hsbcad has launched hsbDesign 27 for Revit, the latest release of the Revit-native software for offsite timber construction which can export fabrication data to a range of CNC machines including Hundegger, Weinmann, and Randek.

The new version includes several new features, such as integration with Autodesk Dynamo, reduced file size, multilingual support, enhanced project information output, and the ability to create custom item container labels.

Integration with Autodesk Dynamo, the visual programming add-in for Revit, is designed to help automate repetitive manual tasks and reduce potential errors.

Features include importing framing styles, overriding details, assigning elements to item containers, generation of item containers, and exporting.

hsbDesign 27 for Revit ‘significantly reduces’ the file size of projects without sacrificing detail, with numerous connections and edge detail families. There is now only one connection and one edge detail family, which can be easily customised or overridden.

‍The detail editor in hsbDesign 27 now features multilingual support for English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, catering to a global user base.

Project information is now automatically incorporated into various exports using the default parameters, to help ensure ‘consistent and detailed’ documentation across outputs.

An enhanced formatting engine makes it possible for users to customise the labels displayed on item containers, to help ensure that essential information is immediately visible. For example, it can be customised to show the framing style alongside the item container number.

Elsewhere, users can now enhance architectural ceiling designs with a new framing style editor, manually recalculate blocking without regenerating the item container, and execute extensions on framed or manually adjusted item containers within the model.

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Renowned for both its distinctive architectural design and the exceptional dedication to supporting individuals with cancer, the newest Maggie’s cancer support centre is situated in the grounds of the Royal Free Hospital in London. Showcasing a custom raking curved facade, inclined walls, distinctive timber cladding, and a secluded rooftop garden and pavilion, this diminutive yet architecturally bold structure designed by New York based Studio Libeskind set the engineers and client team a considerable challenge.

William Hare, the structural steel engineering group, was appointed by construction manager and principal contractor Sir Robert McAlpine Special Projects on behalf of Maggie’s to deliver the project’s structural steelwork

Speaking about the project, Ivo Garcia, Innovation & BIM Manager at William Hare said: “This project was different right from the outset, not just in terms of its charitable nature but also the structure’s volume, its striking shape and the incredibly collaborative environment curated amongst stakeholders.

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“The interesting geometry and shape of the structure, featuring a series of curved conical volumes, was a direct result of the site’s small footprint and challenging constraints, which included neighbouring retaining walls. In order to deliver the desired square footage, the decision was made to design a sloped façade, enabling the building to expand as it rises.

“These same site constraints also posed a challenge to us in terms of site delivery and installation. With some of the structural columns leaning up to 45 degrees, the standard approach would have involved the use of temporary steelwork to support the columns. However, external propping wasn’t possible due to the aforementioned site boundaries, while propping internally wouldn’t have allowed enough space for machinery and access. Despite only being a two-storey structure, the temporary forces would have been akin to an eight-storey building as a result of the geometry, requiring a considerable amount of temporary steelwork.”

From design to installation

In order to work around this, William Hare had to plan and detail an incredibly prescriptive method of install, which drove the project from start to finish.

The structural model was initially created in SAP2000 alongside Tekla Structures, before being pushed into cloud-based collaboration platform Trimble Connect, where the 40-step install sequence was animated to show how it would be fitted, piece by piece.

“This was hugely valuable,” says Garcia. “Effectively, anyone can use Trimble Connect, whether to consult a model or add data to objects in Tekla Structures. You don’t have to be a Tekla user to benefit from it, which made the most difference – it truly helps to break down barriers between departments.

“The cloud-based platform enabled us to overcome the logistical challenges and clearly demonstrate and communicate our proposed strategy, all of which contributed to a smooth construction sequence, loading strategy and on-site erection. For example, we could easily break down the lorry load numbers and detail the individual component install sequence within each load, all colour-coded and clearly visible. Using Trimble Connect, we were able to make this same information readily available to engineers, detailers and the onsite team. It provided a great means of successfully managing the project, adding intelligence to the model and offering an enhanced method of communication.”

From BIM model to field

Pushing the capabilities of Trimble Connect further, William Hare also made use of Trimble Connect AR and Trimble Field Link to drive data from the model out into the field.

