a geometry issue or a Revit issue, but above all, a modelling issue.

The post Snaptrude in Revit workflows appeared first on AEC Magazine.

What started as an outcry from disgruntled Revit customers is now feeding through into fresh messaging from existing players and new products from start-up AEC developers.

Autodesk’s announcement of its AEC platform play, Forma, at this year’s Autodesk University event now gives Revit both a cloudy destination, to which it will be first connected, and then ultimately a place from which it will be consumed. Graphisoft has an ambitious re-architecting underway, in order to offer flexible desktop and cloud workflows. Bentley’s core portable data platform, the iTwin, has been open sourced and will support cloud and desktop workflows. In short, the large vendors are collating their many applications and crafting vertical tech stacks as the industry shifts from file-based workflows to more dynamic and collaborative database plays. The platform wars are beginning.

So what’s a small start-up with few customers to do in this scenario? The answer: play smart. We have already taken a look at HighArch’s impressive new BIM tool and consider Modumate’s game engine BIM application. Both firms are opting to concentrate on markets where Revit is not strong, taking on the US small building/residential sector, where ease of use and low cost are key to persuading users to move away from 2D workflows.

Which brings us to Snaptrude’s opening play. With the release of V1 today, this company is taking a different approach, shaping its initial product offering to Revit customers as an adjacent seat and offering access to its cloud-based collaborative capabilities in existing Revit workflows. This means that, in its first offering, it will compete more with Autodesk BIM 360 and other CDEs than with any incumbent BIM tool.

Snaptrude is being developed as a full cloud-based BIM system, but it isn’t yet sufficiently fleshed out to offer true parity of features with today’s mature modelling systems. And while the company raised over $6 million in Series A funding and has expanded to over 18 people, it will still be some time before it could be considered a true contender as a replacement for such systems.

However, it does offer capabilities that cannot be found in any other single system. Over the last six months, the team has built a bi-directional link between Snaptrude and Revit. This enables Revit models to be imported and then shared via the cloud for mark-up, editing, rendering, daylight and energy and quantity take-offs, via a browser or even a mobile phone.

But the most intriguing part of all this is that this isn’t a dumb conversion to a facet model. It’s a conversion from Revit RVT to a Snaptrude BIM model which is editable. This introduces the option to edit RVT data in the Snaptrude environment and then send it back to Revit. In other words, it offers Revit users the chance to evaluate the speed of cloud-based Snaptrude for editing over their desktop Revit systems on the same datasets.

The Snaptrude V1 cloud experience is a managed environment with 4 types of user: admin, creator, editor, and viewing-only user. Workspaces and teams are defined with members allocated and with admins assigning capabilities only to those who need them. Permissions include the ability to create projects and edit models (and synchronise design changes seamlessly back to Revit versions 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 with 2023 coming soon), as well as to view comment history and to measure, lock and unlock objects. Other permissions include save as model, export models, view or export quantities, add comments, add to and edit library. Users can be added to teams and invited to models.

Sessions can be completely ‘non-destructive’ and only for mark-up, or architects can make edits. There’s also the ability to sign off on models. So it’s applicable in a wide range of design team and client workflows.

Intriguingly, Snaptrude is also offering costings data from Revit models. It will do this based on take-offs and the library of material and FF&E. If a firm wants to take a deep dive into this, the Snaptrude team will help set up the library with cost information and/or show customers how they can do this themselves.

Enhanced and new features

The internal geometry engine has been boosted to deal with complex 2D/3D Boolean operations. You can now draw any shape (in 2D or 3D!) and assign it the properties of a wall, slab or floor. It’s also possible to draw void forms and copy them to create your own parametric components, without having to think of complex relationships or parenting. Curves have also made their major debut.

Snaptrude has partnered with Cove.tool to bring daylight and energy analyses and enable the achievement of LEED credit. Analysis takes place in Snaptrude with no additional exports required.  Snaptrude does all the conversion in the background and determines which parts of a model are part of the external envelope (for example, external walls and roofs). It also identifies which objects function as shading devices (such as pergolas, sunshades and mullions). All transparent objects (glazed walls, doors, windows) are tagged as window objects. Similarly, glazed roofs are tagged as skylights.

The analyses available in this release are:

• sDA or Spatial daylight autonomy
• ASE or Annual Sunlight Exposure
• EUI or Energy Use Intensity

Users need to define the project location and the tool auto-populates some basic information, such as appropriate energy codes and building typology, based on data available in the model. It then runs the analysis. Results can take up to 2 minutes to complete.

Rendering has been improved, with collections of standard materials, finishes and furniture components. These can be uploaded into the shared library, enabling all team members to access them across all projects.

