Architects and Engineers Will Save the World: Synergy Between Autodesk Forma, Revit, and InfraWorks

JOSEPH HUANG: All right, welcome to AU 2024. It is 11:51. The class name is Architects and Engineers Will Save the World, Synergy between Autodesk, Forma, Revit, and InfraWorks. My name is Joseph Huang. And I'm honored here to copresent with my colleague Raghavendra Bhat.

Let's start with a brief introduction. I'm principal architect BIM and innovation leader based in our Stantec Chicago office, licensed architect registered in Illinois and Texas. My experience covers from buildings to weight infrastructure. I used to teach at Northwestern University.

Last but not least, we feel so lucky and honored-- by the way, we work very, very hard. We have present-- probably this year is probably like a 10 or more than 10 times at AU. And every year, we learn a lot. And we are so excited to share everything we know with you guys.

RAGHAVENDRA BHAT: Hi, everyone. I'm Raghavendra. I'm senior BIM implementation specialist at Stantec in Phoenix office. I'm a civil engineer and experience from wet infrastructure, buildings, and transportation. I've spoken at AU previously. And Joseph came to me earlier this year with a challenge. And that's why I'm here. And we'll talk about it later in this presentation about coordinates.

JOSEPH HUANG: So let's move to the next slide, starting from agenda. Here is a quick agenda. We will start from the introduction then the comparison between Forma and InfraWorks because there are so many similarities, also uniqueness. Then we will focus on analysis features from Forma, Revit, InfraWorks. Then we move to the integrated workflows between these three applications and ending with tips and tricks.

And this is part of introduction. The reason we decided to work on this topic-- I mean, of course, earlier this year, when we submit the proposals, we submit a lot. And this is one of my favorite. And here's a story because Raghu and I we delivered a presentation, related to InfraWorks, called Making Something from Nothing, New Ways of Using InfraWorks for Your Design, last year.

And I still remember during the Q&A, there was a gentleman asked me like, have you considered or compared Forma and InfraWorks? And at the beginning, I kind of confused. Or I keep answering, yes, we know how to bring the Formit model in. But, actually, it's about Forma. So this is something we are not quite sure. But any Q&A from last year has become our homework.

And we prepare and ready for this year's presentation. So luckily, last year, the same week during the AU, I took hands-on lab class. And by the way, hands-on lab class is a good opportunity for you to explore something you never, never touch before because the Autodesk provide-- AU provide the software and hardware for you to mess around with a very experienced instructor.

So last years AU, I took a class. It's called Architects Will Save the World, Simple AI Tools to Get to Net Zero in Conceptual Design by the Autodesk-Forma team. And after I return from AU, I also request IT give me the entitlement. And I have the assets to Autodesk Forma. So I start to play around learning and apply on projects.

So earlier this year, when I'm about to write the proposals, I start to think, hmm, maybe I can use a similar topic? And I got inspired. I mean, the reason I put this one-- because it's like a quotation. I learned a similar way to give the fancy title, eye-catching title. But because we are working in the engineering architectural firm, EA firm, where engineers got a majority of percentage.

So thinking about this, how can I convince my bosses? Say, I'm going to-- we are going to attend AU. But we are going to say something. Architects will save the world. So that's why we add engineers. Besides that, we decided to combine the benefits of InfraWorks, which majority of infrastructure and transportation engineer using.

So we end up with this topic, Architects and Engineers Will Save the World. Synergy between Autodesk, Forma, Revit, and InfraWorks assume majority of AEC professionals are using Revit. And Forma is new. And probably majority of users are architects. Then InfraWorks probably majority of users are engineers or infrastructure designers. Then it will be very interesting to integrate it all three together.

Let's start with comparison. So I have prepared a comparison matrix table. But we still can show something like graphics first. So image on the right side is InfraWorks Model Builder. And the image on the left side is Forma. And you see they're very similar in the beginning for the project Setup. But the size difference.

So InfraWorks can create a project area limit. It's almost like 60 times bigger than Forma. So it's good for a regional planning, urban planning where Forma is good and strong for a sustainable design and the urban renewal. So, say, if today we have a project site and focus on a couple blocks, then using Forma, no problem. But beyond that, we will show you a workaround.

