Champ Agents, powered by Wyatt

Unanet CRM AEC

Unanet ERP AE

Lucas Hayden of Unanet explores how AI can reduce busywork, connect AEC business systems, and help firms make faster, better-informed decisions.

The Busywork Disappears, Not the People: Unanet on AI in AEC

Technology leaders from Flad Architects, NBBJ, and Stantec on how architecture firms move AI past experiments into governed, repeatable practice that augments professional teams.

How Leading Architecture Firms Are Moving AI From Pilots to Everyday Practice

<div>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/61d0ceef-f5e6-476c-99ba-639f5cd60ebc.png" alt="" width="1080"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The client loves the scheme, then asks what the facade looks like in brick instead of stone, and the meeting stalls because the only honest answer is "let me render that and get back to you." Every architect knows that stall.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">At AEC+Tech, we've watched the AEC tools we cover get very good at making the picture look real. What's changing now is where that picture sits in the process, moving from documentation into the decision itself.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">For most of the last decade, progress in architectural visualization has been measured in image quality. Physically accurate lighting, richer material systems, and real-time ray tracing have closed much of the gap between a render and a photograph. <strong>What used to count as exceptional is now the baseline clients expect.</strong></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Rendering has improved fast. One part of the workflow has barely moved.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Design reviews still lean on static images, pre-rendered animations, and fixed camera paths. Those outputs record decisions well enough, but they sit outside the conversation. The moment a meeting turns toward a different material, a new lighting condition, or an alternate scheme, the presentation stalls while someone prepares fresh visuals elsewhere.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That gap matters more as practice becomes more collaborative. Clients, consultants, engineers, and developers now weigh in across the whole design process, not only at the end. Meetings have turned into working sessions where decisions take shape in the room. The way architecture gets presented has to keep up with that.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So visualization is starting to play a different part. Beyond the final picture, it is becoming a medium for discussion, comparison, and decisions made on the spot. The next step forward may be interaction as much as realism.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Every architect knows the moment a client asks to see it another way and the room goes quiet waiting on new visuals. D5 says 3.1 closes that gap, and will <span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong><a href="https://www.d5render.com/webinars/whats-new-in-d5-3-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prove it live on July 21</a></strong></span></span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Answer "Can We See It Another Way?" On the Spot&nbsp;</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">This is the thinking behind <a href="https://bit.ly/d5-3-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>D5 3.1.</strong></a></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Plenty of tools compete on how convincing the picture looks. Fewer ask what happens to it once a room full of stakeholders starts pushing back.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The release starts from a practical question: how does visualization stay useful once the meeting starts?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">D5's answer is Interactive Presentation, a workflow that lets architects organize a review like a slide deck while keeping the live project open behind it.</span></p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/764404fa-3db9-4d3c-b9ec-9e36afea816e.png" alt="Interactive Presentation enables real-time scene switching with slides and 3D triggers." width="1080">
<figcaption><em><span style="font-size: 15px;">Interactive Presentation enables real-time scene switching with slides and 3D triggers.</span></em></figcaption>
</figure>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-465b445f-7fff-6745-c01a-4a6b765aaf09"></strong></div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr">Instead of preparing several image sets or separate animations ahead of time, teams can move between design schemes, materials, lighting, weather, viewpoints, and object visibility inside a single presentation. A question that used to interrupt the review can be explored right away. Real-time scene switching runs through slides and 3D triggers, so the flow of the meeting holds together.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The presentation becomes a working space for the design, one the team can steer as the discussion moves.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">Let Clients Walk the Space Before It Exists&nbsp;</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">Interactive Presentation sits inside a wider set of tools aimed at making review more interactive and easier to adapt to the room.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Stereoscopic Panorama brings depth-aware panoramic views to VR, which helps clients and project teams read scale, materials, and how spaces relate to one another. Better VR navigation and controller handling make VR walkthroughs steady enough for everyday reviews rather than occasional demos.</p>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-9ee4bad2-7fff-95c1-c68f-c2647d295577"></strong></div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr">Spatial Tour has moved along too, with faster scene generation, smoother transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces, and dollhouse views that make it simpler to move through a complicated project.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These tools sit alongside still renders and animations and widen the options, so a team can pick the right way to explore a design based on the audience, the project stage, and what the review needs to settle.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">Start Seeing the Design the Moment You Model It&nbsp;</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">The quality of any review depends on everything that happens before it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As visualization gets pulled deeper into design work, architects increasingly want to test ideas while those ideas are still moving, instead of waiting for documentation to finish. In that sense, presentation begins earlier than the slide deck. It begins when a team first tries out form, light, material, atmosphere, and how a space feels to move through.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In practice, the visual thinking usually happens long before anyone opens presentation software, and tools have been slow to meet designers there.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">That continuity reaches past D5 Render itself. After its earlier <a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/sketchup">SketchUp</a> release, D5 Lite now works inside Rhino and <a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/revit">Revit</a>, bringing real-time visualization into more of the tools architects already use. Designers can preview materials, lighting, and visual direction without leaving the modeling environment, which supports quicker exploration during concept work, massing studies, facade development, and iterative testing.</p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/faae324a-8c58-4578-aac2-06f9faac39b1.png" alt="D5 Lite: Visualize projects directly inside Rhino, Revit and Sketchup" width="1080">
<figcaption spellcheck="false" data-qb-tmp-id="lt-724231" data-gramm="false">
<p dir="ltr"><em>Start in D5 Lite, finish in D5 Render, without switching tools</em></p>
<em><strong id="docs-internal-guid-9c1fdd8d-7fff-81f4-8a96-330fd7b85864"></strong></em></figcaption>
</figure>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-ae5b1998-7fff-bf89-9f03-e4a3048f30e0"></strong></div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr">D5 Lite is built for that early work, making design decisions more visual from the start. When a project needs higher-end imagery, animation, or an interactive presentation, the work carries on into D5 Render. Paired with Cloud Collaboration, distributed teams can review and share work with less reliance on manual file swaps or local hardware, which keeps things continuous from concept through client review.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>Photoreal That Holds Up When Clients Look Closely&nbsp;</strong></span></h2>
<p dir="ltr">As presentations get more interactive, the visuals behind them matter even more. A live scene only works if it holds up when someone leans in.</p>
<p dir="ltr">D5 Render 3.1 adds a set of production-focused improvements that strengthen realism while keeping real-time response.&nbsp;</p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/84679fde-46df-4239-985d-65e93278fb1f.png" alt="ACEScg Color Space preserves richer HDR color detail and supports professional ACES workflows" width="1080">
<figcaption spellcheck="false" data-qb-tmp-id="lt-926652" data-gramm="false"><em><span style="font-size: 15px;">ACEScg Color Space preserves richer HDR color detail and supports professional ACES workflows</span></em></figcaption>
</figure>
<p dir="ltr">The move to an ACEScg working color space brings in a production-grade color pipeline, the kind used in film and visual effects, which improves color consistency across visualization and post-production. HeightField Tracing gives displacement materials richer surface relief without adding geometric weight, so brick, stone, and timber keep convincing physical depth even in large scenes.</p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/196052f2-45b2-4577-a1c1-32e97aa7bc83.png" alt="Seasonal Vegetation lets foliage and branch structure change by date, previewing all seasons in one scene" width="1080">
<figcaption spellcheck="false" data-qb-tmp-id="lt-626429" data-gramm="false"><em>Seasonal Vegetation lets foliage and branch structure change by date, previewing all seasons in one scene</em></figcaption>
</figure>
<p dir="ltr">Landscape work gains more nuance through Seasonal Vegetation, which lets foliage and branch structure change by date and previews a full year of a planting scheme in one scene. A run of smaller refinements rounds it out, including Custom Pivot, MeasureLine, improved City Generator controls, smarter Auto Exposure, and wider Gaussian Splatting support. Each one trims repetitive adjustments and keeps production moving.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It adds up to one point. An interactive presentation is only as good as the rendering underneath it, and that rendering has to hold both fidelity and speed at once.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>From Better Images to Better Decisions&nbsp;</strong></span></h2>
<p dir="ltr">Architectural visualization has spent years chasing realism. That work continues, though realism on its own no longer defines the field.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As projects get more collaborative, the ability to move between options, respond to feedback, and explain a design in context is becoming just as important. Presentations are becoming part of the design process itself.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><em>"The tools we end up writing about at AEC+Tech are rarely the ones with the longest feature list. They're the ones that change how a decision gets made."&nbsp; &mdash; Niknaz Aftahi&nbsp;</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">D5 3.1 reflects that direction. It builds presentation into the design work, making visualization a place where ideas can be explored, compared, and refined with the people in the room.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Whether this turns out to be the next phase of the discipline is still an open question. The goal is clearly shifting, from producing better images toward better conversations about the work.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The biggest change in D5 3.1 sits outside the render itself. Visualization now stays in play through the whole conversation, long after the image is done.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>See it live&nbsp;</strong></span></h2>
<p dir="ltr">D5 will demonstrate the 3.1 workflow in a live webinar on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC, hosted by Jeff Espinoza, D5's Director of Customer Success and Services. The session covers D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit, Interactive Presentation, VR review, Stereoscopic Panorama, ACEScg, HeightField Tracing, and Seasonal Vegetation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">You can register using&nbsp;<a href="https://www.d5render.com/webinars/whats-new-in-d5-3-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>this webinar page</strong></a>, and anyone who registers but cannot attend will receive access to the recording.</p>
<p dir="ltr">To learn more about D5 Render, visit their <a href="../../../tools/d5-render" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>page on aec+tech</strong>&nbsp;</a>or explore the latest features on the official <strong><a class="_ymio1r31 _ypr0glyw _zcxs1o36 _mizu194a _1ah3dkaa _ra3xnqa1 _128mdkaa _1cvmnqa1 _4davt94y _4bfu18uv _1hms8stv _ajmmnqa1 _vchhusvi _kqswh2mm _ect4ttxp _syaz13af _1a3b18uv _4fpr8stv _5goinqa1 _f8pj13af _9oik18uv _1bnxglyw _jf4cnqa1 _30l313af _1nrm18uv _c2waglyw _1iohnqa1 _9h8h12zz _10531ra0 _1ien1ra0 _n0fx1ra0 _1vhv17z1" title="https://www.d5render.com/" href="https://www.d5render.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety">D5 Render website</a></strong>.</p>
<hr>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/b02023eb-2713-4ea3-a35f-e0c2bb302c00.png" alt="" width="160" height="160"></p>
<p dir="ltr">Niknaz Aftahi is the founder of AEC+Tech. This article was produced with materials from D5 as part of a partnership, and independently edited for the AEC+Tech community.</p>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-f383e210-7fff-1c51-cd46-f1e07836aa5d"></strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div style="all: initial !important;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="all: initial !important;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="all: initial !important;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="all: initial !important;">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="all: initial !important;">&nbsp;</div>

D5 Render

D5 Render 3.1 turns design reviews into live sessions. Interactive Presentation switches schemes, materials, and lighting on the spot; D5 Lite reaches Rhino and Revit. 

