The multi-year commitment encompasses a complete overhaul of Newforma’s technology stack—spanning its flagship Newforma Project Center and native SaaS Newforma Konekt platforms—while laying the compliance groundwork for FedRAMP readiness to serve highly regulated public-sector clients.

AI Roadmap & Key

To execute the technical transformation, Newforma has partnered with zeb, an AWS Premier Tier Partner specializing in AI and cloud engineering. The collaboration focuses on four pivotal operational areas:

• Generative AI via Amazon Bedrock: Development of intelligent, automated tools for compliance tracking, contract administration, and complex document review.
• Platform Modernization: Upgrading legacy and on-premises cloud bridges in Newforma Project Center while continuing the cloud-native evolution of Newforma Konekt.
• FedRAMP Compliance: Preparing Newforma’s cloud infrastructure to meet strict federal security standards, enabling broader enterprise adoption among defense and infrastructure contractors.
• Enterprise Scalability: Improving speed, uptime, and cross-platform performance across complex architectural and engineering datasets.

“This collaboration marks an important milestone for Newforma and our customers,” said Peter Cannone, Chief Executive Officer of Newforma. “We’ve spent years helping AECO firms embrace digital transformation through both on-prem and cloud solutions that improve collaboration and project delivery. By deepening our relationship with AWS, we’re investing in the next generation of our platform, giving customers greater flexibility, stronger security, faster innovation, and a foundation for the AI-powered workflows that shape the future of our industry.”

Mal Vivek, CEO of zeb, stated:

“Newforma’s work with AWS will unlock powerful AI capabilities for AECO firms, from generative AI through Amazon Bedrock to scalable cloud infrastructure built for their most demanding workloads,” said Rich Geraffo, Vice President & Managing Director, AWS North America. “We’re proud to help the industry that builds our world shape its digital future.”

Newforma Preparedness

“This is much more than an infrastructure initiative,” said Ben Bazso, Chief Technology Officer of Newforma. “We’re strengthening the technology platform that powers Newforma today while creating the flexibility to deliver new AI capabilities, deeper integrations, and continuous innovation for years to come. Working alongside AWS and zeb allows us to further optimize our cloud platforms and accelerate our AI roadmap, providing customers with greater performance, resilience, and choice as their technology needs continue to evolve.”

Architosh Analysis & Commentary

Newforma is committed to moving beyond its on-premise heritage. For two decades, Newforma Project Center has served as the backbone of document control, email indexing, and administrative tracking for leading architecture and engineering firms. However, its historical reliance on local server infrastructure often presented modern hybrid firms with deployment challenges.

This seven-year commitment with AWS signals Newforma’s definitive shift toward a unified, cloud-first ecosystem—pairing the deep submittal/RFI search powers of Project Center with the modern web-based issue tracking of Newforma Konekt.

By choosing Amazon Bedrock as its generative AI engine, Newforma gains access to leading foundation models without exposing proprietary firm data or project records. In an industry where unstructured data—specifically decades of email correspondence, spec books, and drawing sets—causes significant administrative friction, applying AI to automate document review and compliance could save AECO project managers hundreds of hours per year.

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AI Compliance

CODii

This company was completely new to us at AIA this year and focuses on using AI technologies to streamline project requirements. Essentially, users link folders to the systems, and CODii does the rest. These folders can live in systems like SharePoint or Google Drive, and CODii automatically classifies every connected document as a requirement or deliverable.

CODii is a new compliance AI tool that works on your own project data as organized in linked folders. Do AI inference on your project’s complete data.

The goal here is to have one searchable source of truth regarding every project obligation you, as an architect, need to meet. It also addresses deliverables, be they drawings and specifications or reports and calculations. Essentially, this gives you and your firm team the ability to ask natural language questions against your project documents. You are doing AI inference against your data to perform quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC).

CodeComply.AI

Nothing was more thematic at AIA26 this year than using artificial intelligence (AI) to perform code reviews on your documents and models. Unlike Architosh’s BEST of SHOW winner Kestrel Labs, CodeComply.AI works with uploaded plan sets. The company says, “CodeComply turns your plan set into a live, code-aware workspace—run jurisdiction-specific checks, test design alternatives, and produce cited documentation in the same tool you use to validate your drawings.”

CodeComply.AI in action. The UI is in white with shades of pink and gray, with tools on the left and a dialog box panel on the right.

CodeComply.AI has a nice workflow and UI/UX for a tool working with plan sets alone. However, the limitation of tools that work with plan sets alone is that your code review process still needs to return to your authoring BIM solution. For many architects, this may not be a big deal. CodeComply also has a feature called VersionVue, which allows the user to compare plan versions, highlighting every change. This is again using AI technologies to compare your document versions. You can use smart filters to focus on only what matters most in the comparison. Like Bluebeam’s Compare features, color coding is used to show the original plan and what’s new.

Back to codes, this application works with IBC, IPC, IMC, NFPA 101, ADA, FHA, state-amended building and residential codes, and custom jurisdictions can be easily added. It works on any building type.

Other AI Software

xFigura.Ai

xFigura.AI has some notable world-class architecture firms listed as customers on its homepage. The AI platform offers over 45 AI models, and they are curated for the architectural process. These include abilities such as text-to-render, render enhancement, image-to-render, sketch-to-render, image-to-video, image-to-3D, rendering relighting, InPainting, design boards, and more.

xFigura AI uses a node-based system for linking various functions and data. This takes place on an infinite canvas.

With xFigura, the canvas is an infinite board where you build, connect, and generate. Everything done in Figura lives on the canvas. There are no tabs, just one vast canvas which is your creative space. On the canvas, you can create and organize nodes. The node interface will instantly feel familiar to Grasshopper users, but Figura isn’t like Grasshopper. This is not an advanced algorithm-aided design (AAD) software. It is much easier than that.

Visualization Software

D5 Render

D5 Render was at AIA26 and enjoyed excellent traffic from North American architects curious to learn how real-time visualization works and how it differs from the competition. In Architosh’s view, D5 is highly competitive with the best real-time interactive renderers in the global market across a range of metrics, including visual quality and feature set.

An image of D5 Render at AIA26 in San Diego on the show floor.

Realized not long after AIA26, D5 Render version 3.1 was released, with a shift in focus toward supporting interaction in collaboration workflows. Architosh covered version 3.1 in detail, which you can read here. (see: Architosh, “D5 Render 3.1: The Future of Architectural Design Reviews,” 17 Jun 2026).

Architosh Analysis: While D5 has been historically Windows-only due to a reliance on Windows DirectX 12 and DXR ray-tracing, the rendering company has announced this year that D5 Render is officially coming to the Mac. The D5 Render Engine is a proprietary real-time rendering engine built from the ground up by D5 specifically for the field of architecture. Unlike game industry rendering engines like Unreal (used in Twinmotion), the D5 Engine is optimized to handle the massive architectural datasets and complex lighting with a high degree of efficiency. 

D5 leverages full path tracing, a higher form of ray tracing, and is built with a custom shader architecture that provides native optimal support on both Windows (DX12) and macOS (Metal). For those Mac users clamoring to get a Mac version, there is an official D5 Render Mac Waitlist here. Importantly, on M3 and higher, Apple Silicon supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, so Mac users may need to update their systems once this native macOS version ships. For the D5 Mac curious who cannot wait, their Mac-native options include Twinmotion, Enscape, Blender, and the new Maxon Redshift Render for AEC. 

Lumion

Lumion was arguably the premier real-time, interactive renderer when such rendering applications first emerged a decade ago. Despite its visual benefits, the software has long been noted for being resource-intensive and Windows-only. As Mac computers continue to gain market share worldwide and within architecture programs in college, this Windows-only posture is starting to change.

Lumion View is Mac-native and works with the latest macOS versions of SketchUp. This is a lightweight real-time rendering plugin that functions as a design companion, offers conceptual-style preset render settings (like clay, wood, etc.), supports customized artificial lights (point, spot, area), and provides quick 4K rendered output. However, the Mac version uses rasterization, as the developer’s native ray tracing and dynamic sky-cloud environments are still in development on the Mac.

Meanwhile, the latest Lumion 2026.1 update supports ray-traced panoramas, a new pattern editor, parallax interiors, and more.

Financial Software

Factor A/E

Factor A/E is financial software for the architect or designer’s practice. This includes all time-keeping, project financial planning and performance tracking, reporting, resource scheduling, and billing. The company says it is the most adaptable platform in the AE industry and thus is flexible enough for how various firms work and charge.

Factor A/E has firms covered with detailed and comprehensive financial dashboards.

Factor A/E is touted as more customizable than Monograph, particularly for invoices. As for fee-type billing, for firms that bill simply by hourly or a fixed fee, both Monograph and Factor A/E have you covered. However, for firms that charge a percentage of construction costs as their fee, these solutions stand apart. Factor A/E handles percentage of construction cost billing as a simplified Fixed Fee workaround. Mapping a percentage contract to Fixed Fee this way isn’t ideal, and that is where BQE, with its built-in Percentage contract rules, shines.

Monograph

The initial distinguishing feature of Monograph is its gorgeous user-interface graphics and information clarity. Monograph shines above its nearest competitors, Factor A/E and BQE, in this regard. Touted as “firm management software for architects and engineers,” Monograph is trusted by over 16,000 architects and engineers.

Monograph does full project accounting, builds budgets, assigns staff, forecasts performance, and handles billing and payments. Both Monograph, Factor A/E, and BQE offer compelling features and benefits, and all of them offer detailed pre-flight onboarding experiences as part of considering the software for adoption.

You can visit them online here:  Factor A/E, Monograph, and BQE.

Other Show Reports

AIA26: Expo Show Report 1 — Autodesk

AIA26: Expo Show Report 2 — Nemetschek Group

AIA26: Expo Show Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp

AIA26: Expo Show Report 4 — Chaos 

AIA26: Expo Show Report 5 — neoBIM, and other AI apps

AIA26: Expo Show Report 6 — xFigura, CODii, others

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A Curated Selection

What follows is a non-alphabetically ordered curated selection of companies we were introduced to on the show floor, heard about from various sources, or researched before and after our attendance. Many of these we already know, while quite a few are newcomers. We will start with the newcomers and those that really interested us the most.

neoBIM GmbH

This relatively new AEC software company is based in Germany, and its founder and CEO, Moritz Luck, was the co-founder of the award-winning Enscape real-time, interactive rendering program. Its chief product officer (CPO) is also a former CEO of one of the Nemetschek Group’s major daughter companies. So if we want to think about this as a music band, two leaders of this new German software company have hit albums that have gone platinum status—sticking with the music analogy for a moment.

So what does neoBIM do? What do they make?

At AIA26 we had a chance to see their products (including ones under development) up close. Their current shipping products include a series of digital tools under the buildOS moniker. These are “AEC tools, built from the AI up.” That is a bit of a moniker for them.

Each tool solves a real bottleneck, and each tool can be used by itself or together on newBIM’s buildOS platform.

An image of Gen, by neoBIM GmbH of Germany. (Image: neoBIM)

Tool one is called Gen. This looked and felt like TestFit but with a twist and a bit supercharged. You select your plot (building site), and Gen drafts up every code-compliant build the site can hold. You can select a solution and then start manipulating it. The process is a four-step one: Enter an address. See what you can build. Know if it pays. And finally, take over time. It’s at this last step that you can begin to move, resize, redraw, and manipulate any of the building solutions directly.

At the same time, all the numerical data you need to test sites with real buildings and real programs is given to you in real time as you manipulate the model. Finding out what a project is worth (what it pays): Gen works with buildable GFA and unit mix, then with GDV, yield, cost per sq ft, and net return, using local market data.

