Autodesk announces interoperability agreement with Nemetschek

With whom does Autodesk not have an interoperability agreement? Read this to find out.

In a significant development, Autodesk and Nemetschek have forged a cooperative agreement — a move that could be seen as a détente between industry superpowers. This agreement allows the companies to share their proprietary data formats so users can enjoy seamless move drawings and models between Autodesk’s CAD and BIM products (including AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, Maya, Forma, and Autodesk Construction Cloud) and Nemetschek’s products (including Allplan, Archicad, Vectorworks, Bluebeam, and Maxon One as well as the dTwin, BlMcloud, and BIMplus cloud platforms).

Interoperability agreements initiated by Autodesk to its rivals mark a sharp contrast to Autodesk’s previous administrations. Autodesk fought tooth and nail at the turn of the last century to keep its data proprietary, taking to court the fight to keep its DWG format a secret.

“Autodesk is dedicated to creating open, integrated, cloud-powered solutions that empower our customers by unlocking data and connecting project teams,” stated Amy Bunszel, executive vice president of architecture, engineering, and construction solutions at Autodesk. “The extension of Autodesk’s cloud and desktop solutions with Nemetschek interoperability is a significant stride towards streamlining workflows and enhancing the ability to deliver superior project outcomes.”

It is a marriage made, if not in heaven, at least in the cloud. The data exchange occurs in both companies’ cloud products and lays the foundation for sharing data between desktop products.

It would be a marriage made in heaven if CAD rivals adopted the same data structure, such as IFC, rather than share data formats, but this is a good start.

International firms come into design and construction projects each with their own language, spoken in different applications and data formats, creating a veritable Tower of Babel, with none able to understand the other. In this world, interoperability agreements are like Rosetta stones.

With Autodesk’s Revit the BIM market leader in the U.S. and Nemetschek’s Archicad and Allplan leaders in Europe (and its Vectorworks the leading CAD program on Mac) the Autodesk Nemetschek agreement is a big deal … and in some ways, an intercontinental and inter-device industry pact of sorts.

This cooperative agreement between Autodesk and Nemetschek isn’t the first of its kind. In 2008, Autodesk and Bentley Systems set a precedent by signing a pledge to allow their AEC data to flow between their applications. Autodesk followed suit with Trimble in 2016. With this agreement, Nemetschek becomes the final major vendor with which Autodesk will share data, marking a significant shift in the industry landscape.

Autodesk’s share-the-data wealth extends into mechanical design, with interoperability agreements with both PTC (2006) and
Siemens (2016, PLM only).

The only big CAD vendor missing in Autodesk’s commune is Dassault SysteÌ€mes.