So let's continue. So in order to have a fair comparison, Apple compared with Apple. So I use the same area. And I chose Chicago because this is the city I live for almost 20 years. And I'm familiar with that. So I can always go to the job site and check to see if anything different.

So the image on the left side is Forma and on the right side is InfraWorks and the same area boundary. As you can see, all the buildings are monotone Forma. And maybe because it's lightweight-- it's using that web base. By the way, during a comparison-- OK, I will mention that later. So it's the lightweight Forma.

And InfraWorks is visually more rich. And you can see textures. But even you can see the textures-- the textures is not 100% equivalent to the real world building materials. It just looks cool. I mean, because I know lots of buildings in Chicago, and they are not the same. But, I mean, if you compare with the Google Earth, this is not the same.

But the cool thing is the InfraWorks Model Builder, we can quickly, within 10 minutes, generate this. This is called Chicago City Model. And we use InfraWorks for the proposal for any conceptual design, like a video file, a lot because this is a quick way to generate impressive visual images, visual models. And we also call it [INAUDIBLE] model. I will explain more details later on.

Let's move to the comparison matrix. And, nowadays, a lot of people using AI-powered tools ChatGPT, Copilot-- so a couple of months ago, when we start to prepare this presentation, I was thinking about maybe I can use Copilot or ChatGPT to save some time. I couldn't find anything because nobody start this comparison before. But maybe next year when you guys type the comparison matrix between all the transformer and InfraWorks, you might get something because we spend time to create it.

So let's dive in. Starting from platform, Forma is web-based. InfraWorks is application-based. And both has autosave feature. Then the data location, Forma has its own cloud. InfraWorks used to be its own cloud. But probably since five years ago, InfraWorks has fully integrated with BIM 360/ACC.

Invite people for collaboration, both yes because InfraWorks is integrated with BIM 360/ACC. So the invite is from ACC or the permission level controlled by ACC. I'll just say that, as I mentioned earlier, it is similar, but the size different. So InfraWorks is 60 times bigger.

One is by Model-- InfraWorks is by Model Builder. And the other one just select the area. And it's using the Open City Model. Site context with aerial imagery, both yes, Coordinate system is different. So AutoDesk Forma is using a UTM on a system. InfraWorks is using a UCS.

So you can control the location per your desire. And Raghu explained some work around and tips and tricks later on. I mean, while preparing this PowerPoint presentation and handouts, we feel like a coding system is a little bit challenging and tricky.

GIS Source. So Forma is using OpenStreetMap to get the majority of data, same as InfraWorks. And the USGS is very common. Forma also use the FEMA for the building blocks. InfraWorks is using Microsoft Bing Maps for the aerial image.

Trace is very different. So Forma is simplified. So Forma trace looks like a LEGO, is very generic. And InfraWorks, trees, more realistic-- last year, we also present how to use InfraWorks for the landscape design. So they got a lot of selections for the trees. I think they both are yes. Also, Forma can use the plugin code TestFit for parking solution.

Bridge. As I mentioned earlier, InfraWorks is more for a transportation engineer, infrastructure engineers. So InfraWorks can create a bridge Forma can map. Design options both will be yes with some solutions we will introduce later. There are a lot of analysis features. And I have prepared some slides to talk about that.

So here, I just fly through the lighting analysis. Yes, I mean, InfraWorks has no direct analysis. But there's a work around. There are a lot of analysis features. I'm going to talk about that in the following slides. Revit plugins is important. So Forma is the bidirectional plugin between Revit and Forma.

InfraWorks, we need to use a feature called Civil Structures so we can import the bridge, like from InfraWorks as IMX to Revit. But to bring it out, we need to use a different format. So that leads to another conversation, like interoperability, a lot of import export formats. Please refer to our handouts for more details.

Visualization styles. So as I mentioned, Forma is web-based. So everything should be lightweight, lightweight display. But the display options also has the option to show the satellite. So if we show the satellite, we can show the aerial images. And InfraWorks is realistic. So there's a conceptual view and engineering view. Then the project fails.

