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.

The post AIA26: AI and Automation Shine in San Diego—Some Highlights appeared first on Architosh.

Design Intelligence Strategy

“Building on the Design Intelligence Strategy introduced last year, Graphisoft is unifying key components into a single, cloud-native platform that extends from feasibility studies to detailed BIM and lifecycle collaboration,” said Márton Kiss, Chief Product Officer, Design Division & Graphisoft. “This next step reinforces our mission to deliver an intuitive, data‑driven design experience that helps architects and engineers focus on how buildings should be built, not just how they can be built.”

Advancing Open Collaboration

Graphisoft notes in its press materials that the global construction industry experiences an annual USD 2.1 trillion loss each year due to project overruns and delays. In response to this waste and inefficiency, Graphisoft has announced that the Nemetschek Group is developing what it calls an “open collaboration fabric” of the Nemetschek Group design ecosystem, one that is more broadly open to the greater AEC industry than anything currently offered elsewhere.

Design Intelligence Platform showing carbon analysis on a conceptual tower building in a city. See our discussion below on Previewing AI-Assisted Design.

To address roadblocks, cost overruns, broken handovers, misalignment, and miscommunication, the Design Intelligence technologies will synchronize models, documents, issues, and decisions across Graphisoft solutions and the broader Nemetschek portfolio while robustly supporting standards such as IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), BCF (BIM Collaboration Format), PDF, DWG, and RVT (Revit). The solution, due in early 2026, will be a browser-based, multidisciplinary collaboration environment that brings architects, engineers, builders, owners, and operators into a common single source of truth.

“Our goal is simple,” said Sylwester Pawluk, VP, Product Management – Collaboration, Graphisoft and Nemetschek Group. “To offer the AEC industry a truly open alternative — one that is trustworthy and accessible for everyone. This is the open collaboration layer our entire industry has been missing.”

Previewing AI-Assisted Design

Also in development is a next-generation, web-based design intelligence platform that is infused with AI-driven workflows and integrated simulations to help design teams make smarter decisions with greater impact on the project earlier in the design-build process.

Users will be able to explore hundreds of massing, layout, and building performance scenarios in seconds, all while keeping project stakeholders aligned in a shared, browser-based workspace, without requiring BIM expertise. This design intelligence platform (which will have an exciting name, Graphisoft executives tell Architosh) is being developed to scale across the Nemetschek Group and its solutions, with AI-assisted solutions planned for early access in October.

Márton Kiss, Chief Product Officer, Design Division & Graphisoft, stated:

Readers interested in gaining a further peek into Graphisoft’s Design Intelligence Strategy can do so at this link. And we provide additional contextual oversight below.

Archicad—Autodesk Forma Connection

In other critical news from AIA26 San Diego, Graphisoft also announced its new Archicad—Autodesk Forma Connection, coming this month (June). This connection enables Archicad to fully participate in the Autodesk Forma CDE (common data environment), formerly known as Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) and BIM Collaborate Pro. (see, Architosh: “Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) is now Autodesk Forma,” 31 Mar 2026).

A view of Archicad with its AI Assistant providing assistance to the user.

Graphisoft is also building its AI portfolio, including its new AI Assistant and AI Visualizer, plus additional upcoming AI services built on the common platform described above. In fact, AI is a core pillar of the Design Intelligence Strategy, and readers can learn more about that here.

Architosh Analysis & Commentary

It is important to clarify that this combined Graphisoft press statement timed for AIA26 is saying essentially two things. First, what was last year called “Project Aurora” is now simply Graphisoft’s “design intelligence platform,” a web-browser-based cloud software system akin to other BIM 2.0 systems with differences, of course. The design intelligence platform (DIP) helps with design intent exploration, including site potential or test-fitting, space planning, sustainability (energy impacts of early-stage design modeling and layouts), plus cost/time impacts from an early-stage looking forward. 

The second thing announced was the “design intelligence strategy,” which is exactly what it sounds like: a strategy to link together Graphisoft and Nemetschek tools with an open BIM model framework supporting wide data exchange via APIs and MCPs across portfolios. This means native BIM connectors (see below) and the synchronization of data with 2nd and 3rd party clouds, such as the newest (and certainly not the last) Autodesk Forma.

This “design intelligence platform” is just one component area of the larger Graphisoft – Nemetschek Group design intelligence strategy discussed above. Starting with Agentic workflows (AI embedded in all products), project intelligence, generative design, optioneering, quality checking, and simulations (all BIM 2.0 characteristics) feed into the project as it advances from these new cloud-based tools into Graphisoft’s and the Nemetschek Group’s older desktop era tools like Archicad. Importantly, the Nemetschek Group’s ecosystem strategy includes modernizing its portfolio of solutions to include updated APIs and MCP (model context protocol) for interoperability with modern data and AI workflows. This means that projects may begin in the design intelligence platform (which will have its own new name) and then push out data to Archicad and possibly other Nemetschek solutions.

Furthermore, Nemetschek’s existing desktop-era design tools will have native BIM data connectors. This means they will read each other’s data natively. This is a monumental change from past postures the daughter companies had toward each other. This means that Archicad users can benefit from Vectorworks Landmark’s superb land planning and terrain modeling capabilities, things that Archicad or Revit lack, for example. It also means more streamlined workflows between, say, engineers working in Allplan and RISA and architects working in Archicad or Vectorworks. Moreover, Vectorworks’s new acquisition of Morpholio Trace won’t stay exclusive to Vectorworks long-term. That tool will likely flush out its BIM integration path with Vectorworks users and push those capabilities to Archicad and maybe Allplan users as well. Morpholio—much like Vectorworks Landmark—is too valuable a tool to keep exclusively connected to one daughter company. 

These are just some of the plans and ideas that are both possible and coming when the Nemetschek Group pulls its diverse portfolio of solutions into an intelligent, cloud-native single platform with API and MCP data exchange and native geometry interoperability. When you step back and look at how the Nemetschek Group is now beginning to operate and compare it to its chief rival ecosystem (the world of Autodesk), we see new reflections of each other that echo how the AEC market and its users want to operate. All AEC/O users want better data and geometry model interoperability. They also want “mix and match” streamlined solutions within company ecosystems—something few of the big four AEC software firms truly deliver. This last point is crucial because AEC firms vary widely in size, expertise, building types, and regions. 

The post AIA26: Graphisoft Advances Design Intelligence Strategy appeared first on Architosh.

Now, NVIDIA has entered the same race—the race to deliver the world’s fastest and most capable processor for the personal computer. But unlike Intel and AMD, NVIDIA’s new RTX Spark Superchip runs the ARM instruction set, not the Intel-X86 instruction set, and thus joins Apple and Qualcomm (not to mention MediaTek) in the ARM architecture’s pursuit of taking over the PC landscape.

Death to Intel X86?

So, does this news mean doom for Intel X86? We have certainly discussed this possibility in great detail before in our critically received feature (see Architosh, “End of an Era: How Silicon Will Decide BIM’s Future,” 24 December 2025), first published for our Xpresso-4X newsletter readers. And we originally discussed ARM’s threat to Intel X86 in our even larger, critically received feature (see, Architosh, “Chip Technology, Geopolitics, and the CAD Industry,” 21 Jan 2022).

Key Takeaways

• NVIDIA’s RTX Spark Superchip is based on the ARM architecture and is similar to Apple’s and Qualcomm’s ARM SoCs in that it merges a CPU, GPU, and dedicated AI processing centers all on the same chip with a “unified memory” architecture that is incredibly fast.
• The RTX Spark has no benchmarks at this announcement, but company executives told Forbes editors that it will have all-day battery life and be performance competitive with anything else in the PC market.
• RTX Spark-based computers could massively disrupt sales of Intel and AMD X86-based computers, tilting the entire X86 Windows software ecosystem towards ARM. Leading PC makers will ship RTX Spark-based systems in the fall in premium laptop configurations and run Microsoft’s Prism X86 software emulator as well as support the growing ecosystem of native Windows on ARM software titles. 

But before we discuss why Intel X86 may be in real trouble now, let’s dig into the announcement and chip details further.

Jenson Huang, in his talk at Computex, Taipei, today, essentially says:

Huang goes on to say that with each generation of the new RTX Spark Superchip, there will be a new model for the laptop, the desktop, and the workstation computer. He further says in his talk that he is incredibly thrilled that 100 percent of the world’s PC market has joined Nvidia to reinvent the PC. Of course, Jensen Huang isn’t really capturing 100 percent of the PC industry to come on board and join them in reinventing the PC. Critically, Intel and AMD are not on board because the NVIDIA RTX Spark Superchip is the most existential threat to their PC chip business that they have likely ever faced.

NVIDIA and Microsoft reinvent the Windows PC for the Age of Personal AI. Introducing the NVIDIA RTX Spark Superchip for Windows ARM computers.

Historically, Nvidia relied on Intel and AMD to provide the X86 central processing units (CPUs) that acted as the brains, along with Nvidia graphics cards (GPUs), which ran graphics and specialized parallel processing tasks. Now RTX Spark represents a paradigm shift that targets the core profit engines of the legacy X86 giants through several critical competitive advantages.

RTX Spark Advantages

Namely, these advantages stem from the fact that NVIDIA is breaking the X86 Duopoly in high-end devices in the PC market. The RTX Spark Superchip running Microsoft’s Windows for ARM shatters this exclusivity. Now consumers will face a choice between RTX Spark-based systems from top-tier computer makers, including Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, and MSI, and X86-based systems running Intel and AMD processors. Which will they choose and why?

Computer buyers will want to choose NVIDIA’s RTX Spark-based systems for one very important advantage. The Spark Superchip is built from the ground up for what Huang calls the Native AI Agent Revolution. In other words, the leading AI chip company is going to bring its AI chip prowess to your everyday computing.

Let’s look at the NVIDIA Spark Superchip in detail. So what does it consist of?

• CPU Architecture — ARM (NVIDIA and MediaTek co-developed the design)
• CPU Core Count — 20-core (10 Cortex-X925 + 10 Cortex-A725)
• GPU Architecture — NVIDIA Blackwell (up to 6,144 CUDA cores)
• Memory System — Up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X Unified Memory
• Processor Node — TSMC-3 nanometer

The RTX Spark Superchip will fuse two chiplets: a GPU based on NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture and a 20-core NVIDIA Grace (ARM-based) CPU. Unified memory is what the Spark Superchip has in common with ARM chips from Apple and Qualcomm, but to stand apart from them, the RTX Spark chip supports up to 128 GB of unified memory in configurations that are engineered for heavy desktop-class AI and graphics workloads rather than mobile-first efficiency. Unlike Apple and Qualcomm, the NVIDIA RTX Spark superchip includes NVIDIA’s NVLink memory bandwidth technology, yielding up to 600 GB/s. And the chip also features Blackwell CUDA cores, something that Qualcomm and Apple are locked out of, as this technology is proprietary.

MORE: ARES 2027 Deep Dive: AI, Automation and BIM-to-DWG Workflows

Even if Intel and AMD launched their own unified memory, ARM-based processors to compete with the RTX Spark, they would have to strike a licensing deal to obtain the Blackwell GPU with CUDA cores. CUDA is, indeed, NVIDIA’s strongest leverage in computing in the age of AI.

Architosh will share more on RTX Spark as we learn more details, but in our section below, we explore the industry impact of this new chip announcement. For further details, read here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Early feedback from the computer industry over the NVIDIA RTX Spark Superchip is a mix of massive excitement over the hardware’s capabilities, mixed with a healthy dose of debate over its impact on the Windows X86 software ecosystem. It would be premature to rush to the conclusion that AMD and Intel cannot compete with NVIDIA in the PC market for central processing units. Much depends on the true performance advantages NVIDIA’s RTX Spark can deliver in general and AI computing. However, in general, the very fact that the Spark is out now and is ARM-based sends another powerful signal to the market that the ARM architecture is rising while the Intel X86 architecture is in decline. This begs the question about software ecosystem disruption.

