Reality modelling is unlocking new efficiencies in AEC projects, providing highly detailed 3D models across the entire lifecycle. To keep projects on track, rapid data processing is critical, so selecting the right workstation hardware is more important than ever.

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• Lenovo’s latest AMD-powered workstations can supercharge your reality modelling workflows.
• Visualisation is bringing reality models to life through advanced real time tools like Unreal Engine.

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The post Powering your Reality Modelling Workflows: Special Report appeared first on AEC Magazine.

We are only halfway into the 2020s, yet this decade has already been marked by some unparalleled tech developments in AEC town. Riding on the paradigm-shifting AI wave with an explosion in server infrastructure, more and more workflow innovations in our industry tend to be cloud-native. Furthermore, the shifts and increasing flexibilities in our work cultures are fuelling the need for digital tools and solutions that run entirely in the web browser.

I can hear some of you arguing that cloud-based software is just the same features as traditional desktop software, moved into the browser… but it is well beyond that. It is about improving collaboration and security.

If you have ever used solutions like Google Docs, Salesforce, Slack, or GitHub, you know what I am talking about.

And it is fair to say that the AEC world is late in adopting this approach. Compare AEC with Manufacturing, for example, which already has well-established cloud-based solutions such as PTC Onshape, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and Fusion 360, to name just a few…

At AEC+Tech, we have been fortunate to test, review, and host a number of innovative design technology products, spanning early-stage design, massing and form evaluation, performative assessments, collaborative decision-making, or project and facility management, you name it. These tools are extremely competent in augmenting your design process, and solving design-stage or management problems effectively.

But something that these cloud-native workflows lack is the downstream support for drawing creation: as projects progress and become increasingly definitive, the generation of drawings regularly over the many project phases becomes crucial. True, you may harness the cloud capabilities of an AECTech product, work on the fly, and collaborate with your colleagues as you make your decisions. But when you move from design to drawing, you still have to rely on conventional (and often expensive) BIM and CAD solutions to go forward. And the biggest downside of that transition? The workflow has to be detached from the cloud and run on your machine instead, owing to the sheer size of these BIM/CAD software installations.

What these cloud-native design and management software applications need to complement them — and thus complete their workflows — is a robust option for drawings generation. Ideally, this solution would not only run on the cloud, but would also possess features that substantially accelerate and streamline the drawings creation process. And we at AEC+Tech have identified this exact cloud-native drawing creation solution, for developers to reinforce and complete their workflows: Graebert’s ARES Kudo.

ARES Kudo is a DWG-based Online CAD solution available both to end-users and as a CAD development platform. The ARES Kudo platform is used by many leading online solutions, including PTC Onshape, xDraftSight, and Trimble Connect.

What is ARES Kudo?

ARES Kudo is an online, DWG-based 2D CAD solution that runs in your web browser. It is both a robust stand-alone product and a part of the ARES Trinity of CAD software, along with ARES Commander and ARES Touch.

Thanks to a thoughtfully designed user interface that’s very familiar to traditional CAD users, shifting from a conventional CAD product to Kudo has a nearly flat learning curve. Plus, Kudo lets multiple users collaborate on the same file simultaneously — something that conventional tools hardly offer.

What really sets Kudo apart, however, is a unique amalgamation of two powerful elements: a full CAD-on-the-web solution, and Drawings Automation technology. Let’s look at both of these in more detail.

A Complete CAD-on-the-Web Solution

ARES Kudo includes a full DWG editing package that operates on any web browser. It gives you immediate access to all the tools and functions needed to create, edit, and customize drawings. As expected, you can also generate PDF or other outputs from your DWG files.

Plus, Kudo comes with a host of features to work collaboratively as a team in an instant — a signature advantage of cloud-native software. Users can add annotations, comments, and markups while working together on any DWG file. Conflicting changes are never a problem, since access to the editing capability is transferred via permissions from one user to the next.

Moreover, Kudo comes with ARES Online Drawings Automation features, enabling you to compare two DWG drawings to track changes, for example, or extract data from DWG files to CSV for schedules and quantities. Other Automation capabilities include the batch conversion of PDF or DGN files to DWG, which turns these files into drawings that can be edited in ARES Kudo. And Graebert has also announced that it will soon be possible to automatically batch-print Sheet Sets to PDF.

These functionalities make the software much more capable and robust than a conventional CAD solution, and would be a welcome complement to the early-stage design/BIM pipeline of major, emerging AECTech products out in the market.

What also makes ARES Online Drawings Automation unique in the market is the ability to schedule recurring jobs. As an end user, you could use ARES Kudo to schedule a task such as reading all your DWG files each night and converting them to PDF.

And as a developer, you could simply automate many tasks by default, anticipating the needs of your users. For instance, if they upload PDF, DGN, or Revit files, you might expect that sooner or later they will need to markup or edit them — so you could proactively convert these file types to DWG drawings upon import.

Drawings Automation from BIM Data

Perhaps the most exciting feature for developers to adopt into their pipeline is the automated generation of DWG drawings from Revit or IFC projects. Since most early-stage design tools put out a BIM (RVT or IFC) file, instant creation of drawings from this data will be a game-changer for AECTech developers.

ARES Kudo stands out due to its capabilities to read and extract building information and properties along with other data associated with BIM objects. This is possible because it imports entire BIM projects rather than just their geometry. Having immediate access to comprehensive building data — encompassing dimensions, thermal properties, schedules, material, colour, texture, costs, etc. — enhances the process of creating drawings, and enables Drawings Automation.

Upon importing a BIM project, Kudo reads the properties of the objects, and based on the nature of the project, automatically creates all the drawings you need (think plans, sections, and elevations). It then adds smart dimension chains, annotations, and labels on your drawings, by reading the attributes of the associated BIM objects. Simply speaking, this significantly reduces the manual input for drawing creation when compared with programs like Revit.

Integrating ARES Online Drawings Automation into your AECTech product will unlock a more complete pipeline for users to start from early-stage design and go all the way to enriched drawings — all on the cloud.

How Does the New ARES Online Drawings Automation Work in ARES Kudo?

As most cloud-native solutions do, Kudo executes the automated tasks on a distant server. Consequently, you don’t have to wait until the job is done; you can work on something else with your computer while the automation progresses.

Plus, you can batch-process multiple files and schedule recurring tasks with ARES Kudo. For example, you could set it to launch your desired  Drawings Automation routines every night, and track the progress of your BIM project as it evolves.