“The challenging structural geometry and complex installation sequence really demanded this digital workflow,” explains Garcia. “Adopting the streamlined approach offered by Trimble Field Link just makes sense, especially if you are already using other Tekla software solutions – it’s the same ecosystem, with the same data flowing seamlessly from office to field. Having the model data readily available, whether you’re in the office or out on site was invaluable.

“Ordinarily, there is the potential for time to be wasted when problems are found or doubts arise, with people having to travel from site to office or spend time on the phone with a member of the detailing or engineering team. When all the information is locked within a system and a skillset that not everyone has access to, it can bring inefficiencies. If we can make curated data readily available to the site team this can all be avoided, providing teams with the context, the data and the means to action it.

“We had around 25 Trimble Connect users on the project. Outside of William Hare’s project and engineering teams, client representatives and their designers and architects, erection subcontractors and our production planning team all had access to the project in Trimble Connect. It really was at the centre of it all.

“While communication with other stakeholders on this project was primarily in 3D, with the preferred file format being IFC, this is sadly still not the norm. Here, the complex geometry made it essential and was possible due to the enhanced collaboration fostered within the delivery team.

“Using 3D continues to have its complications and barriers – while it can be used extensively for engineering, it is still often followed by drawings, with these drawings being what ‘rule’. Confidence is needed on an industry-level that 3D is the best tool for communicating information on every level, from contractors to clients to developers. We need to embrace it and find the necessary framework to deliver it.”

Maggie’s at the Royal Free Hospital was officially opened in January 2024, with William Hare’s work on the project recognised in the 2024 UK Tekla Awards, winning the ‘Public Project’ category.

Garcia concluded: “The Maggie’s cancer support centre project was a special one for William Hare as it was charitable in nature; having the opportunity to contribute so strongly to the support of anyone with cancer or their families has been described as ‘an invaluable opportunity’ for the team involved.”

Main image: Studio Libeskind rendering

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Scia Engineer 24, the latest release of the structural analysis software from Scia, part of the Nemetschek Group, has launched with a brand-new multi-core solver.

The software is also now available as one complete version, eliminating the need for users to navigate between different configurations.

In addition to delivering faster calculation times, the new solver allows for more control over the calculation process, allowing users to monitor ongoing tasks, review results, and interrupt processes as needed.

Scia Engineer 24 also expands its analysis capabilities, containing a wider range of use cases and ‘eliminating the need’ for time-consuming workarounds. This includes the ability to conduct construction stages analysis with more options available, handle 1D and 2D members in concrete non-linear analysis simultaneously, and the simulation of orthotropic slabs for long-term deflection calculations.

Other features include improved license management, an enhanced user interface, input and modelling, code-design (steel, aluminium, concrete), export, and more.

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Trimble has introduced the 2024 versions of its Tekla software for constructible BIM, structural engineering, and steel fabrication management.

Tekla Structures 2024, Tekla Structural Designer 2024, Tekla Tedds 2024 and Tekla PowerFab 2024 boast an enhanced user experience and better collaboration through connected workflows, among other new features

The 2024 version of Tekla Structures provides an enhanced user experience and ‘more intuitive’ modelling for engineers and detailers. Automated fabrication drawing cloning improvements are said to deliver significant benefits for steel and precast cast unit drawings creation.

The software also offers ‘enhanced interoperability’ between Trimble software, hardware and other third-party solutions. With support for open standards such as BCF (BIM Collaboration Format), users can communicate model-based issues among project collaborators. buildingSMART properties are also supported by improved and extended IFC property sets.

Tekla Structures 2024 also comes with a new Named User License that includes Trimble Connect Business Premium and Tekla Model Sharing. Trimble Connect Business Premium includes improved collaborative workflow capabilities, such as model-based status sharing.

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Structural design and analysis software Tekla Structural Designer 2024 has been enhanced with ‘Staged Construction Analysis’, which takes into account that there is a sequence in construction and loading. This ‘fully automated’ process can be applied to the design of both concrete and steel structures. Structural engineers can now also use reference models from other disciplines such as architecture or MEP to check compatibility with their structural model.

