10 Ways Autodesk Forge Certified Systems Integrators Can Help You

SANJANA CHAND: Hello. Welcome to the class 10 Ways a Forge SI Can Help You. My name is Sanjana Chand. I am the Forge developer marketing manager, and I'll be your host for the next 40 minutes.

Autodesk Forge is a cloud based developer platform, that unlocks design and engineering data to fuel creative problem solving. It's a growing ecosystem of APIs and services, that accelerates application development, letting you extend the Autodesk portfolio and build custom solutions that solve today's challenges. By helping you connect workflows and data across projects and industries, Forge lets you focus on creating the design and make experiences that will power a better future.

Now we know not everyone who can benefit from the Forge platform is a software developer. So we have a variety of Autodesk Forge Certified Systems Integrators, to help you build these custom solutions. They are located all over the world, and have a proven track record of helping many clients across the AEC and design and manufacturing industries. Today, we'll hear from 10 systems integrators, and explore the solutions they've built for their customers.

You can browse the full list of Forge SI's and find the right one for you and your needs at the Autodesk Services Marketplace. You'll find information on each of these Forge SI's and ways to get in touch with them in the session handout on the class page. And of course, please get in touch with me if you have any questions at all. So let's get started.

First let's head over to Serbia to hear from Team CAD, an Autodesk Gold partner, and consulting company that focuses on BIM and manufacturing consulting, application development, digital twin maintenance, and more. They've used Forge to build solutions for BIM, facilities management, product configurators, and product data management.

VLADIMIR GUTESA: Hello from Serbia. My name is Vladimir Gutesa, and I'm representing Team Cad, a Forge Systems Integrator. Today I will talk about how we help our customer Xella Serbia.

Xella Serbia is part of Xella Group, a large building materials manufacturer. As they have large product portfolio, one of their problems was the fact that, a lot of their customers had hard time to find information, write material, or to understand what material combination is suitable for different wall types. They were looking for solutions that will provide all information in one place, that will be informative, and on the first place, easy to use. Additionally, they wanted to promote BIM technologies.

We solved both problems by using Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Forge. Let me show you how we did it. First, we created a Revit template, with 78 different wall types, with all Xella materials information, ready for modeling, documentation, and quantity take off. Then using Forge, technology we created a web app with 3D wall models, showing all materials, and connected with data sources.

By using the application, you could select one of the wall categories, then a wall type-- let's say classic 25. You can rotate wall 3D model. And if you select one of wall elements, selected material will be highlighted in provided table. You will receive short material description. And you will be able to download the official PDF document of selected material, or PDF regarding selected wall.

By selecting this yellow button, you will be able to download Revit template file shown on beginning of presentation. On the other hand, if you select element in the table, that material will be isolated in one model. Additionally, you can enter required wall service, and receive complete material costs and costs of construction works, based on user input. So by using Forge technology, we managed to create simple to use web application with graphical representation of all types, and use materials and all important data in one place, with option to download and use provided Revit template.

We developed some more Forge applications. I will quickly show you some of them. We create a digital twin of existing shopping mall in Novi Sad, Serbia. Then a BIM real estate application for building owners that are renting apartments. Application is showing available apartments, tracks most popular apartments, and other visitor analytics, providing panoramic view of apartments, and offering some facility management functions.

Then we created a Forge based app for presentation of reconstruction plan of one wastewater and biogas facility. We developed an application that creates model and documentation of kitchen elements, based on user inputs. And a wall shelf application that create a 3D model, and complete manufacturing documentation based on user drawings. And at the end, internet of things application, where we are connecting real time sensor data with a Forge model. If you need any additional information, you can contact me on provided email, or you can check one of our websites. Thank you for your time.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Vladimir. Now let's move over to Techture, a Forge SI based in India. Techture, is a consulting firm working to provide collaborative solutions in the AEC industry. In this next video, they'll show you how they used BIM 360 APIs to bring in models from Autodesk Construction Cloud, and leverage a number of Forge APIs to provide a custom viewing experience, while consolidating their data.