How will Windows software be developed in the future? If software on Windows moves to an ARM-priority-based market, this will actually aid Apple as well, since their hardware is also ARM-based, and emulating Windows on ARM today on MacOS systems is very prevalent and performative. 

Furthermore, with NVIDIA focusing on getting Windows gaming developers and graphics app developers moved over to native ARM development for these new RTX Spark-based computers, this also shifts the tools behind the software development in a direction that will likely aid Apple as well. It will be easier for a developer to develop for ARM on both Windows and Mac since they share the same chip architecture and presumably an increasing set of ARM development tools. The question then becomes, how does the CAD industry react to all of this? What will Autodesk and SolidWorks do in response to a possible future where the world’s fastest Windows PCs are running NVIDIA RTX Spark Superchips? 

The post NVIDIA unveils RTX Spark—ARM-based Superchip for Windows PCs appeared first on Architosh.

The update is built on the latest version of Maxon’s acclaimed Redshift rendering engine and supports Nvidia’s new Blackwell GPU, Nvidia Hopper GPUs, as well as Apple M4 and M5 systems. The company says this is a major architectural update to the benchmark software.

Cinebench 2026

Based on the latest Redshift rendering engine, Cinebench 2026 reflects real-world 3D production workloads more accurately than ever before, applicable to 3D CAD/BIM/DCC industries. Redshift is Cinema 4D’s default rendering engine, and the benchmark now leverages the latest technological advancements in Redshift’s development.

Cinebench 2026 is now available and free.

The new benchmark supports Nvidia’s new Blackwell (5000 series) GPUs, AMD 9000 series GPUs on Windows, as well as Nvidia Hopper and Blackwell datacenter GPUs. Moreover, the latest version also supports Apple M4 and M5-based Macs.

The benchmark is also capable of evaluating the performance of SMT-enabled CPU cores, so users can directly assess the performance gains offered by SMT (simultaneous multithreading) compared to single-threaded execution. SMT refers to a processor’s ability to run multiple execution threads on a single physical core by sharing internal resources, and the term is used by AMD. Intel has its own term for this called Hyper-Threading.

More Technical Details

As most Architosh readers are aware, rendering is a highly parallel workload, and multicore processors can speed up render times dramatically. SMT and Intel’s Hyper-Threading essentially enable the operating system to see a processor’s physical cores as made up of two or more “logical” cores. For example, a 6-core CPU with SMT enabled will show 12 threads in Cinebench 2026’s multi-core test.

SMT and Hyper-Threading boost chip efficiencies. If one thread is waiting for data from memory, the core can use the idle time to process instructions for the second thread. When rendering software is well-optimized, SMT can provide performance gains of over 30% compared to running just one thread per core.

Apple Silicon Comparisons

While Apple’s M4 and M5 chips are significantly faster than Intel and AMD’s best processors at single-core performance, Apple has yet to deploy SMT. The new CPU Single Core vs Single Thread tests in Cinebench 2026 make for a useful comparison to processors from Apple, as well as to see how performance gain is enabled by SMT for AMD and Intel processors.

Because of the new architectural improvements to Cinebench 2026, the new scoring system is not compatible (comparable) with Cinebench 2024 scores.

To obtain the new free Cinebench 2026 industry-standard benchmark, go here to download.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Cinebench is considered a top industry-standard benchmarking software and is used and cited widely by Intel, AMD, Apple, and other chip makers. While Geekbench 6.5 is widely considered the best tool for comparing disparate chip architectures (like ARM vs x86), Cinebench is also right up there in that category due to its extensive cross-platform capability. It supports Windows on x86, Windows on ARM, and macOS (x86 and ARM). However, Geekbench covers a broad spectrum of everyday and professional computing tasks that are typically relatively short. On the flip side, Cinebench has always focused on brute-force “sustained” chip performance. Why does this distinction matter, especially for CAD and 3D users? 

Geekbench 6.5 tests and subtests are rather short (under five minutes). They also include a 5-second pause between sub-tests to minimize thermal throttling (ie, prevent it from happening). This makes it the gold standard for “bursty” single-core responsiveness kinds of tests. And CAD and BIM tools, in particular, are not only dominantly single-core (single-threaded) but also the workflows are very “bursty” by nature. In CAD and 3D, there are pauses between actions as the user manipulates 2D and 3D content. This makes it a very good test for measuring how “snappy” a computer feels when opening up an app or moving a line in CAD. 

Cinebench, on the other hand, measures “sustained” performance (not “bursty” performance) and will test a system’s chips to the maximum of their thermal and power limits. This is critical because in the real world, processors can throttle down performance when thermal limits are reached. And this is critical in mobile computers, where, under battery power, peak performance may be very short. If a given chip relies on “bursting” to hit peak performance and has poor cooling capability, its Cinebench score will likely plummet over time as Cinebench runs tests for 10-30 minutes. This is where we are likely to see large advantages of Apple Silicon (M4 / M5) over Intel and AMD mobile processors. 

Cinebench also tests how CPUs and GPUs handle large parallelized rendering workloads. It also measures 3D ray-tracing which is extremely taxing on heavy floating-point math. And a big reason why Cinebench is so widely considered a standard is for its multicore focus, where the system’s many cores can be hammered simultaneously at full power. Because the operating system has less input compared to other benchmarks, Cinebench is a favorite of high-end workstation builders and overclockers. 

We use both Geekbench and Cinebench as primary comprehensive testing tools. The first captures the “bursty” nature of general computing and CAD/BIM apps, while the latter (Cinebench) captures raw power and “sustained” performance up against a system’s thermal limits. We highly recommend both for readers to deploy when benchmarking their own systems and setups. 

The post Maxon Intros Cinebench 2026—Industry Standard Benchmark appeared first on Architosh.

The article, however, will debut first this week in the next Xpresso-4X newsletter arriving this Thursday, 18 December 2025. [Editor’s note: This article is now live]

Why Silicon Decides

The features excerpt reads:

“As computing enters the voltage-limited era, the shift away from x86 toward ARM—already reshaping datacenters, laptops, and cloud platforms—carries consequences for architectural computing. This feature explores how those silicon realities are redefining BIM’s future, and why adaptation is no longer an option.”

It is important to note that the notion that silicon drives software, not the other way around, is not new. It has largely always been the case.

As microprocessors gain transistors and computational performance, roughly every 10x improvement, a new type of computer (or computing era) emerges, with periods of overlap.

At every 10x leap in microprocessor power (performance), a new type of computing has emerged. If we look at this chart, we are now in the era of AI Compute. In the latter half of the first decade, we were in the era of smartphone and tablet compute (cellular devices) and smoothly entered the era of cloud compute (datacenter). Yet, today’s dominant BIM and CAD solutions were all architected during the Workstation and Desktop eras.

Yet, the tools we use today in CAD and BIM industries are originally from the Workstation and Desktop eras. Today’s BIM 2.0 solutions are challenging desktop-era tools by leveraging unique capabilities enabled by the cloud (datacenter) compute paradigm.

But the AI computer era is different. It is categorically scaling (innovation, investment, and speculation) at unprecedented speeds, not seen since the Dot-Com boom. Because of this scale, it is placing unprecedented emphasis on energy efficiency due to its exponential electricity use.

Heterogeneous Silicon

Mobility has been around for decades, but smartphones and tablets have exponentially increased the number of mobile computer devices. As a result, ARM processors today outnumber x86 processors by nearly 30:1. And ARM chips were designed from the beginning with heterogeneous compute in mind, including the big.LITTLE architectural paradigm, whereas x86 chips from Intel and AMD have been playing catch-up with ARM.

In the early PC era, Intel x86 chips outnumbered RISC processors from companies like Sun Microsystems, HP, IBM, and others by a ratio very similar to 30:1. The vast volume helped Intel at both economies of scale and Wright’s Law (net positive effects from experience gained from production). Now the shoe is on the other foot, and it is AMD and Intel that are battling those same benefits now accruing to ARM and its many licensees.

Neural CAD Engines

While x86 chips have fallen behind Apple and Qualcomm badly in performance per watt (and absolute performance in cases like single-core), AMD and Intel are formidable chip design powerhouses. Yet, the battle now becomes substantially more complex in the AI era, where system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs offer key benefits such as unified system memory and high throughput between CPU, GPU, and NPU (neural) cores. Intel and AMD are emulating these designs.

This view of the geometry-oriented AI Foundational Model (neural CAD engine) can create designs spontaneously from a text prompt. It is an entirely new machine learning approach to generating CAD objects, in contrast to classical parametric CAD engines that have been in use for 40 years.

Meanwhile, the CAD and BIM industry is increasingly leveraging NPUs and GPUs for new types of workloads based on AI inference and training. Autodesk’s Neural CAD engines were shown at AU25 in Nashville this past fall.

The special feature will cover in detail how Intel ran into physics at 10nm back in the middle of the last decade and how x86 contributes to the physics problem. It also highlights how Intel’s new 18A process node dramatically attacks these physics problems and why Intel may actually potentially lead again in some performance areas.

Viewers can read the special feature on Architosh on December 24th, or earlier by signing up for the Xpresso-4X newsletter. The newsletter goes out this week on Thursday, so sign up now to not miss out.

The post Preview: End of an Era: How Silicon Will Decide BIM’s Future appeared first on Architosh.

“Corona 14 brings arch-viz specialists the ultimate in photorealism in the easiest ways possible,” said Tom Grimes, product manager for Chaos Corona. The new version, he added, merges AI tools and procedural materials to accelerate workflows while supporting richer visual storytelling.

Gaussian Splats Arrive for Real-World Context

A headline addition is Gaussian splat support, enabling users to pull real-world captures directly into 3D scenes with accurate reflections, refractions, and volumetrics — all with high memory efficiency. The feature lets artists rapidly contextualize buildings inside detailed site environments or incorporate scanned objects with smoother surfaces and more natural depth.

Chaos adds Gaussian splats support in the new Chaos Corona 14 for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D.

Other new features include AI tools for materials generation, enhancement, and upscaling. Additionally, Corona 14 expands Chaos’s push into AI as a creative co-pilot:

• AI Material Generator converts a photo into a tileable, PBR-ready material with full map sets — ideal for fast secondary materials without sacrificing realism.

• AI Image Enhancer improves detail and texture in supporting elements (people, foliage, terrain) and allows LightMix outputs to be enhanced for rapid lighting and mood exploration.

• AI Upscaler converts low-resolution drafts into crisp, presentation-ready renders, saving rendering hours during look development.

All AI features can be toggled on or off to meet client policies, copyright-risk requirements, or data-sensitivity rules.

New Procedural and Environmental Systems

Corona 14 introduces several artist-driven tools aimed at reducing reliance on external assets:

• Night Sky, an extension of Corona Sky, adds physically based moonlight, stars, and even the Milky Way. Time, date, and location can be set, or creators can manually direct the celestial environment — fully animatable for time-lapse or cinematic sequences.

• Fabric Material, a new procedural fabric shader, generates woven textiles with detailed control over thread patterns, opacity, bump, and displacement. Presets are included for quick setup, eliminating the need for bitmap-driven workflows.

Availability

Corona 14 is available now for 3ds Max 2018–2026 (Windows) and Cinema 4D R17–2026 (Windows and macOS). The software is offered via subscription with monthly and annual options.

For more information, visit Chaos Corona.

The post Chaos Launches Corona 14 With AI Material Tools and Gaussian Splat Support appeared first on Architosh.

Additionally, there are new professional 2D conceptual drafting tools in LayOut and much more, as we describe below.

SketchUp Advancements

As part of SketchUp for Desktop, there are now all-new sharing and real-time viewing capabilities. Architects and designers can securely share models with stakeholders, controlling who can view and comment on the model shared. The built-in commenting functionality allows those with whom the model is shared to add comments and attach them specifically to 3D geometry, ensuring conversations are linked to the relevant part of the model.