The latest version of Tekla Tedds for structural engineering calculations builds upon the integration of structural design information and documentation with Tekla Structures to improve collaborative design-to-detailing. Tekla Tedds 2024 offers updated libraries of predefined structural calculations and custom calculation capabilities for what is described as ‘faster, more reliable’ structural element design, also in multi-material designs. The software now also offers steel angle design for European and US codes, retaining basement wall analysis and design for European and US codes, and masonry design for US codes.

The 2023i version of the Tekla PowerFab steel fabrication management software introduced visual change management and estimate job costing. Tekla PowerFab 2024 now introduces enhanced project management tools for organising and keeping track of subcontracts, change order breakdown and integration with BCF Topics using Trimble Connect. BCF Topics allows for companies using different software to collaborate, with the ability for project managers to do multi-project follow-up and reporting of Topics. To further improve the office-to-shop communication and transparency, the software introduces a new cut list prioritisation.

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UK structural and civil engineering consultancy Perega has launched a CO2 accounting tool – The Carbon Calculator – to help its clients assess the whole carbon footprint of their projects, from inception to completion, and make greener material choices for a more sustainable built environment.

The Carbon Calculator has been developed by the firm’s dedicated, in-house Net Zero Carbon Group and uses a ‘sophisticated algorithmic framework’, analysing material emissions data to achieve lower-carbon outcomes.

The calculator ‘seamlessly integrates’ with Revit models, offering what Perega describes as a comprehensive carbon impact assessment.

The software offers real-time comparison between different schemes, to identify lower carbon options, identifies high embodied carbon elements, and highlights potential changes for improvement.

Through a ‘user-friendly’ dashboard it presents ‘concise and informative’ carbon impact assessments based on specified material types and volumes.

“With the built environment responsible for 40% of global emissions, the imperative for lower-emission practices has shifted from optional to essential,” says James Washbourne, digital engineering lead, Perega. “Our Carbon Calculator makes another step towards achieving more sustainable projects. Moving away from manually crunching static spreadsheets to a predominantly automated process means better pinpointing of carbon hotspots and empowering our clients to make correct material substitutions during the design phase, without compromising on quality.

“Ensuring user-friendliness was crucial, our clients are incredibly busy and need to be able to read and understand the data quickly to make informed decisions. As such, we developed the calculator to deliver clear and simple comparisons for effective decision-making”.

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The Nemetschek Group is to bring together three of its AEC software brands – Allplan, Scia and Frilo – under the Allplan umbrella.

Allplan, a German-headquartered provider of BIM solutions, will be joined by structural engineering software brands Scia, based in Hasselt, Belgium, and Frilo, located in Stuttgart, Germany.

According to Nemetschek, the merger will provide a unique solution for architects and engineers. Allplan offers a single BIM platform from first concept through detailed design and multidisciplinary planning to prefabrication and construction deliverables.

Scia and Frilo deliver software for structural analysis and design, including both the analysis and design of 3D multi-material structures as well as a ‘component orientated calculation approach’.

The collaborative effort includes a new, ‘unified go-to-market strategy’ aimed at accelerating the path to data-driven multi-material design and prefabrication.

“By merging modelling and structural engineering competence, we are crafting a unique solution technology stack in the market from conceptual design through structural analysis and design to structural detailing and prefabrication that supports the growing demand for lean delivery processes,” said Dr. Detlef Schneider, CEO of Allplan.

“This initiative will significantly drive digitalisation within the AEC industry, empowering engineering professionals with the end-to-end workflows they need to enhance project productivity, quality, and sustainability.”

Caption: Former Frilo CEO Markus Gallenberger (left) and Allplan CEO Dr. Detlef Schneider (right)

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Software vendors more typically associated with the world of product design and manufacturing are increasingly eyeing upthe AEC sector — and with good reason. Experiments in factory fabrication of building components mean that the gap between architecture and manufacturing is shrinking all the time. However, the AEC software tools most commonly in use today simply can’t match their manufacturing counterparts when it comes to raw modelling capabilities and rich fabrication features.

Take, for example, Dassault Systèmes and Siemens, developers of Catia and NX, respectively. Their products are considered the Ferrari and Lamborghini of the CAD design world, so it’s no surprise that these companies have been keenly watching the AEC industry grapple with problems that they solved years ago for clients in complex manufacturing sectors such as aerospace and automotive.