VIRAJ: Hello, everyone. This is Viraj from India. I represent Techture, and we are an ISO 9001 2015 certified organization. So we are primarily into the architecture engineering and construction space, and focus on delivering engineering solutions utilizing BIM. And we also have our own software development division. And we focus on creating custom solutions for various kinds of customers in this particular space.

So we are a Forge Systems Integrator, and we have got a deep expertise of various Autodesk Forge based APIs. We've utilized the Autodesk Forge viewer, things like the model derivative API, the design automation API, for Revit, AutoCAD. And we've integrated these APIs on a lot of different kinds of applications for various customers.

Now I'd like to talk about a particular project that we did recently. And in this particular project, we brought in the models from the Autodesk Construction Cloud via the BIM 360 APIs. And we provided a mechanism for the end user to merge these models, utilizing a common coordinate system, in a completely custom built white labeled application that we did for the customer.

So one big advantage that was provided us, was the ability to view the 3D and 2D data and provide this as a functionality to the end user, right out of the box without spending too much time on actually going around, how do we build this functionality from scratch? So that was one big advantage that we got by utilizing Forge.

And of course, once we took in these models, and once we merged them to create a [INAUDIBLE] model, that model metadata was further exposed by the model derivative APIs. And we could use that metadata from various models, merge them together, and create a custom interface for the end users, who were mainly facility managers in this particular case. And show them consolidated set of properties, whenever they selected any kind of asset from the models.

That was one. And another thing that we could accomplish was, we could utilize a third party data source, which was primarily giving out various kinds of sensor data, utilizing a realtime API. And we could plug in that data, and we could display that data whenever the user selected a particular asset in the build model. So not just the static information, but also this kind of dynamic data, we could display in the form of various charts and graphs to the users, right on the click of a button. So this was something that we could enable for the end customer in a very short period of time. And I would say that that was possible only because of utilizing a plugin technology like Forge.

So if you have similar problem statements, if you are looking to see if there's something custom that can be built, for either your project or for your organization, you can reach out to us. Or if you already have some kind of software that you developed, and you want to see if you can integrate 3D or 2D information or BIM information, or build models into your existing software, that is also something that we can assist you with.

So that's all from my side. My name is Viraj, and you can reach out to us on this email address, which is displayed on the screen right now, for any queries, or if you have any projects that you need assistance on. Thank you and have a great day ahead.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Viraj. Let's hop back over to Europe and hear from Piro CIE, based in France. They specialize in IT developments for 3D models at various steps of the building lifecycle, from design to maintenance. In the next video, you'll see how Piro CIE helped their customer by creating a Forge powered BIM 360 solution.

ALEXANDRE PIRO: Hello from France. My name is Alexandre Piro, and I'm representing Piro CIE. We are a French company of software development. And we develop specific solutions for our customers and CAD editors.

Today I want to talk about how we help one of our customers, which is using BIM 360 to manage the project, upload all their PDF files, and create issues on these files. The objective is to create custom reports, and be able to download all the PDFs files with the pushpin issue flattens on the document.

I'm going to show you a quick demo of how the platform is working. So as you can see, you can log on the platform, and then use the BIM 360 account to be able to access the project. On the left part of the platform, you will see the file hierarchy. Here's all the structure of the files and folders. And you can select specific folders, and you see the selected issue under white, which is the selection of all the issues related to specific files selected in the folders.

And then when we create an export, you see that we'll receive a email with the link of the file to download. And in this file, we see two things. The first one is the folder with all the files inside. So we see the same file structure with all the PDF files inside. And on each document, if there is some issue, you will see the pushpin markup inside the document. Besides that, there's a report with the summary of all issues, and the table with the different issues and the specific details. And the custom columns we added, especially the line with the associated file.

We also do a different type of application using Forge, especially augmented reality on building sites, using smartphone or mixed reality headsets. We use that to superimpose the 3D models on the reality. And we do different types of applications for our customers. For example, that have visualization or different kind of dashboards.

To get in touch with us, you can visit our website or follow us on different social media. Do not hesitate to subscribe. Thank you for your time.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Alexandre. Our next Forge SI comes to us from their headquarters in the US. They're called OFCDesk, and they specialize in developing solutions for space planning, design, project tracking, and library and content management. They'll walk you through a product configurator they built for their customer using Forge APIs.