D5 3.1 Wants to End the "We'll Render It Tomorrow" Moment

<div><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/5741b41d-2b98-40f9-9a96-00550e6d0a57.png" alt="InspectMind AI" width="1080"></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Most conversations about AI in construction start with speed.&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">&ldquo;How many hours did we save?&rdquo;</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">&ldquo;How many pages could we review in minutes?"&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But a recent aec+tech conversation on AI-driven plan review made a more useful point: the tools save time, but the real reason to adopt them is risk.<strong id="docs-internal-guid-dcacfc00-7fff-ed9c-247a-6474ead9a5a0"></strong></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0nEGFxC7as">This conversation</a> brought together Colton Johnson, Principal Engineer at Flint Engineering Company; Aakash Prasad, Co-founder and CEO of InspectMind AI; and Simon G. Solorio, President of Solorio Inc. Much of the discussion centered on InspectMind AI's plan-checking tool, though the takeaways apply to any firm weighing this kind of software.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this article you&rsquo;ll see where AI plan review helps, where it falls short, and why a firm with weak internal processes will not get much out of it no matter how good the software gets.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Reading a Pictorial Language</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr">Plan review is not just about reading text. Construction documents carry meaning through symbols, callouts, line weights, and schedules that change from one project type to the next. An industrial set does not look like a large residential set. Every new hire has to learn how to read that visual system before they can review anything in it.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><em>"Construction documents are a language, and on top of that they're a pictorial language. You're relying on graphic and visual cues to display the information, translating heavy analysis and code requirements into those pictures."</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>&mdash; Colton Johnson, Principal Engineer, Flint Engineering Company</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Solorio described the second half of the problem: volume.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Even with tools like <a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/revit">Revit</a> and virtual walk-throughs on Meta Quest headsets, engineers still check ever-changing building codes by hand and coordinate across disciplines. Holding hundreds of pages of drawings against dense architectural, structural, mechanical, and civil specifications is a cognitive load that does not scale. There is only so much one person can keep straight at once, and plan sets keep getting bigger.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That is the gap AI steps into. Not the design work or the engineering judgment, but the slow, repetitive cross-checking that wears people down and still lets errors slip through.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">A Third-Party Reviewer That Works Through Lunch</span></strong></p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/bb52d8a0-3272-45e5-b6a9-e96e1717194f.png" alt="Errors missed in review surface on site, where fixes cost most." width="1080">
<figcaption spellcheck="false" data-qb-tmp-id="lt-8150" data-gramm="false"><em><span style="font-size: 15px;">Fig 2) <strong id="docs-internal-guid-f0f0d1bf-7fff-9eae-31ff-f65259db8b5c"></strong>Errors missed in review surface on site, where fixes cost most.&nbsp;</span></em></figcaption>
</figure>
<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><strong id="docs-internal-guid-eeaebb3d-7fff-d5c7-2013-b5845ec20d81"></strong></span></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">AI is a third-party reviewer. It&rsquo;s not a replacement for the engineer or the plan checker, but an extra set of eyes that never gets tired and never skips a page.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Prasad said InspectMind AI can typically review a 100- to 200-page project in one to two hours. In that window it catches discrepancies between drawings and specs, flags cross-discipline coordination issues, and checks against </span><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">selected/applicable codes and references. It surfaces a prioritized set of findings while the team continues other work.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">InspectMind AI has flagged a water main running straight into a 12-inch concrete pipe. It has caught a storm sewer drawn with no slope, which means it would never drain. These are the errors that hide on page 140 of a set and get expensive once they reach the field.&nbsp;</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"This isn't replacing your own diligence or your own quality of work. It's a useful automated review tool that helps you reduce risk and liability and improve quality overall."</span></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">&mdash; Aakash Prasad, Co-founder and CEO, InspectMind AI&nbsp;</span></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The discussion was honest about the limits, too. AI still struggles to read the purely graphical parts of a drawing when there are no words or numbers to anchor it. That should improve over the next few years, but for now InspectMind AI is strongest where drawings, specs, and code references can be grounded and cited. Purely graphical meaning, where the intent lives only in the picture, is still an area where human review matters.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">From Months of Back-and-Forth to Days&nbsp;</span></strong></h2>
<div>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/c6175af5-f771-4066-a384-2d4991e7ce06.png" alt="InspectMind AI tags each finding by severity, discipline, and code." width="1080">
<figcaption><em><span style="font-size: 15px;">Fig 3) <strong id="docs-internal-guid-a13650af-7fff-54aa-3a87-16247998979a"></strong>InspectMind AI tags each finding by severity, discipline, and code.&nbsp;</span></em></figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A minor discrepancy on a drawing is not just a quality problem. It is a liability problem. Prasad pointed to ADA compliance as an example. A ramp drawn with a 2.2 percent slope instead of the required 2 percent maximum is a small number on a sheet and a frequent target for litigation. Catching it before construction starts is worth far more than the hour it saved.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The same logic runs downstream. Errors that survive review become Requests for Information (RFIs) and change orders once contractors are on site. Each one costs time and money and strains the client relationship. The financial case lives in catching those errors early.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A church project in California shows how that plays out. The design firm ran its full drawing set <strong>(architecture, civil, structural, and specs)</strong> through InspectMind AI before submitting to the city. The AI flagged around 300 issues. The team fixed them first. When the city's review came back, the comments were mostly minor, and the firm closed them out in days rather than the weeks or months a project like this can take.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That is the payoff that matters. Not the hours saved running the review, but the weeks of back-and-forth with the jurisdiction that never happened, and the rework that never reached the field.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><strong id="docs-internal-guid-27bb7de9-7fff-b993-eb42-f62df9819b79">Garbage In, Garbage Out Still Applies</strong></span></p>
<figure class="image"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/88271371-af97-4945-8f3f-0a5ee2295ce9.png" alt="AI only reflects the inputs it gets." width="1080">
<figcaption spellcheck="false" data-qb-tmp-id="lt-415377" data-gramm="false"><em><span style="font-size: 15px;">Fig 4) AI only reflects the inputs it gets.</span></em></figcaption>
</figure>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-b3cf7941-7fff-13cb-502d-4de6a919154c"></strong></div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The strongest warning has always been against leaning on the tools too hard. The old 'garbage in, garbage out' rule still stands.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The software is powerful, but it sits on top of a firm's inputs, its standards, and the judgment of the people running it.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Solorio made the case for foundational knowledge. Junior engineers still need to learn the basics through hand calculations and free-body diagrams so they understand how loads travel and what a structural member is actually doing. Without that, an engineer cannot tell when the AI is wrong.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><em>"If you put in garbage, you're going to get out garbage, and that's still true with these new programs. If you put in something wrong, it gives you something wrong. You have to know the basics to know when it's giving you wrong information."</em></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><em>&mdash; Simon G. Solorio, President, Solorio Inc.</em></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Johnson framed the same idea as a sequence. He sees a working AI workflow as a three-tier system.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A firm establishes good internal processes first. Then it introduces standard automations. Only then does it put AI at what he called the tip of the spear. Skip the first two steps and there is nothing solid for the AI to stand on. When a firm's drawing standards and inputs are inconsistent, there is no realistic way to scale an AI workflow on top of them.</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Own the Output</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Accountability is the other side of this. When an engineer signs off on a design, they own it, whatever tools helped produce it.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"The motto we live by with AI is own the output. Just because you have a cool tool doesn't mean you get to say that the tool is the reason something was wrong. You own the output."</span></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">&mdash; Colton Johnson, Principal Engineer, Flint Engineering Company</span></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That has a practical edge. Johnson raised data security, pointing out that client information needs to stay protected under NDAs when a firm runs it through a third-party AI platform. Owning the output means owning the data path, too. Before uploading project documents, firms should evaluate the data path and the platform's NDA and security requirements. That is a question to settle before the first project goes up, not after.&nbsp;</span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Built by the People Who Use It</span></strong></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The panel closed on what actually makes these tools better, and the answer was feedback from the field rather than anything happening in a lab. Solorio and Johnson both pointed to the value of a simple thumbs up or thumbs down on each flagged issue. That input teaches the model the difference between a real problem and an irrelevant false positive, which is the difference between a tool engineers trust and one they learn to ignore.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Because AEC technology moves quickly, the tools that respond to this feedback can change almost daily. Johnson offered an example from a job site. He floated the idea of having the plan checker automatically generate a targeted field observation checklist based on the specific materials and structural elements it found in the drawings. Within hours, the development team had piloted a connection between the plan checker and a site inspection app.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That speed of iteration is the point underneath the whole conversation.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The AI plan review tools that earn a place in AEC workflows will be the ones built and shaped by the people doing the work, not the ones that promise to do the thinking for them. The engineers on this panel were not looking for software to replace their judgment. They were looking for a reviewer that helps them protect it. That is a smaller promise than replacing an engineer, and a far more useful one.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">To learn more about InspectMind AI, visit InspectMind AI's <a href="../../../tools/inspectmind-ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>page on aec+tech</strong> </a>or explore the latest features and request access on the InspectMind AI's <a class="_ymio1r31 _ypr0glyw _zcxs1o36 _mizu194a _1ah3dkaa _ra3xnqa1 _128mdkaa _1cvmnqa1 _4davt94y _4bfu18uv _1hms8stv _ajmmnqa1 _vchhusvi _kqswh2mm _ect4ttxp _syaz13af _1a3b18uv _4fpr8stv _5goinqa1 _f8pj13af _9oik18uv _1bnxglyw _jf4cnqa1 _30l313af _1nrm18uv _c2waglyw _1iohnqa1 _9h8h12zz _10531ra0 _1ien1ra0 _n0fx1ra0 _1vhv17z1" title="https://www.inspectmind.ai/" href="https://www.inspectmind.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-renderer-mark="true" data-is-router-link="false" data-testid="link-with-safety"><strong data-renderer-mark="true">website</strong></a>.</span></p>
<hr>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Editor's Note</span></strong></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><img src="https://aecplustech-files.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/c3806924-0521-483d-b74d-a01f09ed330e.png" alt="Niknaz Aftahi" width="160" height="160"></span></strong></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">This article was independently reviewed and edited by Niknaz Aftahi, Founder of AEC+Tech, drawing on InspectMind AI's product documentation, direct conversation with the panel participants, and hands-on knowledge of plan review and QA/QC workflows. Figures drawn from the panel rather than published material were checked before publishing.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">&mdash; Niknaz Aftahi, Founder, AEC+Tech</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>
<strong id="docs-internal-guid-f605f145-7fff-93d1-69b0-253c1e092ed5"></strong></div>

InspectMind AI

AI plan review saves hours, but engineers say the real payoff is fewer lawsuits, cleaner permit reviews, and errors caught before they reach the field.

AI Plan Review Isn't About Speed. It's About Staying Out of Court.

Trimble selected 15 AECO startups for its 2026 0-60 Challenge, supporting AI, robotics, and interoperability integrations across construction workflows.

The Next Generation of AECO Innovation: Meet the 2026 Trimble 0-60 Finalists

<h2>About Morroni</h2>
<p>Morroni is a Munich-based Computational Design Studio operating at the intersection of architecture, design, and advanced technology. Combining expertise in parametric design, digital fabrication, DfAM, and automation, the studio develops custom workflows to solve complex design challenges across industries - from architecture and automotive to consumer, medical, and industrial applications.</p>
<p>Its work spans computational and generative design, additive manufacturing, digital fabrication, and large-scale 3D printed architecture using sustainable materials. Morroni conducts innovative research and develops novel design methodologies and parametric systems, using processes that shift the boundaries of what is possible in design.</p>
<h2>Computational Design</h2>
<p>Morroni solves complex design problems with the help of code, algorithms, and advanced computer processing, enabling tailor-made efficient design and architecture.</p>
<ul>
<li>Parametric design</li>
<li>Generative design</li>
<li>Iterative and performative models</li>
<li>Complex modelling</li>
<li>Smart patterns and surface texturing</li>
<li>Dashboarding and visualisations</li>
</ul>
<h2>Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM)</h2>
<p>With strong experience in design for additive manufacturing, architecture, and construction, the studio solves problems from large-scale additive manufacturing to custom G-code and toolpath generation.</p>
<ul>
<li>Design for additive manufacturing</li>
<li>Lattice structures</li>
<li>Custom toolpath and G-code generation</li>
<li>Design for 3DCP, FGF and SLS processes</li>
</ul>
<p>Writing toolpaths directly is a meaningful distinction. Most design-for-print work stops at geometry and hands off to slicing software; controlling the G-code means controlling how the material is actually deposited, which on large-scale concrete printing determines whether the structure stands up.</p>
<h2>Design for Digital Fabrication</h2>
<p>Morroni works towards closing the "digital chain" from design to fabrication with parametric 3D planning, optimisation and digital production. The studio handles data preparation and ensures all individual parts fit together.</p>
<ul>
<li>Closing the digital chain from design to production</li>
<li>Design to production</li>
<li>Data-driven design</li>
<li>Design optimisation and rationalisation</li>
</ul>
<h2>Automation and Mass Customisation</h2>
<p>Design at scale. Morroni helps clients automate their design processes, realising true mass customisation, configurators, and new design workflows tailored to specific requirements using state-of-the-art generative tools.</p>
<ul>
<li>Design at scale</li>
<li>Design automation</li>
<li>Design processes</li>
<li>Reusable workflows</li>
<li>Batch processing</li>
</ul>
<h2>3D Printed Architecture</h2>
<p>Morroni has developed design and software solutions for 3D printing multifunctional architecture and interior applications from recycled materials, addressing some of the most critical challenges facing the construction industry today.</p>
<ul>
<li>True large additive manufacturing</li>
<li>Functional integrated design</li>
<li>Circular building solutions</li>
</ul>
<p>Combining recycled feedstock with printed architecture targets two problems at once - construction waste and embodied carbon - which is why circular material strategies and additive manufacturing increasingly appear together.</p>
<h2>Consulting and Workshops</h2>
<p>With a background in academia and teaching, Morroni consults on bringing digital planning, fabrication and automation processes to the next level.</p>
<ul>
<li>Consulting</li>
<li>Workshops</li>
<li>Teaching</li>
</ul>
<h2>Collaboration</h2>
<p>Morroni is a studio where multiple disciplines come together, with experience in parametric design, architecture, digital fabrication, creative coding, DfAM and automation. It is highly collaborative, working directly with clients or partnering with agencies worldwide to provide market-leading solutions.</p>
<h2>Sectors Served</h2>
<ul>
<li>Architecture and construction</li>
<li>Interior design and installations</li>
<li>Automotive</li>
<li>Consumer products</li>
<li>Medical</li>
<li>Industrial applications</li>
</ul>
<p><em>NEVER NOT COMPUTING // shaping vertices, voxels &amp; attributes</em></p>
<h2>Research and Methodology</h2>
<p>Alongside client work, Morroni conducts research into novel design methodologies and parametric systems. The studio's academic background feeds this directly - computational design advances tend to emerge from research settings before reaching practice, and a studio active in both moves between them faster than one operating only commercially.</p>
<h2>Who Morroni Works With</h2>
<ul>
<li>Architects and design practices needing parametric or generative capability they do not hold in-house</li>
<li>Product and industrial designers requiring design automation or configurators</li>
<li>Manufacturers adopting additive manufacturing at production scale</li>
<li>Construction firms exploring 3D printed building components</li>
<li>Agencies partnering on specialist computational work</li>
<li>Teams seeking training in digital planning and fabrication</li>
</ul>

Morroni is a Munich computational design studio working in parametric design, DfAM, digital fabrication, automation and 3D printed architecture from recycled ma

Morroni | Computational Design & 3D Printed Architecture

Morroni Computational Design

Morroni is a Munich-based Computational Design Studio where multiple disciplines come together. With experience in parametric design, architecture, digital fabrication, creative coding, DfAM, automation, and more, the studio pushes forward to bring complex ideas into reality.