Dassault Systèmes, in particular, first signalled its intent to get involved in AEC over a decade ago. Today, it offers 2D drafting tools (Draftsight), some BIM capabilities (in Catia Building Designer), along with solutions for building fabrication and generative design.

Siemens, by contrast, is a relative latecomer, but has had a division for some years now that works alongside Bentley Systems in addressing factory design. And, over the last two years, the company has established a small team that focuses specifically on augmenting its core modelling product Siemens NX with AEC features. These features are primarily intended for companies that are already NX customers and would prefer to do all their modelling in that package. At the same time, this team is also working on building BIM concepts and features into NX that, over time, could make it a real contender as an infrastructure platform.

This is not to say that Siemens is on a journey to create a Revit rival. So far, its development team in this area remains small. But I do get the definite feeling that the company is sounding out the market – and if sufficient demand is identified, or a promising technology emerges from its R&D work, Siemens certainly has the deep pockets to develop or acquire any technology it might need to take on more of a ‘market challenger’ role.

Testing the market

Behind the scenes at Siemens, developers have been analysing AEC workflows, software, licensing and lifecycles. The company recognises that the software tools that architects use today are poorly suited for construction, having primarily been designed for documentation and drawings. Not only that, but it views the high number of tools that are needed to support a typical AEC project as being rather wasteful.

By direct comparison, complex products such as cars and aeroplanes are primarily designed and then fabricated using one CAD system (with the exception, perhaps, of aspects of their conceptual phases). In short, the mess of design data and tools that tends to pile up in AEC at the general contractor and supplier level would never be tolerated in many manufacturing sectors.

At the same time, Siemens NX is already used in the manufacturing world to do many things which are replicated in the AEC space. NX is a highly flexible solid modelling tool, capable of handling very large data sets, both in terms of complexity and detail. It offers capabilities in areas such as CNC, piping, welding, steel structures, P&ID, human ergonomics, VR and fly-throughs, as well as complex analytics.

By adding a BIM module to NX, Siemens is just extending this already wide-ranging product even further, tailoring the file system to understand and support BIM schemas and component logic, terrain maps, AEC drawing standards, and in its December 2023 release, reinforced concrete design.

AEC Magazine recently got the chance to talk with the team behind these enhancements and get their take on the AEC market. As mentioned, one of their key takeaways has been the sheer number of tools required in this market to get work done, not to mention the copious data flows between applications that can come with significant interoperability issues. As a result, this is something they are looking to address.

NX Render is a case in point. Siemens has carried out extensive testing to see how well the materials and ray tracing rendering quality can be used to deliver 3ds Max-quality images. NX ships with over 1,000 materials, and the team has been looking to expand this total to support the various AEC focus areas it is looking to address. NX Immersive Explorer takes this further and can be used to deliver VR experiences that share the same materials library.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this release is the evident potential for JT in data flows. It really is an excellent wrapper for complex geometry and large files, although it could arguably be better tailored for BIM use

Siemens already has on its customer roll call many companies that design and fabricate infrastructure, such as concrete bridges, for example. They typically use NX to design such structures, but when it comes to the rebar detailing, they’re forced Siemens continues to flesh out AEC features for its flagship NX modelling tool. Building on its foundation in product design and manufacturing, the company is now identifying key use cases in infrastructure and fabrication, writes Martyn Day Siemens NX AEC to export work out to Tekla, and then export out of Tekla to feed the manufacturing process. With this in mind, Siemens has built an associative design feature, which is highly configurable to support zones, different spacing options, alignment, angles and hook options. Siemens sees great potential for this functionality when applied to modular construction.

NX is already certified for IFC 2×3 import and export, a process that required a lot of testing and involved a steep learning curve when it came to supporting IFC capabilities, but which taught the team a great deal.

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JT’s time to shine

Elsewhere in the sprawling Siemens empire is a real estate arm, which goes by the unsurprising name of Siemens Real Estate, or SRE. This part of the business is responsible for running and maintaining the company’s own buildings and factories and has historically been a Revit user, despite calls from the shop floor to move to NX. An attempt to migrate between the two systems got messy, so a Revit-to-JT translator was built.