The latest SketchUp launches with in-app collaboration and real-time multi-party participation.

All collaborators see instant updates to the model, creating a shared space for real-time design conversations. Moreover, cursor and camera tracking features allow clients and stakeholders to follow along during presentations, making sure nobody gets lost and everyone is on the same page.

“Great designs are shaped by conversation, iteration, and shared insight,” said Sandra Winstead, senior director of product management, architecture, and design at Trimble. “Rather than jumping between email threads or third-party tools to hold conversations, collaborate, and make design decisions, we’ve built collaboration directly into SketchUp. Now, designers can have a two-way dialogue with clients and project stakeholders in the SketchUp model for quicker iterations and better alignment throughout the design process. Collectively, from collaboration to documentation, context and visualization, these advancements impact critical design workflows, helping designers move from concept to reality with greater speed, clarity, and confidence.”

Improved Documentation

SketchUp comes with LayOut, its paper-space-oriented application for setting up drawing sheets with basic drafting capabilities. There are now new 2D drafting tools that are more intuitive and precise for drawing common documentation tasks. There is also a new set of scrapbooks for quick access to standard architectural graphics, such as doors and windows for scaled, 2D composition in LayOut.

Real-time collaboration will be a benefit for Construction Industry professionals as they utilize SketchUp as a construction BIM platform.

Additionally, this latest version of SketchUp features enhanced DWG export and preserves SketchUp geometry and tags, and rework is minimized when moving from 3D in SketchUp to 2D in other CAD and BIM tools.

Improved Site Context

Upgrades to Scan Essentials streamline the process of adding real-world conditions from point clouds into designs and create a seamless workflow when working with a shared coordinate system. New tools, Textured Projection, Surface Mesh, and scene management capabilities open up more efficient and improved ways of working with point clouds for visual outputs. Users have new import options in Add Location to easily add existing buildings into the terrain as pre-built 3D geometry.

Visualization

The visual qualities of SketchUp have also been enhanced. Users gain more precision in stylistic control and a wider range of options, from Color Ambient Occlusion, Ambient Occlusion Scale Multiplier, and Invert Roughness. An upgraded Diffusion Labs offers higher-fidelity AI visualization, enabling greater control over the scene.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

These latest updates to SketchUp are transformative, turning the popular AEC 3D modeler into a real-time collaboration platform. With the features we discussed during the AIA25 BEST of SHOW award honors, we see Trimble slowly turning SketchUp into a different kind of BIM platform—one focused on “design” as opposed to “documentation” with the key BIM 2.0 characteristic of real-time, multi-party collaboration at its center. While SketchUp continues to gain more advanced features, it manages to keep its overall ethos centered on its class-leading ease-of-use.

This focus on ease-of-use may explain why SketchUp has, up to this moment, refused to address long-term demands by some of its users for more advanced (Rhino-like) modeling features built into the program as opposed to third-party add-ons filling that need. Indeed, its ease-of-use factor enables the flattest onramp to learning 3D software in the AEC industry and thereby wider stakeholder participation, which is why it remains popular with construction professionals as much as with architects, landscape architects, and interior designers.

Instead of challenging Rhino for the hearts of young architecture students, Trimble is focusing on SketchUp for seasoned AEC professionals, layering in BIM 2.0 features and slowly turning SketchUp into a new kind of BIM 3D collaboration platform anyone can use. 

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Archicad 29

Previewed at AIA25 in Boston earlier this year, MEP Designer is a new and fully integrated MEP solution integral to Archicad itself. It is therefore modular technology available in some versions of Archicad, and enables engineers to create accurate system layouts within a modern BIM environment. Because it is fully integrated with Archicad, MEP Designer is available on both Windows and Mac platforms, marking an expansion of the Mac platform availability for MEP professionals.¹

MEP Designer gives MEP engineers the tools to create detailed 2D and 3D layouts of MEP systems, including sections, schedules, and parts lists. Integral to Archicad, it features the same built-in visualization tools that architects enjoy using Archicad, and features parametric libraries for MEP elements.

Graphisoft releases new Archicad 29 at Graphisoft IGNITE Conference in Budapest this week. All Graphisoft products were updated, and Architosh will report more details in other reports.

“Archicad, together with Graphisoft’s MEP developments, enables faster coordination, consistent data, and reduced rework in a One-Model environment—strengthening both accuracy and efficiency in project delivery,” said Jasper Laguerta, Principal BIM Manager, Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte. Ltd., Singapore.

AI Assistant (BETA)

A pivotal new technology in the history of Archicad is the AI Assistant (BETA). The new AI feature set is fully integrated into Archicad 29, not a side-by-side separate application, and offers intelligent prompts, model queries, and expert guidance. The AI Assistant can help guide users, both new and experienced, through Archicad 29’s features and assist them in keeping projects on track.

To boost Archicad’s reputation as a designer-forward BIM solution, Graphisoft is touting multiple improvements to deliver the industry’s premium design experience in Archicad 29.

Archicad 29 is more than a software update—it’s a bold leap forward in our drive for better buildings,” said Márton Kiss, Chief Product Officer at Graphisoft. “Archicad 29 is the centerpiece in our Design Intelligence Strategy, and the backbone of the next generation of AI-enabled workflows and a superior user experience.”

Key new Productivity features include all of the following:

• Quickly Rotate Elements by 90° instantly with simple shortcuts that speed up your workflow.
• Directly Input Openings in Section/Elevation for precise placement—even on non-parallel elements.
• Kitchen Cabinet Updates offer enhanced flexibility and user-driven improvements.
• Filter and select unused Views for tidier outputs and fewer errors.
• Set Resolution for 3D Views effortlessly and control 3D view DPI for sharp, high-quality outputs every time.
• Dark Mode on macOS offers a tailored visual experience when switching between Dark and Light Mode.

New Documentation features include:

• Renovation Status for Markers offers complete control over what appears in each drawing phase.
• Set Different Arrowheads for line tools at the start and end of lines—mix and match to clarify drawings with ease.
• Schedule Format Improvements enhance schedules with more formatting, color, and display granularity, resulting in custom data visualizations.

And new Collaboration features and tools include:

• Bimplus Connection for collaborative model sharing across disciplines and platforms.
• Native OBJ Import Support easily brings external 3D models into projects.
• Bluebeam Studio Connection simplifies Bluebeam Studio workflows with tight integration—turning annotations into actionable issues in Archicad.

More feature information can be found here.

After exploring the Archicad 29 beta, I’m genuinely thrilled,” said Martin Jan Rosa, Architect and BIM Consultant in Prague. “Archicad 29 tackles the issues I face every day, such as improved 3D output quality and advanced schedule formatting. I particularly appreciate the IFC 4.3 implementation and a genuinely useful AI Assistant. It’s clear that Graphisoft is listening to architects and making our workflows smoother and more efficient.”

AI Tech Expands

The AI Assistant (BETA) is not only embedded in Archicad 29 and MEP Designer, but it is also embedded in DDScad 21. A DDScad 21 user can leverage intelligent text prompts, investigate their design models with smart queries, and gain detailed step-by-step guidance from the artificial intelligence on how to use their software.

And the same applies to MEP Designer and Archicad 29, of which MEP Designer is fully integrated inside (depending on your Archicad license type).

AI Assistant uses data sources that include Graphisoft’s product guides, technical support articles, Community Insights, and Graphisoft Learn courses, so its AI responses should be accurate and up-to-date. Additionally, conforming to Nemetschek Group’s strict privacy data standards, customer data is not used for training the company’s AI agents, ensuring complete user confidentiality.

The new AI Assistant (BETA) is additive to the existing AI Visualizer rendering technology already included in several Nemetschek Group products, including Archicad. AI Visualizer 2.0 in Archicad lets users create images with prompts and adjust the results with further prompts, altering materials, backgrounds, fenestration, and form. Users can also compare results with a before-and-after slider tool, use a brush tool to edit specific areas in the image, and save the final images directly in Archicad.

These are the high-level updates to Archicad in version 29, and Architosh senior associate editor, Pete Evans, AIA, is in attendance at the Graphisoft IGNITE conference this week, where Day 2 of three days is underway. Virtual attendance registration is open to all, and those inside can watch keynotes on demand and live ones tomorrow.

Architosh will report on other news from Budapest, and readers should look forward to Evans’s more detailed feature report in the days to come.

Notes (added after the original publication)

1. The MEP Designer toolkit is available in Archicad on both Mac and Windows with the Archicad Collaborate subscription plan.

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NVIDIA ARM

Nvidia’s client PC platform roadmap is reported to be ambitious, with multiple designs in development, including both Nvidia-only-based designs and designs in partnership with Taiwan’s MediaTek, an existing ARM chip provider.

Nvidia already has experience developing an ARM CPU in its Grace CPUs, which are based on the ARM architecture. These chips combine with Nvidia Hopper architecture-based GPUs to create the Nvidia Grace Hopper Superchip. It is theoretically possible that this formulation in a smaller size could be created for the Windows on ARM market, but more likely, Nvidia will deliver an SoC that combines a GPU, CPU, and AI chip into a single piece of silicon with shared integrated memory, similar to Apple’s M-series chips.

Nvidia’s Grace CPU is an ARM-architecture wonder, seen here paired with Nvidia Hopper architecture GPUs.

Scheduled for September of 2025, the first ARM SoC for the Windows market from Nvidia will likely target the high-end consumer market and be fit for purpose in laptops and small form-factor (SFF) desktops and workstation computers running Windows on ARM operating systems.

ARM Options

An SoC on ARM is not uncharted territory for Nvidia. They first delivered such a chip with their Tegra SoC. Nvidia may also surprise the market with an ARM SoC that pairs with a discreet Nvidia GPU and goes head-to-head with the top-performing systems from AMD and Intel for gaming PCs. Such systems would also appeal to professional users who need high-performance graphics plus the fastest CPUs they can obtain.

This is where the AEC market and CAD markets, in general, come into play. Leading workstation makers like BOXX Technologies deliver extremely high-performing professional workstations with both certified professional GPUs and top gaming-oriented GPU options. An ARM chip that can compete with Apple’s leadership in single-threaded performance combined with Nvidia’s top GPU technology would awaken the possible in the general Windows PC market.

MORE: A Big Data Difference — Vectorworks Sets Itself Apart with Data

The current fastest single-core threaded chip is the Apple M4 series, bursting through the 4,000 barrier in Geekbench 6. It is the first chip to crack that barrier. Like Apple and AMD, Nvidia is one of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) largest customers and may have first dips on TSMC’s leading process nodes right there with Apple. In fact, Nvidia may deliver their first ARM SoC on TSMC’s new 2nm node which is expected to ship product in the second half of 2025. The September timing works well with TSMC on this node which is running ahead of schedule.

ARM Competition

Currently Qualcomm has an exclusive deal with Microsoft to ship SoCs for Windows on ARM that runs out in 2024. Starting next year anybody can deliver an ARM-based computer for the Windows on ARM operating system.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite exceeded the performance of the Apple M2, and AMD and Intel’s top chips at the time of its release. The chart above shows single-threaded (ST) performance for the CPU test for Cinebench by Maxon.

Qualcomm is working on the sequel to its Snapdragon X Elite SoC which is expected to ship in mid-2025. This chip will compete with Apple’s M4 and future M5 and MediaTek’s debut ARM chip for the Windows on ARM market, expected in late 2025 or 2026. While AMD and Intel are both rumored to be possibly working on ARM SoCs for the Windows on ARM market, no specifics about such efforts exist.

Apple Response

With Nvidia likely expected to deliver the higher performing competition to Apple’s ARM chips, it remains to be seen how Apple will respond to this vigorous competition. One side note is that Apple may develop it own discreet GPU card for its Mac Pro workstation computer, which today runs an Apple M2 Ultra SoC.