<h2>About Bauwerk AGT Cooperation</h2>
<p>Bauwerk AGT Cooperation GmbH is a civil engineering and building construction firm registered in G&uuml;tersloh, Germany. The company's core competency lies in the design, planning, and construction of residential, commercial, and industrial structures.</p>
<p>Bauwerk AGT provides end-to-end services, from site assessment and concept development to structural engineering, renovation, and project delivery. Operating primarily within regional markets across Germany, Bauwerk AGT distinguishes itself through a strong commitment to German engineering standards, transparent project execution, and sustainable building practices.</p>
<h2>Mission and Vision</h2>
<p>Bauwerk AGT's mission is to build environments that are functional, sustainable, and tailored to the needs of clients and communities. The company aims to provide comprehensive and integrated construction services that meet the highest levels of quality, safety, and regulatory compliance.</p>
<p>While remaining grounded in local values, Bauwerk AGT aspires to deliver projects that match international standards in precision, innovation, and environmental responsibility. Its vision emphasizes collaborative building, where clients, engineers, architects, and contractors are unified in purpose and execution. Bauwerk AGT envisions a construction process that is not only efficient but also enriching for all stakeholders involved - from investors to end users.</p>
<h2>Core Services</h2>
<p>Bauwerk AGT Cooperation GmbH offers a full suite of construction and civil engineering services.</p>
<h3>General Construction</h3>
<p>Includes ground-up construction for residential homes, office buildings, industrial warehouses, and commercial developments. The company handles all structural and architectural aspects, adhering to the latest building codes and safety standards.</p>
<h3>Civil Engineering and Infrastructure</h3>
<p>Offers technical expertise in foundational and load-bearing structures, including excavation, drainage, water supply systems, and pavement construction. Bauwerk AGT ensures that every project is built on a solid and technically sound foundation.</p>
<h3>Renovation and Restoration</h3>
<p>Specializes in the modernization of outdated structures and the preservation of culturally significant buildings. The team applies techniques that enhance structural performance while respecting architectural heritage.</p>
<h3>Project Management</h3>
<p>Provides full project oversight, including planning, procurement, budgeting, timeline management, and subcontractor coordination. Clients benefit from the firm's ability to deliver complex projects on time and within budget.</p>
<h3>Quality Assurance and Consulting</h3>
<p>Offers engineering audits, structural inspections, damage assessments, and expert consulting to optimize construction outcomes.</p>
<h2>Key Strengths and Differentiators</h2>
<p>What sets Bauwerk AGT apart is its agile, client-centric approach. As a micro-enterprise, the firm has the flexibility to personalize every project while remaining highly responsive to client needs. Its cooperative model means that Bauwerk AGT works closely with a network of trusted professionals - from architects to specialist trades.</p>
<p>Additionally, the firm is known for its commitment to environmental sustainability, using eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient methods wherever possible. Its focus on safety, accountability, and high-quality workmanship has helped it build a solid reputation within the regional construction industry.</p>
<h2>Client Segments</h2>
<p>Bauwerk AGT Cooperation GmbH serves a diverse clientele, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Private homeowners and developers</li>
<li>Commercial real estate investors</li>
<li>Municipal and regional government entities</li>
<li>Industrial operators requiring specialized construction services</li>
</ul>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Bauwerk AGT Cooperation GmbH is more than just a construction company - it is a reliable project partner that combines technical expertise, strong ethics, and practical innovation. With a dedicated team and a well-established operational structure, Bauwerk AGT is well-positioned to meet the evolving demands of the German construction sector, whether developing new properties, modernizing existing ones, or providing specialist engineering consultancy.</p>

Bauwerk AGT Cooperation is a Gutersloh-based construction and civil engineering firm delivering general building, infrastructure, renovation and project managem

Bauwerk AGT | Construction & Civil Engineering Germany

Bauwerk AGT Cooperation

Bauwerk AGT Cooperation, registered in Gütersloh, Germany, is a micro-sized civil engineering and building construction firm. Focused on local and regional development, the company specializes in general building construction, structural engineering, site planning, and residential and commercial renovations.

<h2>About Franz N&uuml;sing</h2>
<p>Franz N&uuml;sing GmbH &amp; Co KG is a German manufacturer of movable partition walls, based at Borkstra&szlig;e in M&uuml;nster, North Rhine-Westphalia. The company designs and produces custom mobile walls that provide flexible room separation, and describes itself as among the largest and most successful manufacturers of movable partitions internationally, with products installed worldwide.</p>
<p>The business employs roughly one hundred people, split between production staff, commercial employees and apprentices, and remains family-led across four generations.</p>
<h2>A Long Industrial History</h2>
<p>N&uuml;sing was founded on 10 June 1878, when master carpenter Franz N&uuml;sing established a billiards and blinds factory in M&uuml;nster. For four decades the workshop built billiard tables, work demanding considerable precision - a single three-centimetre slate bed and a complicated levelling mechanism left no room for approximation. The last billiard table left the factory at the end of the First World War.</p>
<p>Blind manufacture led naturally to roller shutters before the turn of the century, and from there to the insight that has defined the company since: a firm capable of making precise moving screens for windows can also make them for rooms. By the early 1920s N&uuml;sing had adopted new techniques and extended production into folding partitions - the first movable room divisions. Over subsequent decades it developed single-shell and sound-absorbing variants using new surface materials, and by the 1960s had become the leading German folding door manufacturer, with installations across Europe and the Middle East.</p>
<h2>Product Range</h2>
<h3>Movable Walls</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Premium Greenline</strong> - the sustainability-focused system</li>
<li><strong>Premium EASYmatic</strong> - semi-automatic operation</li>
<li><strong>Premium Glass</strong> - glazed movable partitions maintaining daylight and visual connection</li>
<li><strong>Premium Classic</strong> - the core solid-panel system</li>
<li><strong>Premium Acoustic</strong> - high sound-insulation performance</li>
<li><strong>Premium Protect</strong> - fire and smoke protection systems</li>
</ul>
<h3>Movable Glass Walls and Folding Partitions</h3>
<p>The Visioline glass wall system, alongside the Flexi and Faltina-plan folding partitions, extends the range into lighter and more compact division solutions.</p>
<h2>Performance and Certification</h2>
<p>Acoustic, fire and smoke performance are where movable walls succeed or fail. A partition that divides a hall into two rooms is worthless if speech carries between them, and one that forms part of a fire compartment must be certified accordingly. N&uuml;sing holds the necessary certificates for fire protection, smoke protection and sound insulation, operates its own in-house test laboratory for continuous verification, and is certified to DIN EN ISO 9001. The company describes itself as market leader in noise, fire and smoke protection partitions.</p>
<h2>Service and Specification Support</h2>
<p>The company supports architects and specifiers directly, assisting with tender text preparation and design drawings, and its field service covers the process from planning through site measurement to assembly. For a product installed into a structural opening with demanding acoustic seals, accurate measurement and skilled installation matter as much as the manufactured item.</p>
<h2>Applications</h2>
<p>Movable walls are used wherever a space must serve several purposes - school halls and classrooms, hotel ballrooms and conference suites, offices and meeting rooms, community and religious buildings, and exhibition venues. They allow a single volume to be reconfigured daily, improving utilisation without additional floor area.</p>
<h2>Why AEC Teams Should Know N&uuml;sing</h2>
<p>For architects and contractors specifying flexible interiors, N&uuml;sing is an established European reference point for acoustically and fire-rated movable partition systems across the built environment.</p>

Franz Nusing manufactures movable partition walls, glass walls and folding partitions with certified acoustic, fire and smoke protection performance.

Nusing | Movable Partition Walls Manufacturer

Franz Nüsing GmbH & Co KG

Franz Nusing is a German manufacturer of movable partition walls, glass walls and folding partitions, producing acoustic, fire and smoke protection systems in Munster for flexible room division in schools, offices, hotels and conference venues.

<h2>About ART+COM Studios</h2>
<p>ART+COM Studios is a design and media practice working from studios in Berlin and Cologne. Using new media, the studio designs and develops installations, objects and spaces in both analogue and digital form, creating environments that let people experience things which would otherwise be unimaginable in everyday life.</p>
<p>Technology is treated as a means of artistic expression, a medium for interactive communication and a route to sensory experience. The stated aim is to augment visitors' capabilities and show them new ways to interact with the world.</p>
<h2>Three Areas of Practice</h2>
<h3>Art</h3>
<p>ART+COM designs media sculptures, installations and interventions that give their locations an identity going beyond function and architecture. These projects arise through commissions for public space and private initiatives, and also from the studio's own initiative - an unusual commitment for a commercial practice, and one that keeps its experimental work independent of client briefs.</p>
<h3>Communication</h3>
<p>The studio conceives and creates media installations and spaces that translate complex content into tangible experience. This covers analogue and digital exhibits, brand spaces, exhibitions and museums designed to captivate visitors and prompt interaction. It is exacting work: an exhibit must communicate a difficult idea to a non-specialist audience within seconds, and survive years of continuous public handling.</p>
<h3>Research</h3>
<p>Research and development is treated as a source of inspiration, a basis for experimentation and a decision-making tool when seeking cutting-edge interfaces and new forms of interaction. This work has produced generative applications, computational reflectives and new solutions in augmentation and interactive surfaces.</p>
<h2>Heritage</h2>
<p>Originally founded in 1988 as the registered association ART+COM e.V., the studio emerged from the early German new-media scene and now works for international clients across industry, culture and research. That founding date places it among the pioneers of digital and interactive design in Europe - it predates the public internet.</p>
<h2>Interdisciplinary Team</h2>
<p>Colleagues from media design, media art, IT development, programming, communication and product design, science, engineering and project management work together at the studios. Projects are developed in interdisciplinary teams contributing different perspectives, with the shared aim of pushing boundaries and creating something new.</p>
<p>That mix is essential to the work. A media installation must simultaneously function as artwork, software product, fabricated object and reliable piece of equipment - roles that no single discipline can resolve alone.</p>
<h2>Structure and Leadership</h2>
<p>ART+COM is a limited liability company supported by former members of ART+COM e.V., its employees and its management. Andreas Wiek has managed the company since 2000, and Jan Schmelter was appointed second managing director in 2025, taking particular responsibility for the studio's future creative direction.</p>
<h2>Where This Work Meets Architecture</h2>
<p>ART+COM operates at the boundary between architecture, exhibition design and technology. Museums, brand environments and public spaces increasingly depend on media content as an integral part of the architecture rather than an addition to it, which means these installations must be coordinated with building services, structure and visitor circulation from an early design stage.</p>
<h2>Market Position</h2>
<p>The studio is among the most established new-media design practices in Europe, competing on conceptual strength, technical capability and a long record of built interactive work for cultural institutions and global brands.</p>
<h2>Why AEC Teams Should Know ART+COM</h2>
<p>For architects and clients planning museums, visitor centres or brand spaces, ART+COM is a leading reference for how media, interaction and space can be designed together across the built environment.</p>

ART+COM Studios is a Berlin and Cologne practice designing media sculptures, interactive installations, brand spaces and museum exhibitions using new media.

ART+COM Studios | Media Art & Exhibition Design

ART+COM Studios

ART+COM Studios is a Berlin and Cologne design practice using new media to create media sculptures, interactive installations, brand spaces, exhibitions and museum environments for international clients in industry, culture and research.

<h2>About Schmidt-Schicketanz</h2>
<p>Schmidt-Schicketanz is a German architecture practice with offices in Munich and Augsburg. Rooted in Munich since 1972 and located beside the English Garden, the office has completed more than 200 projects, many of them won through competitions and public procurement procedures. Its diverse, international team develops what it describes as forward-looking and sustainable architecture, and the practice now operates as part of a group alongside Kling Consult and Sieber Consult.</p>
<h2>Design Approach</h2>
<p>The studio places personal, inspiring dialogue between all partners at the centre of every project, from first sketch through to completion. Three principles underpin the work: honest respect for the individual needs of clients and building users, a developed sense of aesthetics, and genuine appreciation for the qualities of each site. These apply equally to new construction and to the refurbishment of existing buildings.</p>
<p>Its stated position is the precise realisation of carefully developed and future-capable architectural concepts - a description that fits an office whose reputation rests on delivery quality as much as design ambition.</p>
<h2>Services</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>New build (Neubau)</strong> - new buildings across public, institutional and residential sectors</li>
<li><strong>Refurbishment (Sanierung)</strong> - a particular specialism in upgrading and renewing existing structures</li>
<li><strong>Consulting (Beratung)</strong> - advisory services for owners and developers</li>
<li><strong>General planning (Generalplanung)</strong> - single-point responsibility across all design disciplines</li>
<li><strong>Project development (Projektentwicklung)</strong> - early-stage feasibility and development strategy</li>
</ul>
<p>The office covers all HOAI service phases, meaning it can carry a commission from initial concept through approval planning, tender documentation and site supervision to handover.</p>
<h2>Integrated Planning</h2>
<p>Membership of a group with Kling Consult and Sieber Consult gives the practice fixed planning partners in structural engineering, surveying, ground investigation and urban planning. That allows a genuinely integral planning approach, with disciplines coordinated inside one commercial structure rather than assembled project by project.</p>
<h2>Refurbishment Focus</h2>
<p>Alongside new build, the refurbishment of existing buildings forms a particular emphasis. In Germany, where much of the public building stock dates from the post-war decades and carries substantial energy retrofit obligations, this expertise is increasingly central rather than secondary work.</p>
<h2>Representative Projects</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Olympiaturm Munich</strong> and the <strong>Justizpalast and Oberlandesgericht Munich</strong> - landmark public buildings</li>
<li><strong>Feuerwache 1 Munich</strong> and <strong>Feuerwehr Piding</strong> - fire stations</li>
<li><strong>Blindeninstitut Munich</strong> - institute for the blind</li>
<li><strong>Kurt-Huber-Gymnasium Gr&auml;felfing, Realschule Bad Aibling, Montessori-Schule Penzberg</strong> and multiple schools and kindergartens</li>
<li><strong>Thierschbau TU Munich, Anatomische Anstalt LMU Munich</strong> and the <strong>Institutsgeb&auml;ude Campus Homburg</strong> - university and research buildings</li>
<li><strong>Germanisches Nationalmuseum N&uuml;rnberg</strong> depot and <strong>Depot Museum Obersch&ouml;nenfeld</strong> - museum storage</li>
<li><strong>Wohn-Hochhaus Harlaching</strong> - residential tower</li>
<li><strong>Polizeiinspektion Simbach am Inn</strong> and the <strong>Polizei-Einsatztrainingszentrum Bayreuth</strong> - police facilities</li>
</ul>
<h2>Market Position</h2>
<p>The practice competes strongly for Bavarian public sector commissions, where competition success, HOAI-compliant delivery and refurbishment capability matter more than signature style. Its group structure lets it offer general planning on projects that would otherwise require several separate appointments.</p>
<h2>Why AEC Teams Should Know Schmidt-Schicketanz</h2>
<p>For teams working on German public buildings, schools or institutional refurbishment, the office is a useful reference for competition-led procurement and integrated planning across the built environment.</p>