Developers using ARES Kudo as a development platform can create their own custom settings for the drawings the automation produces. You could achieve, for example, four different styles of drawings from the same geometry. When comparing the four drawings below, you can see how the representation of the walls, the dimensions, and the labels are different in each one, thanks to the high degree of customization possible.

Furthermore, developers have access to the ARES Online Drawings Automation technology, which can be used independently or in conjunction with the online CAD features provided by the ARES Kudo Development Platform for DWG editing. This integration allows for the creation of custom solutions tailored to specific needs for online DWG editing.

For AECTech companies creating software/solutions for design, BIM, project and facility management, cost estimation, and so on, the possibility to focus almost entirely on the 3D features and automate all the 2D afterwards is certainly innovative. As a process running automatically in the background and in real time, with the user designing in 3D with BIM or uploading a RVT/IFC file, Kudo solves a crucial problem — enabling developers to upscale and mainstream their technology to a broader audience.

How is the ARES Kudo Development Platform Benefiting Developers Already?

Join the Developer Workshop co-hosted by Graebert and Martyn Day from AEC Magazine

• The ARES Kudo Online CAD Development platform
• The new ARES Online Drawings Automation technology for developers
• Examples of integrations with industry-leading solutions

Panel discussion with industry experts:
How Cloud and Drawings Automation Are Transforming the CAD Industry

Drawings Automation in Link with Snaptrude

While the Drawings Automation technology in ARES Kudo is being officially introduced at the Graebert neXt event in April, it was previously introduced in the desktop version, ARES Commander. It has also been used to complement the BIM-based workflow of the AECTech product called Snaptrude: a cloud-native, BIM-based collaborative design platform. Read this previous article to learn more and see this integration in video form: “Drawings Automation for BIM Projects (AEC Magazine, March 27, 2024).”

This partnership stands as testimony to how well ARES Kudo integrates with other developers’ tools, and to the vast possibilities it opens up for collaboration to upscale and mainstream the use of new AECTech solutions.

10 Years of Collaboration with Onshape

Onshape is a fully cloud-based 3D CAD platform that revolutionizes product design by enabling real-time collaboration and eliminating the need for traditional file-based workflows. A key component of Onshape’s functionality is its Drawings module, which is based on Graebert’s ARES Kudo technology.

This partnership integrates Graebert’s advanced online CAD technologies into Onshape, enabling users to create detailed 2D drawings that are automatically synchronized with their 3D models.

15 Years of Collaboration with Dassault Systèmes for DraftSight

The partnership between Graebert and the industry-leading 3D giant behind SOLIDWORKS and CATIA, Dassault Systèmes, around DraftSight began roughly 15 years ago. It soon blossomed into a hugely successful story, yielding a 2D DWG-based CAD desktop application that quickly amassed a massive user base reaching more than 10 million users worldwide.

Over time, this collaboration expanded beyond the core desktop product into integrations with other popular Dassault Systèmes products like GEOVIA, ENOVIA, HomeByMe, 3D ContentCentral, SOLIDWORKS PDM, and now, importantly, the 3DEXPERIENCE online collaboration platform.

This year, the desktop-based higher-end version, DraftSight Premium, is also introducing Graebert’s BIM drawings automation features. Most recently, the partnership produced xDraftSight — a fully cloud-based version of DraftSight built on Graebert’s ARES Kudo engine. Accessible through a web browser as part of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, xDraftSight enables users to edit DWG drawings online with the same capabilities as the desktop, while enjoying seamless integration with Dassault’s cloud data and collaboration tools.

To sum up,

ARES Kudo and the online CAD development platform associated with it offer an array of new possibilities for AECTech product developers. Needless to say, Kudo may be the most robust cloud-native drawing tool out there. Its bespoke BIM automation features, coupled with its ability to complement other products’ workflows and project pipelines, positions it as a strong, indispensable player in this area.

With an increasing number of developers and companies exploring partnerships to nest Kudo’s capabilities in their pipelines, it is set to disrupt conventional workflows — for the better. With all the new collaboration and opportunities unfolding as we speak, these are some very exciting times for the AECTech space!

The post ARES Kudo: DWG Drawings Automation for Developers appeared first on AEC Magazine.

The real estate industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by global urbanization, evolving lifestyles, and the critical need for sustainable practices. In response, real estate professionals are increasingly exploring digital solutions that improve efficiency foster collaboration, and optimize land use. At the forefront of these innovations is virtual twin technology, which allows developers and planners to visualize and simulate projects within their full spatial and environmental context. This is what Dassault Systèmes’ GEOVIA presents in its latest webinar on land prospecting.

Creation of a Virtual Twin

GEOVIA Urban Planning solutions allow the creation of a comprehensive virtual twin within a single platform, seamlessly integrating both open-source and private BIM data. By reconciling 2D and 3D data, converting vector data into 3D, and georeferencing 3D designs, these solutions go far beyond basic visualizations. They offer advanced spatial analysis capabilities, enabling real estate developers and planners to assess site viability, evaluate environmental impacts, and simulate various scenarios effectively.

Site Selection

For real estate developers, location is a primary driver of property value, making site selection a critical step before breaking ground. Depending on the type of project, factors like access to transportation, nearby schools, and cultural sites can greatly influence site selection. While much of this information is available through open data, meaningful analysis becomes more impactful when projected onto a virtual twin.

GEOVIA’s solutions go beyond traditional analysis, empowering land prospectors to create adaptive designs to meet specific requirements. By selecting a starting point on a map, prospectors can accurately analyse the surrounding area within the isochrones of their choice—like a 5-minute walk or a 10-minute bike ride- to gain precise insights.

This analysis can be enhanced to meet the project’s objectives by establishing a scoring system based on points of interest, such as schools, hospitals, and museums, and comparing these scores across multiple locations to identify the optimal sites. Beyond helping developers determine the ideal location, this solution also facilitates communication with non-technical stakeholders. By simulating real-world scenarios, professionals can refine their projects to reflect emerging trends, ensuring they stay relevant and appealing to prospective buyers.

Enhancing Collaboration and Decision-Making

GEOVIA’s solutions are integrated into Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform – a secure, web-based, collaboration hub that allows stakeholders to aggregate, store, and share documents within the virtual twin environment with a single login. Serving as a single source of truth, this platform ensures that all stakeholders—from project managers to general contractors—have easy access to the most current information. This capability enhances traceability, facilitates the early identification of potential issues, and helps optimize workflows.