That chip features a 24-core CPU and 60-core GPU and 32-core Neural Engine and 800GB/s memory bandwidth, which exceeds AMD’s EPYC server processors which peak at 460.8GB/seconds. And for further comparison, the Intel Core Ultra chip (Lunar Lake) offers a memory bandwidth of 136.5GB/second. Lunar Lake was developed to bust the myth that X86 can’t be as efficient as ARM chips. Lunar Lake was the first processor design that was essentially fabricated by TSMC rather than its own fabs.

Nvidia’s new ARM chips may offer PC gamers incredible performance at the CPU level combined with best-in-class GPU performance via discreet GPU cards. For Apple to match this kind of performance in its Mac Pro workstation, it must develop it own discreet GPU cards. There has been some indication Apple may be working on this, including a patent application described here on AppleInsider. On the flipside, Apple’s progress with its M-series chips may warrant them forgoing discreet GPUs indefinitely as it is only of value to the Mac Pro user, which is a very small subset of its overall Mac customers.

For Nvidia to exceed Apple and Qualcomm’s ARM performance won’t necessarily be easy but an advantage Nvidia can ultimately deliver would be CUDA and RTX support. If these technologies were onboard Nvidia ARM SoCs this could be a game-changer, especially for professional laptops that seek to be thin and light and yet offer industry-leading performance and superior performance per watt. Currently, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 laptop GPU is the fastest performing mobile GPU, but it is paired in top configurations with Intel’s Ultra Core CPU which is easily bested by Apple’s M4.

But imagine an Nvidia ARM chip that matches or exceeds Apple’s best M-chips and delivers thousands of CUDA cores and RTX capabilities.

Windows on ARM and CAD Industry

Finally, there is definitely some attention being paid to the Windows on ARM movement in the CAD industry. Specifically, both Nemetschek Group BIM companies Graphisoft and Vectorworks have made note about Windows on ARM. Graphisoft specifically mentioned at a press event his past October that they are investigating supporting it, while in a similar event by AEC software company Bluebeam, it was also reported that they are looking at Windows on ARM as well. Meanwhile, the first CAD program written for Windows on ARM of any note is the recent release of ILEXSOFT’s HighDesign R8.2. The well-executed 2D and graphics-oriented CAD program for AEC is natively built for both Windows on ARM and macOS’s Apple Silicon.

If the Windows on ARM movement takes on incredible momentum—and Nvidia entering this competitive space may certainly help that—we can definitely see the Windows app ecosystem go through a major transition as Microsoft itself is pushing for the success of Windows on ARM. Why are they doing that? Because Microsoft realizes that Intel and AMD can’t deliver competitive chip offerings to out muster Apple in the laptop market. And the laptop market is very important.

In the overall PC market, more than two thirds of all PCs are laptops. In fact, it is greater than that in most quarters these days. In Q1, 2024, Canalys reported that total PC shipments equaled 57.2 million with desktops taking up only 12.1 million compared to notebooks at 45.1 million units. Apple’s global share of the notebook market is about 12 percent, where overall Mac share in the US has exceeded 30 percent. To Microsoft, Windows on ARM is meant to stop Apple’s consistent climb in market share.

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Architosh announces its 2023 AIA National BEST of SHOW honors for the national convention and expo in San Francisco, California. The awards highlight and draw attention to software and hardware technologies of note exhibited on the show floor.

Winners of these small honors receive digital BEST of SHOW placards for display in marketing and promotions, placement onto Architosh’s BEST of SHOW winners roster page, and a complimentary Architosh advertising package.

AIA23—Thematic Issues

This year AIA attendance seemed up, and those exhibiting at the conference seemed very delighted with the number of architects visiting their booths (see our show floor photos in our reports). While there was better attendance, there were some notable missing software companies this year (more on that later). Still, the big names were all in attendance, with the exception of Bentley.

AI (artificial intelligence) was a big topic in some of our discussions with vendors, and some of the noted digital solutions below bring forth new capabilities made possible by AI and machine learning. In the past, we have written a companion feature that aimed to step back and gain that 64,000 feet view of what is happening with digital technologies. This year such a feature will focus on a definition of what constitutes BIM 2.0.

Over the past year or so, both Pete and I have focused our discussions on economic issues in architectural practice and how digital technologies can solve financial performance issues. In Xpresso No 44 (our free newsletter), I wrote a special feature titled BIM Manager: The Economic Value of Workstation Performance. This article discussed a method of calculating the economic value of workstation computers. It works through several calculations to arrive at annual revenues tied to “intensive compute” (IC), defined to mean that segment of our computer utilization where we are doing things on the computer where the computer forces us to wait for output beyond the Doherty Threshold (400 milliseconds). The implicit question was how long do we wait on our computers, and what is that costing us? And then, what cost can we recover with faster hardware?

Total Transaction Time equals System Response Time plus User Response Time. A Transaction is the work process that gets completed by a human user working in software on a computer. (Image: IBM Corporation, 1982)

In Xpresso No 43, I wrote a primer piece titled BIM Manager: The Economic Value of Rapid Response Time. That feature laid the groundwork for the discussion in the feature in Xpresso No 44. In particular, it discussed the origin of the Doherty Threshold and IBM’s 1980s-era “response time” studies. Those studies showed that humans take longer to do their next input when the computer takes longer to generate its output. So a slower computer doesn’t just take longer to get its work done, it makes the human user slower also. Fascinating idea, right?

New Economic Prize

In light of our research and writing about digital technologies and their impact on the economics of architectural practice, this year, we have introduced a new honor, the Economic Prize. The judging criteria are explained below.

I summarized in Xpresso No 44 that if a new workstation—or a properly-specified workstation—can cut down System Response Time totals by just 25 percent (or 11.25 minutes per day), the total economic value of wait time recaptured could be equal to 6,480 USD per year per user. That is a very conservative value because it only looks at “wait time” recaptured and does not factor in non-wait system performance time gains (i.e., sped-up time not easily sensed or felt by a human because it is faster than the Doherty Threshold (sub-400 milliseconds).

One criterion of the Economics Prize is license cost comparison value. Many firms are inappropriately limiting the cost of hardware and therefore making their architectural end-users wait longer than necessary when using intensive compute apps (e.g., BIM/CAD/3D).  Lower-costing software can reallocate scarce resources to hardware and thereby speed up total Transaction Time (see image above).

This should not be misconstrued that we wish architects spent less on software. On the contrary, the architectural industry generally spends less than 4.5 percent of annual revenues on IT, with some firms spending lower than 2 percent. But there is an interesting correlation between industries that have benefitted the most from digitalization and higher IT expenditure as a percentage of their revenues and those that have not. One valid hypothesis is that the architectural and AEC sector, in general, are underperforming with productivity gains because there is under-investment in IT (digitization).

And now the honors for the hottest tech we saw this year at AIA23.

Award Categories and Criteria

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

• Emergent Technology (emTech) Category Award — acknowledges industry potential for bleeding edge technology implementations that will offer “thematic” change for practice or create convergent technology paths and drive at 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” 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 hardware solutions.  

Congratulations to the 2023 AIA BEST of SHOW honorees listed below.

BEST of SHOW — EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY Category

Winners in this category represent emergent technologies (emTech) that are far from “center-market” and much closer to “edge-of-market.” This means they have the potential for bending the trajectory of technologies near them—including creating a convergence of disparate tech—or offering completely alternative thematic change within the industry. An example of such a thematic change would be node-based visual programming tools like Generative Components or Grasshopper when they first emerged. They both bent the trajectory of existing technologies and offered a wholesale thematic change in terms of how architects can work.

Winner: SketchUp for iPad (beta)

Trimble’s SketchUp for iPad Beta was shown to select folks at AIA23 this year and will be available later on in the year in at least beta form. Its new Scan-to-Design feature leverages emerging technology in LiDAR-based devices like Apple’s latest iPad. “Running on Apple’s latest M2 chip-based iPad Pro, the new Scan-to-Design features tap LiDAR technology and Apple’s RoomPlan API to take accurate three-dimensional photo scans and turn them into SketchUp models,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “This means you can scan and design in a single app.”  The new Sketchup for iPad has built-in AI intelligence to convert what it sees into organized SketchUp model geometry so you can work swiftly with it. “Because it captures depth information from Apple’s LiDAR system and RoomPlan API technology,” says Frausto-Robledo, “it saves hours, if not days, converting scans to 3D models of spaces so you can immediately begin modeling design work.”

BEST of SHOW — INNOVATION Category

Innovation category winners deliver novel formulations around existing technologies or synthesize established technologies with emergent technologies. In particular, we look for application makers to leverage core innovations from operating systems, new types of devices, support for new hardware technologies like GPU and CPU processors (chips), or leverage new API technologies to deliver added value in workflow speed-ups. This year AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning (ML) are key “emTech” to synthesize with existing technologies, like in our first winner below. 

Winner: SketchUp 3D Warehouse

AI (artificial intelligence) is a thematic change agent in digital tools and workflows for architects, and 2023 is the year of AI (and things like ChatGPT) in the tech industry. So we were not surprised to find new AI technology in new and existing solutions at AIA23. “One of the most challenging things about having a very large library of objects to search from in 3D Warehouse is finding exactly what options you have and doing that quickly,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “Trimble has beautifully attacked this pain point using new AI technology with its new image search option currently running in beta. If you have ever used Pinterest and noticed how it finds other images like the one you are currently looking at (or a segment of the image you are looking at that you define in a box), then you will recognize what this new image search technology is doing.”

Winner: Autodesk Forma

The first official release of Autodesk Forma is out and ramps up the democratization of a pivotal architectural industry tool by Autodesk. Forma signifies a new direction in the industry, and Forma also represents the era of BIM 2.0, though Forma looms larger than BIM in the final analysis. Like Snaptrude awarded below, Autodesk Forma—based on Spacemaker.ai acquired technologies—addresses some front-end design shortcomings in Autodesk Revit while simultaneously connecting to Revit via an API. “Autodesk showcased Forma’s API for extensions at AIA23 with connections to TestFit and ShapeDriver for Grasshopper scripts, along with its key new features like direct modeling,” said Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP. “Forma is a computationally hybrid modern application where application processing happens both in the cloud and on local devices.” Importantly, being a cloud application, Forma democratizes access to this BIM 2.0-era design tool, which is a big step for Autodesk because, for decades, some of its biggest, most dominant applications have only been available for Windows. To read our report on Forma’s first release, go here.

BEST of SHOW — BIM Category

As is typical, we have multiple winners in the BIM category. Our criteria for democratization via Open BIM (d) requires that closed platform BIM tools must accomplish much more on other criteria—as Revit did in 2018 with its new design-to-fabrication features in a year when industrialized construction was taking off—to win this nod. 

As noted before, BIM solutions today are quite mature and, in some cases, based on extremely mature underlying technologies. We are mindful of the frustrations expressed in the industry at the pace of innovation in this area and are ever more concerned about looking for areas of progress speed-up. As noted last year, this can come about by chip transformations or GPU accelerations. This year and going forward, it may increasingly also come about via tapping the power of the cloud (even for desktop solutions), tapping data center hardware, use of new “engines” and APIs to replace the old way of doing things. And speaking of the cloud, BIM 2.0 era tools are “cloud+mobile era” tools that offer new paradigms for solving existing pain points. 

Winner:  Snaptrude

Snaptrude, as a BIM 2.0-era tool, sits among a new class of young or emerging software applications that are addressing existing “pain points” in BIM workflows by leveraging cloud+mobile-era technical foundations. In other words, they exist from the ground up using technologies that were not born from the desktop era of computing. “Snaptrude warrants attention for how it enables the acceleration of early design workflows from conceptual modeling to Revit-based BIM workflows,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, editor-in-chief, Architosh. “Revit has been criticized in the industry for its shortcomings in the early design phase, and Snaptrude offers an answer to these pain points.” The new crew of BIM 2.0 era tools do not initially aim to replace the four main BIM authoring applications in the global industry. Rather, these tools solve specific parts of BIM workflows, complementing existing BIM platforms. “Snaptrude’s development is also impressive, both in speed and technical innovation. I am impressed with the company developing its own modeling engine after rejecting Parasolid’s engine for the web,” said Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, “and for the way it brings exciting ‘no-scripting necessary’ parametric conceptual design.”