Schmidt-Schicketanz is a Munich and Augsburg architecture office delivering public, education, research and residential buildings, plus refurbishment and genera

Schmidt-Schicketanz | Munich Architecture Practice

Schmidt Schicketanz

Schmidt-Schicketanz is a Munich and Augsburg architecture practice delivering public, education, cultural, healthcare and residential buildings, with particular strength in the refurbishment of existing structures and integrated general planning services.

<h2>About TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten</h2>
<p>TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is a German architecture practice that designs, plans and builds for national and international clients across both the public and private sectors. The firm operates from three studios - Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden - and takes its name from Sergei Tchoban, architect BDA, and his partner Ekkehard Voss, architect BDA (1963-2024). With over 150 highly qualified staff working in interdisciplinary teams, it delivers architecturally and functionally sustainable solutions for a wide range of building projects in Germany and abroad.</p>
<h2>Full-Service Delivery</h2>
<p>A defining characteristic of the practice is that it covers HOAI service phases 1 to 9 - the complete German fee structure from initial feasibility and concept design through approval planning, tender documentation, construction supervision and final documentation. Many design practices stop at phase 5; carrying a project through to site supervision and handover means the office retains responsibility for how the design is actually built.</p>
<h2>Services</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Architecture</strong> - new build, conversion and refurbishment across all major building types</li>
<li><strong>Approval and execution planning</strong> - full German permitting and construction documentation</li>
<li><strong>Construction supervision</strong> - site management through to completion</li>
<li><strong>Visualisation and digital design</strong> - 3D modelling, AI-assisted design tools and architectural visualisation</li>
<li><strong>Interior and workplace design</strong> for office and commercial projects</li>
</ul>
<h2>Notable Projects</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin</strong> - a large timber-hybrid office development, one of Germany's most significant sustainable workplace projects</li>
<li><strong>Dockyard, Berlin</strong> - waterside mixed-use development</li>
<li><strong>Pears Jewish Campus, Berlin</strong> - a community, education and cultural campus</li>
<li><strong>Museum for Architectural Drawing, Berlin</strong> - a small but internationally published cultural building</li>
<li><strong>Stadtforum and Haus Postplatz, Dresden</strong> - central urban infill in a historically sensitive city</li>
<li><strong>Halle District Court</strong> - judicial architecture in Halle (Saale)</li>
<li><strong>Headquarters Berliner Sparkasse</strong> at the Square 1 Campus in Adlershof</li>
<li><strong>SAB office building</strong>, Saarbruecker Strasse 21, Berlin</li>
<li><strong>Living on Holzhalbinsel</strong>, Rostock, and <strong>Rosenthaler Strasse 43-45</strong>, Berlin - residential schemes</li>
<li><strong>Rhine-Waal University</strong> - higher education facilities</li>
</ul>
<h2>Sectors Served</h2>
<p>The portfolio spans office and commercial buildings, residential and mixed-use development, cultural and museum projects, education and campus buildings, judicial and public sector facilities, and urban infill within protected historic contexts. That breadth reflects the German market, where public competitions remain a major route to work and practices need credibility across several building types.</p>
<h2>Digital Design and Technology</h2>
<p>The office invests in 3D modelling, visualisation and AI-supported design tools. In a practice delivering through to construction supervision, these tools serve coordination and buildability as much as presentation - resolving clashes and detailing before they reach the site.</p>
<h2>Professional Standing</h2>
<p>TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is a member of the Association of German Architects (BDA), the Chambers of Architects in Hamburg, Berlin and Saxony, the Foerderverein Bundesstiftung Baukultur and the European Architects Network (EAN) - affiliations that signal both regulatory standing and engagement with German building culture debate.</p>
<h2>Market Position</h2>
<p>The practice competes as a substantial German architecture office with genuine national reach and full-service capability, working for developers, corporates, institutions and public authorities. Its combination of design ambition, technical delivery and multi-city presence suits large, long-running commissions with complex approval processes.</p>
<h2>Why AEC Teams Should Know Tchoban Voss</h2>
<p>For teams interested in timber-hybrid offices, German approval processes or design practices that carry projects through construction, TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is a strong European reference point across the built environment.</p>

TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is a German practice in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden designing offices, housing, cultural and public buildings across all HOAI phases.

Tchoban Voss Architekten | German Architecture Firm

Tchoban Voss

TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is a German architecture practice with studios in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, designing offices, housing, cultural, judicial and campus buildings for public and private clients across all HOAI service phases.

<p><strong>ArchiBoost AI</strong> is an AI-powered co-pilot built specifically for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. Developed by architects and engineers rather than generic AI developers, the platform helps project teams navigate complex building regulations, activate institutional knowledge, and automatically review project documentation to identify coordination risks and compliance issues before they become costly problems.</p>
<p>ArchiBoost AI supports architects, engineers, developers, and general contractors working across the full project lifecycle&mdash;from early design through construction documentation and project delivery.</p>
<p>The platform combines three core capabilities into a unified intelligence system: Code Compliance, Knowledge Hub, and AI-powered QA/QC review.</p>
<p><strong>1. Code Compliance &mdash; Project-Aware Regulatory Intelligence</strong></p>
<p>ArchiBoost provides project-specific code compliance guidance, not just code search.</p>
<p>The system evaluates project conditions&mdash;including occupancy classification, construction type, fire separation distance, and jurisdiction&mdash;to determine the exact requirements that apply to a project. It automatically resolves the hierarchy between international, state, and municipal codes, ensuring that teams see the governing regulations rather than conflicting sources.</p>
<p>Each response includes clear explanations and direct citations to the applicable code sections, helping teams confidently apply requirements during design, documentation, and plan review.</p>
<p>By identifying compliance paths early, ArchiBoost helps teams avoid costly redesigns, permit delays, and late-stage documentation changes.</p>
<p><strong>2.1. Knowledge Hub &mdash; Institutional Intelligence for AEC Firms</strong></p>
<p>Architecture firms often possess vast amounts of knowledge scattered across project folders, standards manuals, specifications, and internal documentation. ArchiBoost transforms this information into a structured and searchable intelligence layer.</p>
<p>The Knowledge Hub organizes two key knowledge domains:</p>
<p>Firm Intelligence &ndash; reusable internal standards such as BIM execution plans, QA/QC checklists, documentation standards, master specifications, and lessons learned from previous projects.</p>
<p>Project Intelligence &ndash; project-specific information such as owner standards, design guidelines, specifications, schedules, meeting minutes, and consultant documentation.</p>
<p>This structure allows teams to quickly access relevant information without manually searching through large document repositories.</p>
<p><strong>2.2 Detail Library &mdash; A Living Library of Proven Solutions</strong></p>
<p>Within the Knowledge Hub, ArchiBoost includes a Detail Library that transforms past project details into a living, searchable resource.</p>
<p>The platform extracts metadata from drawing sets and organizes details based on parameters such as:<br>- project type<br>- construction type<br>- occupancy classification<br>- applicable codes<br>- jurisdiction<br>- client standards</p>
<p>Teams can quickly locate vetted details from previous projects and reuse them with confidence. The system integrates directly with Revit, allowing teams to insert editable details into their models without interrupting their design workflow.</p>
<p>This helps firms standardize documentation, preserve institutional knowledge, and reduce time spent recreating common solutions.</p>
<p><strong>3. AI-Powered QA/QC Review</strong></p>
<p>ArchiBoost automatically analyzes complete drawing sets&mdash;including architectural and consultant documentation&mdash;to identify coordination gaps, inconsistencies, scope omissions, and potential compliance risks.</p>
<p>Issues are surfaced through a structured ticketing system that links directly to the relevant sheet location. Teams can review findings, assign ownership, track resolution, and export issue reports for consultant coordination.</p>
<p>By identifying problems earlier in the documentation process, ArchiBoost helps reduce RFIs, change orders, and costly rework during construction.</p>
<p><strong>Who Uses ArchiBoost AI</strong></p>
<p>ArchiBoost AI is designed for:<br>- Architecture firms working across multiple jurisdictions<br>- Design teams producing large, multi-disciplinary drawing sets<br>- Developers seeking early compliance validation<br>- General contractors reviewing documentation prior to construction<br>- Firms looking to activate and scale institutional knowledge across projects and offices</p>
<p><strong>Platform Overview</strong></p>
<p>ArchiBoost AI is delivered as a cloud-based SaaS platform that integrates with existing AEC workflows and documentation processes.</p>
<p>By combining regulatory intelligence, institutional knowledge, and automated QA/QC review in one platform, ArchiBoost enables teams to identify risks earlier, make better design decisions, and deliver higher-quality projects with fewer surprises.</p>

ArchiBoost AI

<p>Revit professionals keep their models clean and accurate with the Ideate Explorer Revit add-on software. When using this model browser, as opposed to a project browser, users decrease the time they spend on model management, increase the accuracy of their models, and reduce file space by:<br><br>Finding and deleting incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items, including DWGs<br>Finding, refining, and revising elements, even those excluded from the project browser<br>Getting a full view of any Revit model and understanding all elements in the model<br>Easily complying with standards<br>Auditing and removing Revit warnings<br>The following components included with the Autodesk Revit add-in, Ideate Explorer, provide additional ways to ensure model accuracy:<br><br>Warnings Manager - Easily review and manage Revit warnings <br>Navigate - Navigate through view-based elements within Revit&mdash;legends, schedules, sheets, and views&mdash;and quickly customize the browsing experience<br>Query - Search on parameters, such as elements assigned a certain size or modeled as in-place families, sheets based on Issuance numbers, and dimensions that have been overridden<br><br>Boost the Power of Ideate Explorer with Ideate Automation<br><br>Ideate AutomationFree your staff to do more meaningful work by adding Ideate Automation to your subscription*. This scripting solution runs time-intensive tasks in the background, so staff can continue using the computers to perform higher value tasks. Not only does task automation free staff for higher level engineering and design work, but automation also has the benefit of ensuring that your task outcomes are highly predictable and standardized. The scripts can be run manually or scheduled to run at specific times, including at night.<br><br>Example: Exporting Model Health Data With Ideate Automation, staff no longer needs to stop what they are doing so their computer can export critical information about the Revit project. Instead, the script will run in the background and deliver actionable data that can be used to increase project health.<br><br>*Ideate Automation is included in the cost of an Ideate Software Enterprise subscription. Others can purchase it as a separate subscription. View subscription options or contact your account manager for more information.<br><br>Attend FREE online training courses on all of our products. Visit our Events Page for details.<br><br>&ldquo;Switching from an office with [Ideate] Explorer to without is a jarring experience. This app puts the filter tool in Revit to absolute shame - it is simply THE tool for finding elements in Revit models.&rdquo;<br><br>~Gavin Crump, BIM Guru</p>

Precisely Manage Revit Models | Introduction to Ideate Explorer 

Ideate Query and its Value to All Revit Users

Ideate Explorer

Ideate Explorer and IdeateApps: Safely Moving Revit Content to Another Level 

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Pirros is the AI project hub for architects and engineers. Our mission is simple: make managing projects easier for firms. We reduce the burden of producing hundreds of details and families per project by giving designers instant access to everything their firm has developed in the past. Rather than spending hours digging through cluttered folders on a server or rebuilding content that already exists somewhere in the archive, Pirros centralizes every detail and family a firm has produced and makes them accessible with a simple search.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Pirros was started by two structural engineers turned entrepreneurs. Ari and Peter spent time at a handful of different design firms and kept experiencing the same problems when it came to retrieving and managing Revit content. The technology industry has overlooked the AE design space and the strategic importance of details and families to a firm's success. Pirros is on a mission to change that.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The four pillars of Pirros:</p>
<ol class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-decimal flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3">
<li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">No upfront work. Upload and instantly search across projects without manual tagging or naming conventions. Powered by a direct ACC integration, firms get tens of thousands of details and families onto Pirros within 24 hours.</li>
<li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Search by composition, not tag. Find details and families based on what the element actually is, not what its tags say. Powered by a proprietary blend of AI, computer vision, and OCR.</li>
<li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Share universally. Share Revit details and families as universal PDFs with colleagues and partners outside of Revit, accelerating collaboration, content approvals, and new hire onboarding.</li>
<li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Built-in QA workflows. Review and approve standard content automatically surfaced based on analytics across projects. Approval workflows live inside the platform instead of in committee meetings and email chains.</li>
</ol>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Pirros is backed by Y Combinator, SOC 2 certified, and trusted by leading AE firms across North America, Australia, and the UK.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Pirros