In addition to allowing users to monitor project progress by location, track real-time operations, and manage upcoming projects, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform serves as a powerful collaboration tool. It enables stakeholders to interact and communicate within private or public communities directly on a 3D map. By clicking on a specific location of interest on the 3D map, stakeholders can create and access geolocated posts that provide the latest updates on new and upcoming developments. These posts can include text, images, documents, and links to the map, offering a detailed view of the site in a 3D context. This functionality preserves all relevant information throughout the project lifecycle and also empowers stakeholders to make faster, more informed decisions.

Looking Ahead

GEOVIA offers unparalleled insights through interactive market analysis. Visualize and analyse key real estate data in context, identifying opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden. This strategic advantage allows you to confidently make data-driven decisions, maximizing return on investment and optimising resource allocation.

Discover how GEOVIA can turn your ideas into reality with a personalized demo. Explore how to analyse, collaborate, and manage your construction projects with GEOVIA Solutions and how virtual twins can redefine urban development. If you missed the “Maximize Your Real Estate Operations” webinar, watch the replay for practical tips and valuable insights. The webinar is in French, with English subtitles.

The post Bridging the gap in real estate with Virtual Twin solutions appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Artificial Intelligence is having a profound impact on architectural visualisation.

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Fifteen years ago, I thought I’d achieved my professional dream–one that united my design education with my environmental values–providing analysis and consulting to AEC professionals to create high-performance buildings and reach their sustainability goals.

But working on one building project at a time wasn’t creating enough impact. It was satisfying but slow, and our industry needs to act fast, at scale, to mitigate climate change. To have an impact, we must transform our entire system and empower every team member to leverage the technology and tools that champion more sustainable design. So, I joined Autodesk to work with product teams to scale sustainable outcomes for our AEC customers.

We see evidence of climate change in our planet’s ever-worsening floods, droughts, heat domes and blizzards. It threatens communities and is becoming part of the decision-making process for building design and renovations. The built environment is responsible for roughly 40 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. We must mitigate emissions of our existing built environment while also planning and building more efficient, climate-resilient structures for two billion more people in the next 30 years. To do so, we need to disrupt business as usual and design, renovate, and build smarter.

Leveraging and democratizing technology is critical to scaling sustainable solutions. Innovative workflows powered by cloud-connected tools that include AI enable us to design for sustainability from the first glimmer of a project idea all the way through the operation phase.

Autodesk Forma, for example, offers real-time AI-enabled analysis of how early-stage design decisions will impact a building’s performance. Its interoperability and extensibility allow you to connect to detailed design and analysis tools downstream, keeping key design data synced along the way. We are not far from a future where every project member who touches a digital tool plays a role in ensuring sustainable outcomes, driven by strategies such as resilient design planning, decarbonized design and operational efficiency.

Making the most of what already exists

For a modern take on adaptive reuse with Autodesk Forma we can look to the new 311 Third Transformative, an office renovation project by and for Lake|Flato, a San Antonio-based architecture firm. Forty years ago, David Lake and Ted Flato founded their architecture firm in a 1920 building originally designed as a car dealership. By 2019, Lake|Flato had taken over the entire building and outgrown it. Rather than demolish it, or build new, Lake|Flato took its own advice: reduce carbon emissions by reusing what exists.

The embodied carbon associated with a renovation and reuse project is typically 50% to 75% less than new construction. The International Energy Agency tells us that to reach net zero emissions by 2050, not only will end-of-life buildings need to be replaced, but nearly 20% of existing building stock will need to be retrofitted and ready to use a green energy supply.

“You can always find ways to celebrate historic buildings and make them into something really beautiful and unique,” said Lake|Flato Design Performance Manager Kate Sector. “It felt really important for us to be able to demonstrate that to our clients.”

Just looking at the Lake|Flato project inspires delight. Sustainable design principles underpinned the renovation of both the building and site, realised by applying analysis tools to optimise the design process. The project preserves a piece of architectural history while embracing connections to the outdoors and responding to workplace trends of hybrid work. What was once a parking garage is now a four-season outdoor garden courtyard and collaboration space, with deconstructed wood from the garage reused throughout the design.

Lake|Flato used a laser scan to create a precise 3D model of the existing building. That model helped calculate how many linear feet of wood could be reused. And when historic preservation requirements meant some additional windows could not be included, Lake|Flato loaded the model into a mixed-reality headset, proving to its team that there would still be plenty of daylight and views with many of the original windows.

Tools like Autodesk Forma helped the designers analyse the occupant thermal comfort around the project from the earliest stages of the design process. Its predictive analysis features can simulate conditions and provide design insights into the dynamics between a building and its surroundings in near real-time, while designing.

Forma helps designers adapt to environmental factors such as daylight potential, wind patterns, and microclimate effects. Using Forma to analyse their office renovation, Lake|Flato was able to create a functional and comfortable outdoor courtyard with shade structures, ceiling fans, and trees. Employees now meet and lunch outside even when temperatures hit 100° during Texas summers.

As the design process becomes more detailed, Revit enables further sustainable design evaluation, including operational energy assessment and predictive analytics that indicate the embodied and operational carbon impacts of design decisions. Built into Revit are EnergyPlus and OpenStudio from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), both of which assist with building energy modelling and analysis. Those capabilities and the third-party Revit plug-in Tally helped with the project’s ILFI Zero Carbon certification goal.

Sustainability gains traction

For years, sustainability in the built environment inched forward with a series of carrots and sticks. Building owners and investors discovered incentives to design and build more sustainably. Their reasons ranged from saving money to caring about the environment to preserving a legacy for future generations to earing a building label like LEED. Governments instituted ever-tightening regulations for the same reasons. These incentives and mandates kept building on each other, creating a momentum toward sustainability that’s becoming our new normal.

We’ve reached a time when our customers are compelled to create more sustainable projects, and our governments are demanding they curb climate change. I believe a better future is in reach. For example, if all the G7 countries and China adopted sustainable strategies, we could cut greenhouse gas emissions from the materials used in residential buildings by 80 percent in 2050.

Technology gives us the tools to achieve sustainable design and construction at scale. It gives us the ability to predict, simulate, and benefit from data-driven insights. It helps us compare and toss out bad ideas and assess tradeoffs between good ideas. It lets us harness the expertise of every person in our project team, fosters an integrated design process and enables them to work with shared data and ideas. It lets us start with the end in mind – the project’s environmental impact. Through technology-powered collaboration, we can deliver better outcomes for our planet and future generations.