For those who don’t know, JT is a super powerful engineering equivalent of the PDF file format and an ISO standard. While PDF remains document-centric (notwithstanding its failed shift in the direction of 3D capabilities), JT is all about 3D models. More importantly, it enables NX designs to be stored in an open, lightweight file that supports multiple resolutions. For example, it can hold little more than facet data, or it can be far richer, holding associations to original CAD information, assemblies, metadata and PMI. In other words, it can be rich enough to provide production facilities with everything they need to start manufacturing.

Basically, this means that a design in Revit can be saved as a JT file, and then saved as an NX part file, and subsequently edited in NX. It was this thinking that led the development team at Siemens to settle on JT as an ‘NX glue’ in multi-CAD BIM workflows. For example, Siemens’ own PLM solution Teamcenter uses JT as the 3D visualisation format when handling data from Catia, Solidworks or Inventor in high-end engineering organisations, so the concept is certainly industry tried-and-tested. (For more on this see here).

Another target for the team was rather an unusual one. Its members wanted to demonstrate the ability to apply coatings to BIM geometry to estimate material quantities when it came to the paint, carpet, varnish or epoxy applied to areas of a model. Storing information on thickness, volume, area and so on enables room-byroom costings for materials, made easily available in a spreadsheet and a boon for quality assurance.

When it comes to the cloud, meanwhile, Siemens is the last of the major MCAD developers to embrace this platform. However, NX X is the new cloudbased version of Siemens’ flagship app, making it easier for newcomers to deploy NX via an off-premise cloud subscription (although it can also be run behind a firm’s own firewall, if required). Siemens is currently working on a whole new suite of apps that will be connected to this cloud platform.

Concrete progress

Obviously, the major AEC-relevant addition in the December 2023 release of Siemens NX is the work on rebar and the focus on precast elements for construction. These efforts will put Siemens in a good position, if it continues to covet a place at the modular, offsite fabrication table. The fact that it already handles steel, piping and electrical is another major point in its favour.

But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this release is the evident potential for JT in data flows. It really is an excellent wrapper for complex geometry and large files, although it could arguably be better tailored for BIM use. While the AEC world is excited about USD right now, JT was designed back in 2007 for sharing accurate complex solids and NURBSbased engineering data and docs at various levels of detail.

As discussed, JT can support assembly/ part/instance, facets, lighting, textures, precise topology, B-rep, PMI, 3D annotations and properties. In many ways, it’s a mature engineering equivalent of USD. What’s more, it’s open. All this makes it extremely likely that Siemens could do something very interesting with JT in AEC and fabrication.

Main image: Siemens NX now has a focus on rebar and precast elements for construction

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Converge has introduced Mix AI, a new tool that uses predictive AI to assist contractors in reducing concrete overdesign and embodied carbon emissions, promoting low-carbon construction practices.

Mix AI complements ConcreteDNA, the London-based company’s AI-based concrete monitoring and data management platform. It analyses concrete data to offer AI-based forecasts of concrete strength, temperature, and carbon footprint, considering historical and future environmental conditions.

“There is an unprecedented opportunity to leverage AI in the building material sector, to rapidly accelerate the decarbonisation of one of the hardest-to-abate sectors. AI’s impact on climate and carbon was a key discussion topic at the UN SDG summit, and a potential solution to many of the challenges being discussed at COP28,” said Raphael Scheps, co-founder and CEO of Converge.

“Through Mix AI, Converge is using cutting-edge AI techniques to deliver a real-world, highly-scalable digital solution to decarbonize the concrete sector.”

Cement, crucial for concrete’s strength, accounts for about 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Mix AI enables contractors to choose concrete mixes with less cement, meeting performance specs while cutting down embodied carbon emissions.

In 2022, Converge raised a £15M Series A, led by Climate Investment, to accelerate its carbon impact. Mike Bishop, investment director, Climate Investment, and Converge Board Member, said, “Mix AI is a transformative product for concrete. It balances construction demands with sustainability efforts, offering an innovative solution to address embodied carbon, while simultaneously reducing costs and accelerating project timelines.”

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Graphisoft enjoys a solid reputation for delivering consistent value with every annual release. This year is no exception, with the Hungary-based developer of BIM software (part of the Nemetschek group) unveiling useful enhancements to its core Archicad, BIMcloud and BIMx programmes for design, collaboration and project management, respectively.