Another image of Gen, from neoBIM GmbH. At AIA26, Gen was making some noise and the cognoscenti of digital tools in AEC were whispering about it. (Image: neoBIM)

Once you are done working out sites and a solution in neoBIM’s Gen tool, you export 3D Revit or IFC models, PDFs of plans and views, etc.

Other tools this company now has include Insider (which reads every council meeting in 250+ German municipalities), zoning changes, design competitions, etc. This is about winning the work. Tender is their third tool, and it manages the Tendering phase process.

Finally, we got a sneak peek at this company’s brand new AI-first oriented BIM authoring application under development. It is important to note that today’s BIM authoring tools (all the desktop-era ones) require substantial re-architecting at the data and metadata levels to be best-fit for the agentic AI era.

This image shows neoBIM’s AEC industry-first BIM tool, written from the ground up for agentic AI. The move from today’s BIMs to the future of agentic AI BIMs means moving from a database schema that is strictly deterministic versus data structures that natively support “probabilistic multi-states”

Desktop-era models are saved in large, proprietary relational databases. An agentic AI-native BIM tool replaces static, monolithic files with dynamic, semantic data streams designed for machine comprehension and real-time collaboration. The real-time part is already part of the BIM 2.0 definition this publication—and AEC Magazine principly—have solidly defined and written about. But BIM 2.0 emerged prior to OpenAI’s groundbreaking ChatGPT and Anthropic’s model context protocol (MCP server model). That means tools like neeBIM’s new BIM engine represent true agentic AI-first platform technology for the AI era.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

A completely brand new BIM platform engine that is agentic-AI-centric is an exciting new prospect in the AEC market, and this company was getting a lot of attention and discussion on the show floor by other digital tools providers. That alone says quite a bit. This is a company that we intend to watch very closely, and we encourage Architosh readers to explore their technology and solutions. 

Archistar Inc.

Archistar is from Australia, and we have written about the company a few times inside our Xpresso newsletter, where we focus on emTech (emerging technologies) in AEC/O. From the earliest years, we have been impressed with Archistar but wondered how this Australian software company was going to grow globally or to the US.

Initially, Archistar launched as a platform aimed at property finding and planning workflows, recognizing that historically architects and developers spent weeks digesting zoning codes and regulations impacting what you could do with a given property. Interestingly, this is the kind of thing that is now partially automated with the Gen tool we just wrote about above from neoBIM GmbH.

Archistar eCheck is an AI PreCheck plan review application.

Archistar would allow users to select a plot of land and instantly generate thousands of compliant 3D building concepts on it (from apartments, mixed-use, townhomes, etc), all tailored to local building and zoning limitations. This is still a great pain point to solve, by the way, but the Australian company did a major pivot and now offers an AI PreCheck application (formerly eCheck).

Today, Archistar is an AI plan review platform, and using AI technology to review for compliance was a very hot topic this year at AIA26. What makes Archistar different from, say, Kestrel Labs’ compliance platform is the target audience. Archistar is built for local governments. The software can read CAD, PDF, and BIM files and evaluate them automatically against compliance regulations (zoning, building codes, etc).

Another interesting pivot is the North American one. With capital raises of USD 22 million in 2022, the Australian firm opened offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver. The platform is now used by over 30 major North American cities, including LA County, the City of Austin, and New York City.

Archistar still offers its earlier generative design solutions. There is a free Archistar to Autodesk Forma integration.

MeltPlan 

This is another well-funded (to the tune of USD 14 million) AI-native planning engine for pre-construction. MeltPlan handles building code, cost, scheduling, and value planning. These activities are addressed through Melt Code, Melt Takeoff, and Melt Bid.

For architects, MeltPlan offers instant, expert-grade compliance research to guide design decisions. This is not a black-box AI system that doesn’t reveal its AI methodologies and knowledge paths. MeltPlan says its system is trained to understand building industry knowledge, including codes and standards, AEC ontologies, building elements and assemblies, quantities and scopes. And every result comes with clear reasoning explained. There is even a visualization created. (see image below).

MeltPlan can produce 3D visuals that can illustrate code review analysis results.

Then there is Melt Bid, to “level bids in minutes, not hours,” as their tagline suggests. This solution works in the cloud or in Excel and helps professionals level bids up to 10x faster than traditional workflows. Using AI, the system generates a full comparison of uploaded bids based on your template in minutes, not hours. To learn more about MeltPlan, visit them online.

Mosaic

Finally, Mosaic is another new company to us, and it’s a project resource planning, management, and forecasting application. This is a solution aimed at larger organizations, and the general philosophy is simple—when work is planned, everything goes better downstream, schedules stabilize, utilization rates rise, and profitability follows.

A view of Mosaic on an iPad at AIA26 inside their booth.

Mosaic’s AI technology automatically generates work assignments and decides based on who has the skills needed and their schedule availability. Of course, even well-laid plans change, and Mosaic has patented technology that automatically adjusts schedules smartly based on these changes.

Mosaic can generate and manage demand, utilization, profitability, and workloads and can determine things like when it is time to hire and for what roles and skills to hire for. The system can even predict (forecast) workload, profitability, and revenue. This kind of data and knowledge is presented smartly in live dashboards, variance reporting, and AI operational briefs so managers and leaders can see where time, budget, and schedule are tracking while there is still time to act. To learn more, visit here.

Other Show Reports

AIA26: Expo Show Report 1 — Autodesk

AIA26: Expo Show Report 2 — Nemetschek Group

AIA26: Expo Show Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp

AIA26: Expo Show Report 4 — Chaos 

AIA26: Expo Show Report 5 — neoBIM, and other AI apps

AIA26: Expo Show Report 6 — xFigura, CODii, others

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Over the years, better lighting systems, material systems, and revolutions like real-time ray tracing have narrowed the gap between architectural renderings and finished architectural photography. What was once considered exceptional has become an industry expectation.

Despite this evolution in the photorealistic 3D image of architecture, one part of the architect’s workflow has changed surprisingly little.

Rethink: The Design Review

And that is the design review process.

The folks at D5 have been doing a deep rethink of what the design review process is and what it should be like. Today, design reviews still largely focus on static images or pre-rendered animations with pre-determined camera paths. These collateral items do a very good job of documenting design decisions already made, but they rarely can participate in the review process discussion itself.

D5 3.1 shifts its focus to support “interaction” in collaboration design review workflows. This image shows how, from within D5’s Interactive Presentation workflow features, an image can easily be switched from Day to Night along with any other variable of the scene.

Participation is a high-level threshold for imagery in the design review, but an important one. As architectural practices are much more collaborative in nature, with all types of design reviews, it only makes sense that these meetings become more like the working sessions they actually are.

D5 3.1 — Interaction

Visualization, therefore, is beginning to reshape itself into a new role. Instead of just documenting design decisions made, the medium is becoming interactive. This means visualization can serve the changing nature of the design review by supporting comparison, change, and the decision-making process.

This industry shift is foundational to D5 version 3.1. Instead of asking how the rendering can become more realistic, the release focuses on how the visualization can remain more useful once the meeting begins.

D5 3.1 responds with Interactive Presentation. This is a purpose-built workflow that allows architects to organize presentations like slides while maintaining access to the live project. Teams can easily move between design schemes, materials, lighting conditions, weather settings, and viewpoints without having to prepare multiple image sets or separate animations. Instead of a sequence of predetermined image items on slides, the D5 Interactive Presentation feels like a living, collaborative design workspace.

This GIF animation shows how D5 supports team collaboration.

D5’s new Interactive Presentation sits within a broader set of tools aimed at making architectural review more immersive and adaptable. This includes support for Stereoscopic Panorama for VR to help clients understand scale and materiality at scale, along with spatial relationships that only virtual reality can convey. The Spatial Tour features have evolved with faster scene generation, smoother transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces, and dollhouse views that simplify navigation through complex projects.

D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit

Following on its earlier release for Trimble’s SketchUp, D5 Lite is now expanding to Rhino and Revit, bringing real-time visualization directly into more of the tools architects already use.

To learn more about D5 Lite for Rhino or Revit, click here.

Renderings Still Matter

D5 Render version 3.1 introduces a series of production-focused improvements to strengthen realism while preserving real-time responsiveness in the application.

One such improvement is the adoption of ACEScg Working Color Space. This is a production-grade color pipeline used in the film and visual effects industry. This improves color consistency in D5 throughout the visualization and post-production workflows. Then there is HeightField Tracing, which generates richer surface relief for displacement materials without adding geometry complexity. This will improve the look of stone, brick, timber, et cetera.

MORE: D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit Now Available

There are also improvements for landscape visualization, more nuanced via Seasonal Vegetation. A series of smaller workflow refinements—including Custom Pivot, MeasureLine, improved City Generator controls, smarter Auto Exposure, and expanded Gaussian Splatting support—reduce repetitive adjustments while maintaining continuity throughout production.

Together, these developments reinforce a broader idea: interactive presentations depend on rendering technologies capable of supporting both visual fidelity and real-time responsiveness.

See D5 3.1 Live

D5 will demonstrate the version 3.1 workflow in a live webinar on 21 July 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC. The session covers D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit, Interactive Presentation, VR review, Stereoscopic and Panorama mode, AECESgc, HeightField Tracing and Seasonal Vegetation.

Registration is available through the webinar page here, and anyone who registers but cannot attend live can receive access to the recorded session.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

D5 continues to push the envelope of interactive realism in architectural visualization. And their position that the future of design reviews in architecture is changing due to new capabilities that they are bringing to market is spot on. Readers should definitely not miss this free webinar and sign up, even if you are going to watch it recorded later. 

The addition of D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit is another major addition to the D5 user’s arsenal. You can learn more about that over here. We look forward to D5’s continued advancements, and we understand that some Mac support for D5 Lite in eligible Apple devices is in the works, though no formal timeline for that. 

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D5 Lite for Rhino

Rhino is an industry standard for architectural creation, where marquee architects formalize their innovative ideas. Rhino is also an ecosystem with a rich set of specialized tools that support generative design, parametric workflows, and environmental simulation. In many ways, Rhino is a design laboratory.

Into this environment comes D5 Lite for Rhino to bring real-time visual feedback directly into this popular modeling and simulation environment.

D5 Lite for Rhino and D5 Lite for Revit are new products with D5 Render version 3.1.

Built for Rhino, D5 Lite enables designers to preview realistic materials and lighting while they model their creations, without having to leave Rhino or wait for another rendering process. This helps designers see complex geometry and how it may actually look before the design process is finalized. It’s a visual layer for Rhino’s design culture.

D5 Lite for Revit

For Revit users, the utilization of the BIM environment for continued design exploration remains high. This is why D5 Lite for BIM users in Revit can be a big benefit to their workflows. There is no need to push the BIM model to another visualization tool and run renderings and wait and see what the results look like.

D5 Lite’s capabilities are shown off here, including: DCC Live Sync, Material Editing, Asset Placement, Lighting Controls, and Environmental Controls.

Visualization at the photorealistic level belongs inside the BIM workflow process. Designs continue to evolve all through the design development process and even into construction documentation. Having D5 Lite for Revit means users can make adjustments to the building throughout any phase and turn to D5 Lite to evaluate the outcome of that change.

D5 Lite is not intended to replace the presentation power of D5 Render. Its role is to support ideation and form-making by enabling designers to test out real lighting conditions and materials.