MAURICIO RITZMANN: So, I like to say that if you get a building, put upside down, shake a little bit, and everything that falls in the ground, we work with these manufacturers of all these pieces. So furniture, all the interior design products, lighting fixtures, plumbing systems, and everything. But now more recently, with BIM 360 and Forge technology, we are engaging more and more with the construction industry. So I need to find a new metaphor for that.

So we've been out there for 27 years. So we are super excited with this new age of everything online, everything web based, cloud based. So we've been revamping our products to support all of that, which is extremely exciting. We've been working primarily in North America, where we are headquartered. We came from Brazil. So we have offices in Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte as well. So if you ask me where we are serving right now, I think America is the best description.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Mauricio and Fernando. Now I'd like to turn it over to a global systems integrator, called Capgemini. They used Forge APIs to read and interpret many different data formats, and created a platform called Reflect IOD, a digital twin for operations and maintenance.

THOMAS PERPERE: Capgemini is a global systems integrator with a presence in over 40 countries. And we basically deliver services around digital transformation, integration services, custom development, and change management. We chose Forge because we had a key issue, in order to address a clear market need that we had identified. The ability to read and convert a lot of different data formats, that was really one of the key challenges that we're faced on a daily basis from a lot of our customers.

When Forge came to the market, suddenly we saw this as a specific solution for this, but also one that would enable us to do a lot of other things. Two things that we're using is the model derivative, the ability to convert different data formats, which is very interesting for the application we're developing. The second [INAUDIBLE] is the large model viewer, which is definitely very high performance, and compatible with the industrial usage that we had. We had a business challenge to address. We were looking for a solution. We found the solution. And it really enabled us to address industrial needs.

We built with Forge a platform called Reflect IOD, which is digital twin for operations and maintenance. The goal is to aggregate data from different data sources, and make this available for people to supervise their assets better, or help to maintain these assets. We feel that there is a clear need for BIM for operations. It's really around making the worker focus on real value added tasks, and spend more time on where he's really relevant, and less time searching for information.

The ability to have the right data at the right time is also key, which enable you to take the good decisions, based on data. With this solution, we're able to partly tackle the problem, or at least give a solution to the market. And we feel that this is only the beginning of the journey.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Thomas. Now let's hear from Xinaps, based in the Netherlands. They specialize in development services for customers within the AEC industry. Here, they'll show you how they integrated and automated the design process for their customer, using the Forge design automation APIs.

FRANK SCHUYER: My name is Frank Schuyer. My role is CEO at Xinaps, and founder.

HANS DE KRUIJFF: I'm Hans de Kruijff. I'm co-founder of Xinaps, and I'm currently responsible for both the operation and the technical roadmap.

FRANK SCHUYER: We specialize in development services for customers within the AEC industry, and manufacturers of products. Xinaps' specialty is solving design automation workflows. And the way we got started with Forge? We were looking for cloud based solutions. Customer requested to make a step from the plug-ins for Revit into more cloud-based solutions. Because a lot of our customers work outside Revit.

We are in a lot of cases, also the product manager for the customer. So our expertise is to understand their business that well, that we can advise them what to build and what not. We had a customer, Phillips-- it's called now Signify. It's a global manufacturer of lighting products. They asked us to build a solution for them, where they can input easily their models, use their own algorithms to make a lighting fixture calculation, without a manual step in that process.

HANS DE KRUIJFF: So what we did is, we created an application that could read through all the APIs and interpret the data and combine the data. For that, we needed the Signify algorithm that calculated the positions of the light. We needed to make a connection to an API with the BIM library, in which you could select your lighting plan, basically, or your lighting fixtures. We do the calculations. You click the button. And for a building where you need between 5,000 or 10,000 lighting fixtures, it will take 30 seconds to a minute in order to place them.

FRANK SCHUYER: Transformations into a digital environment are very challenging for customers. And so what we use Forge for, is, we always say, think big but start small. You can make small steps into a full digitization process. Forge is an awesome platform for that, because it's perfect to build small proof of concepts, but also go big immediately.

