The link allows ARCHICAD users to perform quality assurance testing on their building models throughout the design process.
Graphisoft and BIM quality assurance developer Solibri have come out with a bidirectional link between two of their products, allowing users to perform quality assurance checks on their BIM models at any time during the design process.
Solibri Model Checker (SMC) has been around since before the phrase “BIM” was coined, but one of its biggest functions now is BIM quality assurance testing: ensuring the structural integrity of BIM models. Previously, designers who wanted to use Solibri would either have to wait until they were finished designing their model, or would have to save back and forth between the two programs. Now, users can work in both of them at the same time.
“Having access to Solibri’s unique rule-based Quality Control technology in such a smoothly integrated way will help our customers deliver better designs in a shorter amount of time,” Peter Temesvári, Director of Product Management at GRAPHISOFT, said in the companies’ joint press release.
When users download the link, there’s an SMC icon added to ARCHICAD’s main menu bar. The icon allows them to directly import the BIM model into SMC and check it against its integrity requirements. SMC analyzes the design, and automatically assigns severity classification to any problems that it finds. When users find components that need to be fixed, they can save them to SMC’s Selection Basket, then toggle back to ARCHICAD and choose “Get Selection Basket from SMC” to import them directly.
The link will also let users see the properties of any element selected in ARCHICAD, including location, quantities, profile, relations and property sets. You can also select what components to export by layers or by floors.
Both Solibri and Graphisoft are part of the Nemetschek Group, a link that helped drive the collaboration. “As part of the Nemetschek family, we focus on doing what’s best for our shared customer base,” said Ville Kyytsönen, Solibri CEO, in the companies’ joint press release. “To us, that means real interoperability – offering direct value in our users’ everyday workflows.”