To learn more, sign up for a free webinar. Registration is available through the webinar page here, and anyone who registers but cannot attend live can receive access to the recorded session.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

D5 created the D5 Lite applications as an AI-native visualization plugin for the design phase. Users can explore with AI, verify and test material ideas and how they look when rendered realistically, and test lighting design and environmental lighting conditions. All of this takes place inside the native design authoring application, be it SketchUp (previously released) or now Rhino and Revit. To learn more, visit here. 

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All of these firms have hundreds of employees and hundreds of software developers across numerous teams supporting a multitude of AEC industry digital tools. And Chaos, like those others just mentioned, also has professionals focused on expanding their firm through mergers and acquisitions. Everyone knows Autodesk regularly buys small firms, but do not be surprised to see all four of these companies, including Chaos, continue to acquire small tech companies, expand their product offerings, and drive synergies across their growing family of digital tools.

Chaos at AIA26

Chaos at AIA San Diego showcased their AEC industry visualization software solutions, as well as tools they have acquired over the past few years that are not visualization tools. These include tools like Chaos Glyph, a Revit plugin that automates and standardizes documentation tasks such as view and sheet creation, tagging, dimensions, and more. Chaos also has Morphis and Helix, which are non-visualization tools.

Watching a demo of Chaos Veras in action at AIA26.

Still, the story for Chaos at AIA26 was primarily focused on visualization, as that is what the company is known for.

Enscape

While Chaos’ most famous product is the legendary V-Ray renderer, the software firm based out of Germany is increasingly more well-known to architects for Enscape, its real-time, interactive renderer that works with literally every major BIM and 3D software platform. Enscape version 4.18, launched in May, is fully supportive of Autodesk Revit 2027, SketchUp 2026, Archicad 29 and Vectorworks 2026. There is also a new Chaos Envision live link so you can execute a one-click handoff from Enscape directly to Chaos Envision.

Another really interesting Enscape development is that the 2GB scene size limitation is removed. Enscape can now handle massive, complex project data without experiencing crashes. AI advancements are also visible to booth attendees looking at the latest, including AI material generation via AI inside the Enscape Material Editor via Chaos Cosmos. And users can upscale low-resolution images using Chaos AI Upscaler, and Architosh has already written about Veras AI integration across its product line before here.

V-Ray

Updates for Chaos’ most advanced renderer streamed out between June and July of this year, depending on the host application. V-Ray is still a dominant force—if not the dominant force—in archviz studios and agencies worldwide. V-Ray 7 was officially released in late June, after the AIA26 event in San Diego. And since then, there have been four updates. You can read our full report on V-Ray 7 Update 4 over here.

Veras is now fully integrated into all Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona renderer solutions.

Some notable highlights include GPU Caustics, which are now rendered on the GPU as an option. V-Ray Profiler analyzes your scene for what parts of the scene are taking the longest to render, compares the performance of different settings, and figures out the best settings for your scene. There is also Gaussian Splats support and more.

Corona 

Chaos Corona 15 was released back in late May. A big new change involved the Veras AI engine embedded for free in all Corona subscription tiers. You can push a render frame from Corona directly to Veras to generate dozens of material variations, swap seasons, and create short animations on the fly. Global illumination (GI) has been improved for Corona’s Gaussian Splats support. Additionally, there are new Glint Layers in Corona’s physical materials editor to create accurate metallic flakes, sand sparkle, and snow glints.

The Chaos booth at AIA26 had steady visitor flow checking out V-Ray, Enscape, Veras, and other key products.

MORE: Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona Get Veras AI Integration

New cloud streaming support allows clients to interactively walk through full 3D viewports or leave annotations on video animation sequences via a simple web link.

Veras

This year, Chaos integrated Veras into Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona renderers. Furthermore, our AIA25 Architosh BEST of SHOW winner in the Visualization Category and the Economics Prize award also integrated Google Nano Banana Pro with improved geometry fidelity, material realism, and lighting accuracy.

Working alongside a range of integrated Chaos products, Veras 4.0 also introduced brief animations from still images and can construct multiple perspectives from an initial view without the need to rebuild geometry. We were equally impressed with its ability to work from 2D drawings along with sketches to fashion compelling, polished 3D renderings and animations. We acknowledged that accelerating early-stage visualization with Veras is a force multiplier.

Other Show Reports

AIA26: Expo Show Report 1 — Autodesk

AIA26: Expo Show Report 2 — Nemetschek Group

AIA26: Expo Show Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp

AIA26: Expo Show Report 4 — Chaos 

AIA26: Expo Show Report 5 — neoBIM, and other AI apps

AIA26: Expo Show Report 6 — xFigura, CODii, others

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 4—Chaos appeared first on Architosh.

Mighty SketchUp

One thing that folks in the architecture world may not be aware of is just how prevalent SketchUp is in the big-contractor construction world. SketchUp is regularly used by major general contractors such as Turner Construction and Taisei Corporation in Japan. Turner uses SketchUp as a 5D VDC tool, for example. The point is that SketchUp has a very large market presence in the construction phase of buildings. And it also has a very large role in the design phases of buildings, used by millions of designers, architects, and interior professionals around the world.

But what about the middle phase?

SketchUp as BIM

This was the question we asked Trimble this year. Will they ever begin to address the middle phase of the work?

The short answer we got is yes. How SketchUp moves in that direction is in the details, and the company is approaching more of that middle workflow phase by deepening its core modeling capabilities, strengthening its SketchUp to Revit workflows, and making improvements with IFC.

The Trimble SketchUp booth at AIA26 was busy showcasing various aspects of SketchUp and Trimble Connect.

Architosh was fortunate to get a preview look at upcoming SketchUp technologies, and while we can’t write about these in any amount of detail, we can summarize a little about what we saw. In general, when we think about SketchUp having this very strong utilization in the early phases of design whilst also having a strong hold on the big general contractor firms, we know that Trimble and its SketchUp team realize that Autodesk Revit holds a very strong grip on the documentation phase within the BIM workflow. Hence, in recent releases, we have seen the SketchUp-to-Revit workflow strengthen. Users should expect that trend to continue.

MORE: AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego

A stronger SketchUp-to-Revit workflow isn’t just beneficial to architects; those same large general contractors working with 4D-5D processes utilizing SketchUp and Trimble Connect also benefit from tighter integrations between these two popular AEC applications.

Another future coming to SketchUp will be modeling improvements of a rather larger nature than the company tends to deliver. Without letting the cat out of the bag, we can at least say that we were quite excited and impressed by what the SketchUp team is doing in this domain. For years, SketchUp has been working on speeding up rendering and visualization workflows, but speeding up modeling workflows has fully begun and will surely continue. Some of this will deploy agentic AI (like the Claude integration), and some of it will just be more powerful, parametric-like (or based) modeling updates.

A SketchUp professional talking to an AIA expo attendee about the latest new features in SketchUp 2026.2.

As SketchUp gains more modeling powers in the future, it will mean that—coupled with LayOut advancements—users will be able to do even more all within the program. At the same time, upcoming new features will deepen the value creation in SketchUp-to-Revit workflows in both the front-end and the back-end of the AEC process.

Cloud Collaboration at Trimble

Another view on SketchUp’s journey in the AEC industry and its relationship to BIM workflows is the ongoing transformation toward making SketchUp a multiplayer medium. The release in 2026 has turned SketchUp into a true multiplayer collaboration platform complete with real-time cursor tracking (you can see the live movements of your collaborators’ cursor inside the 3D space, color-coded by user), live camera follow, in-app geometry commenting, and public and private sharing links. As for live camera follow, what that means is a host can force all viewers to look through their exact perspective, or you can follow a colleague’s camera as they orbit a model or scene.

The multiplayer capabilities function once a SketchUp user has invited colleagues to view the model on Trimble Connect, Trimble’s cloud-based collaboration platform. Therefore, Trimble Connect serves as the engine and Common Data Environment (CDE) for the collaboration features, storing the model as well as the multiplayer comments. Connect provides the live stream data for your collaboration session as well as the granular permissions for collaborators.

Analysis Hub

We have been talking about SketchUp 2026 since its first iteration features last fall. The multiplayer technology and multi-user collaboration features were part of the 7 October 2025 release of SketchUp 2026. The latest release is actually SketchUp 2026.2 and brought with it the new building performance and analytical data tools in the new Analysis Hub.

A view of the new Analysis Hub in SketchUp 2026.2.

Analysis Hub is an entirely separate dedicated environment aimed at helping designers study daylight, shadow, and environmental building performance data directly inside of the design workspace. Part of Analysis Hub has SketchUp Labs tools, but one key official feature is Advanced Shadows. This natively supports interior shadow mapping by calculating sun penetration through active section planes. The Labs features include Daylight Factor, Annual Illuminance, and Underlit and Overlit Metrics.

The Analysis Hub features are powered by Trimble’s cloud simulation stack and heavily utilize Sefaira technology owned by Trimble.

Closing Thoughts

Clearly, this year the biggest news about SketchUp is the Claude AI integration, which moved the app into the early round of CAD industry tools connected to agentic AI capabilities. Architosh has already awarded SketchUp an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honor for digital technologies at AIA San Diego under the Emergent Technologies category. Yes, agentic AI is the most pivotal new emerging technology in 2026, beginning to impact CAD, BIM, and 3D applications as well as other types of applications serving the AEC industry. Being able to use agentic AI to model elements for you is quite transformative even in this very nascent stage of AI development.

But the glossiness of AI transformation can obscure (and perhaps has) SketchUp’s other meaningful evolution related to BIM and collaborative workflows. The multiplayer capabilities are strictly speaking common to the definition of BIM 2.0 technologies. Snaptrude has them; Arcol has them, and so do other new BIM 2.0 apps. So what does that make SketchUp now that it has this multiplayer technology as well since last fall?

We’ll leave you with that question. You can learn more about SketchUp here and here.

Other Show Reports

AIA26: Expo Show Report 1 — Autodesk

AIA26: Expo Show Report 2 — Nemetschek Group

AIA26: Expo Show Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp

AIA26: Expo Show Report 4 — Chaos 

AIA26: Expo Show Report 5 — neoBIM, and other AI apps

AIA26: Expo Show Report 6 — xFigura, CODii, others

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp appeared first on Architosh.

Considered by this publication to be among the top three BIM solutions in the world for architecture, based on global market share, total users, significance of their users (several Pritzker Prize-winning architects among users, product and technological innovation, and industry software awards, Vectorworks Architect is quite popular with design-forward practices as well as small-to-mid-sized architecture firms.

The resurgence of Mac computers in AEC, driven by Apple Silicon’s industry-leading performance (see, Architosh: “End of an Era: How Silicon Will Decide BIM’s Future,” 24 December 2025) means Mac-native software like Vectorworks is likely to gain a boost moving forward. Industry accolades clearly help the cause as well.

A+ Popular Choice Award

Presented by Architizer, the A+ Product Awards honor innovation in the building industry and the technologies shaping the future of architecture and interior design. With over 30 categories, the program recognizes tools and materials that help design professionals enhance creativity, efficiency, and transform the built environment. Winners are chosen by a distinguished jury of over 100 industry leaders and design visionaries worldwide, along with votes from the global architecture and design community.

Vectorworks Architect 2026 wins another Architizer A+ award.

“Being selected as the Popular Choice winner by the Architizer community is especially meaningful because it reflects the trust architects and designers place in Vectorworks to power their everyday work,” said Vectorworks Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Powell. “With our latest release, we’ve doubled down on smarter workflows, better performance, and more intuitive tools so designers can move seamlessly from concept to completion while knowing their voices are helping shape the future of our software.”

Vectorworks Architect 2026, this year, boasted advanced new depth cueing, intuitive worksheet slicing, a sustainability dashboard for carbon calculations, and improved modeling tools.