So thinking it probably shares a life cycle, Forma we usually use for the proposal and conceptual phase. But InfraWorks, because it allow us to import almost all the 350 level of the Revit model-- so we can use InfraWorks up to detail design.

And use case, we use InfraWorks. Sorry, we use Forma for urban planning, building blocks study, housing analysis. We use InfraWorks for site context model and infrastructure design. And we also can use a fly-through video.

By the way, I noticed I forgot to press Continue because I prepared a slide with some highlights. So let me press that one. It's the same thing I already mentioned. And last but not least, I also mentioned the cost because cost matters because you may rewatch this video, after maybe one or two years after the AU 2024.

So this is just a reference. Please refer to Autodesk website to see the latest price because the different content. So the price cannot just compare one by one. But it's just for your reference. The other thing we did not mention on this slide, but we put in our handouts, is hardware requirements comparison. And it's important because Forma is just web-based.

So, basically, you can use the Google Chrome or iPad to use that. But InfraWorks, you require a decent laptop with a very good graphics card because it's a real-time rendering. And with the size, can you imagine a 200 square kilometer-- so, usually, the file size is much, much bigger.

Let's move to analysis. So because this class will focus on integration-- so analysis features, we just scratch the surfaces. And here I use the comparison method. I try to group all the similarities together because you can see, for example, I purposely put Revit-- I mean, this is about the sun shading analysis.

And I believe majority of Revit users understand, oh, this enable sun shading. And you got a big circle. And you can see the shadow at a specific time of the year. And what if we know Forma-- but if we learn InfraWorks, we may do something different or much better. That's why I provide this comparison.

So the image on the top, those two images is from-- they are from Forma. One is called sun hours. So sun hours, you can see the shadow. It's like shadow study. The other one is called daylight potential. Daylight potential means you click any specific spot of the building elevation or even the roof. It gives you the percentage.

So if the percentage-- for example, if I click this corner, then I will get very, very low. That means you may reconsider, like change the building layout, change your building geometry. As I said, InfraWorks, they don't have the analysis feature talking about sun shading. But there is a work around. And the image here is a little bit small. So please refer to our handouts for the step-by-step instruction.

So talking about Autodesk, InfraWorks, we can enable the shadow casting right here. So once we have a shadow casting interface, we can change the time and date of the invoice model in the sun and sky settings to reflect the different times of the day. Excuse me. I need to drink water.

So InfraWorks, we can enable the shadow casting to see the shadow in different times of the day in the year, including wind and cloud coverage. I mean, if previous one is about sun shading, this one is the daylight analysis, so slightly different. And I have used this image from the previous slide.

But comparison between Forma and Revit-- so Forma data analysis is about the exterior. So you can click any specific spot and check the daylight potential. Revit, you can see interior. So once we enable the analysis feature of the data analysis in Revit-- and usually what I would do is go to the 3D Enable section box.

And you see the color coding. The cyan color means sufficient daylighting. The dark gray means maybe not enough. So as an architect, we can start to think, maybe we need to provide more daylighting by providing window openings or skylight or maybe create an atrium to allow more daylighting to come in. Then this one is called solar energy analysis.

So the image on the left side is Forma. Image on the right side is Revit. So this one is-- say, if you want to design a photovoltaic PV panel, then it provides you the good location to optimize the solar energy. Then Revit can do the same thing. But it may take a little bit longer or only cover the roof area. Forma can cover elevation in the roof because Revit is using additional parking for inside [INAUDIBLE] the solar analysis.

Then this is getting popular. So Revit 2025, there's a new feature called total carbon analysis. Forma, on the left side, can also do the carbon analysis. But it's embedded. So what is different between embedded and total carbon analysis? Embedded carbon means a carbon footprint of the building before it's operational.

So that means the greenhouse gases emitted during the construction, that's embedded. Then total carbon referred to the carbon produced throughout the entire project lifetime, including construction and operational. So because we [INAUDIBLE] Forma since early of this year. And before July, there was another one and maybe better.