The Teams Library enables customising and maintaining of additional properties for items consistent across all team projects. For materials, for example, in addition to material type, you can add material cost, manufacturer and a descriptive tag, if needed. Similarly, for furniture, you can add a family name to group furniture of the same type; you can add cost and vendor names as a descriptive tag, too.

Conclusion

As the Snaptrude product evolves to compete as an outright design tool, it’s fascinating to see how a small company can slightly pivot to wrap up its technology as a much broader industry play. The integration within current Revit workflows will give everyone the chance to see what cloud collaboration with a cloud-based BIM modeller would feel like, as well as start to use the editing and creation tools. One hopes the seamless data fidelity between Revit and Snaptrude is spot on, as that will be ‘make or break’ in the minds of the first users to try it. Christmas has come early!

Snaptrude V1 Features available at launch:

• Revit bi-directional interoperability
• Workspaces & teams
• Design sign-off (digital signature for approvals)
• Better visuals in 3D
• Centralised library management for materials, FF&E, doors and windows
• Advanced daylight and energy analysis (in collaboration with cove.tools)
• Split
• Advanced Boolean operations
• Curves – v1
• Slideshow experience for an easy walkthrough
• Comments & revision clouds for async collaboration
• Rendering in the browser
• Improved automated quantity take-offs (even from imported Revit files)

Snaptrude V1 Pricing

• Free – with a limited number of projects & view-only mode after that
• Pro – $499 per year, per user
• Organization – $1,199 per year, per user
• Enterprise – custom pricing

The post Snaptrude V1 – full cloud-based BIM appeared first on AEC Magazine.

When Snaptrude founder Altaf Ganihar was studying at university, he was involved in a project to digitally reconstruct the UNESCO cultural heritage site of Hampi, India, in 3D.

During this process, Ganihar thought the architectural tools he was using were extremely slow and laborious in both 3D and 2D. Given his studies in computer vision, graphics and geometry processing, he started to develop a modern system which would automate the manual tasks as a hobby project, which got traction with architects and builders who saw it. Ganihar ditched his aspirations to do a PhD and pursued the life of an IT entrepreneur.

When I first saw Snaptrude in 2020, it lacked a user interface but demonstrated some very interesting base capabilities. The user uploaded a photograph of a hand drawn rectilinear floor plan, and the cloud-based software would then auto generate rectangles based on the sketch.  a The user then clicked on each space to allocate room type, which the software then auto recognised as an editable room.

The rough sketch was turned into a boundary defining geometry, which could be grabbed and moved. By simply moving the mouse to each room’s edge, live dimensions would automatically appear while the boundary was manipulated. This could then instantly be seen as 3D model.

A simple click on the number of levels and it was instantly arrayed to five floors. Using this technology, it was very quick to go from sketch to parametric 3D model. The parametric engine combined with the UI were really powerful and allowed the easy creation of user-inferred constraints. It also featured other interesting capabilities such as the auto-load outs for rooms (bedroom has a bed, a desk, wardrobe etc), so once the spaces were defined 3D content was auto-placed.

Roll forward 18 months and Snaptrude now has over 4,500 users and they have modelled over 10 million sq ft of buildings. There’s a free version (limited to 3 projects), a monthly ‘Professional’ subscription of £39 per user per month (adds collaboration and API access) and an ‘Organisation’ subscription at £90 per user per month (adds centralised materials and asset management, advanced security, licence management tools and activity logs).

The product has also seen a lot of development. The user interface takes its lead from SketchUp, being simple, with menus mainly at the top and bottom. Design starts with a 2D sketch, with the automatic live dimension capability really working well.

While it can’t handle complex curves or nurbs, it does do arcs. Alternatively, ‘sketches’ can still be imported as image files in JPG, PNG or BMP for optical vertex recognition. These get turned into massing models for editing. Here spaces are allocated – bedroom, balcony, living room etc. and then the Snaptrude ‘‘Create Building’ magic button can be pressed. This automatically takes the masses and creates a BIM model with materials based on the space definitions, external walls, internal walls, balconies, deck, water body and slabs.

You can go into the settings and alter the defaults on each project – internal, external and parapet walls can all have different properties and can be changed at a granular level, if required.

Snaptrude is undoubtedly a seriously fast way to go from sketch to BIM model, albeit with rectilinear limitations. For modelling and moving around the geometry, it’s astoundingly intuitive (the snap in the name is there for a reason), enabling geometry to be referenced while adding components such as slabs. There are a few measuring tools on offer, and views can be quickly selected (front, top, side, sun study, shadow analysis).