To learn more about Vectorworks, go here.

The post Vectorworks Architect 2026 Wins Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award appeared first on Architosh.

The first benefit is that the Group has a large visual presence on the show floor. The second benefit is that booth visitors get a better understanding of sister brands they may not be aware of. Take, for instance, an architect who is an Autodesk Revit user and also a Bluebeam user. If this architect visited the Bluebeam stations inside the large Nemetschek booth, they could discover that Maxon this year introduced its real-time Redshift rendering solution for Autodesk Revit. (see, Architosh, “AIA26: Maxon’s new Redshift for Revit and More,” 17 June 2026 )

The only real downside we see from having a good half dozen AEC brands inside one super-sized booth is that individual BIM authoring companies Archicad and Vectorworks have less space and less of a visual impact on the show floor. Typically, at AIA National, these two companies had their own full-sized booths with perhaps a dozen staff members and that many computer demo stations, plus a tiny booth theater. The Nemetschek booth gives out free drinks, which is a clever idea to bring showgoers into their orbit.

Nemetschek’s Group Strategies

This year, the Nemetschek Group and its subsidiary, Graphisoft, put considerable effort into communicating what they call the Graphisoft Design Intelligence strategy. We covered this in a separate report (see, Architosh: “Graphisoft Advances Design Intelligence Strategy,” 15 June 2026.)

Graphisoft was sharing their Design Intelligence Strategy at AIA26 inside of a session as well as in their booth to the press and other parties.

As we noted in the above report, the Group’s strategy is to link together Graphisoft and other Nemetschek Group tools within an open BIM model framework supporting wide data exchange via both APIs, MCPs, and native BIM connectors. This last part pertains to the Group’s BIM authoring environments, geometry engines, and file formats.

Native BIM Connectors

Theoretically, today it means an Archicad user could utilize Vectorworks Landmark’s excellent terrain modeling capabilities and bring that site into an Archicad project. This would mean Archicad could read (natively) a Vectorworks file format. Likewise, a theater project done in Archicad could be pushed to Vectorworks Spotlight, a dedicated CAD/BIM platform focused on performance space design. With native BIM connectors, Allplan users in Germany could read in both Archicad and Vectorworks BIM models natively. All these programs have proprietary file formats, but it likely doesn’t make sense to keep them proprietary within the Group. On the contrary, native BIM connectors should work better than IFC at moving BIM models around between programs.

Native AEC Platform Connections is a focus area for better industry coordination. That’s in the yellow box above. This will start with Nemetschek’s tools first, but through strategic partnerships like the existing one Nemetschek has with Autodesk, it could extend to other platforms.

Over a year ago, Architosh had a discussion with Sunil Pandita, Chief Division Officer, Planning & Design and Digital Twin Business Unit, Nemetschek Group, who told Architosh that the Group was investigating whether each of the BIM authoring environments could share a common geometry modeling foundation. Building native BIM connectors, while complex, is tremendously easier.

Geometry Engines

Trying to get all three BIM tools on the same geometry foundation would require massive rework and recoding for either Archicad, Allplan, or Vectorworks, depending on which direction they tried to unify around. Both Vectorworks and Allplan use Parasolids, while Allplan still has some geometry creation done via its own geometry engine, so it’s a hybrid. Meanwhile, Archicad doesn’t use any third-party geometry engine, instead relying on a Graphisoft-coded, architecture-focused GDL-based geometry environment. Among the three, Vectorworks and Allplan are closest, while Archicad’s geometry engine is honed for the specifics of architecture.

With this degree of variability in all three tools, only native BIM connectors make sense to pursue, and the sooner they achieve this capability, the stronger the Nemetschek Group can function and compete in the open market.

The Open Approach

A hallmark of Open Intelligence Strategy is the open approach to the industry. Notice in the middle of the diagram below that Native BIM Data Connectors allow data to pass between not just Nemetschek tools but also include SketchUp.

The Open Approach to the industry’s collaboration challenges begins with open APIs and no lock-in technologies. Nemetschek and Graphisoft are aiming to develop a cloud-based, AI-centric open collaboration platform to rival the more closed-oriented Autodesk Forma ecosystem.

MCP and AI agents will form a backbone of an open collaboration platform along with existing pre-AI-era collaboration connectivity technologies like IFC, BCF, and more. This will enable the synchronization of data between 2nd and 3rd party clouds, such as between Bluebeam Cloud and Autodesk Forma or between Solibri and Autodesk Forma.

As part of the announcements, open industry collaboration between Autodesk and Nemetschek Group now includes an Archicad—Autodesk Forma Connection, built on the backbone of a previous agreement. Users can upload an Archicad 3D view or full model directly as an Autodesk Forma Data Exchange, and the geometry becomes immediately accessible as reference data inside programs like Revit. And there is Publisher Set syncing between Archicad and the cloud-hosted Autodesk Forma Data Management (previously ACC).

While Archicad now has compatibility with Autodesk Forma Data Management to meet Forma-based project requirements, the Nemetschek Group is also endeavoring to develop and release in 2027 its own cloud-based early design stage ecosystem similar to Forma Site Design, Forma Building Design, and Forma Carbon Insights. This was previously known as Project Aurora, but the cloud platform and solution has a much more exciting new name, Graphisoft tells us.

Other Nemetschek Brands

Maxon

Also on display inside the giant Nemetschek Group booth were market leaders like Bluebeam, Vectorworks, Solibri, and Maxon. Maxon was showcasing its new Redshift for Revit rendering solution as well as a version for Archicad and its previously released version for Vectorworks.

As noted in our previous report, Redshift’s raytracing technology is distinguished for its rendering quality and speed, and the ability to have another high-quality real-time design visualization technology for your design environment beyond the existing options is a big win for the industry. Especially because users can push these finished render scenes with one click to Maxon’s acclaimed Cinema 4D animation environment for advanced studio work.

Maxon’s new AEC industry push continues with Redshift for Autodesk Revit and more.

And given the animation capabilities of AI tools like Chaos Veras, professional Archviz pros will need to develop more advanced, sophisticated offerings that a tool like Cinema 4D can deliver.

Vectorworks and Morpholio

Vectorworks is one of the Nemetschek Group’s star products, from both its market fit and positioning, its underlying technology stack, and its popularity and fame in architectural markets. From a fit-for-market angle, the Vectorworks product line addresses more than architecture with its Landmark product, without peer in the professional landscape architecture market. Meanwhile, it has a whole series of industry-leading products in the entertainment design space, which includes television and film production, which are increasingly becoming more digitized.

But for many architects, Vectorworks Architect is the go-to and must-have design platform. This year, the daughter company acquired Morpholio with its namesake iPad application. Architosh awarded this tool an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honor, where we said this about it:

Vectorworks with Morpholio rounds out the “sketch to BIM” product philosophy the United States-based CAD/BIM maker has been telling for years. And Vectorworks 2026 today stands as an exemplar of a codebase that has kept up with changing times, being the first in the Group to become Apple Silicon-native and offering its users incredible interface customization features.

Bluebeam

Bluebeam Max was prominently on display at AIA26 inside the Nemetschek booth. This product was also an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honoree product for its utilization of agentic AI and MCP connecting Anthropic’s Claude AI to Bluebeam Revu.

The latest Bluebeam Max technologies supercharge this mainstay in the building industry with multiple levels of AI power, including in-house-developed AI capabilities paired with its Firmus-AI-acquired AI capabilities. The latter technologies are on point this year, as several other AI-first companies have introduced the ability for AI to scan or ingest PDF-based drawings and review them for QA/QC purposes.

MORE: AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego

When it comes to the Nemetschek Group, Bluebeam is leading the Group with its shipment of agentic AI solutions powered by onboard MCP servers in Revu and connection with an AI orchestrator like Anthropic’s Claude. We are now wondering how other Nemetschek brands will move forward with AI technologies given the popularity of Anthropic’s Claude.

Solibri

During our time in the Nemetschek Group joint pavilion, Solibri presented on Accessibility Assurance: Automate ADA Compliance & Reduce Professional Liability. This presentation showcased how a rule-based checking engine in Solibri can flag ADA violations.

Regarding what is new with Solibri in 2026, the company has restructured its software delivery model and retired its standalone legacy products. Solibri Office, Solibri Site, and Solibri Anywhere have been phased out as standalone tools. In their place is a new tiered platform and single, scalable ecosystem grouped into five tier offerings: Solibri Starter, Essential, Advanced, Premium, and Security+.

Solibri in 2026 has an entirely restructured software delivery model that is a better fit for purpose in the current industry. Solutions address Building Lifecycle, BIM QA, IDS Workflows, and BIM validation for hyperscale and data center construction.

Solibri has also updated its solution to include IFC data support improvements, transparent 3D rendering for IFC spatial zones, a dark mode option, and automated sustainability compliance via a new carbon checker extension.

Solibri’s new product restructuring has kept its hybrid (desktop + cloud) model, resisting the all-cloud mandate that some in the industry believe is the future of AEC compute. Solibri CheckPoint (its all-cloud solution that was acquired) is actually phased out as a product, and some of its technology came into the Solibri cloud layer. Solibri Starter is just USD 99/year/user and is for individuals and small teams needing reliable model review before coordination begins. This is what Solibri calls “professional IFC model visual inspection.” From here, product capabilities and pricing scale up dramatically. Solibri Essential is for structured BIM coordination control and includes both IFC and Revit model federation. Solibri Advanced enables custom rule creation versus Essential’s predefined rule-based model checking. It also delivers quantity take-off and ecosystem integrations with other CDEs. Solibri Premium and Solibri Security+ scale further for asset portfolio-level governance and compliance and for totally secure offline operation for government and high-security structures. The US government is a major Solibri customer, for example.

Other Show Reports

AIA26: Expo Show Report 1 — Autodesk

AIA26: Expo Show Report 2 — Nemetschek Group

AIA26: Expo Show Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp

AIA26: Expo Show Report 4 — Chaos 

AIA26: Expo Show Report 5 — neoBIM, and other AI apps

AIA26: Expo Show Report 6 — xFigura, CODii, others

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 2 — Nemetschek Group appeared first on Architosh.

Agentic and Agent-based AI

Over the last two years, AI technology at AIA24 and AIA25 has steadily matured, and we saw many AI solutions last year. However, this year, AI and automation were scaled up a notch. In particular, we are beginning to see Anthropic’s MCP (model context protocol) technology rolling out across product solutions and agentic AI technologies that orchestrate data and workflows. This is different than AI that simply finds information for you, whether about your application or data out on the internet.

Model Context Protocol

For clarity, Model Context Protocol (MCP) is closely tied to agentic AI, but the MCP standard is an infrastructure protocol, not an autonomous AI agent itself. Think of it as plumbing. In fact, the popular analogy for MCP is “USB-C for AI.” Tools that now support MCP are becoming numerous in AEC. Two key ones were awarded Architosh’s AIA26 BEST of SHOW honors yesterday. (see, Architosh: “AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego,” 22 June 2026)

MCP by itself doesn’t really do much. You need an AI architecture that can orchestrate the core software system and manage the AI’s state, controls, and logic flow. Such systems instruct the software on what step to take next. So we are seeing Anthropic’s Claude AI technology now connected to software systems like SketchUp and Bluebeam Max to do very useful kinds of things that normally take a considerable amount of time to do the old human-only way. Claude is used as a natural language user interface (NLUI) and can speak to the software and get work done.

SketchUp’s new Claude integration brings generative AI modeling to the popular 3D modeling platform.