By the way, Forma new features keep changing. So you need to keep learning. So before July, there was a new feature called operational energy analysis. And it was removed after July because it cannot handle the complex design.

Then let's move to uniqueness. So wind analysis is very unique in Forma. And as we can see, there are two different types. The first one is talking about the comfort level. So as you can see the rate, this means strong wind and not comfortable. And green means that is good. So maybe we can have a picnic over there without any problem.

We also have a wind direction. So you see the wind stream is with the different direction. So there are a lot of things we can see from the wind analysis. Also, for any Forma analysis, there are two types. One is called rapid wind analysis. So it's real time, quickly generate.

The other one is a detailed wind analysis. So if we run the detailed wind analysis, we can see more details. Then this one is called microclimate analysis. So it helps us to calculate the perceived temperature because just like you see the case, today is like, say, 80 degree Fahrenheit but in reality maybe feel like 90 degree because of humidity because of a direct sun angle or any kind of factors. So this feature allows us to see more data like humidity, cloud cover, direct sun radiation, and so on.

Then this one is called noise analysis. And by the way, I really like the graphics. So the noise analysis is a little bit challenging. In order to generate this beautiful analysis result, I need two parameters. One is called speed limit. The other one is called annual average daily traffic. Both datas are not by default from Forma.

And the first one, I need to get that one from Google Street View. I need to navigate around and to see if I'm lucky enough to see the traffic sign. Otherwise, I need to make some assumptions, say, near school, near park is 20 miles per hour. Then the annual average daily traffic is another big data. Usually, we can collect that one from Department of Transportation.

But there are a lot, and refer to our handouts. We provide a link. We provide a lot of instructions for the international users. Maybe the different countries got different authorization to provide this number, the data, important data to generate this noise analysis.

Then let's move to the InfraWorks. So this is traffic simulation. And in InfraWorks, as long as we convert the planning road to the component road and define the area, as long as there is an intersection with the multiple roads, intersect passing together. Then we can run the traffic simulation. You also need to install and maintain the latest Java Runtime Environment on your PC.

So this is a quick way to see the traffic simulation. And this one, we also feel, is very useful. And we have presented a similar since last year. So, say, in a mountain-- the job site on a high mountain. So this one is called site distance analysis. And as you can see the green here means site clear. And imagine that Raghu is driving downhill.

And this one, yellow means site failure. Why? Because it got blocked by this angle of the building, thus, obstruction. So the solution for the transportation engineer or anything, we can put a mirror here. Or maybe we can put a yellow fresh line or maybe put a stop sign. I mean, the cool thing is InfraWorks really focus on transportation. And we can visualize the benefits.

And [INAUDIBLE] transportation is also water related. So this one is called Watershed Analysis, allow users to identify and analyze watersheds. And we can select the component road or the lowest point in the terrain.

And it quickly generate-- say, high mountain, if snow melt or heavy rain, then the rain will flow through this area and also create-- the line here is called streams. So it identifies the streams. As long as the stream crossing the road, InfraWorks will automatically suggest a location for covers. So, basically, it creates a tunnel, a culvert underneath of the road or bridge for the water to pass through.

So this is a quick summary for the synergy. So we conclude, Forma is good for buildings and urban planning. InfraWorks is good for transportation, terrain, water, infrastructure, and landscape. And Revit, assume everybody use that. So architects and engineers should work together.

And, usually, noise and traffic analysis is done by engineers and architects with analysis done by engineers and architects. And daylighting analysis thus building integrated photovoltaics-- and because it may related with building layout and the building geometry. So at this moment, maybe architects will lead that, and engineers will support for a lot of calculations, which architects probably cannot handle.

OK, let's move to the integration. Integration between Forma, Revit, and InfraWorks. So let's start with high-level diagram. So in initial concept design phase, we can start with Forma, for the site analysis, for the conceptual design, and especially for the sustainable design analysis.

Then we move to the detailed design. So Forma can, with a bidirectional [INAUDIBLE] now to Revit. Then from Revit, we can use FBX print to InfraWorks. So we just move from the conceptual design to the more detailed design, 3D modeling. And we can learn a lot of, for example, traffic simulation or watershed analysis in InfraWorks.