HANS DE KRUIJFF: What I love about Forge is the possibilities it suggests. When we were doing plug-ins, we had to do everything ourselves on our own machines without the possibility of scaling up. By using Forge, we can go to the cloud. Using also the BIM 360 cloud solutions there are, and basically scale up as much as we like, and make the application faster. So we can use more difficult models. We can use larger models. We can use more objects within the models.

To use the solutions in the cloud like this, you should immediately jump in. Because I think the wave is starting, and I think that everybody is noticing it. And you want to write this way. So you have to start right now in order to be successful in the future.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Frank and Hans. Now here's a video from IMAGINiT Technologies, a US based SI specializing in improving efficiency, reducing operating costs, and of course, increasing revenue for their customers. They created a Forge solution for their customer, WireCrafters, to help alleviate workflow bottlenecks.

TOM ANGERT: Hi. This is Tom Angert from IMAGINiT Technologies, and I'm here today to share with you a quick Forge demo of the solution that my team has developed for WireCrafters. WireCrafters is a leading producer of wire partition products. Think tool cribs, maintenance cages, machine guards, and even DEA approved pharmaceutical enclosures. Their story is a common one. We hear it quite often.

Their engineering department is stretched to its limits, working on all their closed business, as well as spending an inordinate amount of time on presales quotes. WireCrafters partnered with IMAGINiT to create a solution based on Forge, to help alleviate this bottleneck. Now a sales rep can use a web based tool to design the cage, specify all of the options, get a quote, fill in materials, drawing, and even a 3D view of the cage, all without needing to involve engineering.

My team created a unique browser based solution, that a salesperson can use and be productive with. It needed to enforce WireCrafters' business rules, and still give the user the flexibility to meet the customer's end vision. It had to have some basic CAD functionality, but it needed to not be as complex as AutoCAD or Inventor.

The solution that we developed gives the user the ability to create standard configurations or freeform design. They can specify things like height and spacing of panels, placement and type of doors, swing direction, as well as a myriad of hardware and color options. All standard dimensions are placed in the drawing, but the user can relocate them as necessary, and adjust the text size as needed.

Once the user is happy with their design, this system interacts with their back-end ERP system to generate a quote number, and create a PDF with the quote and drawing. A full bill of materials is available as well. Beyond that, the user can request a 3D view of the cage. All of the design information is then sent to Autodesk Forge design automation, to build the model in Inventor, and present back an exact 3D model in the Forge viewer.

And once the order is placed, engineering doesn't need to start from scratch. Since the model was run through design automation, the engineer can actually start with the true Inventor model that was created by sales. This saves a lot of time and effort, and allows the engineer to actually focus on the high value tasks of verifying the design, and making any unique modifications that a particular job may require.

As you can see, the Autodesk Forge platform allows you to extend the reach of your engineering assets. In this case, letting sales completely own the presales process, and taking pressure off of the design and engineering team. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me directly at tangert@rand.com. Thank you.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Tom. Now I want to hand it over to CCTech, an SI based in India. CCTech focuses on CAD application development using the Forge platform. Here, they'll run you through their new product, Autonomous HVAC CFD.

SANDIP JADHAV: Hello. I am Sandip Jadhav, CEO of CCTech. Today I'll be talking about how we are doing a digital transformation of HVAC industry. We have built a new application called Autonomous HVAC CFD, that helps designers, contractors, and the manufacture architecture industry, to use CFD effectively for thermal comfort design.

HVAC industry faces a lot of challenges. Most of the time, the reference document is a 2D CAD [INAUDIBLE]. Most of them do not have a BIM software, or can't afford a BIM software. They are not exploiting CFD, and they can't afford expensive CFD software. But without CFD, it is very difficult to design a good HVAC system, that can produce nice thermal comfort, and also energy efficient solutions.

To solve this problem, we decided to use autonomous technology. Automation plus intelligence makes any application autonomous. So we have completely automated our workflow, and also added a lot of intelligence based on heuristic algorithms and machine learning.

