[This article has been updated]
At Autodesk University today, Autodesk made several notable announcements about its AEC/O solutions stack, including application changes, new features, rebranding, and new connectivity. A notable new application is the cloud-based Forma Building Design, a new solution inside Forma Cloud that can create BIM models at LOD200/300 detail.
At AU2025 this year, Autodesk is starting to pull together its grand vision for Autodesk Forma as the AEC/O industry’s cloud for all phases of the building lifecycle. The introduction of Forma Building Design is a notable milestone.
Forma Building Design
Said to be the first of many new Forma-branded solutions that will support a broad range of industry and project phases, “Building Design” is an easy-to-use, detailed building app with automated design tools and onboard building analysis capabilities. For instance, the demo in the keynote showed detailed daylight analysis.
With Forma Building Design, CAD and BIM professionals will be able to generate detailed building models with both speed and precision, primarily through rapid automated modeling from a Forma interface similar to what Forma looks like today.
This video showcases the evolution of Autodesk Forma. Moving forward, the cloud-based Forma will include deeper connections to desktop software from Autodesk, deeper integrated data, and collaboration features.
As part of this new offering, Autodesk Forma, the current solution for early-stage planning, will be rebranded to Autodesk Forma Site Design. When architects begin a new project, they will be able to begin the site design process inside Forma Site Design, utilizing the capabilities for site analysis that currently exist inside Autodesk Forma. As they begin to give a building design more shape, they work within Forma Building Design.
Revit: A Forma Connected Client
As part of the overall Forma Cloud vision for AEC/O, Autodesk is also introducing the term “Forma Connected Client” to label all desktop software applications that technically have a deep integration with Forma industry cloud.
Forma’s environmental analysis tools are seen here in this image of a future Revit functioning as a Forma Connected Client.
In the next major update to Autodesk Revit, Revit will become the first Forma Connected Client. Autodesk states that this means Revit users will be able to tap into Forma’s contextual data marketplace, leverage the power of Forma’s environmental analysis capabilities, and utilize Forma’s collaboration features without leaving their Revit desktop environment, eliminating the need for exports, imports, or rework over time.
Another image of Revit as a Forma Connected Client.
Autodesk says that while Revit will be the first Forma Connected Client, other Autodesk desktop solutions will also become such clients over time, further streamlining disparate tools and workflows into a more data-integrated workflow with common data and AI technologies capable of unlocking potential workflow acceleration that is just not possible without the power of Autodesk’s overall Forma cloud for AEC/O transformation. Powered by Autodesk AI, Autodesk Assistant is now coming to Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil3D.
Forma Building Design launches in beta later this year. You can join the waitlist at this link.
Architosh Analysis and Commentary
What is exciting about Forma Building Design at this stage is less about its details and more about its existence as Autodesk begins to expand upon what the cloud-native Forma platform can actually do. Autodesk has long promised that Forma would do more than just pre-design phase work, and today the company has delivered on that promise.
Forma—which came by way of the acquisition of Spacemaker.AI,—has transformed into an in-depth pre-design BIM 2.0 application with a wide array of capabilities critical to the early stages of a building project’s planning and conceptualization. Forma leads the charge in the industry in the BIM 2.0 evolution of BIM by concentrating on critical new capabilities that can have the largest impact up front in the design process, from critical site planning analyses to carbon footprint impacts.
The assumption of Forma Building Design is that architects can take these earlier-stage building design models and advance them further into a true schematic phase, detailed design, LOD 200/300 level work on route to design development phase work, which will likely take shape as models are pushed to Revit. Until we see Forma Building Design in action, we can’t yet report on any specifics, but we will surely do so in a follow-up report shortly.