Then let's move to the next step because InfraWorks integrated with ACC with BIM 360. So we can do the collaboration and engage with stakeholders. We can do the visualization. We can do the collaboration. Visualization, for example, the files to video.

Then we move to this refinement and finalization. So a lot of things we can go back and forth. So this is format and InfraWorks. We can collect the feedback and integrate that for final design. Then let's focus on the software to software. So Forma to Revit workflow. And I really like the bidirectional.

So the matrix table here, you can see, anything you create in Forma, like a basic building, line building, can convert as Revit walls, floors, and roofs. And I don't need to read all of this. As you can see, even parking convert to the parking families. And terrain in Forma will convert to the toposolids.

This is the new Revit before 2023. Revit toposurface-- I mean, topography is called toposurface. It's just like a piece of surface. But toposurface, you can do a lot of things, including, doing some excavation. So I really like Revit toposolids. And what I try to say is Forma terrain convert to Revit toposolids has a lot of potentials. And even the aerial images from Forma can translate to Revit toposolid terrain images.

And another thing I want to mention-- because Forma until today is using the UTM coordinate system. So every time when we create a new proposal, new project in Forma, we need to generate a new Revit project. Why? Because if you have a current Revit project and you try to bring in the Forma-exported Revit, it will mess up the current coordinate system.

So the best way is always create a new Revit project. And any existing Revit project, use the link, link in to your Forma-exported Revit project for study. And, currently, Forma doesn't support the link models. So we need to buy the links. I mean, a lot of tips and tricks we will explain in the following slides to save our time. Let's continue.

So let's move on. Previous slide I mentioned from Forma to Revit. Then right now we can extend Forma to Revit to InfraWorks. So Forma to Revit is using a plugin and bidrectional. From Revit, we can export it now.

We prepare some 3D views and save the 3D views. So every time the design changes, you got a 3D view updated. We're exporting out low 3D views as FBX and bring in to InfraWorks with a broader site context.

And, remember, I previously said, the trees, this is the InfraWorks trees, the pine trees. And this is different type of trees. I mean, as an architect, and got a strong interest about landscape, I do care about trees. So now let's-- for Raghu to mention the most challenging one and most cruel content of this presentation.

RAGHAVENDRA BHAT: I was given this challenge earlier this year by Joseph on how we can accurately geolocate the FBX files or whether it's OBJ files in InfraWorks and Forma. Obviously, you can have different file formats that you can bring to the right coordinate system. But we would like to use FBX because it retains the textures very well. And sometimes we also want to use OBJ because it helps us reduce the file size.

I did some quick Google search to find if there is a solution. I also asked ChatGPT or even Copilot to see if there is a straightforward answer. But there's no straightforward answer. So what we are going to show you today is something what GPT can't tell you yet. Maybe tomorrow it will.

So the trick here is to use the northing and easting where the project internal point is. So if you copy the northing and easting-- as you can see on the screen, there is a northing and easting. If you copy those values-- and when you are in the data source configuration in Navisworks, if you paste these values-- and remember the northing is the x value.

And the easting-- sorry, the easting is the x-value. And the northing is the y value. So remember to fill it in correctly. So if you copy these values and paste it into your data source configurator and also have the coordinate system as XY-IFT, which indicates x and y. IFT is Imperial Feet.

Make sure you use the right units. If you have exported the FBX in feet, then use feet. And if you are using metric, then use x, y meters. And use the right coordinate system that is being used in Revit as well. In this case, it's C83-BF.

So fill all these values in appropriately. Make sure you're using the northing and easting from your internal origin. That's very important. Wherever your internal origin in Revit is, that's the value that you need to copy. And when you update it, you will see that the FBX file falls right on the spot.

Next slide, Joseph. And the same challenge is with the OBJ files. And it also has the same solution. But, again, an additional challenge here is when you bring in the OBJ files, it shows up as inverted. So the only change here you would do is go into the 3D model in the data source configurator. You see the tab on the right hand side where you see the 3D model. That's where you flip the y and z-values. So when you do that, the model will align to the x, y-plane.