Now we will see how our application works and produce a value to HVAC industry. It's a web app through which a user can sketch his design space. He can also create different BIM elements, such as window, door, and furniture. In furniture, we provide a big library of different kinds of commonly used office equipment. So this includes tables, chairs, mannequins, printers, Wi-Fi devices, projector, you name it. All sorts of equipment are being provided in a library.

Once user has provided all these design configurations, then what he can do is, he can go for creating the airside system. He can start creating different elements of airside systems, such as diffusers, grills, returns at various places. For each of these equipment that he places, our application also understands the physics for it. So he did not do anything special, while doing the same simulation for each of these components.

We also provide help and support to calculate the CFM values, providing the tools. So there are a lot of physics parameters also being provided to HVAC professionals. So once he has used those kind of inputs, he can create a different design configuration. So he can create a swirl-based system, or a grid-based system. He can also create various types of VAV, CAV, or VRF type of systems. This is an important part. And in this, he can also mention where is my thermostat, which is governing temperature regions, also [INAUDIBLE] combinations.

Once he has created that, we use Revit I/O at the backend and create this BIM model. And then we also show our flow animations. So this is not the actual flow CFD, but this is just a preview so that he can make a correction. Then he can create the scenarios. So scenarios are important, because HVAC works for 12 months a year, and also 24 hours. So he can create a partial or full load, summer or winter, all sorts of scenarios.

We take up all these inputs, and run all the [INAUDIBLE] simulation on a cloud. Once user has run all of the simulations, he can see now the results in the browser. So as you can see, because we show in a very interesting way, where the a given person will feel comfortable or discomforted. And he can also do a high fidelity analysis. So he can look at that particular mannequin and see why that person is feeling discomforted.

So he can also visualize almost 10 to 15 parameters, such as flow distribution, graph temperature, PPD values, PMV values. So all this scientific computing kind of stuff, is what is happening here. And a lot of manufacturers of HVAC equipment are now also collaborating with us, and we are producing a value to all the HVAC community.

CCTech is also assisting digital partners. We have been working with the small startups to big [INAUDIBLE]. And we are using Autodesk [INAUDIBLE]. We are using machine learning, cloud computing technology, to build a turnkey solution. We are a digital transformation partner for many of these companies. And we look forward to work with you also. Thank you. Have a nice AU.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Sandip. Now let's head over to Colombia, and hear from Sivar one of our newer SI's. Newer to the Forge SI program doesn't mean they're new to the industry at all. Sivar offers tailored technological solutions in the engineering and construction industries. Here, they'll share how they built a solution for their customer Stratos Group.

CARLOS AUGUSTO GALLEGO SALAZAR: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

PRESENTER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Carlos. And last but certainly not least, we have SolidCAD based in Canada. SolidCAD is an authorized Autodesk Training Center, and they specialize in technology and services that support multiple industries, including AEC and manufacturing. In this video, they'll walk us through Variant, a product configurator they built for customers in the manufacturing industry.

RYAN SMALL: My name is Ryan Small, and I'm the manager of our software development team here at SolidCAD. We've been a Autodesk partner for, I'm going to say, around 25 years. Recently with the launch of our Variant technology, a Variant product built on Forge, we're certainly looking to expand out of North America with a product offering worldwide. I mean, our mission is to help our customers deliver technology innovations that improve their productivity, sustainability, and profitability. And so that focus on technology really, like I said, is at the heart of what we do.

We want to be more than just our customers' vendor. We want to be their partner. We have a lot of customers that we've built a long standing relationship with, who we're engaged with actively. We're working with them. They recognize us as being a leader, in certainly the Autodesk products and technologies, and are going to come to us and say, hey, we've got a particular problem. Can we talk through how you guys might solve that?

A lot of what we are building is certainly customer-centric. So as part of that relationship, in the outworking of that relationship, they are coming to us in many cases with kind of unique requirements. Forge was really just kind of the obvious toolkit to help our customers achieve automation, and really extend our service offering into the cloud.

SANJANA CHAND: Thank you, Ryan. And thank you, for taking the time to join us and learn more about what these SI's have done for their customers, and could also do for you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out either to me or to any of the systems integrators you saw here. You can also browse our full list of Forge SI's at the Autodesk Services Marketplace thank you for joining us and have a wonderful AU.