Winner: Vectorworks Architect 2023

Our judging criteria for BIM category award nods emphasize commitment to Open BIM philosophies so that data and toolchains are democratized to their fullest practical extent. From this vantage point, the Nemetschek branded BIM solutions are predisposed to be highlighted. However, this has not prevented Autodesk Revit and its vision of “closed BIM” from also garnering praise. (see: Autodesk Revit 2019 wins at AIA18). Vectorworks Architect 2023 deserves praise for its implementation quality and development acceleration as a robust BIM solution. The first BIM solution to support Apple Silicon, the latest version, initially shipped with several innovations, including its direct modeling for doors and windows, huge wall improvements to handle numerous subtle real design issues, and its new explicit modeling capabilities. “One of the more recent updates to Vectorworks 2023 has enabled Vectorworks Cloud Services to uniquely deliver Apple-only innovations to its Windows users and deliver Windows GPU ecosystem advantages to its Mac users,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP. “By leveraging macOS servers and Windows servers at Amazon AWS, the company can deliver virtues of both platforms to all customers.” Apple’s best-in-class photogrammetry code is accessed via the cloud for Windows Vectorworks users, while Mac users can tap powerful GPUs at AWS for GPU-based Redshift rendering via Vectorworks Cloud Services. “This kind of creative innovation to solve platform parity is rare in the industry and deserves praise,” says Frausto-Robledo.

Winner: Archicad 26

Archicad 26 arrived with full native support for Apple Silicon. As we will explain in an upcoming article, the BIM 2.0 era largely reflects bigger macro trends in computing, whereas the primary drivers of semiconductor innovation center on computational performance per watt (unit of energy). This was first driven by mobile phones like the iPhone, and then tablets, but battery life is only one aspect of this criterion. Equally important is the performance per watt of semiconductors in data centers.

What has been happening with semiconductors in mobile devices and the data center are what we have labeled several years ago “convergent technology paths,” and Graphisoft, like its sister company above, is driving at synergistic directions in the industry with its development initiatives. But semiconductor optionality isn’t enough to warrant BEST of SHOW praise. Archicad 26 brings a new Library Part Maker functioning so users can create custom parametric objects without needing to know GDL programming. “The new Library Part Maker is a really key addition that will benefit BIM users at multiple levels,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, “and so will numerous other features added to what has traditionally been the ‘technological leader’ in the BIM market.” Archicad 26 also advances its analytics structural model integration, and BIMcloud now supports up to 100,000 files, among its top-flight feature benefits.

BEST of SHOW —  CLOUD Category

Perhaps no other category reflects the underlying digital revolution that is mobile+cloud in the Cloud Computing Era. Cloud computing and smart mobile devices have revolutionized all of computing. In AEC, they have sped up and created novel new workflows increasing client expectations and shortening project delivery schedules. Architectural practice has been liberated from CAD/BIM workstations and desks to anywhere, anytime, on any device access to your data or SSoT (single source of truth). Of particular note, this category evaluates CDE (common data environment) applications that are central to democratized access to a single source of truth (SSoT), though this year, we chose to focus on practice management applications. 

Winner:  BQE Core

Like last year at AIA22, this year we have focused on firm and project management software at AIA23, visiting the booths of several of these vendors. This year BQE stood out for several reasons, including its new interactive Gantt chart features, dark mode user-interface option, and several other reasons, including excellent pricing. In fact, we are sensitive to pricing and value in a macro environment where architects, like everybody else, are facing inflationary pressures. “I was very impressed with evolving features of BQE Core and loved the new Gantt chart features and new dark interface mode option,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, publisher and editor-in-chief, Archtosh. “BQE faces new and interesting competition along with veterans like Deltek in serving the AE market, but BQE Core delivers comprehensive features that allow architects to get at critical KPIs (key performance indicators) in a streamlined and easy-to-understand user interface,” says Frausto-Robledo. “It is important that these types of tools allow quick access to the data that assures managers and principals that projects are financially healthy. BQE Core delivers this with flexible modules and per-user pricing.” BQE Core is fully cloud-based and includes free apps for your mobile devices so you can stay on top of project and office financials when you are on the go.

BEST of SHOW —  VISUALIZATION Category

Architectural visualization continues to benefit from stronger real-time technologies and deep integrations throughout the larger ecosystem of design tools. The real winners in the industry are the users who have a plethora of choices. However, in terms of real-time interactive renderers, there are only a few games in town, and Enscape has emerged as one of—if not the—top contender. This is also the category where we evaluate AR/VR/MR devices and software, but this year there was nothing significant on display as Autodesk’s The Wild is deep in a development cycle. 

Winner:  Enscape

Enscape 3.5 is the latest recent release of the interactive renderer, and the Enscape + Chaos booth was a very active place at AIA23. Enscape functions as a plugin for host applications, from SketchUp to BIM applications. The latest release adds a new global illumination algorithm and support for Revit 2024. “Enscape’s merger with Chaos has bolstered an already top competitor in the real-time interactive rendering market, competing with Twinmotion and Lumion in particular,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP. “As we noted in last year’s honors, Enscape’s integrated workflow is its unique selling point (USP), allowing the user to embed best-in-class real-time rendering inside the BIM or design modeling tool of their choice. This year’s current version offers better visuals and new multi-asset editing along with adjustable assets, all speeding up this integrated visualization workflow even further.” Shown in the booth at AIA23 are upcoming technologies that feature integrations with IES for energy analysis into the archviz workflow, plus BIM pre-flighting technologies through another partnership. Plus, company representatives are strongly talking about the importance of getting the Mac version to feature parity.

BEST of SHOW —  The Economics Prize

This new award category will go to only one winner each year, delivering to market a product that can prove its economic value across one or more of the metrics defined for this honor. 

Winner: Vectorworks Architect 2023

This year Vectorworks Architect 2023 wins the new Economics Prize category for BEST of SHOW AIA23. In the past, Vectorworks was sometimes overshadowed by its highly focused Nemetschek sister BIM application, Archicad, partly because that app is more like Revit in nature and because Vectorworks is actually focused on other industries like the M&E industry. However, despite its multi-sector focus, the US-based BIM/CAD leader was the first BIM solution in the world on Apple Silicon and is a generation ahead in terms of its ARM development chops. “What has been really notable this year was the size and quality of its 2023 release (c), delivering a high number of exceptional value updates,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP, publisher and editor-in-chief, Architosh. “Additionally, Vectorworks has always been a value disruptor at the licensing cost level (b) and doesn’t resort to bundling to do so. Finally, the creative use of Vectorworks Cloud Services to bring Mac-only features to Windows users and Windows ecosystem GPU advantages to Mac users for rendering demonstrates technical virtuosity. For all of these reasons, Vectorworks Architect 2023 delivers compelling economic value to the global architecture profession.”

[Editor’s note: We wish to make clear that there are multiple winners in some categories, and we eliminated the honorable mentions this year. See our show reports for more apps seen at AIA23.]

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Omniverse Connector

The new connector is a plugin for Vectorworks that connects 3D Vectorworks models and scenes straight into the Omniverse via the Universal Scene Description (USD) framework, thus eliminating import/export process steps. This streamlines the collaboration process as well as opens it up to more applications.

Vectorworks is shown side by side with the NVIDIA Omniverse due to the new Omniverse Connector plugin.

A real-time connection allows designers to iterate on design concepts while working with others using high-fidelity models that are instantly shared in one click.

“The Omniverse Connector opens the door to a new realm of possibilities for our users,” said Vectorworks Chief Executive Officer Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “Designers can access the metaverse to work with colleagues, consultants, and clients in new and exciting ways, fostering the potential for groundbreaking, limitless designs. We’re excited to see the bright future this new feature sparks for designers and our software.”

Timed for NVIDIA GTC

“The industrial metaverse delivers immense opportunities for everyone, including the many design professionals using Vectorworks,” said Richard Kerris, vice president of the Omniverse development ecosystem at NVIDIA. “The Vectorworks Omniverse Connector presents vast possibilities for these creatives, enabling cutting-edge ways to visualize, simulate and share projects while accelerating 3D workflows and empowering collaboration.”

The plugin connector will give users more options for viewing and publishing their designs created in Vectorworks applications, generating new types of workflows. For example, users can now launch the NVIDIA Omniverse USD Presenter application (formerly Omniverse View) and send their Vectorworks models in a simplified single step.

MORE: NVIDIA Expands Omnverse Ecosystem and Core Technologies

Users can also export a single USD file as a standalone asset usable in an Omniverse project or publish models to an Omniverse project on a Nucleus Server. Upon publishing, users define geometry detail affecting 3D curved geometry, organize scenes by Vectorworks layers or based on applied textures, or include metadata in exports. Moreover, checkpoint comments allow Omniverse project collaborators to track changes and send added information with project files as project progress transpires.

The Vectorworks Omniverse Connector is included in Vectorworks 2023 Service Pack 4. This Service Pack is a downloadable update for all U.S. English-based versions of Vectorworks 2023, including Vectorworks Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Fundamentals, Braceworks and ConnectCAD.

Explore the opportunities this trailblazing technology provides with a 7-day free trial of Vectorworks Design Suite.

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Other new updates boast performance improvements around Sheet Layer viewports, new capabilities with hardscape tools for landscape architects and architects alike, plus cloud services and updates to ConnectCAD.

“This Service Pack continues the tradition of delivering key improvements for quality and performance, as well as increasing advantageous connections for customers,” said Vectorworks Senior Director of Rendering and Research Dave Donley. “New features in this release enable exciting workflows not seen before, and we are confident that some truly amazing designs will result. This continuous evolution keeps our users at the leading edge of technology, enabling them to be efficient and unrestricted in their design process.”

Omniverse Connection

Vectorworks, through a collaboration with NVIDIA, now delivers a direct connection to NVIDIA Omniverse—a platform for developing and operating metaverse applications as well as for designers to collaborate using best-in-breed tools across industry sectors and subsectors on various types of projects.

NVIDIA continues to advance the future of the Metaverse. This image is from a recent GTC event about Omniverse (their name for metaverse). Now Vectorworks becomes the latest connection partner.

Vectorworks 2023 SP4 (Windows version only) features a new integrated Omniverse Connector. The new plugin makes it possible to connect Vectorworks 3D models and scenes straight to the Universal Scene Description (USD)-based Omniverse platform. Architosh has written about the NVIDIA Omniverse platform here and here in our Xpresso newsletter.

USD-based Interop

The USD format was created by Pixar and is an open format for the various 3D software industries. It has quickly gained notable traction for its capabilities. NVIDIA Omniverse is based on USD, and Omniverse and Vectorworks users can save valuable time by eliminating steps for import/export process workflows in lieu of USD-based interoperability.

The new Omniverse Connector will also serve as an important catalyst for further advancement and expand Vectorworks’ users’ opportunities to contribute to and collaborate on the same 3D projects at the same time as others on other 3D software tools, all while using their favorite design tool.

Apple Uses USD

Vectorworks users can now drive new collaboration efforts by adding the USD Omniverse Connector as part of their workflow options. It supports 3D geometry, texture, and metadata, delivering these three items into the Omniverse platform and back out through connectors to user-favorite 3D tools and best-of-breed specialty software. It is these advantages that have driven Apple and NVIDIA to deploy the USD format in their own design workflows.

Other SP4 Updates

The SP4 update also includes new upgrades to Sheet Layer Viewports, offering a more responsive user interface and faster and more accurate processes when viewing, rendering, and navigating sheet layers. Low-resolution previews of sheet layer viewport contents are now automatically created with the option to snap easily with other’s viewports. This bonus improves collaboration and reduces file sizes.