And, again, next, Joseph. So this is where, again, you fill in the values for the northing and easting. Make sure you use the right coordinate system, whether it's imperial or metric. In this case, I won't actually use the x, y metric meters. So I can show you, in this case, if you fall into such scenarios, you can use a scale factor in the bottom. That helps you scale the model to the right size that you need. But it will geolocate when you use these conditions.

So, again, remember the trick is to use the coordinates from the internal origin location. Next slide, Joseph. All right, so now let's look at how you can apply the same for Forma. So if you want to geolocate a model that was developed in Revit and you want to geolocate it in Forma, how do we do this? So for that, let's take a proof of concept as an example.

So you can see this nice design 1 option tower that I designed. I'm a civil engineer. And it's right next to the Navy Pier, the Children's Museum just next to that. So I have design option 1 created. And next slide, Joseph. And then I have design option 2. So what we will look at today is trying to bring these two design options and geolocate it in Forma.

Next slide, Joseph. The first and foremost I would do is isolate these two towers independently and export them as an OBJ file. So it's a straightforward activity within Revit where you have export options to export different CAD formats. And OBJ is one of them.

Next slide, Joseph. So this is the Forma interface. And on the left hand side, you can see there is a library where we have options to either order data. You can purchase different GIS information and download it. Or you can import it from your local directory, whether it's an OBJ file. There are different file formats that it supports.

Next slide, Joseph. So you can see here the file formats, the OBJ, IFC, FBX-- not FBX, but DXF, JPG, PNG. And important thing to note is the maximum file size of 100 MB is allowed to be imported.

Next slide, Joseph. So as soon as you import OBJ file, you'll see that the model is laying down flat on the surface on the grid. And, also, you'll notice that the units have been defaulted to meters. I don't know the reason why it may be meters, maybe because Forma originated from Spacemaker. But I really don't know what's happening in the background, why it is showing meters by default. But at least we know that it's reading the units in meters. And that's why the model is scaled up.

Next slide, Joseph. So what I do is I change the units to feet. And I also click on rotate so that I can align it to the x, y-plane. The next thing we need to do is to fill in the coordinate system. So now go back into Revit and note down the coordinate system. Here you can see it as UTM-8469. So all I need to do is note down UTM-16, from here, and now go back into Forma.

Next slide, Joseph. And I would use the dropdown for the coordinate system here and select UTM-69. Next slide, Joseph. And as soon as I put that in, you can see I can start seeing the map instead of the grid. I can see the map showed up. So I also have to fill in the XYZ values. So now, again, I go back into Revit.

Next slide, Joseph. And, again, remember to copy the coordinates where your internal origin is. So I copy the northing, easting, and elevation from Revit. Next slide, Joseph. And I would paste it in here. But note that the values have to be in meters again. I tried to do it in foot. I don't know why, it just doesn't take the values in foot. So I had to convert it into meters. And I used, again, a quick converter to convert the values.

Next slide, Joseph. And I put in the XYZ values here. And you can see, as soon as I did that, the model geolocated to the right spot in the map. Next slide, Joseph. And now it's time to bring it into the Canvas. So now once it's in the library, I can Right-Click on it. And there are options to place in Canvas. I do that.

Next slide, Joseph. And it automatically shows up in the right spot. You can see that that's the location that we were looking at in Revit, just beside the Navy Pier and Children's Museum. Next slide, Joseph. And I say, yes, the geometry gets imported into your base layer.

Next slide, Joseph. Now, we also want to bring in two different design options. You can see on the left hand side, I have design proposal 1 and then proposal 2. So if you have bought it-- if you imported this component into the original design, then you can always right click on it. And then you have different options here. You can see can copy, you can cut, and you can paste. So I can always cut and paste between different proposals within Forma.

Next slide, Joseph. And you can see here, I have this proposal 1 where I have this design option 1 showing up. And next slide, Joseph. And now I have design proposal 2 where I have design option 2. And in this way, by using the values, the trick was to copy the values from the internal origin from Revit and use it as a northing and easting when you place it either in Forma or in InfraWorks.

