4M has released a major upgrade for FINE-MEP (v.24), its BIM application for MEP, including significant improvements and enhancements that significantly boost the software’s capabilities. In addition, FINE has been also rebuilt as a native cloud application to take advantage of the unique cloud computing benefits.

Among the main new features of FINE24 are a total redesign on top of the latest ITC and ODA libraries, compatibility with Revit, enhanced supervision, faster display engine with respect to the 3D building model, enriched dialogs, the AutoBLD (for the building shell) and AutoNET (for the piping networks) command groups, new material libraries on top of the Firebird platform, more detailed bill of materials, a large expansion of the network calculation spreadsheets, and many others.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2025/FINE24.html

Autodesk Revit 2026 officially lands today, and with it comes a blend of foundational upgrades and future-forward experiments. As a longtime author of this annual review for AECbytes, Dan Stine of Lake|Flato always looks forward to seeing how Autodesk pushes Revit forward—sometimes subtly, sometimes radically. The 2026 release brings a bit of both. From dramatic performance gains to enhanced modeling tools, Revit 2026 lays important groundwork for the platform’s future.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2025/issue111-Revit2026.html

The Nemetschek brand, Solibri, developer of the leading and longest-standing model-checking application in the AEC industry, Solibri Model Checker (which was renamed “Solibri Office” in 2019), started the new year by expanding its product family with a new cloud-based model checking solution called Solibri CheckPoint. This new solution is based on Solibri’s acquisition of Xinaps and its Verifi3D product, and it enables model-checking of Revit and IFC models to be done much more easily and quickly using just a web browser. Additionally, Solibri CheckPoint integrates with platforms like Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), BIM 360, and Procore, allowing the project models hosted there to be pulled in automatically, checked, and reported on.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2025/SolibriCheckPoint.html

In addition to being much less expensive than BIM applications like Revit and ArchiCAD, having a familiar AutoCAD-like interface, and being built on open-source ODA and ITC libraries, IDEA Architecture also benefits enormously by being part of the extensive 4M multi-disciplinary BIM suite, greatly expanding its capabilities. It integrates with 4M’s FineGREEN application for sustainability and energy analysis, the FineMEP suite of applications for MEP engineering, the 4M-TEAS program for safety during design and construction, and 4M-ADWM application for lean construction. The new ability to directly read Revit files further strengths its case as a serious contender for architectural firms looking to transition to BIM.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2025/IDEA24.html

Given so much of the hype surrounding AI these days, it might be easy to dismiss the idea of an “AI assistant” for architectural design as one more example of a software tool that over-promises what it can actually deliver. However, it would be a mistake to do this for SketchPro, a brand-new AI application that lets you render and visualize a design in seconds starting from any sketch or 3D model. It goes far beyond what tools like Midjourney can do for architectural design, and even AI add-ins to BIM applications like Archicad’s new AI Visualizer that allows high-quality visuals to be quickly created from conceptual massing models in Archicad.

I was recently introduced to SketchPro AI and had the opportunity to explore it in depth. I came away extremely impressed and amazed at what AI technology, as envisioned by the SketchPro team, has the power to do.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/SketchProAI.html

When TonicDM was launched nine years ago as a solution for PIM (Project Information Management) in AEC, the field of PIM was relatively new with only one player, Newforma Project Center. Fast forward to now and the field of PIM is still very sparse, with the flagship application, Newforma Project Center, being phased out in favor of a new cloud-based solution that Newforma is developing. TonicDM was cloud-based to begin with, so it did not have to pivot. It could concentrate, instead, on continuing to develop its technology to better serve its customers, which now include several leading architecture and engineering firms, many of which have switched over to TonicDM from Newforma.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/TonicDM.html

The concept of BIM or “building information modeling” in AEC is so well established by now that it does not even need to be explained any more to any AEC professional, just as we stopped clarifying CAD as “computer-aided drawing” once it had become ubiquitous in AEC firms. There are now more solutions for BIM and BIM-adjacent tools than one can count. As an offshoot of BIM, the concept of CIM or “city information modeling” has also seen some traction, with a few dedicated solutions already available.

However, the information modeling of the individual assets that need to be accommodated in our buildings, which we can refer to as “asset information modeling” or AIM, is, by and large, still a service that is provided on a consulting basis rather than a category of software solutions that are available to buy and use. Which is why I was intrigued when I came across Xyicon as a potential solution for AIM in AEC.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/Xyicon.html

Revit expert Dan Stine provides a detailed overview of the new features in the just-released Revit 2025, including several toposolid enhancements for working with terrain models, improvements to work more easily with multiple materials, improved Project Browser search, a new Insights tab on the Home screen, more transparency and control over local storage, enhanced operating schedules and updated gbXML support for sustainable design, and many more.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/Revit2025.html

This review explores ALICE Core, which allows construction companies to fine-tune their P6 construction schedules through analysis and optimization so that they can make the best use of the resources available to them to build the project in the fastest possible time and with the lowest cost.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/AliceCore.html

This article provides an overview of the Sova3D CIM (City Information Modeling) platform, which has not only been in commercial development in Finland for several years but is also being actively implemented in several Finnish cities to support their planning and management activities. It also looks in detail at Sova3D’s implementation in the city of Järvenpää as well as how it enables online building permitting, which is one of its key use cases.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2024/Sova3D.html