Let’s start with design. Archicad is a tool that has historically done well with architecture firms, having successfully carved out a dual Apple/Windows niche for itself. Since last year’s release, Graphisoft has been on a mission to significantly expand the programme’s feature set, adding a raft of MEP capabilities enabled by integration with fellow Nemetschek stablemate, DDScad.

With this year’s Archicad 27, the company continues its journey to empower architects with better tools and deliver strong capabilities for multidisciplinary teams, both in MEP and structural workflows.

This presents a direct challenge to competitor Autodesk Revit, the market’s 800-pound gorilla, which has always benefited from offering a broad, multidisciplinary feature set.

Graphisoft’s decision to fold in DDScad functionality and build strong links to Nemetschek’s Frilo, Risa and Scia brands will broaden Archicad’s appeal and enable the package to compete feature by feature with Revit. It’s a significant industry play.

With each new release, Archicad is becoming more than just ‘Archi’, and will be better able to compete with Revit as a desktop BIM tool with cloud capabilities.

Meanwhile, Autodesk appears to be slowing development of Revit as it transitions to a new cloud-based platform called Forma.

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As it stands, DDScad now lives a dual existence, both as a standalone product and as a part of Archicad. Graphisoft executives say that they are committed to DDScad’s existing customer base and its product development roadmap, even as they work to broaden its appeal for a more BIM-focused audience.

The latest version of DDScad introduces access to out-of-the-box manufacturer data, intended to simplify the MEP design process. New product data technology enhances the openBIM capabilities of the product, giving engineers greater freedom and flexibility when it comes to design. And DDScad in Archicad brings new intelligence as MEP piping is laid out and size changes are required.

There have also been updates to Archicad’s Structural Analytical Model, designed to enable seamless collaboration between different disciplines for efficient project execution and more successful outcomes. A new manual adjustment feature helps users to achieve a continuous structural-analytical model on complex projects.

As a design progresses, there are critical points in the process where important decisions need to be made and, often, some variances need to be trialled. Typically, Archicad users would respond to these needs by creating new layers, using hotlinks, or requiring a current copy of the model to be created, on which experiments could be carried out. That’s not very efficient and, frankly, highlights the fact that the software hasn’t been built to address these critical points.

In response, Archicad 27 now offers a Design Options feature. This enables architects and multidisciplinary teams to efficiently evaluate and communicate a range of design options to clients, hopefully reducing the time required to find the best alternatives. In the mechanical CAD (MCAD) world, this Design Options approach is known as branching and merging, and it’s really powerful. As an example, take a look at PTC Onshape, where branching and merging supports the quick iteration of ideas and brings the best of these back into the design.

For now, Design Options represents Archicad’s first take on this capability, and it’s got some way to go yet. But what’s offered here is a solid foundation for further refinement of the idea. Graphisoft executives, incidentally, claim that Archicad is the first BIM tool to offer this kind of capability. In fact, it’s been included in Revit since version 6 (which dates back to 2003), although not many users may be aware of it.

AI visualisation

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in this marketplace for a few years now and Graphisoft is one of the first to add sprinkles of AI to its core design tool. My feeling is that these were added late in the day, bearing in mind the lack of product information available beyond a quick demo. But essentially, what the company has developed is its own version of Veras (read this AEC Magazine article), an AI-based renderer for BIM models created in Revit – but, of course, Graphisoft’s version is aimed specifically at Archicad users.

The problem with bare-bones conceptual image generators and ChatGPT text descriptions is that they are hard to control and don’t always deliver consistency. But by using a BIM model as a constraint, you can focus the power of an AI renderer to automatically generate all sorts of architectural treatments to a proposed building. And without having to become a rendering nerd, a user can harness AI to get new inspiration when it comes to environments, materials and styles, delivered in the form of photorealistic output.

AI visualisation is part of the product roadmap that Graphisoft released last year. Historically, the company has tended towards a secret squirrel approach, revealing new features only on a year-to-year basis. But with the trend towards subscription-based licensing, and in order to satisfy a customer base that increasingly demands open dialogue with vendors, the company has outlined some broad ‘buckets’ into which it will pour its development efforts.