Main image caption: Sustainable architecture firm Lake|Flato’s adaptive reuse project transformed a 100-year-old building into new, design-forward headquarters. Image Courtesy Robert G. Gomez

The post Achieving sustainable building solutions at scale appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Niknaz Aftahi, co-founder and CEO of aec+tech, reviews ARES Commander’s features that automate the creation of DWG-format CAD documents from Revit and IFC projects, including the latest enhancements in v2025. To learn more about BIM Drawings Automation, make sure to join Ms. Aftahi’s keynote at the free online Graebert neXt event in April

Niknaz Aftahi, co-founder and CEO of aec+tech, reviews ARES Commander’s features that automate the creation of DWG-format CAD documents from Revit and IFC projects, including the latest enhancements in v2025. To learn more about BIM Drawings Automation, make sure to join Ms. Aftahi’s keynote at the free online Graebert neXt event in April.

Over the past two decades, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has undoubtedly become the industry standard in organising and communicating AEC project information. Looking beyond the merits of consolidation and efficiency that BIM offers when working with drawings, schedules, costs, timelines, and so on, it has set out a streamlined path for the industry and its operations.

BIM has indeed been booming, yet many actors in the AEC space don’t find access to BIM-literacy, and therefore continue to use existing CAD solutions instead.

True, it is bound to be met with inefficiency and redundancy when project information exists in BIM formats, but not everyone is capable of harnessing it directly.

Moreover, even when architects work largely in 3D with BIM, the execution drawings shared with subcontractors are expected to be in a 2D DWG format. These also need to have a much higher level of detail than BIM drawings, to drive attention to specific details and tasks to accomplish.

The result? A lot of this information gets wastefully duplicated from BIM to DWG CAD, consuming an incredible amount of time and effort, and slowing the project down further. And it is very counterproductive, considering the intent behind using BIM in the first place.

German software developer Gräbert GmbH seeks to solve this very issue with its ARES suite of products, and particularly ARES Commander. Read on to find out more!

Key Takeaways:

★ BIM–CAD Integration: ARES Commander seamlessly integrates BIM and CAD, allowing efficient creation of 2D/3D CAD documents in DWG format using BIM data.

★ Streamlined Workflow: The software streamlines the BIM-to-CAD process, importing RVT- and IFC-format BIM projects, extracting relevant data, and automating DWG drawing creation.

★ Detailed BIM Data Handling: ARES Commander excels in reading and extracting detailed properties from BIM objects, providing access to comprehensive building information.

★ Automated Drawing Creation: The BIMAUTOALL function automates drawing creation, generating plans, sections, and elevations with smart dimension chains, annotations, and labels.

★ Dynamic Drawing Updates: The software ensures drawings automatically refresh and update with changes in source BIM files, maintaining synchronisation with evolving projects.

★ Cloud Collaboration and AI Assistance: ARES Commander offers cloud collaboration for feedback and validation, and features ARES AI Assist for real-time assistance and guidance, enhancing user productivity.

What is ARES Commander, and where does it fit in the CAD–BIM spectrum?

ARES Commander is a part of the ARES Trinity of CAD Software, offering comprehensive DWG solutions across desktop, mobile, and cloud platforms. Very similar to AutoCAD, Commander lets you create 2D/3D CAD documents in the DWG format. Being an industry veteran in CAD solutions with a vision to cater to the booming BIM industry, Gräbert GmbH has designed ARES Commander with a range of features to streamline the swift and efficient production of DWG files from BIM data.

Users can leverage Commander to seamlessly handle multiple Revit and IFC files simultaneously, all the while maintaining the user-friendly interface and familiarity of conventional CAD tools. What sets the software apart is its capability to interpret and extract information embedded within BIM files containing geometries. This extracted data is then utilised to automate the creation of drawings and continually update documents whenever there are modifications to the design.

Let’s explore the BIM-to-CAD workflow, starting from Snaptrude — a collaborative, browser-based BIM solution — and concluding with automated DWG production inside ARES Commander.

BIM Project Creation in Snaptrude

It should be clarified that ARES Commander doesn’t aim at replacing Revit nor any other BIM software. Rather, it imports BIM projects saved in RVT (Revit) or IFC format, and generates 2D drawings in DWG format (the same format as AutoCAD).

For this review of DWG creation in ARES Commander, we have used a mid-rise hospitality project designed in Snaptrude, which is a truly design-first, end-to-end web application for architects, designers, contractors, etc. that enables real-time collaboration and decision-making. The product harnesses the abilities of parametric, data-driven BIM processes and empowers users to create BIM projects in record time.

Fig.3) Synergy between Snaptrude’s BIM capabilities and ARES Commander.

Since the BIM projects created from Snaptrude can be exported in the RVT format, we use the same to automate the DWG creation process in ARES Commander.

Importing RVT or IFC Projects into ARES Commander

With ARES Commander, you have the capability to import one or more RVT and/or IFC files, merging multiple files as necessary for your drawings. Additionally, you can create filters, selectively extracting only the BIM families and classes of interest.

Extract relevant BIM data and export to tables or spreadsheets

From the perspective of a BIM user, ARES Commander stands out primarily due to its capacity to read and extract properties along with other data associated with BIM objects — a wealth of information typically unavailable in conventional CAD drawings. Since ARES Commander imports entire BIM projects rather than just their geometry, the Properties palette can showcase all attributes and details linked to any selected entity.

The immediate access to comprehensive building information, encompassing dimensions, thermal properties, material, colour, and texture, among other aspects, enhances the process of creating drawings. Furthermore, Commander enables users to export specific attributes as schedules or tables, facilitating calculations for quantities and costs. Additionally, you can obtain CSV files from the extracted object schedules, providing the flexibility to edit them later according to your preferences.

The magic of drawings automation with the BIMAUTOALL function

After you’ve conveniently imported, filtered, and consolidated all the required BIM information for your DWGs onto your CAD workspace in Commander, the only thing left to do is the DWG creation itself.

The BIMAUTOALL command reads the properties of the BIM objects imported, and based on the nature of the project, automatically creates all the drawings — plans, sections, elevations — you need. After that, it automatically adds smart dimension chains, annotations, and labels on your drawings, by reading the attributes of the associated BIM objects. For example, based on the kind of drawing, it enables users to dimension and label all doors and windows on a particular floor.