New capabilities with site models allow architects and landscape architects to excavate the site surface model based on these hardscape objects. There is also a new “drape” mode such that hardware objects automatically conform to the surface of a site model.

Vectorworks Cloud Services have gained updates, including the ability to process Solar Animation Exports. And there are significant updates to ConnectCAD, which the reader can learn about here.

SP4 Availability

Vectorworks 2023 SP4 is available for download for all U.S. English-based versions, including Vectorworks Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Fundamentals, Braceworks, ConnectCAD, and Vision.

Readers interested in trying Vectorworks 2023 SP4 with NVIDIA Omniverse connectivity firsthand can download a 7-day free trial of the Vectorworks Design Suite.

The post Vectorworks 2023 SP4 Delivers NVIDIA Omniverse Connection appeared first on Architosh.

Revit Interop

While workarounds have existed for some time to get Revit models into SketchUp for a host of reasons, Trimble’s new Revit Importer brings in the BIM models with a cleaner conversion that keeps the resultant larger SketchUp file smaller than past methods, with a host of other benefits.

For example, Revit levels translate to SketchUp section planes. Model structures in the Revit file are preserved. Revit material colors and transparencies are maintained. Revit families and layers translate to groups, components, and tags in SketchUp. This drastically saves time in model clean-up and model organization over previous methods.

Why Move Revit Models to SketchUp?

A big reason why users may want to move a BIM Revit file to SketchUp includes the prevalence of SketchUp files used by others in the AEC/O industry. Architects may be working with a visualization agency that uses SketchUp as its flexible scene creation environment. Or architects may need to push Revit models to SketchUp for general contractors who use SketchUp for various needs, including modeling for construction planning workflows.

SketchUp now has native Revit import tools to bring in BIM models from the BIM market share leader to the world’s most popular 3d modeler.

And within architecture firms, it is common for SketchUp to be used at the front end of the design phase for both design iteration and visualization workflows. Now designs further along in the process that has been moved to Revit can now push model data back to SketchUp for iteration design work.

More SketchUp Goodies

SketchUp for Desktop has been upgraded with a new Flip tool. This will be hugely welcomed, as SketchUp’s prior tools for flipping objects left much to be desired. And there is more. Now in SketchUp LayOut, users can connect to externally referenced files, including images, text files, and—get this—AutoCAD (DWG) files.

SketchUp 2023 for the desktop gains a much better new Flip tool. Click here to see the new Flip Tool in action in the blog’s video.

Managing these references is straightforward, and users receive notifications if the file reference is outdated. The user can use the File Reference Manager to update, relink, or remove the file reference.

SketchUp Studio

SketchUp Pro 2023 gains the new benefits of the flip tool and new LayOut features. To gain the benefit of native Revit interoperability, users will need to upgrade to the SketchUp Studio license. Pro users can first install the Importer in SketchUp Pro 2023 and start a Studio license trial.

To learn more, go here.

Architosh Commentary and Analysis

With this new capability, in addition to the ability to bring in Revit BIM models, SketchUp and LayOut are becoming more versatile tools in workflows beyond conceptual design modeling—SketchUp’s initial forte. It ultimately gives SketchUp and Revit users alike more options in their workflows. 

LayOut is becoming an ever stronger tool for creating technical drawings that are linked to a 3D model with these external reference options like DWG and other file types. You don’t need to have Revit to benefit from this new import option. You can download Revit files off the internet from product manufacturers and integrate them into your SketchUp model scenes and LayOut drawings. This new interoperability between two of the most popular tools in the AEC industry means that companies will accelerate workflows and gain economic benefits from these new efficiencies.

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How, you might ask?

On the market side, the Berlin-based CAD developer was the first to bring native DWG CAD to the Mac platform beating Autodesk’s return to the Mac by a few months. On the technical side, ARES Kudo leads the CAD market in web browser-based native (.dwg) CAD. We will touch on other aspects of leadership later on in this review.

What is ARES Trinity?

Graebert uses the word “Trinity” to define its ARES CAD ecosystem of solutions that span desktop (ARES Commander), cloud-web (ARES Kudo), and mobile (ARES Touch). When we mention “ecosystem” in this review, we mean Trinity.

This ARES ecosystem of products uniquely in the CAD market fully converses with each other with a level of features and benefits not entirely matched by any other CAD competitor. In this in-depth review, we will dive deep into all these features—some more deeply than others based on their unique value benefits.

Preamble — ARES Licensing

ARES Trinity has a sophisticated set of flexible licensing options. We will only go over some of them in detail. However, I will explain my particular setup, the Flex Cloud license. Like other ARES Trinity licenses, it includes access to ARES Commander, ARES Kudo, and ARES Touch but with the additional benefit of sharing it across multiple users.

Our hero image is shown here to enlarge and inspect. Note the Ribbon interface is now on the 2023 ARES Commander for Mac version. We discuss why later in the article. (click to enlarge images)

The beauty of the Flex Cloud license, which I will go over in more detail below, is that it works like a flexible network license wherein you can have unlimited numbers of users sharing a certain number of licenses, but they are not constrained to a LAN. Instead, it works through the cloud, and this provides the benefit of added flexibility.

Before the Flex Cloud license option (which is new), users had all of these options: subscription licenses, perpetual licenses, and flexible network licenses. And they still do.

Ten Key ARES Features

Architosh has reviewed ARES Commander in the past, so this in-depth feature will not dwell on all aspects of ARES Commander, the desktop version of ARES that competes head-to-head with other native (.dwg) file-based CAD programs.

Instead, I’ll focus on the following ten key features wholistic to Trinity and explain why below:

1. New Flex Cloud Licensing
2. Synchronization of Files
3. Comments and Markups
4. User Access and Rights Control
5. Sessions Handling
6. Email Notifications
7. Version History
8. Share View-only Links
9. Trinity Block Library
10. Work on Any Device

This is an extensive list of features to touch upon, so this review will be lengthy. I will try to be as succinct as possible. You can use the links on those ten topics to jump to specific pages in this two-page review. For insights and a demo of these ten key features, readers should join a free 30-minute webinar I will be offering on 13 April 23 at Graebert neXt event.

One: New Flex Cloud Licensing

While some companies may have on-premise (on-prem) concerns about intellectual property control, most modern businesses will likely favor the new Flex Cloud license. The answer is obvious. We now work from home more than we did before the global pandemic. But even before that, some firms have employees traveling far to job and client locations, even in different countries or continents.

A Flex Cloud license does come with a slight premium. The price of three (3) Flex Cloud licenses equals that of five (5) Annual plans for Trinity. Recall that Trinity means user access to ARES desktop, web, and mobile versions. I won’t bore you with the economic benefit line, but sharing a three-user Flex Cloud license saves you money if you have five (5) or more users.

Image 1 — My two users are named within a 3-person Flex License setup.

In my example, Graebert set Architosh up with three (3) Flex Cloud licenses, and each user can be identified with a name. To begin with, I wanted to simulate two separate employees, so I will name them Architect-1 and Architect-2. (see image 1)

A beautiful benefit of ARES’s Flex Cloud license emerges when your firm has many users, and the firm does not want the IT admins to manage licenses for everyone assigning them one by one. Who wants to bother with all that work? Instead, under a Flex Cloud license, an admin invites an employee from the Graebert Customer Portal via email.

From the Admin Space of the portal, the Permissions menu item displays specific ARES products and their license and permission serial numbers. At the bottom, you can see the “Assign users to a select permission” field, whereupon you enter a colleague’s email address and click “Send email notification.” This is how an Admin would manually assign and unassign licenses if you don’t buy a Flex Cloud license. But if you have many users working only a few hours per week, the Flex Cloud license is enabling you to share automatically your license among all the users you invited to your organization.

Aside from possible cost savings, another reason for the Flex Cloud license comes down to unique features capable of it. Unlike the Flex Network license, the Flex Cloud version provides access to cloud-powered collaborative features special to Trinity.

Flex operates through the cloud; there is nothing to install besides the ARES Commander app. Flex Cloud works with both local files and cloud-stored files. And the Flex Cloud license lets users invite others to view and comment on files online via ARES Kudo in View-Only Links mode. That, too, is not possible with a Flex Network license.

One advantage to Flex Network licenses is they can be Perpetual licenses. Flex Cloud licenses can only be Subscription licenses. So there is the main trade-off. The reason is that Flex Cloud includes the Trinity license, which means cloud-based interconnections between ARES Commander on the desktop and ARES Kudo and ARES Touch, which are cloud-based apps. Cloud-based services cannot be perpetual by their nature.

Another way to think about it is this: Perpetual licenses reflect the 20th-century practice of computing on discreet desktop computers. The 21st-century “cloud era” adds two additional device types (smartphones and tablets) and the cloud-delivered app via the browser. Such a system is better served with a subscription.

Two: Synchronization of Files

ARES Trinity has powerful cloud connectivity features giving users robust cloud storage access options and file synchronization capabilities. These are most important for today’s remote work reality.

Before setting up a cloud storage provider, you can use the ARES Kudo drive. In fact, after creating a quick test file, I discovered that sample files are placed by default into your ARES Kudo drive folder.

Image 2 — To add third-party cloud storage, you hit the button to the right of the ARES button, top left, in the Cloud palette.

To connect to a third-party drive, like Google Drive, you hit the button to the right of the Open ARES Kudo button upper left in the Cloud Storage palette. (see images 2-3) Doing so brings up a web browser window where you see various cloud storage connection options.

Once I set up my Google Drive, I created a new ARES folder. Working with my test file, I then saved it to the linked cloud storage folder. Once completed, I am now able to test out file synchronization features.

Image 3 — ARES Trinity features industry-leading cloud connectivity options.

My test account enables me three users, and I have ARES Commander running on a Mac and a Windows PC. Using the “Art Center floorplans.dwg” file, I will imagine my second account as a remote colleague working with me to update this plan. (see plan images below.)

My first task is to add some additional seating on the exterior directly across from the interior cafe space. (see image 4). I do this, then close the file. A bit later, my colleague working on a Mac (it is me!) opens up the file. We can see the file under ARES Commander on the Mac. Notice the UI differences, as this is the Mac version. (see image 5) Also, note that in the upcoming 2024 release of ARES Commander for Mac and for Linux, they will both acquire the new Ribbon UI that already exists on the Windows version. This is good because the Ribbon UI is contextual and dynamically changes based on what the user is doing. (see here image top of the article)

Image 4 — Adding some tables and chairs off the cafe space and saving the file.

Image 5 — This is the second user’s screen running on the Mac with the non-Ribbon interface option showing.

My colleague on the Mac edits the tables putting them into a new layer just for tables on the exterior, and leaves me a comment in the Comments palette about what to do next. Before we go into Comments and Markups, let’s summarize File Synchronization.

Setting up Cloud file storage options is very easy in ARES. The “Cloud+” icon button loads up ARES Kudo Cloud Storage main page in the browser. (see images 2-3). Select your cloud storage options, and away you go. Disconnecting accounts is easy as you hit the “X button” underneath a connected account.

Managing files in the Cloud palette is robust. You can do basically everything from creating folders to generating directory structure, renaming, cloning, deleting, and downloading files. You can also download entire folders.

If a colleague has opened a file you already have open, they will get a warning message. ARES alerts the user for a potential conflict of two or more users accessing the same file simultaneously. Additionally, if there is ever a technical slip-up, the ARES system will create what is known as a conflicted copy, and this gets labeled in the Cloud palette file directory.

Users working on files together must coordinate to avoid conflicting copies and problems. (see my thoughts on this in the Conclusions section) But the system is designed to help safeguard data.

Three: Comments and Markups

In my example of using two machines (a PC and a Mac) to work between two users, I quickly tested some markup tools and the Comments palette to test the file synchronization features noted above.

