The new 2022 version of Allplan, the flagship AEC application from the Nemetschek Group, is notable not just for its many new features and enhancements for Allplan’s core markets of architecture and engineering, but also for its growing expansion to infrastructure as well as inroads into construction and buildability. Also noteworthy are the enhancements specifically for the US market, including standards and best practices, which should help to expand the scope and reach of the application, not only in the US but also in many other countries around the world where US standards are adopted.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2021/Allplan2022.html

Graphisoft unveiled the latest versions of its three main products a few weeks ago: its flagship BIM application, Archicad; its cloud collaboration solution, BIMcloud; and its mobile and web model viewing app, BIMx. This year is a special one for Graphisoft as it marks the release of the 25^th version of Archicad. Right from the launch of version 1.0 in 1984, Archicad included 3D in addition to traditional 2D CAD, and it has continued to cement its position as a leading BIM application with breakthrough enhancements such as server-based collaboration, bidirectional integration with Grasshopper for design scripting, and rule-based design in subsequent releases.

This review explores the new capabilities and enhancements of Archicad 25, including the ability to quickly navigate between 2D and 3D, more parametric object libraries, improved visualization with surface textures and customizable graphic overrides, native support for RVT and RFA files, better support to automatically structural analysis models, and many more.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2021/Archicad25.html

The AEC technology industry has been seeing increasing momentum in the extension of the model-based concept of BIM to the design and development of infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, and bridges, with several tools targeted towards civil engineers. However, tools that extend BIM to the comparatively smaller domain of landscape architecture are still non-existent. For the most part, landscape architects are still working in 2D CAD, even if the corresponding building design has been done using BIM. Not only does this prevent landscape architects from availing of the many benefits of BIM that their architectural and engineering colleagues are enjoying, it also makes it difficult for them to be an integral part of the building team early on when the most critical decisions about the building design are made. 

This review looks at Environment, a plug-in to Revit that extends its capabilities for site and landscape design. It includes tools for modeling terrain from scratch, visualizing and analyzing topography, creating outdoor walls and railings quickly along sloped surfaces, and other useful tasks routinely performed by landscape architects.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2021/EnvironmentforRevit.html

This review explores VisiLean, a cloud-based construction planning and scheduling application incorporating lean principles, which integrates with BIM. Its strength as a lean planning tool comes from its ability to merge the top-down approach (using, for example, the traditional Gantt Schedule) with the bottom-up approach (using the Last Planner System® that follows lean construction principles). Thus, it can be used for the entire range of scheduling activities, from the high-level planning in the office all the way down to the individual construction tasks in the field, for which there is a VisiLean mobile app. The BIM integration allows the construction schedule — including the individual tasks as well as the overall progress — to be better visualized, providing a clearer understanding of the critical issues and bottlenecks so that they can be dealt with and accounted for as the construction progresses.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2021/VisiLean.html

Given the large number of books on BIM that have been — and continue to be — published, what makes Understanding BIM stand out is that it is authored by someone who actually developed the precursor to modern BIM applications. This was an application called SONATA and it was developed by Jonathan Ingram — in true Silicon Valley start-up style — in his attic (rather than a garage as it would be in Silicon Valley!) in England. SONATA became REfLEX, which then became ProReflex, which was acquired by PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation), from which Revit emerged as a start-up, which was then acquired by Autodesk — and then of course, as they say, the rest is history. It is fascinating to be able to look back at the origins of BIM from someone who not only had a front row seat to the game, but who actually played it — and not just played it, but actually drafted many of its rules.

URL: https://www.aecbytes.com/review/2021/UnderstandingBIM-BookReview.html

This review explores BEXEL Manager, a sophisticated application for construction planning and scheduling with a wide range of capabilities including coordinating the multiple disciplinary BIM models in IFC format (3D BIM), construction planning and scheduling (4D BIM), quantity take-off and estimating (5D BIM), and finally, extending the use of the model to FM (6D BIM). In particular, it provides an integrated 4D/5D platform, which means that the scheduling and the costing are not done separately but in conjunction with each other.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/BEXEL-Manager.html

FINE MEP is a complete set of BIM applications for MEP design. It is part of 4M’s multi-disciplinary BIM suite, which also includes IDEA for architectural design and FineGREEN for sustainable design and analysis. The objective of 4M, which was started in 1986 and is headquartered in Greece, continues to be to provide the design and engineering community with powerful yet low-cost applications, as with IDEA for architectural design, which I reviewed last year.

4M’s applications were initially built on top of the open-source IntelliCAD format, the low-cost alternative to AutoCAD that is compatible with the DWG file format. 4M is now also using the ODA (Open Design Alliance) Drawing Toolkit, and this, along with a 64bit architecture, has made its applications faster and more powerful. Even with these changes, their cost remains a fraction of BIM applications such as Autodesk Revit and Bentley OpenDesigner, making 4M’s applications extremely popular in many countries all over the world where cost is a key deciding factor.

Continue Reading: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/FINE-FIRE.html

The ICL is a relatively new technology platform for developing sustainable communities that was launched by the leading performance analysis solutions vendor, IES, last year. Up until now, IES has been best known for its powerful IESVE suite of solutions focused on the in-depth performance analysis of individual buildings, allowing new buildings as well as retrofits to be designed to consume significantly less energy without sacrificing occupant comfort. With the ICL, short for “Intelligent Communities Lifecycle,” IES has expanded its expertise to larger groups of buildings such as campuses and neighborhoods. The idea is the same—to apply sustainable design concepts—but now to entire communities and not just individual buildings.

This review explores the individual components of the ICL for modeling, monitoring, and analysis, and how they can be integrated into a digital twin into a digital twin for sustainable design.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/IES-ICL.html

The number of cloud-based applications for the AEC industry has been steadily rising since cloud computing was introduced over a decade ago, but so far, most of these applications have been for tasks such as project management, collaboration, model-checking, issue management, and construction planning—tasks that deal primarily with content that has been already created. Applications that actually allow you to author design content using a web browser are few and far between, and even those that exist are primarily desktop applications that have been extended to work on the web, such as SketchUp and AutoCAD. This is why when I came across Infurnia, I was intrigued, because it was developed from the ground up as a cloud-based design application. There is no desktop version and nothing that needs to be installed for it to work.

So how well does it actually work? Let’s find out.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/Infurnia.html

The book, Airport Building Information Modelling, is an extended case study of the implementation of BIM on the new Istanbul Airport project, which is now in operation and is currently the world’s largest airport terminal building under a single roof.

Given that the project is relatively recent, the choice to use BIM for it is hardly surprising—after all, why would any venture not want to deploy newer and more advanced technologies that are available rather than use older and outdated technologies? Thus, the book is notable not because it tells us why BIM was used for this project, but how. Also, one of its authors, Ozan Koseoglu, was the Chief Technology Officer of the project and directly responsible for its BIM implementation, making the “how” come comes straight “from the horse’s mouth,” as it were. The co-author of the book, Yusuf Arayici, comes from academia, and his research and writing expertise is reflected in the content of the book, which is well organized and structured, making the level of detail in it easy to digest and far from overwhelming.

URL: http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2020/AirportBIM-Book.html