In SketchUp’s case, it can create (model) 3D objects directly inside SketchUp. In Bluebeam Max’s case, Claude can produce Revu commands such as batch operations, batch search, highlight, and a whole lot more. Both of these tools were highlights of AIA26 San Diego this year.

Other solutions have chat-based palettes built directly into their interfaces. This is becoming table stakes for software in the age of AI. These solutions are often called “co-pilots” or “agent-driven UIs”. They don’t just answer questions about the software; the AI itself has an execution layer and can map natural-language intent directly into function-system operations. We discussed this intently in our recent feature on ARES 2026 software, where it was possible to talk your way into having the CAD and BIM software actually draw things for you, or create layers within your file, following your textual direction. (see, Architosh: “ARES 2027 Deep Dive: AI, Automation and BIM-to-DWG Workflows,” 5 May 2026). We also discussed this particular feature during an online event.

While CAD tools like ARES 2027 are nearly a full release cycle ahead of many CAD and BIM solutions in the industry in terms of this kind of AI capability, we are starting to see solutions like SketchUp, with its Claude integration, leverage AI automation to make work happen in a similar way. Basically, let AI drive the software and produce work for you.

So you may ask: what is the benefit of having AI drive the software in the same vein as having your Tesla drive itself?

The answer depends, but usually, if something is extremely repetitive, the AI can do it much faster. Or, if the task is quite complex and would require advanced skills in software you don’t have, the speed-up could be massive or even infinite, since you can’t actually do it at all. If you can’t model the Space Shuttle inside of AutoCAD or ARES, but you can use ARES’ AI tools to create it for you, the AI didn’t just save time; the AI made it possible for you.

Automation Matters Also

Not all the buzz in the AEC industry software involves artificial intelligence (AI). There are many ways general automation can occur without LLMs or agentic AI. With the new BIM 2.0 software tools, their data-centric workflows and API interconnections mean that data from tools like Arcol can stream directly into other solutions and data types via API linkages.

Arcol is showing its new integration of spreadsheets that can be bi-directionally synced with Excel files. This feature was highly requested by general construction and development companies so they could link building metrics with their own cost data.

As part of Arcol’s embrace of the construction industry (it is still focused on architects as well), the BIM 2.0 company added interconnections to spreadsheets (Excel) so that early-stage designs can be paired with cost data from large general contractors doing real estate development.

BIM 2.5?

We often write about BIM 2.0. But originally BIM 2.0 didn’t begin with AI in mind like we currently are thinking about AI. When firms like Spacemaker.AI (now Forma), Digital Bluefoam, TestFit, Arcol, and Snaptrude began their journey, it happened before the OpenAI explosion, and the public had no idea about such AI tools yet. But now that we are on the other side of this critical invention, what if someone built an AEC software ecosystem with agentic AI in its DNA from the ground up?

Newcomer (neoBIM), with its buildingOS system, is doing exactly that.

NeoBIM GmbH is a new German AEC software company aiming to reshape the industry with the industry’s first AI-native ground-up software ecosystem architecture. The company and its buildingOS system have several discrete tools so far, including a TestFit-like early-stage planning tool called Gen.

NeoBIM has a new AI-centric application system architecture for the complete building lifecycle, from early site test fits (shown above) to post-occupancy digital twins. The German software firm’s founder is Moritz Luck, who was co-founder and GEO of Enscape and is also the founding partner of SilverScale Capital. Their demonstrations at AIA26 were impressive, and so NeoBIM GmbH is definitely a company on our radar this year, and we look forward to learning more about what they are doing.

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Architosh BOS

This is our 12th year of judging what we saw at AIA as “BEST of SHOW.” These honors are aimed at directing our global readers’ attention to both interesting newcomer applications and critical trends that impact technology adoption. On this last note, the history of our selections for these honors is notable. Put another way, if our AIA BEST of SHOW were investment picks, Pete Evans and I would have done exceptionally well, financially.

MORE: AIA26: AI and Automation Shine in San Diego — Some Highlights

Just a few representative examples include Gehry Technologies’ GTeam (winner in 2013), which was later acquired by Trimble and is now Trimble Connect. Then there was IrisVR (winner in 2015), which merged with The Wild and was later acquired by Autodesk. We can say similar things about some smaller companies, which, perhaps not acquired (or recently acquired), have grown into powerhouse brands in AEC.

Honors and Prizes

For this year’s announcements, we are going to jump directly into the winners and write about our award categories, criteria, and thematic issues at the end of this article. We also always publish a “Perspectives” companion feature, but last year we switched that to a recorded discussion (video). Look for a forthcoming piece.

So let’s focus on the honorees. Without further ado.

Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees!

BEST of SHOW — EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY Category

Winner: SketchUp (w/ Claude integration)

Trimble SketchUp has long been the standard for easy conceptual modeling in the early stages of design. Contractors also gravitated to this platform as it offered rapid visualization, which could be used for 4D visualizations and project realization. “This year, SketchUp transforms its accessible capabilities into a built-in, real-time collaboration space for teams and clients, a cloud-connected, multi-user workflow focused on the middle of the project delivery,” says Pete Evans, AIA, senior associate editor, Architosh. “It builds on its legacy of ease-of-use with an in-app chatbot for workflow assistance that can also generate 3D objects from text prompts and images, and likewise generate photorealistic images from models and text prompts.” 

More radically, it also introduced its first (Trimble-based) MCP connector, the “SketchUp Connector for Claude,” to open AI workflows more widely to vibe modeling. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh, notes, “This multi-pronged AI approach includes a built-in intelligent core, but complements that with open, interoperable workflows and ease-of-use that SketchUp has forever been famous for by opening up and staying at the forefront of AI capabilities.” This is on top of other new features now built into the core of SketchUp, like the Analysis Hub and Lab tools, with specialized extensions such as Daylight analysis, which provides daylight metrics, illuminance data, heatmaps, and “right-of-light” submission capabilities. Live components also added more parametric-like capabilities for more powerful modeling alongside powerful cloud collaboration as part of its 2026 release. “At the heart of our decision to place this in the emergent technology winner category is the agentic AI interface with Anthropic’s Claude,” adds Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “MCP and agentic AI workflows embedded into popular industry tools today are at the very heart of what is critically emergent in AEC tech in 2026.” 

Winner: Bluebeam Max

A mainstay in the AEC/O industry gained a new superpower thanks to agentic AI, coupled with both acquired and in-house-developed AI capabilities, in Bluebeam Max. “There are several different AI technologies in the Bluebeam Max product offering, but the Claude integration with the integral MCP server in Revu is the tech that has users exceptionally excited,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “Bluebeam Revu workflows in AEC are naturally highly repetitive, so Claude’s ability to automate these functions is a force multiplier in efficiencies. Moreover, the Smart Review AI features are already being used by GCs to find discrepancies in drawings within a day, which typically reveal themselves slowly over many weeks or months during the construction phase. As a result, it behooves AE professionals to deploy Bluebeam Max as part of their workflow prior to releasing drawings for bid or construction, so they find these errors first.”

Criteria Notes: The novelty of MCP with AI orchestrators like Anthropic’s Claude showcases a dramatic shift in how architects can work with existing desktop-era tools like SketchUp and Bluebeam, enabling users to experience a tremendous speed-up in software workflows. AI can request specific tools or data “on-the-fly” based on evolving tasks rather than operating on a pre-defined set of constraints. Claude powers both tools, revealing just the beginning of agentic AI’s capabilities. This speaks to our emergent technology award category at multiple levels, representing both convergence and a thematic change for practice. 

BEST of SHOW — INNOVATION Category

Winner: Kestrel Labs

“Kestrel Labs’ new compliance platform focused on building codes was one of AIA26 San Diego’s biggest highlights with respect to digital tools,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “While other AI code tools exist, Kestrel’s solution puts their compliance engine directly inside the design and documentation environment, whilst also having an intelligent web-based code analysis space for its users.”

An added unique feature of Kestrel’s strategy and implementation is the notion that your project’s “code work” moves with the project through different tools over different phases of the project’s lifecycle. While not all of this is available today, as Kestrel develops its solution for tools like SketchUp next and other BIMs, this unique feature will benefit its users. “Kestrel’s implementation is also particularly strong for a new application,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh, “with a visually appealing GUI and brand identity that speaks to architects in a similar way that Monograph’s award-winning app does as well. “Every few years, maybe around every five, a brand new tool comes out that really has the ability to capture a critical beachhead—that Omaha Beach moment—where we just know a tool and its strategy is super strong and will have rapid success. We believe Kestrel is that,” adds Frausto-Robledo. 

Criteria Notes: Innovation winners often herald “new directions” in digital technologies often solving age-old pain points. Kestrel’s AI-powered compliance platform is a rather textbook example. The quality of attack on addressing code review in practice is particularly impressive, as is its implementation at version 1.0

BEST of SHOW — BIM Category

Winner: Arcol

Arcol short-circuited development by deeply connecting to Rhino3D instead of developing its own complex geometry engine. Today, this is a live feature in Arcol’s second year at the AIA conference. (Arcol won this award last year.) Arcol embeds live Rhino3D geometry in its modeling environment, where, if changed (remotely), it is continuously updated as native Arcol geometry within the data-rich collaborative web environment. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh says, “Adding Rhino as a live, two-way directional bridge allows a new, very strong accelerator to data-rich modeling form that is unlimited.” Another distinct area of acceleration is in its tables and boards for team members beyond presentation. Specific data tables can be “soft time-stamped” to hold a state for a specific view, but they can be updated while still connected to the underlying project data.

This provides a contractor, for instance, with a more static view of a table that doesn’t dynamically change with model updates. This table can then be updated, but this clear communication shifts from static versioning and archiving, as in today’s practice, to an Arcol project that contains a live, data-rich core and narrative from start to end for continuous updates and shared decision-making. “We also like how Arcol, as both a company and a BIM 2.0 application, is gaining traction in the market with large general contractors and real estate developers,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, “as this indexes Arcol’s stated goal of creating a BIM 2.0 application for the entirety of the industry and not just architects.” Finally, the company’s goal for agentic AI “agents” operating with IP knowledge from various industry leaders working alongside human designers is a compelling future vision. “This future aspect of the app isn’t factored into our award decision,” adds Pete Evans, AIA, “but it sharpens our watch on what we believe is the market forerunner on BIM 2.0 outside of Autodesk’s own similar tools.”

Criteria Notes:  While the BIM category winner can be new or old, Arcol (as a 2nd-year “Best of Show” winner) continues to rapidly expand its BIM capabilities and attack multiple pain points with its novel approach, and underpins that power with a full embrace of future agentic BIM (see notes below). Critically, this release includes Arcol’s ability to solve a critical pain point in advanced modeling integration with Rhino 3D, plus its worksheet functionality (bi-directional linking to Excel files like xRefs) to address the needs of large GCs (and we know of several as early customers), addressing longstanding cost-control issues in the AEC industry, by bringing these cost management functions up to the front of the process. 

The ability to corral multiple AI agents for its early-phase design includes costing, zoning, and structural agents, with a perspective that builds on the core real-time collaborative nature of Arcol. “Intelligent by default” positions Agentic BIM as a massive shift in the Macleamy curve itself, enabling a collaborative jumpstart with buildable information in a radically shorter timeframe.

BEST of SHOW —  CLOUD Category

Winner: Morpholio Trace

“Morpholio Trace has always been a special tool in the AEC universe,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “But a tight integration with this particular BIM authoring tool (Vectorworks) seems like the perfect match-up that will yield special advantages for both Vectorworks users and established Morpholio users.” While the sister brand Vectorworks acquired Morpholio, we don’t see Morpholio staying connected only to Vectorworks in the long term. “In addition to bringing the sketching-thinking process closer to an advanced BIM tool—where there are so many layers of interaction opportunities—Morpholio can serve as the ultimate first step to sketch-to AI-rendering and animation,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA.