Alternatively, you can also generate plan, section, elevation, and other view drawings individually, and customise each of them with the other automation commands including BIMAUTODIMENSIONS, BIMAUTOSHEETS, BIMAUTOLABELS, and so on.

Fig.4) Automate DWG creation from BIM projects.

New features introduced in ARES Commander 2025

In version 2025 of ARES Commander, which is being released in April 2024, the BIM Drawings Automation functionality is further enhanced with: 3D Visual Styles: Selection of predefined

• 3D visualisation styles including Realistic, Sketchy, X-Ray (transparent), Shades of Gray (monochromic white representation), Conceptual…

• Detail views: New drawing type to magnify a specific region of a floor plan or section drawing.

• Wall junctions improvements: ARES Commander now recognises the wall junction types selected in Revit — whether it’s Butt, Miter, or Square off, the floor plans will now reflect such choices.

• BIM labels adjustments: Besides automatically generating the labels for Rooms, Doors, and Windows, ARES Commander now leverages AI to reposition the labels, avoiding any possible overlap with other entities.

• Dimension chains enhancements: Just like for the BIM labels, the BIM dimension chains are now automatically repositioned to prevent texts from overlapping other elements.

• Split BIM Drawings: When automatically generated drawings cannot fit in a single viewport, this new command enables users to split the drawing into multiple viewports.

• Multiview blocks: Replace the 2D representation of a 3D BIM object in a 2D drawing. For example, when an imported IFC file does not contain 2D representations for doors or windows, the user can now replace them with blocks. ARES Commander will recognise all the occurrences of a particular BIM object and use the assigned block in all the 2D drawings.

Auto-refresh and update your drawings

ARES Commander excels in its capability to refresh the source BIM files, resulting in an immediate update to the drawings derived from them: it’s almost magic! And it significantly contributes to making BIM workflows faster.

Upon refreshing the source BIM file, the alterations become apparent in the BIM Navigator, affecting elements, objects, and families. This feature becomes even more valuable after the inclusion of annotations, call-outs, dimensions, symbols, and so on.

CAD features and block libraries to enrich your drawings

Beyond showcasing the objects extracted from the BIM project, users can enhance the drawings manually by leveraging the CAD tool kit provided in ARES Commander. This additional layer of detail, superimposed on the BIM elements, might encompass elements like furniture or other details not present in the original project. Any additions to the drawing — such as smart labels, dimensions, annotations, text, etc. — will persist even when alterations are made to the BIM project. Upon refreshing the associated drawings, these additions will automatically update, mirroring the dynamic changes in geometry.

Moreover, users can make complete use of the Trinity Block Library to enrich their drawings. The Trinity Block Library enables companies to create online block libraries to centralise and share blocks among all their ARES users. More than 400 ready-to-use dynamic blocks are provided in version 2025 of ARES Commander, including symbols for Architecture, Interiors, MEP, Planning, and so on.

Cloud-enabled collaboration for feedback and validation

In addition to its BIM capabilities, ARES Commander sets itself apart from AutoCAD through the Trinity Collaboration features — a suite of tools harnessing the power of the cloud to enhance collaboration. This encompasses, for instance, the ability to generate a view-only link, inviting any collaborator to freely view and comment on a drawing online.

For example, you can invite a client to review and approve a floor plan with specific technical details, or seek out input from MEP and structural consultants firsthand, before finalising certain design decisions.

Leveraging AI to get users started with the BIM features

A new AI guide powered by OpenAI technology, ARES AI Assist (aka “A3”) helps users learn more about the software, the UI, various features, how to get things done inside Commander, etc. It also provides general guidance, including domain knowledge, concepts, and industry-specific advice. A3 can also come in handy when you’re working on your drawings and you need to perform conversions or calculations on the fly.

When users need help with CAD-related tasks, they can simply use natural language to interact with A3, which understands many languages!

In conclusion

Gräbert GmbH has built a CAD product that does more than just make drawings — it solves some very crucial pain points in BIM–CAD interaction. By opening up the world of BIM and the ocean of information it brings with to users who only use CAD programs, ARES Commander’s BIM features are truly a game-changer. In addition, the automated drawing generation with smart labels, dimensions, and annotations will save countless hours of redundant work, while the auto-refresh feature will never let any design change come in the way of CAD drawings.

Gräbert’s ARES Commander truly stirs up and excites what lies ahead for the AECTech space!

Join Niknaz Aftahi’s keynote to learn more

Join the free online Graebert neXt event on April 18 (or watch the replay afterward) to learn more about the software, and see how all the aforementioned features can enhance your workflow!

The post Drawings Automation for BIM Projects appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Twenty-five years ago, as a young engineer in France, I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco because I wanted to work for Autodesk, a company that I believed was building technology to change the world. At the time it was AutoCAD 14.

Fast forward to today and the architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industry continues to adapt to new technology and increasing demands. Computer-aided design made you faster. Building information modelling (BIM) let you work in centralised 3D models that made you more collaborative, efficient, and precise. Connecting BIM to the cloud made you more coordinated, less wasteful, and more productive.

And yet, the AECO industry faces a predicament. The global population is growing and shifting rapidly and the demand for new and more sustainable buildings and infrastructure is soaring.

The world needs you now more than ever—yet your projects are increasingly complex, and your systems can’t quite flex enough to manage it all. You’re swimming in data, but you can’t dive into it deep enough or early enough in the process to surface the small but important insights, and the big ideas, that will truly transform your businesses.

BIM revolutionised the AECO industry, but silos remain. Data locked in proprietary files prevents project teams from seamlessly sharing it and leaves much of its value untapped.

It’s time for the next paradigm shift: a better, faster, more decisive way of working—one that’s based in the cloud and powered by data and artificial intelligence (AI).

We call it outcome-based BIM, and it complements your model-based approach. It lets you focus on outcomes like building performance, efficiency, cost, sustainability, and impact on surroundings—from the very beginning of a project.

Outcome-based BIM built on data and AI

We’ve heard you ask for a better way to ensure connected outcomes across the entire asset lifecycle, across industries, and across different people and teams. So, we’re rethinking the way data is stored, shared, and secured in the cloud.

We’re breaking down files and putting the data in one location, Autodesk Docs, the AEC data repository. It’s open, secure, and accessible. The data will be granular at the object level, so every piece of data will have the same currency whether it’s a door, a window, or a pipe.