AI is clearly going to be one of the biggest of these buckets. The company’s product roadmap clearly states that it will look at, “the use of AI and machine learning to assist designers, allowing them to focus on the creative and value-adding aspects of their profession.” The examples the company gives of AI-assisted tasks include “design optimisation, sustainability, documentation, and automation of other time-consuming tasks.”

It is also worth noting that Graphisoft has doubled down on its work with Enscape, the real-time visualisation software, to build a more streamlined connector. It’s now possible to map any Archicad object to any high-poly Enscape asset, giving users the best of both worlds. Enscape is also now available for the Mac OS platform and is available for Subscription, Forward and SSA users.
There is also new native support in Archicad for the import/export of industry-standard FBX files to augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications, with smart meshing on hand to generate models that deliver the best performance.

Other enhancements in Archicad 27 focus on project manageability, with additions to the attribute management workflow. Architects can now organise more attributes by folders to improve design team efficiency. The upgrade also includes new productivity tools, such as distance guides for placing elements. This aims to make the design process more enjoyable and intuitive for architects who might be transitioning from other platforms. Version 27 now supports RFA and RVT Geometry Exchange with Revit 2024 and is equipped with the IFC4 file import and export certification.

There’s also the new, intelligent Archicad Tracker, which includes its own calculator, allowing users to multiply, divide, add or subtract functions directly from the Tracker.

The new GDL Editor, meanwhile, delivers easier navigation, thanks to syntax highlights, which are shortcuts for editing commands. These improvements make it harder to create poorly written GDL. GDL Editor also supports dark mode.

BIMcloud and BIMx

Moving on to collaboration, let’s look at BIMcloud. This cloud-based solution enables real-time collaboration between team members, which comes in handy on large projects or for teams whose members work in different locations, which these days, is most teams.

The latest updates focus on enhancing security, a crucial concern for design firms in a digital age. Multi-factor authentication has been introduced to ensure data protection and secure access to shared projects. It’s also great that BIMcloud is available for both private and public cloud configurations.

In project management, the latest updates to presentation and coordination app BIMx bridge the gaps that often exist between design studios, client offices and construction sites. There are some new issue reporting capabilities, which aim to reduce the time it takes to resolve problems discovered on construction sites or during project coordination meetings.

Architects, clients, and construction teams can now communicate and address issues more effectively, leading to smoother project execution and improved overall quality.

Here, it’s worth mentioning that Graphisoft now offers a subscription-based bundle for small firms, Archicad Collaborate. This includes Archicad, BIMx and also BIMcloud SaaS, with BIMcloud SaaS included as part of the Archicad subscription price. That’s an unusual step in this market, where Autodesk and others charge additional fees for cloud services, but one that lowers the barrier to entry for small firms. From a look at the price list, it seems that Archicad Collaborate costs pretty much the same as a standard Archicad subscription licence, making the former a no-brainer for firms that opt for a subscription approach.

Conclusion

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

It will be interesting to see if, in the future, they choose to disrupt themselves, as AI becomes increasingly capable of delivering true automated drawings. After all, that’s one of the core tenets of BIM; but it might also result in fewer seats of BIM and CAD software being needed by customers.

While Autodesk is clearly going down the ‘cloud is everything’ route and will take time to cross that chasm, Graphisoft is wedded to a more flexible vision of the future, in which users can access their data in whatever way makes sense: desktop, cloud, on-premise, off-premise, Windows Intel, Apple Mac and even Windows ARM in the future. In other words, it’s all about giving customers options. That’s clearly going to involve a lot of code-juggling for the vendor, but it’s also a clear differentiator for Graphisoft.

Looking ahead with Márton Kiss of Graphisoft

In Budapest, AEC Magazine got the opportunity to sit down with Márton Kiss, vice president of product success at Graphisoft, to discuss aspects of this latest release and the company’s future product development plans.

As we pointed out to him, it seems as if Graphisoft has moved away from delivering ‘big theme’ releases (for example, focusing on retrofit), in favour of more iterative development of software features. But is that actually the case, from his perspective?