<p>ARES Kudo: The Cloud-Based CAD Solution Empowered by AI<br><br>In the rapidly evolving world of computer-aided design (CAD), ARES Kudo has emerged as a game-changing cloud-based solution. Developed by Berlin-based software company Graebert, ARES Kudo is the first online CAD software to reach feature parity with AutoCAD LT, making it a strong alternative for professionals looking for flexible and collaborative drafting tools. With its modern ribbon user interface and more than 300 CAD features, ARES Kudo enables seamless transitions from traditional CAD environments while introducing innovative cloud collaboration capabilities.<br><br>One of the most significant recent advancements in ARES Kudo is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). Graebert has introduced A3, an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance user experience, optimize workflows, and provide real-time guidance. Unlike generic AI chatbots, A3 is specifically trained in CAD applications, offering expert support tailored to users&rsquo; needs.<br><br>A3: The AI-Powered CAD Assistant<br><br>Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of daily life, from navigation apps to automated customer support. In the CAD industry, AI's potential is now being realized through tools like A3. Initially launched within ARES Commander, A3 is now fully integrated into ARES Kudo, bringing AI-driven assistance directly to users working in the cloud.<br><br>A3&rsquo;s capabilities go beyond simple query responses. The AI assistant helps users locate commands within ARES Kudo&rsquo;s interface, provides step-by-step guidance on using features, and offers best practices for CAD design. For professionals transitioning from other platforms like AutoCAD, A3 simplifies the learning curve by instantly pointing out feature locations. For example, users can type &ldquo;Where is the PDF Import?&rdquo; and A3 will highlight the relevant tool within the interface.<br><br>A3 also functions as an advanced knowledge source for CAD professionals, offering technical advice, design recommendations, and even industry-specific best practices. Whether users are looking for ways to streamline workflows or need assistance with a particular command, A3 serves as an on-demand expert.<br><br>Beyond guidance, A3 can perform time-saving tasks such as unit conversions, text translations, and quick calculations. Its multilingual capabilities make it even more accessible, allowing users to communicate with the AI assistant in languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. Unlike traditional customer support, which may take hours or days to provide answers, A3 delivers instant responses, significantly improving productivity.<br><br>A Cloud-Based Alternative to AutoCAD LT<br><br>ARES Kudo&rsquo;s introduction of A3 is part of a broader effort to position itself as a leading online CAD platform. With a feature-rich environment and a familiar ribbon UI, ARES Kudo now matches AutoCAD LT&rsquo;s functionality while offering additional benefits unique to cloud-based solutions.<br><br>One notable enhancement is its support for dynamic blocks, which ensures compatibility with AutoCAD files and facilitates seamless collaboration between different software environments. Additionally, the integration of the Trinity Block Library provides access to over 450 pre-built dynamic blocks, further boosting efficiency.<br><br>By combining cloud accessibility with AI-driven support, ARES Kudo is redefining the CAD experience. Users can now enjoy a powerful, intelligent, and collaborative design environment, making ARES Kudo a compelling choice for professionals seeking innovation and efficiency in their CAD workflows.<br><br>Learn more about the powerful solution here: https://graebert.pxf.io/JKJgyv</p>

ARES Kudo now features an AI assistant with extensive CAD knowledge.

The ARES Trinity of CAD Software: Create and Modify DWG Files with Modern Collaboration Tools

ARES CAD Software: Top 10 Trinity Features Outperforming AutoCAD | Expert Review by Architosh

ARES Kudo: Full-featured 2D Online CAD for your DWG Drawings

ARES Kudo Online CAD for DWG Viewing, Creation and Modification in your Internet Browser

ARES Kudo

Cloud-Only Plan (includes ARES Kudo only)

Mobility Pack (includes ARES Kudo and ARES Touch)

ARES Trinity Plan (includes ARES Kudo, ARES Touch, and ARES Commander)

Because ARES Kudo runs in a browser, it can be accessed on any computer.

8600 AutoCAD users migrated to ARES CAD Software at Takenaka in Japan

Featuring Graebert at the AEC Innovate Conference

Featuring ArkDesign.AI at the AEC Innovate Conference

ARES Kudo: DWG Drawings Automation for Developers

ARES Kudo by Graebert Introduces AI to Assist Its Users

<p>Ark Design AI is an AI-powered platform that helps architects and developers create architectural designs for multi-family and mixed-use projects. Architects and real estate developers, create automated floor plans and feasibility reports for multi-family and mixed-use projects quickly and efficiently. Our platform is the first AI solution for architectural schematic design. Optimize profitability, density, and living standards while meeting US codes and ordinances instantly, allowing you to make better and faster decisions. <br><br><strong>How it works</strong><br><br>Ark Design AI's software analyzes architectural designs and generates optimized building designs that meet project requirements and local regulations. It can create infinite variations to optimize for density, profitability, and living standards. <br><br><strong>Benefits</strong><br><br>Ark Design AI can help architects make better and faster decisions, and cut design costs by up to 90%. It can also free up architects' time and energy for more creative endeavors. <br>Features<br><br>Ark Design AI can create automated floor plans and feasibility reports. It can also generate a unique mix of unit types for a floor layout.<br><br><strong>Trial</strong><br><br>Ark Design AI offers a 10-day free trial. <br>Ark Design AI was built by a team of AI scientists, architects, and software developers. <br><br><br>Stage 1<br>Properties<br>Provide several basic details about your project, such as the number of Floors, the number of Dwelling units, building uses and the Zoning district; these details will help ARK suggest better options further in the process.<br><br>Stage 2<br>Lot Type &amp; Lot Editor<br>Please select the preferred lot type: Interior Lot (One side street lot), Corner Lot (Two side street lot), or 2 Corner Lot (Three side corner lot). Once selected, kindly click on &ldquo;Next&rdquo; to proceed.<br><br>Create the property lines of the Lot and provide information on the surroundings (Streets, Adjacent buildings, and yards). <br><br>Stage 3<br>Locate Main Floors<br>Locate the schematic floor plate of the ground and Typical floor of the Project, use different Shapes and sizes to explore and select a floor scheme.<br><br>Stage 4<br>Core Editor<br>Design the Vertical Shafts focusing on the residential floors; Adjust the circulation and Determine Room size according to the market standards and building type (Rental/ Condo/ Affordable).<br><br>Stage 5<br>Schematic Section<br>Receive the schematic side view and 3D massing of your project. From this point forward plan the project according to your personal preferences. Control the number of floors and their types(Cellar, Ground, Mixed-use, Typical and setback), Edit the floor plans, View summarize area calculations and export it to PDF and Revit file for further design.<br><br>Stage 6<br>Floor Plan Editor<br>Edit the Floor plate, create recesses, courts and setbacks; plan the units layout based on your choice of units types distribution. Within minutes the Ark algorithm will generate potential floor plans that meets building code. Select and edit the best option for your project.<br><br>Stage 7<br>Plan Unit Mix<br>The floor layout design includes various unit types such as studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments, each with customizable settings like price per square foot and minimum area. Room distribution control ensures optimal use of rooms along window walls without exceeding the maximum available area. The process allows for creating a unique mix of unit types for the typical floor layout, balancing efficiency and market demands.</p>

ArkDesign.AI

ArkDesign.AI Demo with Dity Ayalon (Founder & CEO)

Featuring ArkDesign.AI  at the AEC Innovate Conference

Tools Leading the Way in the AEC+Tech Community

Generative AI & Real Estate Innovation with ArkDesign.AI

Article post ( Multi-Family & Mixed-Use Design Through AI: Meet ArkDesign)

Multi-Family & Mixed-Use Design Through AI: Meet ArkDesign

Generative AI & Real Estate Innovation (Webinar)

Generative AI & Real Estate Innovation with ArkDesign.AI, Higharc & Laiout - AEC-Tech Talk 20

AI-Powered Generative Design & Feasibility for Multi-Family & Mixed-Use

<p>With ARES Commander, users can work both locally and with files stored in the cloud to improve collaboration. Sync files across users and devices. Create and modify DWG drawings in 2D and 3D, leveraging the drafting and design features that you&rsquo;ve come to expect &mdash; all at a significant cost savings. ARES Commander can stand alone or coordinate with ARES Touch and ARES Kudo to form the Trinity of CAD, unlocking productivity-boosting collaboration features. <br><br>ARES Commander by Graebert is a powerful and flexible CAD solution designed for professionals who require full-featured 2D and 3D drafting capabilities in native DWG format&mdash;without the high costs or limitations of traditional CAD software. Compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, ARES Commander is part of the ARES Trinity suite, which includes access to cloud-based editing through ARES Kudo and mobile capabilities via ARES Touch, all under a single license.<br><br>One of the key strengths of ARES Commander is its seamless DWG compatibility, allowing users to create, edit, and share files without worrying about format issues. The software includes robust 2D drafting tools, 3D modeling functions such as push/pull editing, and support for dynamic blocks, splines, and parametric features.<br><br>Beyond the desktop, the ARES Trinity ecosystem enables real-time collaboration through cloud integration, supporting services like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. Users can work from anywhere, review drawings on-site, share view-only links with stakeholders, and keep track of revisions with built-in version control and commenting tools.<br><br>ARES Commander also bridges the gap between CAD and BIM. It allows the import of Revit and IFC files, from which users can extract 2D drawings, automatically generate annotations, and streamline documentation workflows. This functionality makes it easier to work alongside BIM teams while staying within familiar CAD environments.<br><br>The user interface has been continually refined to support productivity and ease of use, with the latest versions offering customizable workspaces, AI-assisted tools, and a simplified transition path for users coming from other platforms like AutoCAD.<br><br>ARES Commander is widely adopted across industries, from architecture and engineering to construction and manufacturing. It's known for its solid performance, affordability, and flexibility, offering a complete CAD solution that meets the demands of modern workflows. Whether working independently or as part of a larger team, users appreciate its robust toolset, intuitive design, and commitment to innovation.</p>

Files created in ARES Commander can also be accessed in ARES Kudo or ARES Touch.

ARES Commander includes BIM drawings automation features.

DWG Drawings Automation for BIM - ARES Commander Product Review | Niknaz Aftahi of aec+tech

BIM Drawings Automation: From Revit & IFC to DWG in ARES Commander

450+ Dynamic Blocks in Tool Palettes and Trinity Block Library in ARES Commander

AI for CAD in DWG: ARES AI Assist (aka A3) 

Switch from AutoCAD or other AutoCAD Alternatives to ARES effortlessly

ARES Commander | N°1 AutoCAD Alternative for DWG CAD Software on Windows, Mac and Linux

ARES Commander

ARES Commander Standalone [Perpetual License]

ARES Commander [Perpetual License] with Trinity

ARES Commander Flex / Network Seat [Perpetual License]

ARES Commander runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux platforms.

