Trimble and Nemetschek Group form Strategic Alliance
Trimble and Nemetschek Group Partner to Expand Adoption of Building Information Modeling Across Building Design, Construction and Operation
Companies Collaborate to Promote Openness and Interoperability Across their Solution Portfolios
BUDAPEST, May 4, 2015 – GRAPHISOFT®, the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) architectural software developer, has announced that its parent company Nemetschek Group (XETRA: NEM) and Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB), leaders in digital solutions for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) markets, announced today that they have formed a strategic alliance to expand the deployment of Building Information Modeling (BIM) across the entire Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle of buildings. The alliance will emphasize collaborative approaches to design modeling and 5D construction management through data integration between a variety of the companies’ products.
The announcement was made today at the Lake Constance 5D-Conference 2015 held this week in Constance, Germany.
Trimble and Nemetschek will share their extensive global market and technology expertise and collaborate on initiatives to drive a paradigm change in the development and adoption of technologies for the AEC industry and building owners.
The companies intend to:
- Transparently share data formats to support new solutions and promote workflow interoperability between selected products across the DBO lifecycle;
- Tighten the connection of Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) solutions to real data from the field and real objects in the physical world;
- Support interoperability and the longevity of project data for the entire project lifecycle;
- Maintain their respective deep commitments to open standards and workflows for the benefit of the entire industry-rather than for any individual vendor.
Open, Connected and Interoperable via Trimble Connect
Trimble and Nemetschek plan to leverage the Trimble® Connect collaboration platform to integrate workflows and create close interoperability between selected Trimble solutions-including SketchUp, Tekla Structures, Vico Office, Trimble Prolog®, Trimble Field Link and MEPdesigner for SketchUp-and solutions in the Nemetschek portfolio, such as Allplan, ArchiCAD, DDS, SCIA Engineering, Vectorworks and Nevaris.
Both companies are committed to open standards and workflows-a rapidly emerging approach to the collaborative design, construction and operation of buildings. With Nemetschek solutions supporting the Trimble Connect platform-a cloud-based collaboration environment that features an open environment for BIM-based AEC workflows-Trimble and Nemetschek are coordinating their efforts to offer best-of-breed solutions for customers.
“Across the DBO spectrum, customers want the freedom to choose the best tools for the job and the security of knowing those tools will work together. But too often they find that the data they need is not interoperable across their different software workflows,” said Bryn Fosburgh, vice president responsible for Trimble’s Construction Technology Divisions. “Our companies’ shared vision is to give users a choice, rather than dictate what they use. We’re pleased to partner with Nemetschek on these important initiatives.”
“Our customers already enjoy the benefits of workflow integration between most of our products. This collaboration allows us to provide an overarching strategic layer on top of everything we do,” said Patrik Heider, spokesman and Chief Financial & Operations Officer (CFOO) of the Nemetschek Group. “This will better enable us to provide our customers with end-to-end workflow solutions that cover the entire AEC life cycle in a fully transparent and ‘open’ way.”
Trimble and Nemetschek will provide updates on specific collaborative initiatives as the relationship progresses.
About GRAPHISOFT
GRAPHISOFT® ignited the BIM revolution in 1984 with ArchiCAD®, the industry-first BIM software for architects. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative solutions such as its revolutionary BIMcloud®, the world’s first real-time BIM collaboration environment, EcoDesigner™, the world’s first fully BIM-integrated “GREEN” design solution and BIMx®, the world’s leading mobile app for BIM visualization. GRAPHISOFT has been a part of the Nemetschek Group since its acquisition in 2007. Visit archicad.com to see the most important milestones in ArchiCAD’s 30-year history.
Djordje
WHOA!!!!!!
This is some SERIOUS BIM firepower!!! OpenBIM at its best, with real exchange platform!!!
Interesting days ahead!!!
Stefan Boeykens
Where does that leave the BIM+ platform by Nemetschek Allplan? It is a direct competitor/alternative to Trimble Connect. Would you assume they will standardise on one platform? Or continue to develop both?
It makes sense to join forces, possibly “against” Autodesk, with their different cloud and document/project collaboration platforms (A360, BIM360, Buzzsaw, Vault).
Jared Banks
Great question. I’d love to see BIM+ disappear and Trimble Connect become the platform all Nemetschek and Trimble products use. Between the two companies they’ve got a great suite of products and open solutions.
Stefan Boeykens
Can you expand on that? Why should BIM+ disappear? Our tests showed that it performs very well on large IFC models and the API is quite extensive, if a little underdocumented. It seemed to have the edge over Trimble Connect (GTeam).
I had the impression that the different “daughters” of Nemetschek were pretty independent from each other.
Jared Banks
It wasn’t really a dig against BIM+, more that I’d love to see both companies put their weight behind one open solution. And if they are leaning towards Trimble connect, it’d be good to put all the effort in one place rather than two. I honestly don’t know enough about either. If BIM+ is the better platform right now, then I’d change my comment to be support that one.
Jared Banks
And yes, the different companies at Nemetschek are super independent of each other. Perhaps too much so? I don’t know. Whatever promotes IFC and openbim.