Strategically, Morpholio Trace is a significant net benefit to the entire Nemetschek Group because sketch-to-AI visualization workflows are currently the highest accelerators in the industry. “Nothing in AEC is currently moving faster than AI-based rendering, and nothing is better to steer and control this kind of AI rendering than using a pen and digital paper,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “Given that Nemetschek also owns Maxon with its rekindled interest in archviz, the next steps for where to take Morpholio Trace seem super obvious to me.”

Criteria Notes: Cloud-first and mobile-first solutions are those that drive at full utilization and maturing cloud-to-mobile or cloud-to-web tech stacks. Morpholio, with its new integrations with Vectorworks’s hybrid CAD/BIM environment, seems like it has found its ultimate dance partner. Morpholio Trace is strategically positioned to converge with AI visualization, and its underlying sketching environment is poised to drive such workflows. In the meantime, Morpholio Trace has so much to offer to the sketch-to-BIM concept at Vectorworks. 

BEST of SHOW —  VISUALIZATION Category

Winner: Chaos Veras

Chaos Veras 4.0 introduced a new AI rendering engine powered by Google’s Nano Banana Pro, which improved geometry fidelity, material realism, and lighting accuracy. Accuracy improvements were alongside reduced image artifacting and “AI hallucinations.” This creates better control and precision for both image generation from reference sketches or prompts, but also using a model as the underlying design to create more valid visual results. New capabilities also introduced 2D to 3D visualization with floor plans to generate spatial renderings and the ability to construct multiple perspectives from an initial view, without rebuilding geometry. Animation is also a new capability from a static image while controlling camera motion, animated entourage such as cars and people, time of day, and different weather conditions. Pete Evans, AIA, noted, “Veras is a whole new level of storytelling that invites more technically-based architects as well as non-technical designers, such as an office principal, to a new, rapid visual idea layer for interactive project visualization.

Veras radically reduces the need for a technically accurate, time-consuming 3D model during early-stage ideation. This frees up valuable resources for creative visual iteration and communication.” “The time-savings and yield advantages of AI rendering tools like Veras are major force multipliers in practice,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “While there are numerous options in the market, we see future advantages of Veras being a part of Chaos beyond just its integration with all of Chaos’ tools.”

Criteria Notes: Chaos continues to challenge and transform the way architects approach the visual landscape of architectural visualization. The release of Veras 4.0 this year presented significant and compelling materials for seeing architecture in unprecedented ways. This tool’s advancement easily meets the criteria for this category (see below), especially in implementation quality and the acceleration of solution quality. 

BEST of SHOW — The Economics Prize

Winner:  Chaos Veras

The Economics Prize is awarded to solutions that reflect substantial process improvements even through “creative destruction.” Chaos Veras is a leading mature AI visualization tool in the industry, Uber-izing a known process: photo-realistic 3D renderings and animations. “While Veras is a worthy winner of the Economics prize for the sheer speed-up of its abilities to produce useful visuals deployable to different purposes in the design communication process, it is also disruptive to established archviz professionals who have painstakingly developed advanced visualization and animation skillsets,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh. Architects today are finding Veras a force multiplier for securing client buy-in and for design exploration prior to it. “It’s not hard to see why Veras, and tools like it, are so incredibly popular,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “They accelerate both sides of the visualization coin: the part that helps us design as architects and the part that helps us sell our ideas to our clients.” 

Criteria Notes: Veras delivers sizable process improvements to a common industry deliverable: photorealistic renderings. The “Uber-ization” part of our comments relates to the accessibility of what Veras produces and the three-point superiority factors: cost, speed, and quality. The cost of final images is multiple times lower; the output speed (via the process) is multiple times faster than traditional rendering; and the quality is solid and fit for purpose.

Award Categories and Criteria

Our award categories are designed to be broad and flexible, enabling us to honorably note a product across multiple categories if warranted.

• Emergent Technology (emTech) Category Award — acknowledges industry potential for novel or bleeding-edge technology implementations that will offer “thematic” change for practice or create convergent technology paths and drive synergistic directions for the industry.
• Innovation Category Award — acknowledges the “most promising” companies and products that are heralding innovative “new directions” in AEC software or hardware technologies, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• BIM Category Award — acknowledges both new or mature companies and products serving the “BIM workflow” industry transformation, touching down at any segment of the MacLeamy Curve where value gets added, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in BIM workflows, (d) adoption, extension and commitment to Open BIM philosophies so that data and toolchains are social and democratized to their fullest extent, and (e) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• Cloud Category Award  — acknowledges technology solutions (software or hardware) driving at full utilization of synergistic and maturing “cloud-to-mobile,” “mobile-to-cloud,” and “cloud-to-web” technology stacks, exhibited or seen at the AIA convention, as measured by: (a) implementation quality and novelty, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing pain-points in AEC, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• Visualization Category Award  — acknowledges the “most compelling visualization solutions” and technologies that are “transforming the architect’s workflow,” heralding new ways of seeing architecture for all stakeholders and not just clients, accelerating design optioneering, material, and light discovery, design problem solving, and design collaboration, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, including rendering speeds and image qualities, (c) quality of attack at addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and addressing synergist directions in the industry.
• The Economics Prize — reflecting an important shift within the architectural industry to acknowledge the extent of poor economics for architects and a newfound demand for better working conditions and pay, the Economics Prize is awarded to digital technology that shines in the direction of better economics for architects, as measured by: (a) sizeable process improvements to common industry deliverables via creative disruption (ie, Uber-ize a known process), (b) notable value disruption by a vendor via license cost comparison without “bundling,” (c) notable outsized release update delivering exceptional value increase for users, and finally (d) performance capture due to innovative, leading-edge software or hardware solutions.  

Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees listed below.

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Redshift for Revit

The distinguishing feature of Redshift is the quality of its raytracer technology, and bringing that to real-time BIM authoring solutions gives architects and designers another excellent choice for both real-time design visualization and final-render presentation visualization. Moreover, with a simple click, work in Redshift for Revit or Redshift for Archicad can send your scene forward to Maxon’s award-winning Cinema 4D DCC (digital content creation) software for more sophisticated animations and visuals.

Redshift for Archviz debuted in Vectorworks in March 2026, and Maxon intends to roll out its acclaimed Redshift technology across popular AEC modeling solutions as part of its growing AEC roadmap. Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad is now open for beta sign-ups; click here to learn more.

Maxon’s new AEC industry push continues with Redshift for Autodesk Revit and more. A beta version of Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad is also available.

“The world architects create is inherently three-dimensional, yet much of the industry still relies on workflows built around two-dimensional representations,” said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. “With Redshift for Archviz, our goal is to make 3D design the new standard across architecture, engineering, and construction. Through enabling digital projects to be experienced as if they already exist in the real world, we’re giving architects and interior designers a more powerful way to communicate ideas, make decisions, and bring their visions to life.”

Redshift for Revit Details

Now available, Redshift for Autodesk Revit delivers physically accurate lighting, reflections, shadows, and materials while remaining highly interactive. Maxon is also introducing three new platform features for architectural visualization:

• Depth of Field enhances architectural renders by mimicking real-world camera effects in real time, helping designers guide visual focus and create more immersive client presentations.

• AI Context-Aware Library Search analyzes the current view and suggests suitable assets, helping users build richer, more detailed scenes with less manual searching.

• Maxon Plants Smart Transfer is designed to simplify the process of bringing high-quality vegetation assets into architectural scenes for more realistic environments and faster scene development.

Maxon says that for users on Apple Mac computers, Maxon Redshift leverages Apple’s new MetalFX technology for improved interactive frame rates and exceptional visual realism for macOS users.

”Architects and interior designers don’t think in floor plans. They think in light, materials, and how a space feels,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, EVP of Rendering at Maxon. “Redshift lets them shape all of that in real time, then see it at full photorealistic quality, iterating on and refining how a space looks and feels as they go.”

Maxon’s Ecosystem

Maxon’s Cinema 4D flagship application has long been a popular archviz application, particularly in DACH regions in Europe. Architosh has reviewed Cinema 4D in the past from the point of view of AEC visualization. And the solution is a stunning application for doing sophisticated animation work. As part of the Redshift Archviz solutions (Vectorworks, Revit, and Archicad), a single button pushes out the scene and its assets to Cinema 4D for more advanced still visuals and cinematic animation work.

To learn more and see the new Redshift for Autodesk Revit and Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad (beta), click on the appropriate links.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

There are subtle differences in some of the implementations of Redshift for Archviz, but for the most part, the same features are common whether you are on Revit, Vectorworks, or Archicad. In terms of visualization competition, the new Maxon offerings do add competitive pressure for real-time interactive rendering solutions in the market. Both Chaos and Maxon are up against Epic Games and its Twinmotion tie-in with Autodesk Revit, which is partially integrated. On a cost basis, Maxon is undercutting Chaos’ pricing with Enscape, but the Chaos ecosystem is much larger and more mature. Ultimately, cost shouldn’t be the deciding factor between either of these solutions, but rather their other advantages. 

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Kestrel raised USD 2.15 million in pre-seed financing from New Stack Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Denver Ventures, and Avesta Fund.

Kestrel Labs

Kestrel Labs is the first software company to deliver this capability, bringing code compliance natively inside BIM workflows.

Key Takeaways

• Industry-first compliance platform built natively inside BIM authoring tool.
• Introduced first for Autodesk Revit, with SketchUp support coming soon. There is also live Trimble Connect integration
• Compliance analysis is also supplemented with an AI building code assistant available directly inside the plugin palette in Revit or in the web browser

This will give architecture teams the ability to check design elements against jurisdiction-specific code requirements directly inside Revit before drawings reach plan review stages.

Kestrel Labs, shown inside Autodesk Revit, is the AEC industry’s first native BIM compliance platform. With Kestrel, architects can bring building code analysis directly into the BIM authoring environment, where Kestrel’s unique technology works with the data and geometry in the BIM file to discover and instruct on code compliance issues.

Based on data from the Construction Industry Institute, the cost to fix a compliance issue multiplies tenfold at each successive project phase. So what might cost an hour to fix during design can multiply to a week’s worth of time after construction begins. For decades, architects have been navigating a compounding problem, and as senior architects with decades of tacit knowledge about building codes begin to retire, the knowledge transfer that used to happen on the job is beginning to disappear at exactly the same time compliance paths are increasing in complexity.

The Kestrel Platform

The Kestrel Compliance Platform consists of multiple components at this initial launch, including:

• Kestrel Compliance Analysis — One click inside Revit runs a full compliance check in about 30 seconds, with every result tied to the specific model element in question and cited to the exact code section.
• Kestrel Compliance Chat — A built-in AI building code assistant and thought partner that answers project-specific compliance questions in plain language, cited to the exact code section. This AI building code chat assistant is available in both the Revit Kestrel panel and in the web browser.
• Kestrel Portal — A web-based compliance dashboard for project managers and firm leadership with no BIM file required.

Marian Pulford, co-founder and CEO, Kestrel Labs has told Architosh:

“New hires are billable from week one now,” adds Micah Gray, AIA, Director of Technology and Innovation. “There is little runway to sit with a senior architect and transfer twenty years of code knowledge. Kestrel changes that equation. The code is in the model, visible to everyone, and it does not depend on who is in the room. That is not a small thing for a firm that is trying to grow.”