<p>BAMROC: Revolutionizing MEP and MEP vs. Structure Clash Resolution in the AEC Industry</p>
<p data-start="90" data-end="551">BAMROC is the first AI-powered software in the AEC industry purpose-built to automate MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) and MEP vs. Structure clash resolution inside real-world BIM coordination workflows. Instead of spending countless hours manually reviewing clashes, modifying routes, and iterating on design options, BIM teams can now rely on BAMROC to act as an intelligent copilot that does the heavy lifting with remarkable speed and consistency.</p>
<p data-start="553" data-end="1020">At its core, BAMROC combines advanced AI-powered decision-making to understand how MEP services interact with structural and architectural elements. It doesn&rsquo;t just highlight problems, it actively proposes and applies optimized resolutions that respect design intent, space constraints, and constructability. This allows BIM MEP coordinators, designers, and engineers to move from reactive firefighting to proactive, high-value decision-making.</p>
<p data-start="1022" data-end="1526">By streamlining a traditionally time-consuming and repetitive coordination stage, BAMROC helps projects meet the highest standards of accuracy, safety, and efficiency. It reduces the back-and-forth between disciplines, minimizes rework, and cuts down coordination cycles, ultimately supporting faster project delivery and more predictable outcomes. BIM professionals can focus on design quality, system performance, and client requirements instead of being stuck in manual clash-by-clash troubleshooting.</p>
<p data-start="1528" data-end="1954">As an advanced BIM clash resolver, BAMROC analyzes design conflicts, explores multiple routing scenarios, and intelligently adjusts MEP systems to create a clash-free environment. The resolutions are generated with precision, preserving clearances, avoiding critical zones, and maintaining the logic of each system. This level of automation and reliability redefines what &ldquo;productive&rdquo; means in BIM MEP design and coordination.</p>
<p data-start="1956" data-end="2390" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="">Whether your team is handling dense plant rooms, complex high-rise cores, hospitals with strict service zoning, or large infrastructure projects under aggressive timelines, BAMROC ensures that BIM professionals can achieve lightning-fast coordination with uncompromising quality. Adopting BAMROC is not just a software upgrade, it is a shift toward smarter, AI-assisted project delivery and a more efficient, future-ready AEC workflow.</p>

BAMROC

<p data-start="623" data-end="717">Kestrel is the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment.</p>
<p data-start="719" data-end="977">Building code has historically existed as static documents that architects read, interpret, and apply manually. In a world where design has moved into BIM, compliance has remained outside the model&mdash;fragmented across PDFs, markups, and late-stage plan review.</p>
<p data-start="979" data-end="1000">Kestrel changes that.</p>
<p data-start="1002" data-end="1307">Kestrel is building code compliance software that runs inside Revit, evaluating BIM models against jurisdiction-specific requirements during design. Instead of checking compliance after drawings are complete, teams run checks continuously while designing, surfacing issues when they are still easy to fix.</p>
<p data-start="1309" data-end="1394">At the core of the platform is a fundamental shift: building code becomes computable.</p>
<p data-start="1396" data-end="1742">Kestrel translates licensed building code data, including International Code Council (ICC) sources, into structured, machine-executable logic that runs directly against the BIM model. Every issue is tied to a specific element in the design and linked to a cited code section, so teams can see what is wrong, why it matters, and how to resolve it.</p>
<p data-start="1744" data-end="1878">This approach turns compliance from a manual, interpretive process into a system that can be evaluated in real time throughout design.</p>
<p data-start="1880" data-end="2216">Kestrel&rsquo;s rule library includes millions of checks across key regulatory categories such as egress, accessibility (ADA), fire and life safety, occupancy classifications, height and area limits, and jurisdiction-specific requirements. The platform applies these rules in context to each project&rsquo;s location, building type, and conditions.</p>
<p data-start="2218" data-end="2266">The result is a shift in how compliance happens:</p>
<ul data-start="2268" data-end="2467">
<li data-section-id="1912hsz" data-start="2268" data-end="2340">From checking PDFs at the end &rarr; to evaluating the model continuously</li>
<li data-section-id="ab3kd5" data-start="2341" data-end="2405">From manual interpretation &rarr; to structured, verifiable logic</li>
<li data-section-id="2zqfm2" data-start="2406" data-end="2467">From late-stage surprises &rarr; to early, actionable feedback</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="2469" data-end="2783">Kestrel is designed for the entire design team. Architects and designers work directly inside the Revit model, resolving issues in context. Project managers and principals track compliance status through a shared dashboard without opening BIM files, giving the entire team a clear view of where the project stands.</p>
<p data-start="2785" data-end="2967">Kestrel does not replace architect judgment. It surfaces what is checkable and grounds every result in real code. Final interpretation and design decisions remain with the architect.</p>
<p data-start="2969" data-end="3091">As BIM became the system of record for design, there has been no equivalent system for compliance. Kestrel fills that gap.</p>
<p data-start="3093" data-end="3278">It is not a plugin or a point solution. It is the compliance layer that sits alongside the model, enabling teams to move faster, reduce rework, and reach permit with greater confidence.</p>

Kestrel Labs

<p>Fluid Morphology is a translucent, fully 3D-printed facade developed by 3F Studio and TU Munich for the entrance of the Deutsches Museum, integrating structure, insulation, shading, ventilation and acoustics into a single printed part.</p>
<h2>Project Overview</h2>
<p>The project began as doctoral research by Moritz Mungenast and Oliver Tessin at the Technical University of Munich's Associate Professorship of Architectural Design and Building Envelope. With Luc Morroni they founded <strong>3F Studio</strong>, which developed the facade for the entrance of the <strong>Deutsches Museum</strong> on the Isar in central Munich. The entrance building itself was designed by David Wolferstetter Architektur with Architekten <strong>Schmidt-Schicketanz</strong> und Partner GmbH.</p>
<p>The research question was not how to print an unusual shape. It was whether additive manufacturing could produce an intelligent architectural component: one element, one material, one production step, doing the work that a conventional facade needs half a dozen layers and trades to achieve.</p>
<h2>One Element, Five Functions</h2>
<p>A conventional wall assembles its performance from separate systems: a structural frame, an insulation layer, a shading device, ventilation openings and an acoustic lining, each with its own supplier, fixings and interfaces. Fluid Morphology attempts to deliver all of it as printed geometry.</p>
<p>Elongated cells within the panel provide structural stability. Air-filled cavities provide thermal insulation. Thin printed tubes circulate air for ventilation. Wave-like formations across the surface provide solar shading. Microstructured surfaces tune the acoustics. None of these are added components; each is a variation in the geometry the printer produces.</p>
<h2>Material and Printing</h2>
<p>The elements are printed by fused deposition modelling on large-format machines, with printing support from BigRep and material support from Extruder. The material is a translucent, FDM-printable polycarbonate chosen for closed-loop recyclability, so a panel can in principle be reground and reprinted rather than demolished. In a building envelope, which is normally a composite of bonded materials that cannot be separated at end of life, single-material construction is a significant claim.</p>
<h2>Scale and Status</h2>
<p>The intended facade is around 750 square metres, roughly three storeys high by 50 metres wide, made up of approximately 800 individual segments of about one square metre each. A larger prototype section measuring 1.6 by 2.8 metres was installed for testing at TUM's main campus, instrumented with sensors to record performance over a year before a final polycarbonate version was produced.</p>
<p>Published accounts describe the facade as serving the museum's entrance during the modernisation of the permanent entrance building. Readers should treat the constructed extent as a research-led prototype programme with a planned full installation rather than assume the complete 750 square metre facade is in place; the sources do not confirm final completion.</p>
<p>Mungenast has summarised the intent directly: 3D printing was not only about creating a new form in architecture but about creating multifunctionality out of one piece, out of one material, and in one production step.</p>

Deutsches Museum in Munich

Founded by Moritz Mungenast, Oliver Tessin and Luc Morroni in 2018, 3F Studio stands for fused form and function. The German-based studio specialises in 3D-printed performative architecture and future-oriented design.<br /><br />3F Studio is a spin-off from the research project Fluid Morphology at the Technical University of Munich’s Department of Architecture, and offers its expertise in computational design and additive manufacturing (3D printing) for the development of function-integrated facade applications and novel concepts for interior and furniture design. This encompasses the use of new, recyclable materials to create sustainable solutions for overcoming the future challenges faced by the building industry.<br /><br />3F Studio believes in the performative and aesthetic qualities of innovative technologies such as additive manufacturing to develop novel applications with a distinctive design vocabulary.

3F studio

<p>Neo-Natur is an eight-metre-high permanent sculpture at the Futurium in Berlin, built from 1,500 milled wood elements derived from just 16 module types and assembled with the help of a HoloLens augmented reality application.</p>
<h2>Project Overview</h2>
<p>Neo-Natur, or Neo Nature, was created by <strong>ART+COM Studios</strong> for Futurium gGmbH and installed in 2019 at the Futurium, Berlin's museum of possible futures. The installation belongs to an exhibition exploring how cities and ways of living might develop, and it addresses the relationship between human technology and the natural world directly: not nature untouched, and not technology divorced from it, but a new understanding of nature that accepts technological intervention while borrowing the organising principles that natural systems already use.</p>
<p>The sculpture appears to grow out of the floor, twisting and climbing in all directions, and reaches roughly eight metres in height.</p>
<h2>The Geometry: Danzer Tiling</h2>
<p>The form is not sculpted freehand. It is generated from <strong>Danzer tiling</strong>, an aperiodic three-dimensional tiling that describes the structure of quasicrystals. Aperiodic means the pattern never repeats exactly, yet it is produced entirely by rules, so the structure can grow indefinitely without ever falling into a visible module or grid. Danzer tiling also carries the golden ratio in its proportions, the same ratio that recurs in botanical growth patterns, which is why a mathematically generated object reads as organic rather than mechanical.</p>
<p>That choice is the intellectual core of the piece. The apparent naturalness of the sculpture is a direct product of its mathematics, which is precisely the argument the artwork is making about nature and technology.</p>
<h2>From Rule to Component</h2>
<p>The tiling was developed generatively in <strong>Rhino</strong> and <strong>Grasshopper</strong>. The result is a structure of 1,500 individually milled wooden elements that derive from only 16 distinct module designs, joined by 4,500 specially engineered angle connectors. The ratio matters: sixteen module types producing fifteen hundred parts is what makes an aperiodic structure of this size affordable to fabricate at all, because the milling setup is repeated rather than reinvented for every piece.</p>
<h2>Augmented Reality Assembly</h2>
<p>An aperiodic structure has no repeating bay to check against and no symmetry to fall back on, so a component in the wrong place is very difficult to spot and very expensive to correct once the surrounding structure has been built on top of it. ArtEngineering developed an augmented reality application for Microsoft HoloLens that rendered the complete three-dimensional sculpture in place during assembly. The construction team could see exactly where each element belonged before fixing it, using the virtual model as the setting-out reference rather than working from printed drawings.</p>
<p>Production and construction were carried out by the Art Department of Studio Babelsberg, with design collaborators including Schiel Projektgesellschaft mbH, Volker Zinssmeister and apfel,h&uuml;bsch berlin.</p>