Collaboration

Snaptrude collaboration works like Google Docs. Just invite somebody in, even if they are a non-user, and it’s like jumping on a Zoom call. As a non-user, you can only have view permissions or edit permissions or comment permissions.

Every operation / change that is done is assigned to a person, stored in the file structure. This has yet to be exposed in the UI, but the basics of history and tracking are already in there.

Snaptrude is undoubtedly a seriously fast way to go from sketch to BIM model, albeit with rectilinear limitations.

Snaptrude does not yet have any 2D documentation production capability. The models created can be exported to a BIM system (RVT, IFC, FBX) or drafting tool for production drawing so, for now, it’s a rapid conceptual tool that can feed into the workflow.

Ganihar explained, “We have not yet done the documentation part, it’s not our immediate focus. We happily port our models to Revit, because we feel its documentation has more capabilities. It’s harder to catch up with them. Design is something they’re really bad at, so let’s focus on that. Later half of this year we will do documentation, at least for the housing / residential market. It’s here that Revit becomes overkill, saturating production documents and construction drawings.

Who’s going to use this?

What Snaptrude does, it does well. But there’s obviously a long way to go before it would compete with the likes of Revit in breadth and depth. However, there’s enough functionality in the current offering to generate some excitement as to where this could go.
The company has already been working with signature architects to get feedback and assess which features to develop next. Obviously if you create generic rectilinear architecture, or are a developer looking for a rapid conceptual model, this is a serious player in early mass to BIM phase. Not so much if you create crazy Grasshopper-derived buildings.

Ganihar explained the challenge, “There’s the mid-market, where the buildings look to have a simpler modelling complexity and, on the other side where you have the star architects with their curves. However, the commonality is that both of these groups are suffering. Revit is a tool which serves the design and documentation phases. But designers, people who really design, are handicapped because Revit is not meant for design, it’s really good [for] documentation and that’s where these firms figure out they should use SketchUp, while the larger ones go for Rhino for massing and conceptualising. Again, these are good tools, but very horizontal, and have their own flaws. When you try and fit them in a design or construction workflow, you keep losing data, because every time you iterate, you’re working with data from two different origins. It’s especially noticeable at the intersection of from going from concept to schematic, or going from Rhino to Revit.

Snaptrude is certainly worthy of serious investigation by any firm that is looking to take control of conceptual to design development workflows

“We identified that design decisions are extremely important. When you’re doing an iteration, you make design decisions, you should be able to see what the impact of this decision would be – on the budget, compliance, sustainability impact.

“All this without actually having to take the design to a certain level of specification, before being able to crunch some numbers in Excel, and realise you have gone down the wrong path, wasting a couple of weeks. We tried integrating data in as much as possible to smooth the progress of design.

“Automation is needed to help streamline the process. We need things to be automated, but not the design part because architects still want that control of designing. Our opinion of generative design tools is that architects don’t like things which are served on a plate. They need the ingredients, through which they can mould and sculpt. So that will still be there, but it’s possible to automate things like trimming, or not having to delete an edge, or producing a model from a mass. We are very focused on automation in the process.”

What’s coming next?

From working with signature architects, Snaptrude is developing splines and NURBS-based geometry. The company has a working prototype and is engaged in bringing that up to speed. For 2022 here’s a list of scheduled features:

• Switch between massing and BIM
• Create parametric objects
• Create NURBS and splines
• Advanced boolean operations
• Live link to Revit
• Quick costing and Bill of Quantities
• Features for sustainability analysis and climate studies
• Basic drawings

Conclusion

In short, I’m impressed. Snaptrude is certainly worthy of serious investigation by any firm that is looking to take control of conceptual to design development workflows. Those that use SketchUp or start off with massing in Revit specifically would find using this approach productive. For now, it’s clear that it already shows some innovative approaches to rapid conceptual modelling and collaboration. As a full-service BIM tool, for now it’s nowhere near a Revit competitor but, with time and some additional funding to flesh it out, I could see this becoming a popular product.

On the negative side, the geometry capability needs to improve, the graphics are a tad ‘8 bit’ blocky and the whole documentation phase is missing, but Ganihar says these are all a work in progress.

It’ll be interesting to see how this product develops. Does the industry need better, more modern, faster Revit? Is BIM constrained by the whole concept of design tools which are predominantly about modelling to just generate drawings? Will industry workflows move away from being all about producing 2D drawings, to more direct fabrication? There’s certainly a trend amongst design IT directors who would like to fully automate drawings and save millions of dollars and spend more time using the computing power to come up with better design options.

The post Snaptrude – conceptual to design development appeared first on AEC Magazine.