I didn't know this prior to trying to find this when Joseph asked me. When I did some research and tested out, it all worked out well. So I'm going to go back and [INAUDIBLE] ChatGPT. So, tomorrow, maybe if you ask GPT, it's going to tell you this answer. Thank you, Joseph.

JOSEPH HUANG: Wow, excellent job. Raghu, thank you for figuring out the most challenging issues with a great solution. So now let's go back to here. Now, we know how to bring the model from Forma to Revit to InfraWorks. And we need to reverse that because once you know how to do the reverse way, then you can master those three applications.

So let's say I'm a civil engineer and, oh, maybe architects can do this. So let's say I design a pedestrian bridge in InfraWorks. And I want to bring to Forma for wind analysis-- so from InfraWorks, I can export it out as IMX

And as I mentioned earlier, there's a civil structural plugin. So there's a way to bring the pedestrian bridge from InfraWorks to Revit for further design, like I want to put some girders. Or I want to put some railing. Then from here, as Raghu mentioned earlier, there is a way to bring by either OBJ or IFC to Forma for the wind analysis.

And as you can see, the result on top of the pedestrian bridge is great. So it's a strong wind. And maybe we can figure out a solution how to reduce the strong wind. So this is the overall design workflow. And you can have your own region.

As you can see, Autodesk, Forma, or InfraWorks is using for the early phase printing phase. And moving to the design phase, there are a lot of applications. And the reason we show this because most of the time people think Navisworks is the right tool for the federated model.

But last year's AU, we already present-- we can use InfraWorks as a federated model because it contains not only the discipline design models but also the site context. Let's move to the use case examples. And the background is the entire project.

So that's starting from this one. So early of this year when I play around this, I got so excited one day. One day I told Raghu-- I say, we can use Forma the CFD, Computational Fluid Dynamics, for the tall building design because I used to work in a high rise building architectural firm, SOM.

So I remember back to then, we need to create a physical models of a tall building and send to the wind tunnel testing device area and spend a lot of time and effort even using a little bit expensive software called Autodesk CFD. But now we can use Forma in the early phase conceptual phase for the tall building CFD design. And why I got so excited? Because when I punctured a hole here, the wind direction, it just penetrate here. That means those wind direction-- it recognize the building geometry.

Then this one is about a traffic study, traffic simulation, and noise analysis. So from time to time, especially in the urban setting, we need to deal with the noise. And that's architects and engineers responsibility to make the comfort level for the pedestrian, for the residents. And if we can use both tools to optimize the good design to avoid noise-- and because noise and traffic are correlated. So if we know these two applications very well, we can synergy both.

Then this one is important because it's our project, our current project. I mean, I don't want to mention the project name. But the location is in Southwest Oregon. And it's called resevoir.

Usually, in the mountain area, we have upper reservoir and lower reservoir. It's using the gravity and the water to generate the power. It's like hydraulic power, like a powerhouse because sometimes, especially, in the dry months, we don't have a lot of water to generate enough power.

So in our office, we propose another solution. This is floating PV panel on top of a reservoir. And we can generate solar energy. So it's solar energy. Water is all renewable energy. But we also can put the turbine because what if during the nights-- during the nights, no sun, but we still got a strong wind.

So imagine this. We can create low wind turbines in InfraWorks. We can bring to Forma for the wind analysis. We also can run the solar energy analysis and just take the benefits of both.

So the synergy is not only-- I mean, the image-- this image means the engineering synergy, synergy between solar energy and water power energy, hydropower energy. But this one, the two images on the left side is the software. So we synergy the benefits between Forma and InfraWorks.

Now, let's move to tips and tricks. So this one is also important. We document the most important and share you guys. So earlier of this year, we're testing model based on our current design project. So I just quickly share that one, upload to the ACC.

And Raghu call me, Joseph, you say Forma-exported Revit model should show the terrain from Forma. But I cannot see any images. And I checked. Wait a minute. It's red. Red means that is missing material. And I realized, I mean, after we recreate another one, and it shows.