Neo-Natur

<h2><span class="s1"><strong>What Is Rhino 3D?</strong></span></h2>
<p class="p2">Rhino 3D, also known as Rhinoceros 3D, is a professional 3D modeling software developed by Robert McNeel &amp; Associates for architects, industrial designers, engineers, product designers, jewelry designers, and digital fabrication professionals. Unlike traditional CAD applications that primarily focus on drafting or Building Information Modeling (BIM), Rhino is built around precise <span class="s1"><strong>NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines)</strong></span> geometry, allowing users to create highly accurate freeform surfaces and complex shapes without sacrificing modeling precision.</p>
<p class="p2">Rhino is widely recognized for its flexibility. It supports conceptual design, detailed modeling, visualization, analysis, rendering, and manufacturing workflows within a single environment. Whether you&rsquo;re designing a building fa&ccedil;ade, a consumer product, furniture, a yacht, or a complex parametric structure, Rhino provides the tools needed to transform ideas into production-ready geometry.</p>
<p class="p3">Unlike dedicated BIM platforms such as <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/revit"><span class="s2">Revit</span></a></span> or <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/archicad"><span class="s2">Archicad</span></a></span>, Rhino is primarily a geometry-driven modeling platform. However, thanks to its extensive plugin ecosystem and interoperability, it integrates well into modern AEC workflows and is commonly used during early-stage design, computational design, fa&ccedil;ade engineering, digital fabrication, and advanced geometry development.</p>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>What Is Rhino 3D Used For?</strong></span></h2>
<p class="p2">Rhino 3D is used for creating accurate 3D models that require flexibility beyond traditional CAD or BIM software. Because it is based on NURBS modeling instead of polygon-only geometry, designers can build smooth freeform surfaces with engineering-level precision.</p>
<p class="p4">Rhino is commonly used for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Architectural design</li>
<li>Conceptual building modeling</li>
<li>Computational design</li>
<li>Fa&ccedil;ade development</li>
<li>Industrial and product design</li>
<li>Furniture design</li>
<li>Jewelry design</li>
<li>Marine design</li>
<li>Reverse engineering</li>
<li>3D printing</li>
<li>CNC fabrication</li>
<li>Laser cutting workflows</li>
<li>Visualization and rendering</li>
</ul>
<p class="p3">Many architecture firms use Rhino during the conceptual design phase before moving project documentation into dedicated BIM platforms. Others continue using Rhino throughout the project for complex geometry, custom fa&ccedil;ades, parametric components, and fabrication-ready models that would be difficult to create in conventional BIM software.</p>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>Key Features</strong></span></h2>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Precise NURBS Modeling</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">One of Rhino&rsquo;s defining strengths is its NURBS-based modeling engine. Unlike polygon modeling applications that approximate curved geometry with meshes, Rhino creates mathematically accurate curves and surfaces suitable for design, engineering, manufacturing, and fabrication.</p>
<p class="p3">This makes Rhino particularly valuable for projects involving organic architecture, freeform structures, industrial products, and highly detailed fabrication models where precision is critical.</p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Flexible 3D Modeling Workflow</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">Rhino allows users to work with curves, solids, surfaces, meshes, and SubD geometry inside a single modeling environment. Designers can move quickly between conceptual sketches and highly detailed production models without changing software.</p>
<p class="p3">Unlike many specialized applications, Rhino does not force users into one predefined workflow. This flexibility has made it popular across multiple industries, from architecture and engineering to jewelry, automotive, and industrial product development.</p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Grasshopper Integration</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">One of Rhino&rsquo;s biggest advantages is its seamless integration with <span class="s1"><strong>Grasshopper</strong></span>, the visual programming environment used for computational and parametric design.</p>
<p class="p2">Grasshopper allows designers to build rule-based design systems instead of manually modeling every object. Parameters, algorithms, and mathematical relationships can generate complex geometries that automatically update when design inputs change.</p>
<p class="p3">Although Grasshopper is included with Rhino, it has grown into an extensive ecosystem with hundreds of plugins supporting structural analysis, environmental simulation, optimization, robotic fabrication, and generative design. Because of its importance, Grasshopper deserves its own dedicated guide rather than being covered in depth here.</p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Extensive Plugin Ecosystem</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">Rhino offers one of the largest plugin ecosystems in the design industry.</p>
<p class="p4">Popular extensions support:</p>
<ul>
<li>Rendering</li>
<li>Environmental analysis</li>
<li>Structural engineering</li>
<li>CFD simulation</li>
<li>Generative design</li>
<li>Fabrication</li>
<li>Robotics</li>
<li>CAM workflows</li>
<li>Reverse engineering</li>
<li>BIM interoperability</li>
</ul>
<p class="p3">This flexibility allows firms to customize Rhino around their own workflows rather than adapting their workflow to the software.</p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Interoperability</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">Rhino supports a wide range of industry-standard file formats, making it easy to collaborate with consultants using different software.</p>
<p class="p4">Supported formats include:</p>
<ul>
<li>DWG</li>
<li>DXF</li>
<li>STEP</li>
<li>IGES</li>
<li>SAT</li>
<li>STL</li>
<li>OBJ</li>
<li>FBX</li>
<li>IFC</li>
<li>3DM</li>
<li>SKP</li>
<li>Parasolid</li>
<li>3DS</li>
</ul>
<p class="p2">Rhino also integrates well with platforms such as <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/autocad"><span class="s2">AutoCAD</span></a></span>, <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/sketchup"><span class="s2">SketchUp</span></a></span>, and major BIM workflows through plugins and open exchange formats. This interoperability allows design teams to move geometry between conceptual design, documentation, analysis, visualization, and fabrication with relatively little friction.</p>
<p class="p2">More information about supported formats is available on the official Rhino website.</p>
<p class="p3"><a href="https://www.rhino3d.com/features/">https://www.rhino3d.com/features/</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Rendering and Visualization</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">Rhino includes built-in rendering capabilities together with support for many third-party rendering engines.</p>
<p class="p4">Designers commonly use Rhino together with visualization tools for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Client presentations</li>
<li>Concept visualization</li>
<li>Architectural competitions</li>
<li>Product marketing</li>
<li>Design reviews</li>
</ul>
<p class="p3">Its compatibility with popular rendering plugins makes Rhino an excellent platform for producing high-quality visualizations without rebuilding project geometry.</p>
<hr>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Digital Fabrication</strong></span></h3>
<p class="p2">Rhino has become one of the industry&rsquo;s most widely used tools for digital fabrication.</p>
<p class="p4">Its accurate geometry makes it well suited for:</p>
<ul>
<li>CNC machining</li>
<li>Laser cutting</li>
<li>Waterjet cutting</li>
<li>3D printing</li>
<li>Robotic fabrication</li>
<li>Panelization</li>
<li>Complex fa&ccedil;ade fabrication</li>
</ul>
<p class="p3">This is one of the reasons Rhino remains extremely popular among architects working on complex buildings and custom building components.</p>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>Pricing &amp; Free Trial</strong></span></h2>
<p class="p2">Unlike many professional design applications that have moved entirely to subscriptions, Rhino continues to offer a perpetual commercial license.</p>
<p class="p2">A Rhino commercial license is purchased once and can continue to be used without recurring subscription fees. Major version upgrades are optional and typically offered at discounted upgrade pricing for existing customers.</p>
<p class="p4">Rhino also provides:</p>
<ul>
<li>Evaluation version</li>
<li>Educational licenses</li>
<li>Student pricing</li>
<li>Faculty licenses</li>
</ul>
<p class="p2">Current pricing, educational eligibility, licensing options, and trial availability can be found on the official Rhino licensing page.</p>
<p class="p3"><a href="https://www.rhino3d.com/buy/">https://www.rhino3d.com/buy/</a></p>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>Pros &amp; Cons</strong></span></h2>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Pros</strong></span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Industry-leading NURBS modeling</li>
<li>Excellent freeform geometry tools</li>
<li>Powerful Grasshopper integration</li>
<li>Huge plugin ecosystem</li>
<li>Strong interoperability</li>
<li>Perpetual licensing available</li>
<li>Cross-platform support for Windows and macOS</li>
<li>Widely used across architecture, engineering, product design, and fabrication</li>
</ul>
<h3><span class="s1"><strong>Cons</strong></span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Not a complete BIM platform by itself</li>
<li>Requires practice to master advanced modeling workflows</li>
<li>Large computational models can become demanding on hardware</li>
<li>Some advanced workflows depend on third-party plugins</li>
<li>Construction documentation capabilities are not as comprehensive as dedicated BIM software</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>Best Alternatives</strong></span></h2>
<p class="p2">The best Rhino alternative depends on the type of project and design workflow.</p>
<p class="p3">For BIM documentation and multidisciplinary coordination, <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/revit"><span class="s2">Revit</span></a></span> and <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/archicad"><span class="s2">Archicad</span></a></span> are stronger choices. For conceptual architectural modeling, <span class="s1">⁠<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/sketchup"><span class="s2">SketchUp</span></a></span> offers a faster learning curve. Engineers and manufacturers may also compare Rhino with Fusion 360 or SolidWorks depending on their production requirements.</p>
<hr>
<h2><span class="s1"><strong>Who Should Use Rhino 3D?</strong></span></h2>
<p class="p2">Rhino 3D is best suited for architects, computational designers, fa&ccedil;ade consultants, industrial designers, engineers, product developers, digital fabrication specialists, and creative professionals who need precise freeform modeling rather than a documentation-first BIM workflow.</p>
<p class="p2">It is particularly valuable for organizations working with complex geometry, parametric design, fabrication, and advanced architectural forms. Firms that combine Rhino with BIM software can benefit from Rhino&rsquo;s modeling flexibility while continuing to use dedicated BIM platforms for documentation and project coordination.</p>
<p class="p2">For professionals whose work depends on accurate geometry, computational design, and an open ecosystem of plugins and integrations, Rhino 3D remains one of the most capable modeling platforms available today.</p>

Explore Rhino 3D pricing, features, free trial, and alternatives. Learn how Rhino 3D software supports architecture, design, engineering, and 3D modeling.

Rhino 3D Pricing, Features, Free Trial & Alternatives

Rhino 3D

<h3>Grasshopper is part of Rhino, not a separate modeler</h3>
<p>Grasshopper is the graphical algorithm editor included with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/rhino-3d">Rhino 3D</a>. McNeel describes it as a visual programming environment tightly integrated with Rhino&rsquo;s modeling tools. The definition controls logic and relationships; Rhino supplies the geometry kernel, viewport, document, object attributes, file exchange, and downstream modeling environment.</p>
<h3>A definition turns inputs into repeatable design logic</h3>
<p>Work is assembled from components with inputs and outputs connected by wires. Sliders, referenced Rhino objects, files, or other parameters feed operations that create geometry or transform data. When an input changes, dependent components recalculate and the Rhino viewport previews the result. Approved geometry can then be baked into the Rhino document for editing, annotation, exchange, or fabrication.</p>
<p>This feedback loop supports rapid iteration, but it does not make every model safely parametric. A useful definition exposes meaningful controls, groups related operations, names critical parameters, and separates temporary exploration from deliverable logic. A canvas that only its author can read becomes a project risk even when its final geometry looks correct.</p>
<h3>Data trees are the practical learning threshold</h3>
<p>Simple examples pass one item or one list between components. Production definitions often organize nested collections as data trees with paths, branches, and items. McNeel&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.rhino3d.com/en/guides/grasshopper/gh-algorithms-and-data-structures/data-structures/">data-structure guide</a>&nbsp;distinguishes single items, lists, and trees because components behave differently as input structure changes. Unexpected grafting, flattening, matching, or path operations can produce plausible but incomplete geometry, so teams should test data structure explicitly rather than debug only the viewport.</p>
<h3>AEC value comes from repeatability, not unusual form alone</h3>
<p>Architects can test massing constraints, panelize envelopes, place repeated elements, calculate quantities, organize drawing geometry, or prepare fabrication data. Engineers and specialist consultants can connect geometry to discipline analysis through supported plugins. Fabricators can translate controlled parameters into part geometry, naming, or machine-oriented outputs.</p>
<p>The core application does not automatically provide every environmental, structural, optimization, or BIM capability. Those workflows may rely on plugins, custom scripts, external solvers, and project-specific validation. The author must still check units, tolerances, constructability, design criteria, and whether generated outputs remain traceable to the approved inputs.</p>
<h3>Revit integration can create native BIM elements</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.aecplustech.com/tools/revit">Revit</a>&nbsp;workflows are supported through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rhino3d.com/en/features/rhino-inside-revit/">Rhino.Inside.Revit</a>, which loads Rhino and Grasshopper inside the Windows application. Revit-aware components can query, analyze, create, or modify document content and provide access to Rhino, Grasshopper, and Revit APIs. This is more capable than a simple geometry export, but native BIM quality still depends on category, type, level, parameter, hosting, and update decisions.</p>
<p>Teams should agree which system owns each element and how reruns are controlled. An interactive graph that modifies a live BIM document needs selection safeguards, transaction awareness, version testing, and a recovery plan. Rhino.Inside.Revit is Windows-only even though Rhino and Grasshopper also run on Mac.</p>
<h3>Plugins and scripting extend both reach and risk</h3>
<p>Rhino 8 supports RhinoCommon C# and CPython in Grasshopper on Windows and Mac. McNeel&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.rhino3d.com/en/guides/grasshopper/">Grasshopper developer guides</a>&nbsp;cover algorithms, data trees, Python, C#, components, and plugin development. The Package Manager and food4Rhino ecosystem add specialist tools for analysis, fabrication, interoperability, optimization, and visualization.</p>
<p>Dependencies need the same control as other production software. Record plugin names and versions, approved download sources, operating-system support, license terms, and replacement options. Keep a clean test environment for upgrades, and avoid distributing a GH file without its dependency list, sample inputs, expected outputs, and author or maintainer.</p>
<h3>Pricing follows the Rhino license</h3>
<p>There is no separate current Grasshopper subscription or standalone price. It is included with Rhino 8, which McNeel sells through perpetual commercial and discounted educational licenses. Prices vary by region, currency, tax, license type, and reseller, so the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rhino3d.com/sales/">official Rhino sales page</a>&nbsp;is the correct source for a current figure. Purchased licenses do not expire; upgrades to later major versions are optional purchases.</p>
<p>McNeel also provides a one-time 90-day full-version Rhino evaluation that includes Grasshopper. After 90 days, saving and plugins stop working unless a license is purchased. That evaluation is a better description of access than calling Grasshopper independently free.</p>
<h3>Windows and Mac are supported, but parity must be checked</h3>
<p>Grasshopper follows Rhino 8&rsquo;s desktop support. McNeel&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rhino3d.com/8/system-requirements/">current requirements</a>&nbsp;cover Windows 10 or 11 and supported macOS releases, with at least 8 GB RAM recommended. Windows guidance also recommends an OpenGL 4.5-capable graphics card and 4 GB video memory. Computationally heavy definitions, large meshes, analysis solvers, and several linked applications can require substantially more capacity.</p>
<p>Plugin availability, UI behavior, file paths, scripting packages, and integrations may differ between operating systems. A team should validate the entire definition and dependency set on the target platform rather than treating Rhino compatibility as proof that every component will run identically.</p>
<h3>Best fit depends on how the logic will be maintained</h3>
<p>Grasshopper fits teams that repeatedly explore or generate geometry and can invest in computational-design standards. It is less suitable when a one-off manual edit is faster, when project partners cannot run the dependencies, or when no one owns the definition after handover. Alternatives include native Rhino modeling, scripting directly in Python or C#, BIM-platform automation, and other node-based environments.</p>
<p>For project use, review a definition like production code: document inputs and outputs, organize the canvas, control dependencies, test edge cases, compare generated results with design criteria, and archive a known working environment. The value is not the number of components; it is a reliable method that another team member can understand and rerun.</p>

Evaluate Grasshopper 3D for parametric design, visual programming, Rhino and Revit workflows, pricing, plugins, system requirements, and AEC use.

Grasshopper 3D: Rhino Parametric Design, Uses & Pricing

Grasshopper

Fologram’s software provides designers with a toolkit to create mixed reality experiences within design software they already use, and view and share these experiences through the Fologram app running on mobile phones or Microsoft's mixed reality headsets the Hololens.  Fologram’s clients include leading universities, multinational architectural firms, industrial designers, engineers and artists who using Fologram to create mixed reality applications for full scale construction, public art, architectural fabrication, sculpture, automotive design and visualisation.<br /><br />Fologram is a software ecosystem that allows Mixed Reality hardware running our standalone application to talk to desktop design software running the Fologram plugin. Geometry and other model information from your design software is streamed to your headset or mobile phone, and spatial information like device or hand positions are sent back in real time. By using this spatial information to trigger changes in design models, designers can use Fologram to build interactive mixed reality experiences. <br /><br />A feature rich free mobile version is avaible at https://fologram.com/download, and a 14 day trial for Hololens users.<br />

AllBrick using Fologram on the Hobart Hospital Redevelopment

Jack Hunter from Uni of Washington using Fologam for robotic control and path visualization 

Akio Hamada Architects & Eri Sumitomo Architects using Fologram to guide a chainsaw operator in producing furniture

UAP using Fologram in their production of large scale public art

Fologram

Artillion studio using Fologram as part of their fabrication process

Franz Nüsing GmbH & Co KG, founded in 1878, is a world leader in movable wall technology, including mobile partitions, glass walls, and folding walls. These products are frequently customized to meet specific technical requirements. Nüsing uses ARES CAD software to produce the technical drawings that document its projects. The design is facilitated by an application developed by Nüsing and running on top of ARES Commander, named Nüsing CAD, which assists technicians with parametric components that can be inserted in the drawings. The Nüsing team can also use ARES Kudo to access drawings online, and easily share them with customers and other external users.

