The highly anticipated and long-awaited Arcol next-generation software system for architecture was on full display at AIA25 in Boston. Every time we walked by the Arcol booth, there were lots of attendees zeroed in on the demo screens, no doubt drawn into the attractive user interface and stunning visual qualities of the Arcol interface.
Paul O’Carroll, the founder and CEO, was prominently showcasing the Arcol platform, which is fully web-based as a cloud-native BIM 2.0 standout application. And based on everything we saw and discussed, this year, Architosh awarded Arcol an Architosh BEST of SHOW award in the BIM category. (read more here)
Arcol and BIM 2.0
Central to the BIM 2.0 philosophy and its technical distinction from legacy BIM 1.0 solutions, Arcol places “collaboration” at its core. This pre-design and early-stage design software allows real-time multi-user interaction, similar to the well-known software Figma used for UI/UX design, prototyping, and vector graphics editing. Like Figma, Arcol also displays live interactions among different users within the software, enabling teams to collaborate effectively in real time on various issues and design challenges.
Arcol is a simultaneous, multi-user, cloud-based design platform for architecture, focusing on the pre-design and early design stages.
Unlike other BIM 2.0 tools we have written about in the recent past, Arcol appears to have a better foundation in complex modeling, with support for Boolean operations, lofts, sweeps, and twists that extend far beyond “push n pull” modeling, for which SketchUp is famous. When we learned about Arcol a few years ago, we learned that more complex modeling was very important to the founder’s vision for the application. This makes sense when one thinks about the criticism of classical BIM authoring tools like Revit, where real 3D modeling freedom and the possibility of complex forms have frustrated architects, and not just “starchitects” like BIG and Zaha Hadid.
As we noted in our BEST of SHOW prize notes, Arcol in version 1 includes live-synched Arcol boards so that users can organize presentation layouts complete with not just the 3D model visuals but also the data behind the design. Naturally, Arcol boards also stay in synch with your design so as the building changes the boards automatically update and reflect these changes. And boards can also include not just the imagery that is generated in Arcol but data and imagery from outside the application such as project briefs and images of design inspiration or precedents.
Arcol on display at AIA25 Boston this past June. The application is remarkably quick for visualizing such large context models. (Image: Architosh)
Architects also know that it is one thing to organize your presentation but an entirely different thing to package that presentation for portability for post-meeting review. The typical way that happens today is via PDF exports of everything assembled for a meeting. But Arcol imagines things differently, enabling a simple link generation that can be shared with anyone so they can view the boards at their own leisure.
Arcol and Data
Perhaps the real beauty of BIM 2.0 tools over traditional BIM 1.0 tools is the way they approach real-time data generation. It is not that traditional BIM solutions don’t provide data, they do but tools like Arcol have a different rythm. You often get instant feedback in your data views as you manipulate the model. And another key aspect that we believe is very important and emerging in the pre-design and early-design BIM 2.0 era tools is building cost control. Here Arcol has ventured where Autodesk Forma has not. Only fellow BIM 2.0 darling Snaptrude ventured into early-stage cost control considerations in its previous iterations before its recent pivot. Arcol’s data infrastructure has been built for further advancement than a simplified cost per square foot structure. Users can enter material and building system costs.
In this view you can see Arcol’s editing panes for entering material and systems cost data. This image was taken at AIA25 Boston. (Image: Architosh).
While metrics are important getting back to what is foundational in BIM 2.0 tools we touch on Arcol’s collaboration features. Because BIM 2.0 tools are built from the onset as multi-user systems and are API-based cloud-computing applications—not single-user, file-based desktop computing solutions—they have advantages at collaboration that classical BIM solutions do not. There is ever only one model to look at inside Arcol so when a user receives a shared link to view the project, they don’t view the an out-dated model by accident. Any any stakeholder can view an Arcol model quite easily because every user knows how to operate a web browser and click on a link.
So to collaborate in Arcol, you first share a link from within the application to a project stakeholder. Meanwhile, the whole design team can work inside Arcol at the same time and see multi-user edits happen in real-time. At Architosh we don’t yet know the details of how multiple users prevent working on the same parts of the model at the same time, but generally we anticipate some kind of limiter system in the software prevents that from happening. Rather than email as your communication method—which is disconnected from the actual building model—Arcol has an onboard commenting system. At Architosh we have been touting the beauty and value of onboard commenting systems in CAD and BIM tools for years. Such systems when they are done really well also share those comments via notification systems (often in both email and messaging apps).
More Arcol
A Basic account for Arcol is free for a solo user using Arcol for a personal project. Team plans begin at 100 USD per user per month, billed annually or monthly. For annual Team plans a dedicated customer success manager is assigned to your firm and you get personalized onboarding and early access to new features. Collaborators don’t count on the license front only Editors. This means contractors, clients and other stakeholders just need a shared link to view the model and leave comments.
Importantly, only a paid plan supports the Revit Export feature.
To learn how actual firms are using Arcol read this case study here.