ARES Trinity has robust markup and commenting across its ecosystem of products. In ARES Commander, there is a Comments palette. A user can add a new Comment about the drawing as a whole or a specific element. The palette at the upper left provides two button options–Create a New Comment Thread or Create a New Markup. (image 6-7)

Image 6 — The Comments palette is on the far right. Note a series of comments and the potential for replies to comments. Note also the highlighted chairs. See note on next image.

The first option is relatively straightforward. You give your new Comment a title and a description. You can also select Add entities, allowing the user to select entities in the drawing about which the Comment’s subject matter centers. I am impressed with this ability because a Zoom icon used later will help a colleague zoom automatically to the entities under discussion in the comment. (image 7) This functions similarly to BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) features in BIM tools—taking you to where the action is.

Image 7 — With entities attached to Comments, a Zoom button in the palette lets the user zoom directly to the attached entities under discussion.

Once a user creates a comment, gives it substance in its text, a title, and a description, and attaches entities, then the user hits the Save button in the lower right. Because you can zoom to a specific set of entities using the Comments palette, one could actually use this feature to save various views of the drawing at specific Zoom levels–even if just temporarily for working in a particular area. (see images)

Image 8 — You can use the Zoom to entities feature to actually create “saved views” within your drawing to get the user quickly to where they need to work. A comments trail between teammates can then take place, leaving a “work diary” about that part of the drawing.

Colleagues can respond to your comments directly by typing in the Reply field. They can respond by clicking a Check Box icon next to the Zoom icon. That changes the status of the Comment to “resolved.”  A filter feature in the Comments palette enables the user to change what is visible in the Comments palette based on status, type of comment, and sub-type info (such as entity comments.) (see image 9)

Image 9 — The Comments palette and the Filter feature. This editor would love to see saved filter sets for a faster filtering function.

Users can also add a special comment type that adds pictures, voice recordings, or stamps. Stamps say things like Approved, Confidential, Draft, Final, For Review, and Rejected, and you can create custom stamps. While stamps can be helpful, I wonder why these “stamp” statuses are not built into text comments via a simple drop-down menu.

Attaching pictures seems immediately valuable. But there is a difference between attaching images on the desktop versus ARES Touch. On the iPad running ARES Touch, there is a slicker workflow for using the iPad’s camera to attach images. On the desktop, you will navigate to where images are stored to attach pictures.

Image 10 — Attaching pictures to Comments means you can attach pictures to entities in the drawing. Imagine all pieces of furniture in a plan have an attached photo and web link to the manufacturer. This is easy to do in ARES 2024.

What happens is you end up with PR icons on the floor plan, corresponding ideally to where a photo was taken. That is an acceptable methodology. However, you may want to attach pictures to entities like furniture in some workflows. You don’t need the PR icon using Zoom to entities function in these workflows. What happens now is you Zoom to the PR icon, whereas in the Comments tool, you Zoom to entities, and those entities are highlighted in blue for clarification.

Despite these critical comments and feedback, ARES Trinity provides powerful and beneficial markup and commenting features.

Four: User Access and Rights Control

Architosh has a long tradition of not mentioning competitors in product reviews—preferring to say “the competition,” for example.

In some cases, however, it underserves the reader too much. Regarding Graebert’s chief competitors in the native (.dwg) CAD file space, who feature a type of ecosystem, it must be stated that only Autodesks’ AutoCAD product line has a similar ecosystem to ARES Trinity. BricsCAD, while unique in many ways, does not.

The ARES ecosystem is broader and deeper than its rival(s) in several ways. User access and rights control is one example. Supported platforms and devices are another.

Image 11 — Note the Sharing options button in the Cloud Storage palette file directory. This brings up the next screen, the image below.

In ARES Commander, cloud technology for sharing access to files functions differently than the competition. With ARES, sharing copies of a CAD drawing through third-party cloud service providers is unnecessary. For general everyday workflow purposes, the ARES user shares a file for viewing and markup only, or they share a drawing for full editing purposes. Users can achieve these tasks directly from the Cloud Storage palette inside ARES Commander. (see image 11 – 12 view-only link, but the user has permission to Print to PDF.)

Image 12 — The file sharing and access control options palette under the ARES Sharing link options. User access and rights control are unique features of ARES Trinity.

Select a file in the Cloud Storage palette and select Sharing Options. A Sharing options window will appear. If you share via a third-party cloud like Google Drive, type in a person’s email address and hit the Add button. Then under the Role drop-down menu, choose to grant this user access rights such as Viewer or Editor. (see image).

Image 13 – This image shows the Role selection drop-down menu inside the sharing function related to files connected in the third-party Google Drive setup.

Select the ARES Sharing link method if you want to share a drawing with someone as a Viewer. Copy the share link URL into your email program and send it away. That user will then click the URL from their email and launch ARES Kudo into “Viewer only” status. Some additional options for more user access control include expiring the URL link at a specific date or 30 days or never, plus password protection for added security and allowing Print to PDF capability.

Those are unmatched industry features in the world of DWG CAD. We have several more to highlight, like session handling and more, so click below to continue this feature article. 

next page:  Session Handling and the Remaining Ten Key Trinity Features

The post ARES Trinity — A Review of the Industry Leading DWG CAD Software appeared first on Architosh.

This graphic is a telltale sign that Apple intends to blow past the entire industry in chip performance. So how do they intend to do that exactly? That’s what we focus on in this article. We will first summarize and then we will provide details for those who want to understand the tech behind the story.

The Summary

Apple’s A-series and M-series chips are SoCs, otherwise known as “system on a chip.” Its latest SoCs include the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and Memory, and much more directly on the same piece of silicon.

However, Apple will almost certainly jump to a SoIC type of semiconductor product tomorrow. SoIC stands for “system on integrated chips.” This technology is also known as “chiplets” and AMD is already first to the market with chiplet (SoIC) technology with its Ryzen 5000 series CPUs.

Chiplet technology is a new way to package a processor. If you have been wondering how Apple was going to scale up the unified memory on the M1 processor to meet the memory demands of its future professional Mac computers, chiplet technology is how you can get there. It is also the pathway to many more cores.

On Monday Apple will likely introduce the M1X (our name not Apple’s) as a chiplet. In one version the expected 10-core M1X will sit on an interposer layer in a SoIC package. The interposer is an electrical interface for routing between various components of the SoIC. Take a look at the patent graphic above.

Apple tomorrow will likely enter the chiplet (SoIC) era for Apple Silicon. Manufacturing challenges at smaller nodes are forcing the industry in the chiplet direction, and wafer yields favor small chips anyway. AMD has already led the way ahead of both Apple and Intel with a chiplet CPU implementation.

When the M1X is doubled up in chiplet design you can double both the GPU and CPU cores. If you place four M-series chiplets on a larger SoIC package, you have the processing power you need for the new Mac Pro towers. We believe that the Mac Pro, however, will feature the M2 chip in a chiplet package.

Details

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has been one of the most reliable sources for the future of Apple products. In May of this year, Gurman wrote the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro would be powered by two new chips code-named Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die. Each will be 10-cores (8 high-performance cores and 2 energy-efficient cores). Both chips will come in 16 and 32 GPU core variants with up to 64GB of RAM.

But these are not different chips but rather TSMC will chop off half the GPU cores to arrive at a chiplet that is smaller. Or these will be binned chips that had defects with Apple disabling GPU cores or simply turning good cores off like in the M1 MacBook Air with its 7-core GPU.

Smaller chips are superior for better wafer yields. All wafers tend to have some small percentage of defective or low-performing chips—see red and purple squares. When a defect occurs on a large monolithic CPU chip, like Intel’s recent chips, the total wafer yield is far poorer than when the same number and type of defects occur on a wafer with a far greater number of smaller chips. The chiplet strategy will enable Apple to get optimal chip yields out of each TSMC wafer. And “binned” chips can still be used for throttling M1X performance options, allowing Apple to appear to be utilizing many CPUs when in fact they are actually only manufacturing one.

Therefore, the M1X may have several binned chip variants, enabling Apple to maximize wafer yields by offering versions of the chip with disabled defective cores. The M1X may come in 10-core and 8-core versions, with the latter still performing better than the M1 due to Apple moving to the TSMC 5NP process node (P is for the performance version of the 5nm node). Variants of the Jade C-Chop may come with 10, 12, and 14 GPU cores. We believe the Jade C-Die chip is a chiplet (SoIC) package with two (2x) M1X chips. Again, Apple can offer disabled binned variants with versions made for the larger 16-inch MacBook Pro offering 20, 24, or 28 GPU cores and possibly a 16 CPU core option.

With the new modularity of chiplet (SoIC) design, Apple can offer the market what seems like a plethora of chip and price options while only architecting and manufacturing a single M1X chip. The flagship version for the new MacBooks would likely be the Jade C-Die with 20 CPU cores, 32 GPU cores, and 64 GB of unified memory.

Mac Pro on M2

Gurman also writes that the new Mac Pro will have new chips dubbed Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die, in 20 and 40 core variants. What’s intriguing about these codenames is the numbers 2 and 4. Do they imply a doubling and quadrupling of the basic M1X chip? That would be the most logical notion. But what would the performance difference be between a Jade 2C-Die versus a Jade C-Die? The answer may lie in chip frequency.

Since the Mac Pro has completely different thermals as the enclosure is vastly larger than all the other types of Mac computers, Apple could afford to increase the clock frequencies of the M1X. Another explanation could be that Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die are chips built on the next 4nm or 3nm TSMC process. Since the next Mac Pro is due next year I think the Jade 2C-Die and 4C-Die are not built from M1X chiplets but rather M2 chiplets. That’s my guestimate based on the timing of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC’s) 4nm node process.

Lightspeed

Bottom line? The new chiplet era for Apple Silicon is likely to begin tomorrow. They are following in AMD’s footsteps and the entire industry will ultimately have to go in this direction as well. But just imagine how much faster the M1X will be in its basic binned version, let alone its 10-core CPU / 16-core GPU and with 32GB of unified memory.

A basic indication is to look at the speed up of the A-15 Bionic over the A-14, both on 5nm cores. The A-15 however was built using the TSMC N5P node and gained, in the end, a larger performance increase than was first imagined. That iPhone 13 chip is faster than the M1. The M1X will benefit from the same TSMC N5P node improvements over the M1. It will also be larger than the M1 with likey about 30-40 percent more transistors. It will likely yield a 25-35 percent performance improvement in single-core performance. The real performance story, however, is the use of two of these M1X chiplets on a single die. This will scale multicore performance up dramatically north of 200 percent over the M1. And then later with the M2 chiplet in 4x formation, we may see Apple’s next Mac Pro become the most powerful workstation computer in the world by a long shot. This is what seems possible now.

The post Apple Will Introduce M1X Chiplet Technology On Monday appeared first on Architosh.

We consider this one of our best special reports published in the past few years. The long-form article makes a sweeping arc through the semiconductor industry’s present situation, including the heightened tensions between the United States and China and the emergence of the US Chips Act.

The article also mentions what China is lacking in technology and native industry in order to gain full semiconductor independence. Even if China invaded Taiwan that country has zero native manufacturing of critical tools used to make semiconductors.

The point of the article is to educate the reader on the state of semiconductors and their impacts on the CAD market.

Rising ARM and Falling Intel

The article looks at Moore’s Law and highlights the exact year timeframes when both the ARM architecture began to accelerate (in many ways thanks to Apple) and when the Intel X86 architecture began to falter. An entire section delves into the recent history of Intel’s chip manufacturing problems and answers the question “what specifically has been Intel’s chip manufacturing issues?”

Xpresso No. 31 features a long-form article on the semiconductor industry and its impacts on the world of software, especially CAD industry software. Readers can access this special feature by signing up for Xpress today.

The article also looks at Apple’s recent chip “brain drain” as its chief CPU architect left in 2019 to form Nuvia which was acquired by Qualcomm. Secondly, another wave, or, exodus occurred more recently heading to the RISC-V start-up Rivos.