The data will be decoupled from applications and files, free to move from application to application, team to team, or phase to phase. We’re connecting all our existing and future applications to Autodesk Docs to access the data. And we’ll pull in real world knowledge like site context, existing conditions, environmental data, supply chain information, and more. By bringing all these factors together in a single source of truth, we are fuelling AI with data to give you an additional way of working: outcome-based BIM.

Outcome-based BIM lets you approach the design process by thinking of the outcomes for the project first. For instance, ask yourself “how will this project meet the needs of its users, community and environment?” Using outcome-based BIM you can design a building to meet complex, competing criteria like sustainability goals, project cost, time to deliver, habitability, and more. This can only be done with the power of AI.

Some of our most exciting innovations in BIM are powered by AI. At Autodesk University 2023, our annual Design and Make conference, we announced Autodesk AI, with capabilities embedded across the Autodesk portfolio and new capabilities in constant development. These powerful tools automate repetitive tasks, analyse data for useful insights, and augment human design and engineering.

Autodesk AI unlocks creativity, helps solve problems, and eliminates non-productive work across the industries that design and make the world around us. We’re already leveraging AI in Autodesk Forma, AutoCAD, InfoDrainage, Construction IQ, and more.

A new way of working

Autodesk Forma, the AECO industry cloud, is realising outcome-based BIM. With Forma, data will become your most precious resource, and Autodesk AI will help you to squeeze every ounce of value from it.

Last May, we launched the first set of AI-based capabilities on Forma, bringing informed decision making to the planning and conceptual design phase. Forma allows you to analyse wind and noise impacts around a building concept with near real-time results. A process that would normally take 45 minutes or longer happens in one-tenth of a second. That’s breakthrough productivity and the definition of digital acceleration.

Now imagine applying those AI-powered gains across every workflow from design to operations. Your teams will no longer toil over manual data calculations. They’ll be released to focus on big-picture problems and creative solutions—the ones that will profoundly change our world. Just like the multidisciplinary team working on The Phoenix, a 316-unit, affordable housing project in Oakland, Calif.

The Phoenix project team took a new approach to affordable housing: industrialised construction powered by outcome-based BIM and assisted by AI. Using Autodesk’s design and make solutions to tap into AI-powered insights, the multi-disciplinary team made data-informed trade-offs between goals for operational carbon, embodied carbon, cost, and liveability. www.autodesk.com/solutions/design-and-make-platform

When complete, The Phoenix will be about half the cost, time, and carbon footprint of a typical multi-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those incredible outcomes are only possible with a new approach to data, collaboration, and design.

Innovating and expanding the BIM environment

Outcome-based BIM, like what’s being used to design and build The Phoenix, must consider the full universe of technology and data you use. Outcome-based BIM is not a replacement for model-based BIM; it complements it.

That’s why we are building Forma to be open and extensible, with our Forma API already fueling interoperability between Forma and Rhino and Forma and Revit. We’re also working with leading AEC software brands like Trimble and Nemetschek to explore ways to improve collaboration, information sharing, and efficiency across Autodesk solutions.

We’re embracing openness because it offers so many advantages. You can customise the workflows you need for your business. You can make the most of every piece of data you create–no matter where it originates–by making it accessible to the team members who will benefit from it–no matter what tools they use. This single source of truth can use data to carry learnings from one school, bridge, or tunnel to the next.

Having an open platform also means we can connect our existing tools, like Revit, and new tools like Autodesk Workshop XR and Autodesk Tandem to expand the ecosystem from design to build through ownership.

Autodesk Workshop XR is a new immersive design review workspace that connects directly to Autodesk Docs so you can load models with no prep, enabling teams to track and resolve issues and catch errors before they make it to construction. Workshop XR’s breakthrough capabilities enable your teams to review 3D models and data together in a real-time extended reality experience. Whether you’re in the dynamic virtual workshop or a BIM model, you can collaborate at 1:1 scale to see how design decisions will translate to human feel in the built environment.

For owners and facility managers, we will soon integrate bi-directional connections into Autodesk Tandem, our digital twin solution. We’re calling this future capability Tandem Connect. With Tandem Connect, you can easily create integrations, even if you don’t know how to code, because there’s a rich library of plug-ins for existing systems. Once connected, you can quickly identify problematic building components and run simulations of potential solutions.

Imagine being able to run your project reviews within a full immersive experience bringing together the real-world context data with your project. Or creating a digital twin of a metro station that uses IoT data to send maintenance alerts. These kinds of capabilities are only possible when data is free from files and broken down into logical granular elements.

We live in a complex world that requires nuanced solutions. At Autodesk, we’re drawing on our 40 years of experience working with you to reimagine how you plan, design, build, and operate buildings and infrastructure. And we’re challenging our peers to work in new ways, too, through an open ecosystem and partnerships that put you—our customers—at the centre. We’ll only succeed by joining our expertise with your years of experience delivering projects, creating designs, and solving problems.

We’ll lead the way with data and AI. And we invite everyone to come along with us, as we enable innovators everywhere to design and make a better world for all.

Main image caption: Autodesk Forma will provide a centralized workspace to connect all teams that design, build and operate the built environment.

The post From digital transformation to digital acceleration with outcome-based BIM appeared first on AEC Magazine.

The technology evolution of the AEC industry started with the digital replication of 2D drawings with desktop CAD. Twenty years later, the next phase, called Building Information Modelling (BIM), introduced the concept of modelling buildings and infrastructure in 3D, to derive 2D sections and elevations for general assembly drawings. While BIM assisted in the production of coordinated document sets, it did little to connect the digital thread in construction. Roll on 20 years later and today these now old BIM software tools have failed to offer significant additional productivity benefits. The bulk of the industry is still fixated on the production and distribution of plan, sections and elevations via PDFs, when advanced AEC firms are looking for model-based workflows, to work from design to fabrication, to Digital Twins and lifecycle use.

To make matters worse, complex geometry cannot always be defined in today’s mainly facet-based BIM systems and additional packages are required to sculpt or generate complex surfaces found in todays’ expressive architectural vocabulary. This means, that BIM models become a combination of ‘smart’ objects and dumb meshes. Today’s BIM tools were designed to be all about documentation and were never intended to drive downstream fabrication processes, leading to the proliferation of multiple models, at various levels of detail.