Deep Investor Positivity

“Construction is one of those industries where everyone knows the problem, and nobody has built the infrastructure to fix it,” says Nick Moran, General Partner, New Stack Ventures. “Kestrel came to us with deep domain knowledge, a product already running inside the tools architects use every day, and a data foundation that would take most companies years to assemble. That combination – inside the workflow, grounded in authoritative data, solving a problem the profession has accepted as unsolvable – is exactly what we look for.”

Kestrel Labs in action with the code violation window shown. As you work through the code issues list, Kestrel brings into view the specific BIM element in question.

“We invested in Kestrel because they understand what most AEC companies miss: compliance is not a feature. It is the foundation,” adds Aaron Stachel, Founding Partner, FirstMile Ventures. “Every permit delay, every round of rework, traces to building code issues in the design process. Kestrel fixes that from inside the BIM model. This is not a workflow improvement but a structural shift for the industry, and this team is built to lead that shift.”

Availability and Pricing

Architects can find Kestrel Labs’ solution inside the Autodesk Design & Make Marketplace, the Trimble Connect Marketplace, and soon with added SketchUp integration (coming soon).

Pricing works through a firm-wide annual license. There is no per-seat fees.

• No limits on users, projects, or compliance checks.
• Pricing reflects firm size, project complexity, and jurisdictional scope.
• Charter customers receive preferred pricing and input on the jurisdictional roadmap.

On that last point, Kestrel’s compliance platform intends to expand beyond North America to address code compliance for architects worldwide. In an upcoming Architosh interview feature, both co-founders discuss in detail how Kestrel Labs began, how the origin of its co-founders impacted the solutions they are bringing to market, what core technologies are at play, and numerous other details about Kestrel’s direction moving forward. So look for that upcoming interview feature soon!

To visit Kestrel Labs, go here now.

About Kestrel Labs

Kestrel Labs, located in Denver, Colorado, is the first AI-powered building code compliance platform built natively inside BIM and the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

This is a technology that should have been embedded in BIM authoring tools years ago, so we are excited to see Kestrel Labs tackle this age-old problem of code compliance and code-checking. Most large architectural offices either have a dedicated code specialist or regularly consult with a code specialist consultant, and there are many around. However, working with code consultants is a different kind of workflow and has limitations. What Kestrel is doing is democratizing code compliance knowledge, which is especially meaningful as we enter the crest of the Baby Boomers wave as they retire over the next decade. When they leave, so does decades of hard-earned tacit knowledge (know-how) about how code compliance works in architecture. Kestrel Labs has arrived just in time for the world of architecture.

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Sketch-to-BIM

This integration comes with Vectorworks 2026 Update 5 and connects iPad sketching directly to Vectorworks.

Key Takeaways

• New Export to Morpholio Trace command — sends selected, scale-accurate sheets or viewports from Vectorworks via the cloud to a dedicated Vectorworks folder in Trace on their iPad.
• New Import from Morpholio Trace command — brings sketches from Trace back into Vectorworks files as images or vector-based linework, streamlining tracing to CAD/BIM workflows.

Architects today still begin design processes with hand sketching, and many use tablet-based software products like Morpholio Trace. The Apple Design Award-winning iPad app has been labeled “dream software for architects,” and combines the power of Apple Pencil technology with the incredible processing power of the Apple iPad.

Vectorworks 2026 now has full integration with Apple award-winning app Morpholio Trace.

From initial concepts and design details to construction administration stage markups, Morpholio Trace delivers intelligent workflows for architects using the power of immediate hand to sketch workflows.

MORE: Vectorworks acquires popular Morpholio—Leading Mobile Design App

The new Trace integration with Vectorworks reflects a market-proven fact that drawing, tracing, and sketching remain central to how designers think, explore, and communicate ideas. Through the connection with Vectorworks on desktop, designers can move between various workflow scenarios and personas, from the immediacy of hand sketching to the intelligence of their BIM and CAD models.

“With this integration, we’re bringing the power of sketching and the precision of BIM closer together than ever before,” said Vectorworks Product Planner Iskra Nikolova. “Drawings and sketches now move seamlessly in both directions through Vectorworks Cloud Services. Designers can start in Vectorworks and then sketch in Trace, or begin in Trace and bring those ideas back into Vectorworks, enabling a fluid, flexible creative process without extra steps or friction. The release of this integration in Vectorworks 2026 Update 5 marks another milestone in our commitment to connected, mobile-friendly workflows that honor the craft of design.”

Getting Features

This new integration comes with Vectorworks 2026 Update 5, available now. This update is now accessible for all currently released English-language versions of Vectorworks 2026 through subscription and Vectorworks Service Select customers. Vectorworks users can install by selecting “Check for Updates from the Vectorworks menu (Mac) or Help menu (Windows).

To explore the new Morpholio Trace integration and all the latest features, start a free 7-day trial of Vectorworks Design Suite and download Morpholio Trace for iPad and iPhone in the Apple App Store.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Morpholio Trace works with more applications than just Vectorworks, as it can ingest 3D models created in various applications, from BIM to professional 3D modelers. Usually, you export your model out to a (.USDZ) or (.OBJ) file format to bring into Trace. Of course, the Vectorworks integration is even smoother than this, and it’s automated in the cloud. 

Beyond Morpholio Trace, Morpholio Journal is another sister app for simply having a digital sketchbook. It features amazing pens and brushes, and you can also write in it. Then there is BoardPro, a mood board application. ELLE Décore magazine called it “addictive” and awarded it “Best Apps” for interior design, home decor, and interior architecture. This particular app is interesting because Vectorworks, as a company, has toyed with the idea of an industry vertical version of Vectorworks for interior professionals. Currently, interior professionals buy Vectorworks Architect or Vectorworks Design Suite to use as their CAD-BIM environment, but we could see an evolution in which both Vectorworks and this suite of apps (especially BoardPro) develop into a consolidated solution or package called Vectorworks Interiors. 

The advantage Vectorworks has created through its industry vertical solutions is the delivery of a tailor-made solution for a particular type of AEC/O professional. Architosh has written about this in the past in some detail: the one-size-fits-all approach will eventually lose out to highly focused, more pointed, and specialized solutions. We don’t know for certain if that is where the company will go next, but the acquisition of Morpholio Trace offers interesting suggestions. 

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Importantly, Newforma announced a simplified, modular user-based software licensing model, which will help firms better align purchases with role-specific needs.

Newforma and AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) was front and center at Newforma World 2026, the company’s annual user conference. So was updating and modernizing the company’s product offerings.

Newforma announces its broad strategic visions for the AEC/O global industry.

Key new announcements include:

• Newforma Vojo — the company’s new AI assistant, built on an agent-driven framework that lets users search project information, analyze content, and complete tasks more efficiently. Initial capabilities include natural-language search across project data, AI-driven analysis of BIM models and documents, and AI-assisted submittal review workflows.
• Hybrid Modernization — continued investment in hybrid modernization with Newforma Project Center, a reflection of its strategic vision, helping with a seamless transition to the cloud, cloud-connected environments, and more.
• Newforma FedRAMP Moderate — new initiative to address ongoing work toward advanced compliance requirements.

At Newforma World 2026, the message was about flexibility towards the cloud, combining Newforma’s AI-driven automation and support of open integrations, and reinforced a “cloud-first, not cloud-forced” approach that supports customers wherever they are in their modernization journey.

Customers choose when and how they modernize. We decided not to be cloud-only, and it’s by design,” said Carl Veillette, Chief Product Officer at Newforma. “Everything we build must either lower risk, save time, or unlock scale.”

MORE: Newforma accelerates AI innovation and AWS expansion

The AI agent Vojo is embedding intelligence directly into project workflows, such as Smart Email Filing, an AI-powered capability that automatically associates emails with projects and recommends filing locations for RFIs, submittals, and action items, which aids firms in maintaining a more defensible project record.

These capabilities are supported by the company’s collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing secure and scalable infrastructure for advanced AI innovation.

“AI is only as powerful as the data it’s built on,” said Ben Schreiner, Head of AI and Modern Data Strategy Business Development at Amazon Web Services. “Newforma’s approach combines secure, scalable AWS infrastructure with an agent-driven AI framework to help AECO teams surface insights, reduce manual effort, and make more confident decisions, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Newforma.”

To learn more about Newforma’s latest announcements, go here.

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DACH Region

The news reflects the company’s interest in establishing a stronger European hub that builds on ComputerWorks’ market expertise, technical support structure, and sales channel developed over decades of service to German-speaking architects and designers. The acquisition is expected to be completed by 4 May 2026.

As part of the deal, ComputerWorks in Germany will be renamed Vectorworks Germany GmbH. ComputerWorks AG will spin off its CAD division to establish Vectorworks Switzerland AG, while the remaining business will continue as ComputerWorks AG.

Vectorworks has new corporate offices in Germany and Switzerland, acquiring its DACH region distributor, ComputerWorks AG’s CAD division. 

“For many years, ComputerWorks has represented Vectorworks to thousands of designers and planners in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,” said Vectorworks CEO Jason Pletcher. “By bringing ComputerWorks into the Vectorworks family, we are not only expanding our presence in these specific countries, but also combining the strength of a global product organization with the expertise of trusted local professionals. This will enable us to help our customers move faster, collaborate more effectively, and deliver superior designs.”

German Language Market Needs

ComputerWorks AG has long localized Vectorworks products for the German language markets, tailoring the product line and offering complementary solutions to meet regional needs for the architecture, interiors, landscape, and entertainment industries.

“Designers in the DACH region face complex projects, demanding clients, and evolving regulations. They need partners who understand both the local context and global tools,” said Alexander Meier, CEO of Vectorworks Germany. “Becoming part of Vectorworks enables our team to bring our deep understanding of customer needs across all disciplines directly to the people building the software. Together, we can shape features, content, and services that reflect how our customers work today and where they want to go tomorrow.”

“With more than 30 years of development experience, we know that true innovation begins with a deep understanding of local needs and workflows,” said Andreas Hängärtner, CEO of Vectorworks Switzerland. “When that local insight is amplified through international collaboration and presented on a global stage, it creates new opportunities for our users to design with greater confidence and impact.”

German and Swiss Offices

The Vectorworks Germany office is located in Lörrach, Germany, and the Vectorworks Switzerland office is located in Basel, Switzerland. Vectorworks’s parent company, the Nemetschek Group, is headquartered in Munich, Germany, in the Nemetschek Haus, a large office complex that also houses several of its key brands, including Allplan and Bluebeam’s European offices.

Global Presence

Vectorwork, Inc., is an award-winning design and BIM software provider serving the entire AEC industry and the related entertainment design industry in 85 countries around the world. It is headquartered in Maryland, United States, with key offices in Newbury, England; Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; and Japan.

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This year, Nirva Fereshetian (CIO of CBT Architects) and Niknaz Aftahi, CEO of aec+tech, will be hosting a similar event at the beautiful Carrier Johnson + Culture office in downtown San Diego during the AIA National Conference on Architecture & Design, the United States’ premier annual conference and exhibition for the architectural industry.

‘archi+tech’ Social Night

The evening event is a mixture of a social get-together with short presentations by technology providers and leaders in the global AEC industry. But largely, it’s a social event where attendees can have real conversations with members of the digital tech community in attendance.

A kind of class picture from last year’s first-ever ‘archi+tech’ Social Night at AIA National in Boston 2025. The event had sponsors from numerous AEC digital technology providers, including the industry’s largest companies.

Carrier Johnson + Culture is a larger architecture and planning firm in San Diego (with offices in Los Angeles and Seattle) with an award-winning portfolio spanning project types. They have graciously offered to host the event in their San Diego office.