A project as seen by the Nüsing team in ARES Kudo. Users can make modifications with the editing features, which are accessible from the menu on the right, and from the command bar.

The same project, as seen by external contacts in an Internet browser. For that purpose, Nüsing uses a view-only link created by ARES Kudo, so there is nothing to install, just a URL that always displays the latest version of the project. Customers can use this to validate the project.

Custom Room Partition Creator Nüsing Designs, Documents, and Collaborates with ARES CAD Software

Premium EASYmatic movable walls by Nüsing.

Germany

ARES Touch is a full-featured mobile CAD app that provides a complete set of 2D drafting and annotation commands. It's the perfect companion to quickly review a drawing shared in the cloud or received by email while on the go.

Team members at the jobsite can collaborate efficiently with colleagues back at the office

ARES Touch helps users work more effectively while on the jobsite or  in the field

ARES Touch works on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones

DWG Editing on Mobile: ARES Touch Makes it Quick & Easy!

ARES Touch: Mobile CAD for Android and iOS to View, Create and Annotate DWG

Mobile CAD solution for viewing and editing DWG files on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets

ARES Touch

Work productively on mobile devices with tools tailored to smaller screens

<p>ARES is a modern, feature-rich CAD software that serves as a leading AutoCAD alternative for professionals working with 2D drafting and 3D modeling in the industry-standard DWG file format. Developed by Graebert, ARES combines power, flexibility, and affordability&mdash;making it an ideal solution for architects, engineers, designers, and construction professionals seeking a more cost-effective, high-performance CAD platform.<br><br>With a growing global footprint, ARES is trusted by some of the world&rsquo;s most prominent companies. Among its users are three of Japan&rsquo;s top five construction groups, as well as globally recognized manufacturers such as LG, Hyundai, and Samsung. Its robust feature set supports the complex demands of design, engineering, and construction workflows, offering seamless collaboration and precision.<br><br>ARES also serves as the underlying technology for other leading CAD solutions. It powers DraftSight by Dassault Syst&egrave;mes, a popular CAD software for 2D design, and Onshape Drawings, the drawing module within the cloud-native Onshape CAD platform. These partnerships highlight ARES&rsquo;s reliability, scalability, and integration capabilities across different design environments.<br><br>As a truly cross-platform CAD solution, ARES is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with additional cloud and mobile access through ARES Kudo (web-based) and ARES Touch (mobile app). This ensures design professionals can work seamlessly across devices and locations, with real-time syncing and collaboration tools.<br><br>With its DWG compatibility, modern interface, and flexible subscription-based licensing model, ARES offers a compelling alternative to traditional CAD tools&mdash;without sacrificing performance or productivity. Whether you're migrating from AutoCAD or starting fresh with a new CAD workflow, ARES delivers the tools you need to design faster, collaborate smarter, and lower your total cost of ownership.<br><br>Discover why ARES is the next-generation DWG CAD software for today&rsquo;s professionals.<br><br>DWG Compatibility:<br>ARES Commander works directly with DWG files, making it a good option for users familiar with other CAD software that uses this format. <br><br>Part of the ARES Trinity:<br>ARES Commander is the desktop component of Graebert's Trinity, which also includes cloud-based ARES Kudo and mobile ARES Touch. This allows for seamless workflows across devices. <br><br>Productivity Features:<br>ARES Commander includes features like Power Trim, Dimension Palette, and Layer Tools, designed to enhance user productivity. <br><br>Customization:<br>Users can customize their workspaces and user interfaces to suit their preferences. <br><br>Collaboration:<br>The ARES Trinity enables collaboration features, allowing users to share, view, and edit drawings across different platforms and devices. <br><br>Cloud Integration:<br>ARES Commander integrates with popular cloud storage services like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud. <br><br>BIM Features:<br>ARES Commander also includes BIM (Building Information Modeling) features, allowing users to import and view Revit and IFC files, extract 2D drawings, and extract BIM information into tables. <br><br>Licensing:<br>ARES Commander offers perpetual, annual, or flex licenses, and a single license can be used across multiple computers with different operating systems.</p>

Modern workflows leveraging cloud and mobile to synchronize the work across all your users and devices.

CAD Anywhere: Desktop CAD (Windows, Mac, Linux), Cloud CAD (runs in your Internet browser), and Mobile CAD (Android tablets/smartphones and iOS iPhone/iPad).

With the DWG for BIM features in ARES Commander, users can create smarter CAD drawings whose geometry can be extracted and updated from Revit and IFC BIM projects.

ARES Commander - Desktop CAD: All the 2D and 3D features needed to create and modify DWG drawings on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

ARES Kudo - Online CAD: Create and modify DWG drawings online, and enjoy new collaboration features to comment with voice, photos, text notes, and stamps.

ARES Touch - Mobile CAD: A full set of 2D features to create, modify, and annotate DWG drawings on your Android smartphone/tablet and iOS iPhone/iPad with unique collaboration features to markup with voice, photos, text notes, and stamps.

ARES Trinity by Graebert

The ARES Trinity of CAD software encompasses three integrated software products: ARES Commander, ARES Kudo, and ARES Touch.

Featuring Graebert ARES CAD software at the AEC Innovate Conference

<p class="break-words white-space-pre-wrap t-black--light text-body-medium">INSTATIQ &ndash; Plan. Print. Progress. In the construction industry, where productivity is key, we have a clear vision: to transform building through the use of intelligent robotics. Our goal is to build faster, more sustainably, and more economically with 3D concrete printing. As a spin-off of the Putzmeister Group, we combine decades of expertise with entrepreneurial spirit. With the INSTATIQ P1, we offer an industrial solution for 3D concrete printing. Similar to a 3D printer, it creates three-dimensional structures layer by layer using conventional concrete. Equipped with a 26-meter-long robotic arm and millimeter-precise accuracy, it transforms BIM models into load-bearing walls directly on the construction site &ndash; without the need for complex formwork. Together, we&rsquo;re shaping the future of construction &ndash; are you on board?</p>
<div class="wp-block-cover alignfull">
<div class="wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-cover-is-layout-f213ecf7 wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained">
<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<p class="subheader-new">We are transforming the construction industry with robotics and automated 3D concrete printing, enabling faster, more sustainable, and cost-efficient buildings. Our mission is to advance additive manufacturing in construction to make building processes more productive, reliable, and environmentally friendly.</p>
<div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="full-width-grid-block_fbc05855dcd3c9b6c4c2ed652faa805c" class="custom-block full-width-grid alignfull">
<div class="grid-container left wide">
<div class="col-image">OUR SOLUTION</div>
<div class="col-content">
<div class="acf-innerblocks-container">
<p>Plan. Print. Progress. &ndash; Our 3D concrete printer INSTATIQ Progress One revolutionizes the construction process by creating three-dimensional concrete structures layer by layer. With this precise and efficient method, we realize planned building models faster and more sustainably than with conventional methods.</p>
<p>INSTATIQ &ndash; Plan. Print. Progress. In the construction industry, where productivity is key, we have a clear vision: to transform building through the use of intelligent robotics. Our goal is to build faster, more sustainably, and more economically with 3D concrete printing. As a spin-off of the Putzmeister Group, we combine decades of expertise with entrepreneurial spirit. With the INSTATIQ P1, we offer an industrial solution for 3D concrete printing. Similar to a 3D printer, it creates three-dimensional structures layer by layer using conventional concrete. Equipped with a 26-meter-long robotic arm and millimeter-precise accuracy, it transforms BIM models into load-bearing walls directly on the construction site &ndash; without the need for complex formwork. Together, we&rsquo;re shaping the future of construction &ndash; are you on board?</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

 INSTATIQ | 3D Concrete Printing and Rupp Gebäudedruck

3D-Printed Basement: How Robotics Is Transforming Concrete Construction

INSTATIQ

<p>DataDrivenAEC is an AI implementation consultancy built exclusively for architecture, engineering, and construction firms. Founded by Shicong Cao &mdash; a licensed architect, AIA Speaker, and AI Pioneer recognized by TOPOS Magazine &mdash; the platform translates real AEC workflows into working AI systems tailored to each practice.</p>
<p>The AAA Framework: Every engagement follows the Augment, Automate, Analyze framework &mdash; a proven approach to AI adoption that starts with quick wins and scales to firm-wide transformation:</p>
<p>- Augment: Brainstorm with AI, generate design visuals, master prompting for AEC tasks<br>- Automate: Build AI agents that handle repetitive work &mdash; RFI routing, deadline alerts, email classification, task creation from meetings<br>- Analyze: Make 20 years of project data searchable, predict costs from historical data, identify patterns across client feedback</p>
<p>DataDrivenAEC builds custom AI agents that run 24/7 on your firm's data:<br>- RFP Automation: Auto-generate SF330s and proposal responses from past projects in 90 minutes<br>- Knowledge Management: Search your entire project archive instantly &mdash; specs, decisions, lessons learned<br>- Compliance Checking: Catch IBC, ADA, and code violations in real-time during SD/DD<br>- Email Classification: Auto-sort 100+ daily emails &mdash; RFIs, submittals, invoices &mdash; to the right project<br>- Task Tracking: Auto-create tasks from emails and meeting notes</p>
<p>Data Processing &amp; Analytics: We work with your existing data at every stage of the pipeline &mdash; from raw documents to actionable insights:- Data Extraction: Pull structured data from PDFs, drawings, contracts, and emails automatically<br>- Tagging &amp; Classification: Label and organize project documents, specifications, and assets at scale<br>- Analytics &amp; Reporting: Turn unstructured project history into dashboards, cost benchmarks, and performance insights</p>
<p>How It Works<br>Engagements run in three phases: a 1-week Discovery to map workflows and identify AI opportunities, a 4-week Proof of Concept to build and validate one working system, then a 3-month Scale phase to roll out firm-wide with full team training. Every project is designed so your firm owns the data and the results &mdash; no vendor lock-in, no black boxes.</p>

DataDrivenAEC

Makersite is an award-winning data software company that develops next-generation product data management tools for the global manufacturing industry.  The platform is the only cloud-based platform combining data aggregation and live applications for agile product life cycle management.<br /><br />Makersite empowers companies to manage product sustainability, cost, and compliance. The state-of-the-art approach to product data management has allowed companies of all shapes and sizes to take advantage of what it has to offer. For larger enterprises, the reduction in complexity and increase in agility is the main aim, while for small businesses, the search for cost effective solutions is the main driving force. Through a cutting-edge technology, big data, and breakthrough algorithms, companies can track a product’s emission footprint throughout the entire supply chain, including Scope 3 emissions, bringing carbon accounting to the next level.<br /><br />Makersite uses artificial intelligence and graph technology to build digital twins of manufactured products. This approach enable teams to measure impacts and collaboratively identify optimal mitigation strategies and new sourcing opportunities in real-time and make better products, faster. Engineers and product teams can develop more compliant, safer, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly products faster, and get results up to 50x faster than traditional methods.<br /><br />Makersite’s AI and Knowledge Graph-powered platform is a powerful solution for managing complex products and supply chains.<br /><br />With its ability to clean, connect and enrich cross-departmental data with third-party sources, it removes the dependency on sustainability, cost and risk experts.<br /><br />The platform provides an array of product and supply chain-related information across sustainability, cost, and compliance metrics. Our AI algorithms automatically detect and connect product components and manufacturing processes to the right supply chain data from a harmonized and hyper-connected database, which solves one of the most time-consuming problems of mapping data to multiple sources at a granular level. The result is a detailed, extremely specific view into deep-tier supply chains, giving users a better understanding of environmental footprints, should-costing, and compliance risks at an unprecedented speed.<br /><br />Makersite integrates with Autodesk, Ansys, Windchill, Netsuite, Smartteam, SAP, SiemensNX, Teamcenter and many more.

With cost, carbon, compliance and supply chain risk data in one platform you can make faster trade-off decisions for your entire product portfolio

Makersite

See into the deep-tiers of your supply chain

At aurivus, we leverage state-of-the-art AI technology to analyze 3D scans of industrial plants and buildings with unparalleled precision. Whether you are in construction, real estate development, or industrial operations, our solutions are designed to enhance your project efficiency and reduce costs. Our AI identifies and classifies a wide range of objects such as pipes, fittings, steel beams, walls, windows, doors, stairs, furniture, and more, providing accurate parameters including length, orientation, and diameter.<br /><br />One of the standout features of our technology is automated quantity surveying. Our AI-driven analysis generates comprehensive quantity take-offs and cost estimations, saving you time and significantly reducing the need for manual modeling. This feature is a game-changer for large industrial projects, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional methods that are often expensive and time-consuming. Additionally, our technology is compatible with LiDAR scanners, including those integrated into the latest iPhone models.

aurivus

We make digital re-selling simple, efficient and secure. <br /><br />Expand your buyer network:<br />Integrate your own buyer group or benefit from our verified buyer network.<br /><br />Achieve the best market price:<br />Choose between different bidding methods or filters and benefit from our experience.<br /><br />Keep full control:<br />Decide freely whether to accept or reject a binding purchase bid.

Result for “Germany”

Case Studies "3 results"

Deutsches Museum in Munich

Neo-Natur

Custom Room Partition Creator Nüsing Designs, Documents, and Collaborates with ARES CAD Software