With these limitations, mature, AEC firms have started evaluating next generation tools, termed BIM 2.0, to improve performance, increase design efficiency, drive sustainability goals, enable seamless collaboration and connect models to digital fabrication systems.

Paris-based, Dassault Systèmes has been developing convergent, market-specific flavours of its 3DEXPERIENCE platform to bring the same, industry proven design, fabrication and Digital Twin tools, used by firms such as Tesla, Honda, Boeing, Ford Motor Company and Ferrari, to designers and fabricators in the AEC market. The incumbent AEC software vendors are only now starting to develop their next generation tools and hope to offer cloud-based collaboration, database-centric modelling, and links to CNC/ gCode/ for digital fabrication. These capabilities have already been built-in to Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE Platform for over a decade and tried and tested by the world’s most advanced engineering firms.

Dassault Systèmes in AEC

Historically speaking, Dassault Systèmes tools are no stranger to being used to solve the hardest problems in AEC. Until Frank Gehry’s practice adopted CATIA, contractors’ bids priced out many of his complex designs from being built due to the risk of bidding on his designs from 2D drawings. By explicitly modelling his buildings in CATIA, his practice de-risked his designs for contractors, despite their complexity, as every component was modelled and could be quantified. On projects like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, this meant all the contractor bids dropped to within 1% of each other. The Museum was delivered on time, inside six years, and cost $3 million less than the $100 million budgeted.

On the Taiwanese Denjiang Bridge project, Zaha Hadid Architects used 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA on the cloud, to talk the same ‘infrastructure’ language and collaborate with structural Engineer, Leonhardt and local engineering consultants Sinotech Engineering. The practice uses 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA on projects which have high fabrication needs.

SHoP Architects, a distinguished architectural firm based in New York, recognised the need to better manage the collaboration between various disciplines involved in their projects and handle the copious amounts of data generated throughout the design process. The practice were keen to move away from typical section, elevation output, to create digital build models for fabrication. To address this challenge, SHoP implemented Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Platform with the Design for Fabrication industry solution. See video below.

Firms do not need to be signature architects to benefit from using 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA. London based Innovative boutique design firm, KREOD, Chun Qing Li exclusively uses 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA to regain the role of ‘Master Architect’, modelling projects at 1:1 scale, to drive through to fabrication (DfMA), as well as to de-risk projects by modelling every detail, including bringing in laser scans from site to their models.

While architects enjoy the powerful modelling, 3DEXPERIENCE is also driving business process improvements in construction. Bouygues Construction chose Dassault Systèmes as a technology partner, to develop a broad digital transformation strategy to move from BIM to Virtual Twin and adopt automation with industrial methods of fabrication. The firm makes use of 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud with ENOVIA and DELMIA in addition to CATIA, ‘industrialising’ its project management, anticipating the various phases of a project and planning their on-site implementation in fine detail. All data related to a construction project, from the design to the execution phase, to the operation and maintenance of the building are now located in one platform.

Conclusion

With the digital convergence of AEC and Manufacturing, the key deliverables of design and fabrication change. Historic workflows and tools become less useful, as they still concentrate on 2D information exchange, while the process inherently becomes increasingly model-centric, to drive the fabrication processes and Virtual Twin processes beyond. Traditional AEC/BIM developers are scrambling to come up with ways to connect low-level of detail architectural BIM design models to modern fabrication systems. The truth is, it’s only engineering design software like 3DEXPERIENCE that can offer AEC design through to fabrication in a single platform. Dassault Systèmes has decades of manufacturing knowledge, spanning multiple industries and already has turnkey solutions for the built environment ready to go.

Finally, while CATIA is a high-end manufacturing application, with appropriate pricing, Dassault Systèmes recognises that the cost dynamic in the AEC space requires a lower pricing model (without loss of functionality). Dassault Systèmes tools for AEC customers reflect typical price points of solutions from other mainstream, professional AEC software suppliers. To learn more about AEC pricing in your country, visit this website

www.3ds.com/industries/architecture-engineering-construction

www.3ds.com/products-services/catia/disciplines/construction

Dassault Systèmes – a quick history

For those of you unfamiliar with Dassault Systèmes, while the business was incorporated in 1981, the company started in 1977, when Francis Bernard and 15 engineers from Avions Marcel Dassault, set about developing a new generation of 3D CAD system to assist in aircraft design. The boss of the company, Marcel Dassault, at 88 years old, was so impressed with the software, he decided to spin it out as a separate company, Dassault Systèmes, with Bernard heading it up. The product was named CATIA.

As essentially Dassault Systèmes was an engineering software developer, it teamed up with IBM to handle global sales and marketing. Within ten years the software was a mainstay of large aerospace and automotive firms such as Boeing and Mercedes-Benz, expanding to markets such as consumer goods, machinery, and shipbuilding.

The company invented the concept of the Digital Mockup (DMU, now called Virtual Twin or Digital Twin in AEC) as well as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) – the process of managing a product and all its related data, from initial ideation, through development, service, and disposal.

Dassault Systèmes acquired Solidworks in 1997, which went on to be the market-dominating mid-range 3D CAD system for product design, and still is to this day. SolidWorks plays a key role in the fabrication of many manufactured building components, from windows to facades.

Today, Dassault Systèmes has 22,500 employees, across 197 global offices and a market capitalisation of $49.39 Billion. It offers a wide range of solutions for manufacturing, infrastructure and cities, life sciences and healthcare based on its 3DEXPERIENCE(3DX) collaborative platform, which connects people, ideas, data and solutions to accomplish business-critical tasks.

At 42 years old, having gone through several major rewrites and journeyed to the cloud, CATIA is still at the core of Dassault Systèmes engineering and construction 3DEXPERIENCE ecosystem.

Dassault Systèmes AEC and Infrastructure key concepts

3DEXPERIENCE platform is Dassault Systèmes’ core SaaS-based platform that integrates all software applications together into one place. It is the single social collaborative environment and first point of contact for all Dassault Systemes’ products. There is a huge catalogue of ‘Apps’ providing design, collaboration (no silos), simulation and project management tools. As it’s cloud-based, it can be used from anywhere on any device.

CATIA is the flagship Dassault Systèmes software dedicated to the design and engineering of all things. Based on the industry-leading CGM geometry kernel, CATIA supports surface and solid mathematically defined geometry with exacting precision. The applications are packaged up into commercial products called ‘Roles’ for users, to fulfil certain design roles in a workflow, tailored for various industries, from Aerospace and Automotive, to Ship Building, Civil Infrastructure, Buildings and beyond.