“Last year, we unveiled our public roadmap. This has been super useful for us, because whenever we visit a client, right away they have the roadmap there, and they can tell us this feature is irrelevant for them or not,” he said.

That process brings with it a lot of customer intelligence regarding what the user base considers important or not. Take, for example, search capabilities: “Putting the right search in the right place can be a huge productivity benefit for daily users,” he said.

“Once you have a major solution, these ‘big bang’ features that we cook internally might take us off track compared to where the industry is going. It’s far better to have a dialogue, because everybody utilises new innovations in different ways, and we really need to see that pattern. While we, and most software companies, have the means to collect that usage, human conversations always give us qualitative input for our development story,” he continued.

“From a Graphisoft side, I think we will do more of these micro roadmaps of functionality with close iteration, because that’s really solving the problems of our users. In the background, obviously, as new technology comes in, then the big bang approach to adding functionality has a role.”

For example, the AI trend is about looking for a silver capability out there, he said. “In this release, we have AI rendering, and the focus was to first of all get this framework into Archicad, so that we can connect an AI conceptual rendering engine. In our case, we opted for Stable Diffusion, but there are many. Once we get it out there, we will see where people take this.”

With AI under discussion everywhere, one of the main concerns often raised is where the technology could cross over, going from simply being an aid to taking control of complete portions of the workflow. The most obvious area in which this could happen is AI drawings.

While BIM’s initial reason for existence was to automate drawings production, it seems that most people in the industry were dissatisfied with the quality of automated output. So, while BIM increased the speed of documentation, it also increased the number of documents and the amount of editing needed for manual drawings, which kind of broke the link with the model.

AI promises to fix drawing layout and production in the not-too-distant future, with many firms working on it, and some attempting to include modelling as well, such as Swapp.

But how does Kiss envisage AI documentation redefining industry workflows? “I’m with you that it’s going to reshape roles. Modelling, documentation — for any mundane task or any repetitive task, technologically, you can build an AI to do that, so long as there is proper training data,” he responded.

“But while you may have AI-generated outputs, how do you control the quality? After all, you are liable for this! So maybe the architecture and the designer roles will shift focus to early modelling concepts, steering decisions that are inputted to the AI tools. While lots will be generated automatically, then the role will be proofing and checking quality, to make sure everything is right. I think this is going to also apply to construction, because it’s the weakest point in the whole building industry and you need to quality-check the real world against the design documents.”

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Trimble has joined ResponsibleSteel, an independent, non-profit organisation designed to drive the socially and environmentally responsible production of net-zero steel, globally.

The steel industry is one of the largest industrial emitters of CO2. With owners and operators of both building and infrastructure assets increasingly expecting their construction partners to choose sustainably sourced materials, there is a growing opportunity and urgency for the steel industry to minimise its environmental impact

Trimble is the first BIM software technology provider to join the ResponsibleSteel initiative. The company’s Tekla software is used for the design, engineering, fabrication and detailing of steel structures.

Tekla’s Embodied Carbon Calculator enables designers and detailers to assess the potential environmental implications of designs to quickly compare various structural options’ carbon impact. Additionally, a plug-in to Tekla Structures enables the upload of material quantities in a design to One Click LCA, a lifecycle assessment software that helps users calculate and reduce the environmental impacts of their designs.

“Thanks to its industry-wide nature, ResponsibleSteel has the ability to bring about impactful change to the way steel is created, sold, sourced and applied,” said Päivi Puntila, director, business development and sustainability lead for the structures division at Trimble.

“As one of the key players in design software for steel structures, Trimble solutions have contributed to making construction more sustainable by raising efficiencies, helping avoid waste during construction and enabling data reporting on the climate impact of projects.

“Our membership of ResponsibleSteel is further proof of our commitment to helping protect and build a better world to drive a sustainable future.”

Annie Heaton, ResponsibleSteel’s CEO, said, “As the only global multi-stakeholder initiative for the responsible production of steel, we have created a platform where companies from across the steel value chain can come together to learn and work together to shape the future of the industry.

“Buildings and construction make up around 39 percent of global carbon emissions, 11 percent of which is from construction and the manufacture of building materials such as steel. Tekla software allows engineers to measure and compare the carbon footprint of different structural designs, helping to reduce their environmental impact.”

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