So we conclude, the Forma-generated Revit model is something like a material. But it's also part of a project. It's called texture image. And the texture image usually reside on the local, where your local Revit model is saved.

So we need to bring those textures to the ACC and replace. So you can see a terrain texture associated with the project location. And the next time you open, you see the aerial images. That's very important tips and tricks we document here and we want to show you guys.

Another one is also interesting. As I mentioned earlier, the Forma got limited size, only like 3.4 kilometer. So for my project, the rest of the projects, we got upper reservoir and lower reservoir. And I cannot cover all. But we got a work around.

So Forma allows the different proposals with the different map area. So as long as I duplicate-- I create another proposal. So I call it upper reservoir proposal, lower reservoir proposal. I can adjust the map area. And the best thing is that enable the terrain so you can see and just move and duplicate the proposal and create another one.

And this one I really like because it shows a lot. I mean, imagine if I have a presentation and I show this one in one of my slides, it convince the client I did my homework. So this is a compare analysis feature in Forma.

From the left to right is the solar energy study, sun hour, wind analysis, noise analysis. And there's an option we can compare multiple one together. And, visually, it is cool. I really like the color as an architect.

And there's another feature called Board. And by the way, you'll notice the interface change while we prepare this PowerPoint presentation. So before it's three tips. And right now it's a dropdown menu, the latest one. Sorry. So this one is the whiteboard presentation board or digital whiteboard. We can drag and drop. And either we use a snapshot or we use live. But live one only covers the design view.

So the analysis result is using a snapshot. And we can quickly create this layout for the discussion. So, I mean, it really depends. If I say this one is more for formal presentation, this one is more for an internal workshop and discussion.

And imagine the area matrix is also live and design view is live. So if I update a design, the number changes. So I can quickly review the floor area ratio and a lot of data or even parking lot requirements. And this is part of the design process. We also can see different type of analysis, as a result.

So let's move to the current limitations. Geolocation. The load in Forma will overwrite existing Revit location. So the best way is to not overwrite. Just every time create new Revit project and use any existing Revit models linked in.

And design interoperability-- currently, Forma doesn't support link models. So we need to bind, binding the link models before loading in. Revit edits terrain, cannot update back to Forma. So although Revit and Forma got bidrectional capability-- but they got some constraints, like imported 3D DWG in Revit cannot update it back to Forma. And design option is not supported.

But it's to show you we have a work around. As long as you save the design, you save the 3D views, exporting out from Revit as OBJ, then we can bring to Forma as design option. And this one is a challenge.

As I identified earlier, the noise analysis, we need to manually input the data collection from two datas, speed limits and annual average daily traffic. We need to collect lost datas in order to run the noise analysis. That's why sometimes to create a noise analysis will take a little bit of time.

Let's move to the conclusion. So the image on the right, that is from the AU 2023 last year. It's the Forma [INAUDIBLE]. And as the first Forma offering, targeting, the planning, and early stage building design-- the long-term goal of Forma is create AECO, architecture, engineering, construction, and operations industry crowd, unify all the BIM workflows across the teams that operate the build environments.

We can enable the data to flow seamlessly across project phases, stakeholders, and asset types. So all of this, Forma connects all the Autodesk existing products. I mean, again, this is their roadmap. Currently, it connect Dynamo. It connect Rhino. But it does not integrate with ACC Autodesk Docs yet and Civil 3D not yet, Inventor not yet.

So, again, this is their road map, their goal. But I think this is moving to a right direction because it used a lightweight cloud-based Forma, to have that product life cycle solution

Hopefully today's presentation can inspire other devs from our team to take some features from InfraWorks into the development roadmap. And InfraWorks is application-based. But, nowadays, a lot of cloud-based solutions is more convenient because we can work everywhere. We can bring our iPad to the construction site. And maybe everything we mentioned today will be available in the near future.

And we really hope this is the good way to stimulate Autodesk to provide the important things as end users require. So thank you so much for your time and patience. That is the end of our presentation. Thank you.