Event Details

‘archi+tech’ Social Night will take place at 5:30 pm, Friday, 12 June 2026 (register here), during the week of the AIA Conference in San Diego. This year, the event is focusing on “innovation” and bringing together people who are actually shaping how technology is used in the architecture and AEC industry.

Nirva and Niknaz are curating a group of around 100 to 120 people at the intersection of design and technology, including:

• Architects and firm leaders
• CIOs, CTOs, and innovation directors
• BIM and design technology leaders
• AEC technology founders, investors, and accelerator teams

What is special about this event is the intimacy of the room and the opportunity to showcase the host firm’s location as a bit of an exhibition of their technological prowess. Last year, CBT Architects displayed a stunning set of digital solutions, specialty technology spaces, model shops, and interactive technology tools to give attendees a sense of what practice is like at a tech-forward large firm.

Registration

If you are attending AIA San Diego in early June and would like to attend this event, please register here: https://luma.com/dfmu0kut

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V-Ray 7 Update 3

“By bringing real-time ray tracing directly into the V-Ray viewport, artists can iterate faster while maintaining the quality that V-Ray is known for, all within a single, unified workflow,” said Vlado Koylazov, Head of Innovation at Chaos.

Key Takeways

• Final-frame-quality real-time rendering is now possible in V-Ray Viewport for those with a Vantage account
• V-Ray 7 update 3 is now out for Rhino and SketchUp, with 3ds Max coming soon
• AI Mood Match technology brings the atmosphere from a reference photo into your render

Real-time ray tracing technology in Chaos Vantage transforms how archviz teams work because it is able to handle complex lighting, large scenes, and large-scale geometry without slowdown. Now, V-Ray 7 users with a Vantage license can tap the power of real-time rendering without leaving the V-Ray workflow.

Parallax Interiors is the software that uses interior shaders from Cosmos. The effect holds from any camera angle and can be varied across a facade to avoid repetition, bringing convincing life to every window, especially during night scenes.

While real-time final-quality ray tracing rendering is a powerful update, Update 3 has eleven other great new features we discuss below, including impactful new AI capabilities.

New Features

There are multiple new features beyond the new capability to tap into Chaos Vantage technology directly in V-Ray 7. These include a new Gaussian splats relighting, Quick Caustics, Chaos Cloud Reviews, new Cosmos Sets, and New Assets.

AI Mood Match technology will be a hit with users who can use a reference photo and have AI match the lighting and atmospheric mood of the image and implement that in the rendered scene.

Moreover, there are multiple new AI tools that bring the power of AI deeper into the production process. An important one is the new AI Mood Match feature. Now, a user can use a reference photo to automatically align a scene’s lighting with the image’s look and atmosphere, reducing manual setup and achieving desired outcomes faster. Other AI features include the ability to AI-generate materials at 4K resolution for eye-popping renders.

Other features include in summary:

• Parallax Interiors — Architects can now add realistic interior depth and lighting to exterior renders without modeling or heavy geometry. Using parallax interior shaders from Cosmos, the effect holds from any camera angle and can be varied across a façade to avoid repetition, bringing convincing life to every window, especially in night scenes.
• Node Material Editor (V-Ray for SketchUp and Rhino) — Users can now build and adjust V-Ray materials visually using a node-based editor, making it easier to understand material logic and create complex shaders with greater control. The node editing workflow offers a more intuitive and visual alternative to traditional material creation and editing. The tool is now available as a preview, with more possibilities to come in future releases.
• AI Enhancer: Large Surfaces Coverage — Architects can add more realistic details to large surfaces, such as floors, walls, asphalt, and terrain, adding natural variation at the correct scale without manual re-texturing.
• AI Enhancer: Improved Accuracy and Single Object Creative Enhancement — Users can achieve more precise results across the board, with new support for applying creative enhancement to individual objects.
• Video Collaboration — Chaos Cloud becomes a professional-grade video review platform for animations and render sequences, with precise commenting tied to timestamps, ranges, and visual annotations.
• Cosmos Sets and New Assets — Cosmos sets provide a fast and simplified way to populate scenes with grouped assets that naturally work together. This update adds 700+ new Cosmos assets, including 400 high-poly Globe Plant models and new branded models.

To learn more and explore what’s new, visit the V-Ray Collection page on chaos.com. Or watch the video below:

Pricing and Availability

Launching first on V-Ray for SketchUp and Rhino, real-time rendering in the V-Ray viewport is available to users with an active Chaos Vantage or V-Ray Collection license. AI Mood Match and real-time rendering in the V-Ray viewport are expected to be introduced to V-Ray for 3ds Max.

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Update 4

This is the fourth major update to the Vectoworks 2026 product line, and it expands on capabilities that architects, interior designers, and other creative professionals are looking for, including enhanced data-driven design workflows.

Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks is a plugin for the BIM software adding real-time, photo-realistic, GPU-accelerated raytracing to Vectorworks workflows.

“Vectorworks 2026 Update 4 reflects our ongoing commitment to empowering designers with smarter, more efficient tools,” said Vectorworks Vice President of Product Development Hugues Tsafak. “From the first iteration of phasing, supporting various project types and sizes, to enhanced sustainability dashboards and Maxon Redshift for Archviz, this release leverages our strength in data management to help designers plan, document, and visualize projects more accurately and sustainably. We remain committed to evolving these tools to meet the growing demands of modern design.”

Details

Already covered in some detail in this report on Maxon, new in Update 4 is support for Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks, bringing next-generation visualization rendering features to the popular design and BIM software platform. Vectorworks is the first of the four major BIM platforms (Revit, Archicad, Vectorworks, and Bentley), used by architects worldwide, to leverage a direct integration with Maxon’s Hollywood-level Redshift rendering technology. As Redshift is available as a standalone product from Maxon, those with existing Redshift licenses can now access the integration directly from inside Vectorworks 2026, Update 4.

MORE: Maxon Enters AEC with Real-Time Rendering

Unlike export-based rendering workflows, the Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks plugin maintains a live synchronization between your Vectorworks main window and your Redshift rendering window. Geometry, lighting, cameras, and scene elements remain aligned between both environments.

Update 4 also introduces new renovation and multi-phase workflows technology. Now, a time-based dimension is embedded directly into your BIM model, assigning defined status conditions. With data visualization integration, Vectorworks 2026’s new phasing status capabilities can now control object visibility and graphic representations.

Other improvements included below in highlight format include:

• Updated Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator (VECC)
• Improved Class and Layer search for AEC professionals
• Linear Material tool now includes world-based parameters for stucco and plaster
• Hedgerow tool is now fully integrated into the Styled Landscape Area object
• Refinement in Spotlight numbering device management tools for Entertainment Industry professionals using Vectorworks Spotlight 2026.
• New Cable tool insertion modes for enhanced efficiency

This update is now available for all currently released English-language versions of Vectorworks 2026 and is immediately accessible to subscription and Vectorworks Service Select customers. To install, select “Check for Updates” from the Vectorworks menu (Mac) or the Help menu (Windows).

Redshift Availability

Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks, which powers the new live rendering integration in Update 4, is available as a standalone product from Maxon and can be purchased either through Vectorworks or Maxon. To use Redshift for Vectorworks, customers must create a Maxon account and purchase a Redshift subscription.

The post Vectorworks 2026 Update 4—Next-Gen Rendering and More Added appeared first on Architosh.

Real-Time Redshift

Starting with sister company Vectorworks, Maxon has launched Redshift for Vectorworks, the German company’s first real-time archviz solution. Alongside this release, Redshift for Revit is also announced as an official beta launch. (There are open sign-ups here.)

Maxon Redshift is now available for Vectorworks, offering an industry competitive real-time to final render pipeline solution.

Graphisoft’s Archicad will get its real-time Redshift for Archicad later in 2026. In all cases, the new real-time Redshift solutions for architectural design tools mark a major milestone for Maxon, which has always served high-end architectural visualization users with its famed Cinema 4D solution. The new Redshift real-time technology embeds its features directly into the host design applications.

“Maxon’s tools have a rich history in media and entertainment, used by the creative teams behind so many popular Hollywood movies to create Oscar-winning visual effects,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, Maxon’s Executive VP Rendering. “Now, we’re bringing this same magic to architects and interior designers, helping them translate their vision into cinematic visual experiences worthy of big screens.”

Solution Details

Engineered for architects and interior designers, Maxon is bringing its award-winning Redshift rendering technologies straight into the AEC industry’s globally leading BIM and design solutions, beginning with global BIM/CAD solution Vectorworks.

An example of Maxon Redshift’s rendering quality.

Redshift for Vectorworks launches alongside the release of Vectorworks 2026 Update 4. The solution allows users to smoothly move from real-time design previews to high-end, photorealistic renders all within the same unified ecosystem. Redshift for Revit (now in beta) and Redshift for Archicad will be released later in 2026, with further launches planned for 2027.

Technicals include:

• Archviz in real-time — Architects can visualize designs instantly in real time, then elevate scenes using the same Redshift technology used in feature films – without leaving their CAD environment. Projects can be sent to Cinema 4D with a single click for advanced modeling, animation, simulation, fly-throughs, and rendering.

• Exceptional ease of adoption — Early user testing highlights a key priority: effortless setup, intuitive controls, and fast results, especially for iterative workflows where architects need to explore lighting, materials, and composition quickly.

• Intelligent, production-ready asset libraries — Maxon’s platform includes a vast library of assets known as “Capsules” – materials, plants, furniture, and environmental elements – updated monthly and supported by procedural tools and AI-assisted search for rapid scene building and creative iteration. As the Archviz solution evolves, so will its library.

• Full Mac and Windows parity — Whether teams work on Mac, Windows, or a mix of both, Maxon’s AEC solution delivers consistent performance and functionality across platforms. Architects can collaborate fluidly, share files with confidence, and maintain unified workflows throughout their design-to-visualization process.

• Better value for architects and studios — Compared with market alternatives, Maxon’s first-wave AEC offering launches at a significantly more affordable price, while offering compatibility with broader DCC pipelines, including Maya and Houdini.

Maxon will be showcasing this new Redshift product line at upcoming architecture and AEC events, including the DigitalBAU (24-26 Mar 2026) and AIA26 Conference on Architecture and Design (10-13 Jun 2026), in San Diego, California.

Availability and Cost

Redshift for Vectorworks is available now for purchase through either Maxon or Vectorworks (initially only in English language, with additional language support coming soon). When bundled with Vectorworks, users can benefit from significant discounts, making it the most affordable renderer in its category.

Redshift for Revit Beta Sign Up

For readers who are Revit users and want to sign up to test out the beta, visit here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Maxon’s Redshift renderer is a GPU-accelerated raytracing system and provides real-time raytracing. The more powerful your GPU, the faster and smoother the UX. Like several of its chief real-time rendering competitors, Redshift for Archviz—which will ship as an annual subscription and include all integration plugins—works as a plugin in a host application and brings up a second dedicated Redshift rendered window from which a side-by-side view is shown. When you rotate your building model in, say, Vectorworks, the building rotates in synch in the Redshift window. 

The visual results shift as you move around in the environment. When you stop the rendering, it up-scales in quality. We are curious how fast Redshift may be on the latest M5 Pro and M5 Max chips since they have much more powerful GPU cores with a neural accelerator in each core. We hope to speak to Maxon executives soon to learn more details about this new offering. So far, the demo results look compelling, but the market is crowded with excellent solutions. One thing we did notice is that Redshift for Archviz is priced quite low at just USD 289.00 per year. That is a compelling offer. 

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