Last month, I provided an overview of the latest technology developments of the Speckle platform that were shared by the Speckle team at the recently held SpeckleCon 2023 online event. Speckle is an open-source AEC technology cloud platform that uses cutting-edge database technology — instead of a file format — to create an open central repository for AEC project data, which can then be used to exchange data in real-time between multiple AEC applications using “connectors.” With connectors to over 20 of the most common AEC applications as well as more in development, Speckle is able to facilitate synchronous collaboration between the multiple team members working on a project from a wide range of disciplines, allowing the data to be pushed and pulled easily as required.

Being open-source as well as data-driven — where the building data is not locked into proprietary file formats — there is understandably a lot of excitement among AEC firms eager to explore Speckle’s technology for their work and break out of vendor lock-ins. There are also many third-party developers building add-on tools for Speckle, both for brand-new use cases or for being able to connect and contribute to existing workflows more easily. An overview of several of these initiatives, as presented at SpeckleCon 2023, is captured in this article.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2024/issue_129.html