We have gone from communicating designs with paper to communicating them with screens, but we still have problems for a person who does not work with BIM to see the model as we modelers see it, and of course, deliveries are still being made in PDFs and on paper.

The challenge of BIM is accessibility

The problem of information exchange extends to the end client who buys off-plan, buys based on a quality report, some infographic of a show home and little else. Quite an act of faith. And this is the first of the problems that Autodesk solves with the available cloud services that it has been offering since approximately 2016.

Autodesk 360: BIM in the cloud easy and fast

Also known as A360 and more recently as Fusion Team, it is the best-known Forge application and solves the most basic problem of accessibility of BIM files and can be viewed as easily as the following example:

Note: If you are part of the 27% of users who access this website through a smartphone or tablet, as soon as your device is mid-range and relatively recent, it will move with sufficient ease through BIM models that until recently you could not even use on many PCs. You can improve the mobile browsing experience if instead of Chrome you browse using Firefox for mobile, we suspect that this is because Chrome for mobile optimizes the use of resources to improve battery life.

You can try more Fusion 360 models here

We can now see the models in the cloud. Now what?

Most 3D viewers based on the web browser focus on the classic concept of 3D: points joined by vectors that form polygons, textures and little else. Unlike these, if we interact a little with the Autodesk viewer we will find that this model in the cloud contains information from the Revit model itself, being able to investigate how the project is organized, what families it contains and even the individual parameters of each copy!  

Forge, much more than a viewer.

In addition to the viewer, the next best-known use of Forge is as a basis for BIM360, which, in addition to the viewer, integrates multiple tools for project management, collaboration between users and coordination among other uses that generally for b2b (Business to Business) interactions. Apart from BIM360 with its variants (Docs, Build, Field...) Autodesk is practically no longer involved in the development of Forge applications aimed at the end user, focusing its efforts on improving the core that makes up the Forge framework (Framework in Christian, a program to make programs). And they leave it open to developments from third companies. Forge includes the integration of the following APIs (App Development Interface)

• Viewer, the well-known viewer.
• Data management API, is the component that is responsible for managing files in the cloud and their versions, as well as the hierarchy and relationships between them.
• Model derivative API, is responsible for facilitating the creation of exchange formats, DWG, FBX, OBJ...
• Design automation API, is aimed at optimizing workflows by integrating with AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit and 3Ds Max models
• Reality capture API, Integrates tools to work with bitmaps and point clouds.
• BIM 360 API, allows integration with the BIM360 platform to improve its capabilities.
• Authentication, for user management.
• Webhooks API, collects events about user interaction, widely used when working with analytics and metrics.
• Token Flex API, facilitates data queries to generate reports.

State App: Forge applied to Real Estate marketing.

It is a Forge b2c (Business to Client) application developed jointly with the C95 Creative consultancy, it is oriented towards real estate sales, takes advantage of the information from the BIM model and integrates selection filters in the 3D viewer to choose the desired home and then configure hundreds of combinations of finishes and equipment and finally be able to view photorealistic infographics with the chosen options.

If you need to improve the sales experience of your properties, State App is for you, contact us to request a demo.