CATIA Building Designer is a dedicated AEC Role, which is a special interface and group of ‘applications’ specifically created for AEC design. This brings a familiar set a building design tools and components, reminiscent of traditional BIM applications, but these can be customised and developed by the designer and are more powerful in defining complex geometry, such as facades. This can be combined with CATIA xGenerative Design to define all the geometry in one place, by one application.

CATIA xGenerative Design (xGen for short) is a browser based generative design application,
native to the platform and combines visual scripting with interactive 3D modelling, combine parametric with algorithmic design. Think of this as Rhino Grasshopper for CATIA.

Building Design for Fabrication is a solution for integrating building design for manufacture and assembly, featuring 3D modelling for DfMA, architectural design, computational design, structural design, 4D modelling, clash management, PLM portfolio management.

From Experience to Construction offers a range of tools to productise project deliverables using modular, per-project, configurable sub-components.

Integrated Built Environment is a web-based, project and asset information solution, for Virtual Twin data exchange, design reviews, data analytics and integrated project orchestration amongst stakeholders.

ENOVIA is the SaaS product lifecycle management backbone of the Dassault Systèmes portfolio, for design management, product planning, Bill of Materials management, configuration change management, quality compliance, project management and execution.

DELMIA is a digital manufacturing planning, simulation logistics solution, with supply chain optimisation and planning. DELMIA has been used to devise and optimise off-site AEC fabrication, to optimise factory layout and flow of parts.

Main image courtesy of Morphosis Architects; CATIA model of the Kolon One & Only Tower in Seoul, Korea

The post Beyond BIM 2.0 with 3DEXPERIENCE appeared first on AEC Magazine.

In this article, we’ll present you with some compelling reasons for either your initial purchase decision or a seamless transition from your current software.

Business Sense

There are many variables to consider when evaluating software, with the most obvious being its price. Let’s consider both DraftSight Professional and DraftSight Premium, for example. Compared to the perceived default CAD vendor, you can expect to pay about half as much for DraftSight Professional. Using current MSRP pricing in USD, that’s a saving of $241 for a one-year subscription.

What about DraftSight Premium? It costs about a fourth as much as the other vendor, or a saving of $1,426 a year. Let’s say you have a design group of 10 that needs DraftSight Premium. You’ll save $14,260 every year on software subscription costs alone. That’s a significant saving, to say the least.

Your due diligence should also include ROI calculations. Make sure to consider all costs involved with implementing DraftSight, not just the cost of the software. Many of our customers report ROIs from 200% to almost 400%. That translates to DraftSight paying for itself within months.

You’ll also save on hardware costs, as the system requirements for DraftSight are much lower than the competition. You’ll need less disk space for installation; DraftSight requires less RAM and lighter graphics requirements. Of course, these are cost savings and should be included in your ROI calculations.

Compatibility

If you’re considering making a change from your current software, you’ll have many things to consider. Most AEC firms would say that compatibility with their existing designs would be at the top of the list. Fortunately, DraftSight reads and writes the industry-standard DWG format flawlessly. In fact, with DraftSight, you can save back to even older DWG formats than its developer’s software can.

Another major hurdle to changing your software is how long it takes to ramp up and become productive. By using a familiar interface and command aliases that map to the competition’s names, DraftSight users find that it typically only takes hours to be up and running.

Over time, the most efficient AEC design firms employ many types of customizations. Often, these critical additions are at the core of their efficiency. Any software solution that could not support them would be immediately dismissed. Fortunately, DraftSight has a robust set of APIs that will fit your needs. Whether developed in C# or C++, VB.NET or JavaScript, or the most popular CAD API, LISP, DraftSight should cover your needs. It even now supports Visual LISP® as well.

AEC Project Management

AEC companies know that a smooth-flowing project is the key to their productivity. To achieve this, they employ best practices, standards, and software solutions. Some software solutions may be external to the CAD program, but others are not. They’re part of the software and critical to the success of a project.

DraftSight has some important tools that help keep an AEC firm on task and operating smoothly and accurately. An AEC project can range from small to large. Sometimes, they’re very large, and managing all the sheets involved is extremely important to the project’s success. To help manage these drawings, DraftSight’s Sheet Set Manager acts as a built-in document management system.

Not only will it help you by becoming the hub for your project, with customizable subsets for all your construction documents, but it also lets you take control of your printing and plotting parameters across the entire project. The Sheet Set Manager lets you add custom properties to the project or sheet, which helps control your title block data. You can define standard blocks to use for your callouts and even add a linked sheet list table.

Also built into DraftSight is the ability to graphically compare different versions of a drawing for those times when changes are made but not apparent visually. You can even save the comparison image for future reference.

In a fast-paced AEC environment, adherence to and enforcing CAD standards is critical. Stay on task by utilizing the DWG Standards feature, which can help you maintain your layers and styles. Once you’ve applied your DWS standards file to a drawing (typically pre-attached via a template), the verification can be either an active or passive process.

The active process continually checks the DWS file(s) after each operation. If a violation is detected, it will immediately notify the user. The passive process requires the user to initiate the process of drawing verification. Whenever a violation is encountered, the user will be notified so they can have the DWG Standards tool rectify the violation.

Productivity Tools Found Only in DraftSight

DraftSight also offers some tools that you won’t find anywhere else. Have you ever needed to convert a raster image (JPG, PNG, TIF, etc.) to vector graphics in your CAD program? DraftSight can do it with its Image Tracer command.

There’s even a tool that’s more powerful than the competition’s. Just as you may need to import raster files, you may also need to import PDFs into vector graphics. Unlike the other guys, DraftSight has a batch processing feature so that you can do hundreds at a time. Now that’s productivity!

There’s the PowerTrim command that speeds up your trimming and extending tasks. Auto Dimension is like an easy button for dimensioning. You can even speed up your command input by using Mouse Gestures.

For more information about DraftSight, visit DraftSight.com, and don’t forget to download the free, 30-day trial here.

Still curious? Join DraftSight at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2024 the premier event for those within the AEC sector contemplating DraftSight’s 2D CAD solution.

The post Explore how DraftSight 2D CAD stands out in AEC appeared first on AEC Magazine.

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Main image courtesy of Enscape

The post Guide: Visualisation for Revit and beyond appeared first on AEC Magazine.