The article ties together the PA Semi acquisition from 2007 and why Steve Jobs wanted to buy it. Even Jobs had just brought the Mac over to Intel a few years before, PA Semi showcased to Jobs a stunning high-performance, low-power PowerPC architecture chip that convinced Apple to acquire PA Semi and use their team as the foundation of Apple’s semiconductor group.

Apple currently crushes both Intel and AMD in world-leading single-core performance versus wattage, yet Nuvia has mapped out even more superior single-core performance aiming initially at the data center. Qualcomm has different plans for the Nuvia team, while Rivos’s plans for RISC-V architecture dominance center on the data center.

ASML and EUV

One of the most critical pieces of equipment for Apple, Qualcomm’s Nuvia team, Rivos, Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA’s future high-performance chips (CPUs and SoCs in particular) is ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUV lithography). This equipment is critical to taking processor manufacturing nodes down to 5nm and beyond. Apple is already shipping chips using EUV from ASML, while AMD and Intel are not quite there yet. We discuss this Dutch company’s equipment and who has it and in which proportion.

ASML’s EUV lithography machines cost over 150 million USD and can take up to six months to install. (Image: ASML)

Lastly, we discuss the landmark tidal shifts in the global semiconductor industry and how the world of software—specifically CAD, BIM, and 3D software—may have to respond to these shifts. Many incumbents in the CAD industry may suffer the same fate as Intel which could not react fast enough to new types of challenges in its manufacturing. These CAD leaders are so entrenched around multi-decade “Wintel development models and technology” that the very thing that has given them streamlining and massive growth could now come to haunt them as new upstarts can target the emerging ARM-based platforms without the legacy code dependency issues that incumbents depend on.

Accessing the Special Feature

To read the feature please sign-up for our free monthly XPresso newsletter here. The system will email you and provide guidance to reading past issues, including issue No. 31 which contains this special feature.

To learn more about INSIDER Xpresso read here.

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The summit brings together engineering software professionals across a range of industries to discuss technology trends, best practices for development, and advancements in ODA technologies. Guest speakers include representatives from buildingSMART International (bSI) and Google.

ODA Summit Details

The ODA Summit will have three major focus areas, including CAD Interoperability, BIM Interoperability, and Beyond Data Interoperability.

Attendees can learn about the latest advancements in ODA’s universal CAD engine for DWG. For BIM developers and professionals, attendees can learn about more support for working with Autodesk® Revit® and Navisworks® files, in addition to ODA’s industry leadership and solution for IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). The ODA will discuss the new validation module and support for OpenCDE (Common Data Environment) standard from buildingSMART International (bSI).

The Open Design Alliance (ODA) announces its ODA Summit 2021. The conference is virtual and is free for all to attend, enabling a larger audience of CAD and BIM industry professionals to witness the exciting developments happening with the ODA.

For data interoperability, attendees can fast-track their app development with ODA solutions for visualization, web development, PDF publishing, and solid modeling, and more. The event will feature speakers and presentations from industry leaders showcasing the use of ODA technologies in real-world applications.

“We’ve expanded the event format this year to include two new industry discussion panels,” said Neil Peterson, ODA President. “The first panel will provide an industry perspective on scan to BIM, ODA’s new project to automate the conversion of LIDAR scan data to BIM models. The second will focus on the new IDS validation standard from bSI, which is being developed to improve the quality and usability of IFC for the broader industry.

“If you’re curious about ODA, the summit is a great opportunity to learn more about our technologies, future plans, and our vital role within the industry.”

Registration and Pricing

ODA Summit 2021 is a virtual event that is free to all. More details and registration information can be found at conference.opendesign.com.

About ODA

ODA develops complete interoperability solutions for CAD and BIM. Our SDKs provide data access, creation, visualization, web collaboration, and publishing for a wide range of engineering file formats. ODA is supported by more than 1,200 member companies worldwide, including software developers, manufacturers, government entities, AEC firms, major retailers, and other organizations spread across every engineering discipline.

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The Wild acquired rival IrisVR in February of 2021 and has been apparently been in deep development on adding this critical new capability. This ensures that AEC industry professionals can do more than just conduct “design reviews” in VR but also immersively track any issues that may emerge.

Human-Scale Issue Tracking

It means AEC pros can discover flaws in building designs or construction sequence plans while in an immersive VR session in Prospect, then flag and communicate that issue and track that issue over time all within Prospect. Issues tracked can also be exported into a range of file types, including the Open BIM format BIM Collaborative Format (BCF) that connects with issue tracking workflows like BIMcollab, Revizto, and Trimble Connect.

Human-scale issue tracking in VR will help the AEC industry improve coordination of complex building projects, saving time and money. Prospect can export issues in BCF format to integrative collaboration tools like BIMcollab, Revizto, and Trimble Connect.

IrisVR says tracking issues at a human-scale in VR is critical for snagging design issues and reducing costly RFIs (requests for information) before construction even begins. Prior to the global pandemic, engineering and construction teams could gather around a conference table to review and resolve such building issues. Now with the majority of AEC pros still working remotely, VR makes it possible to capture issues, feedback, and decisions in one centralized place.

Michael Black, a BIM Coordinator at SNC Lavalin, says that “using Prospect has significantly improved the quality of our interdisciplinary coordination and early issue detection identification between design, construction, and maintenance.”

IFC and Software Updates

With this latest release of Prospect, there is new compatibility with Autodesk Navisworks 2022, Autodesk Revit 2022, and Trimble SketchUp 2021. Additionally, there are new IFC improvements that lead to faster IFC import processing times.

And IFC files now have the option to be updated within Prospect and they can maintain issues and markups even as the source file progresses. Additionally, there is support for Rhino 7 format.

New VR Headsets

The AECO industry is also benefitting from an explosion of lighter and more accessible VR hardware. New units include the Oculus Quest 2, the HP Reverb G2, and the Pico Neo 3. With the rapid growth rate and progress of affordable and wireless devices, AEC professionals are increasingly moving towards VR headsets as part of their typical IT equipment.

To learn more visit here.

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In a surprise move, AMD’s new series of cards include the Radeon PRO W6800X, Radeon PRO W6800X Duo graphics card, and the Radeon PRO W6900X.

AMD RDNA2 for Mac

AMD had just recently announced its new Radeon PRO W6000 series “workstation-class” GPUs for the general PC computer market back in early June. That announcement saw AMD boast of superior performance-per-price ratios compared to NVIDIA’s RTX Quadro cards, particularly offering twice the graphics memory of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 card for nearly 400 USD less cost.

AMD’s RDNA2 Architecture features hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing technology to rival NVIDIA’s RTX technology.

“We have developed the AMD Radeon PRO W6000X series GPUs to unleash professionals’ creativity and help them bring more complex and compute-intensive projects to life, from animating 3D film assets to compositing 8K scenes to game development,” says Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD.

“The new AMD Radeon PRO W6000X series is packed with remarkable energy efficiency, enhanced compute units, and a new visual pipeline, enabling Mac Pro users to do more in less time across a broad range of pro applications,” he adds.

AMD’s new RDNA2-based Radeon PRO W6800X Duo for Mac.

Built on a 7nm node manufacturing process, the new AMD Radeon PRO GPUs bring to the macOS platform AMD’s RDNA2 Architecture—a chip architecture that brings up to 65 percent more performance per watt over AMD’s early generation RDNA Architecture. The RDNA2 Architecture features dedicated Ray Accelerators for real-time ray tracing, a first for an AMD GPU. The specialized ray tracing hardware handles the intersection of rays and produces an order of magnitude increase in intersection performance compared to a software implementation alone. The Ray Accelerators are just one of several ground-breaking performance enhancements for AMD’s graphics architecture.

Radeon PRO 6000 Series for Mac Details:

• AMD RDNA2 Architecture — the groundbreaking architecture first introduced at E3 in 2019 has finally arrived in the professional workstation market this June and now for the Mac Pro. RDNA2 features hardware-based Ray Accelerators (RAs) and there is one RA per Compute Unit (see below).
• AMD Infinity Cache — up to 256MB (total) of last-level data cache integrated on the GPU die is designed to reduce latency and power consumption
• AMD Infinity Fabric — Provides a high-bandwidth, low latency, a direct connection between local AMD GPUs, enabling high-speed GPU-to-GPU communications designed to satisfy today’s creative workloads. (this applies to Radeon PRO W6800X Duo card)
• High-speed GDDR6 Memory — Up to 64GB of GDDR6 memory with up to 512 GB/s bandwidth provides ultra-fast transfer speeds to power data-intensive professional applications.

The three-card options are detailed out below:

AMD Radeon PRO W6800X 

• 32GB of GDDR6 memory with 512/GB/s memory bandwidth
• 60 compute units
• 3840 stream processors
• 16 TF (32-bit) / 32 TF (16-bit)
• (see more details here)

AMD Radeon PRO W6900X

• 32GB of GDDR6 memory with 512/GB/s memory bandwidth
• 80 compute units
• 5120 stream processors
• 22.2 TF (32-bit) / 44.4 TF (16-bit)
• (see more details here)

AMD Radeon PRO W6800X Duo

• 64GB of GDDR6 memory with 512/GB/s memory bandwidth
• 120 compute units (60 per W6800X GPU)
• 7680 stream processors (combined)
• 30.2 TF (32-bit) / 60.4 TF (16-bit)
• (see more details here)

To learn more about AMD’s W6000X series GPUs for the Mac Pro please visit this page here.

Pricing and Availability

The new AMD RDNA2 Architecture-based Radeon PRO W6000X series cards are available to configure on the Apple Mac Pro workstation. Up to four Radeon PRO W6800X GPUs can be configured in a new Mac Pro using the Apple MPX Modules.

Mac-based professionals now have AMD’s new RDNA2 based Radeon PRO W6000X series GPUs for configuration inside the Mac Pro. The option shown above is for 2 – AMD Radeon PRO W6900X GPUs. Now the Mac platform has AMD hardware-based real-time Raytracing technology and a lot more for fewer costs than NVIDIA RTX cards.

Let’s look at these cards in terms of base-pricing and work ourselves up through these new cards. If you go to the Apple Store and start with the base price Mac Pro it begins at 5,999 USD. This machine is equipped with an AMD Radeon PRO 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

To upgrade to the new AMD Radeon PRO W6800X with 32GB of GDDR6 memory the price upgrade is 2,400 USD. Adding another one doubles the price essentially and a wee bit more to 5,200 USD. Adding a Radeon PRO W6900X GPU with 32GB of GDDR6 memory—a card formation that was not released back in June when AMD introduced the new RDNA2-based Radeon PROs—will cost you 5,600 USD. Adding two of those units essentially doubles the price. You can explore more price configurations, such as two Radeon PRO W6800X Duos set via the Apple MPX Modules for a combined total of 4 GPUs. Explore here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

The Mac-based workstation market has had a tough going of it since the failure of the 2013 Mac Pro. From the 2009 – 2012 perior and then up to 2019, there was nearly a decade-long vacancy of Apple putting in serious attention to the professional markets with a machine worthy of pro users. The one major company that was carrying about Mac professionals, however, was AMD and is Mac graphics division. They put out several GPUs aimed at Mac pros utilizing the 2009 – 2012 Mac Pro computers. We last reviewed such a card back in 2013. 

Now since the revival of Apple’s interest in pro markets and it’s stunning 2019 Mac Pro, AMD has had several GPU options for users. (a complete listing of GPUs for Mac Pros can be found here). One thing that it has not had is hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing—something to match up against NVIDIA’s RTX technology. While RTX technology has been out for a few years (debuted in August 2018), a year ago the industry was still at a loss for what AMD’s plans were to match its rival. This isn’t to say this is AMD’s first GPU that can do ray tracing. AMD’s Radeon ProRender, aimed at the pro markets delivered targeted, professional real-time ray-tracing and did so months before NVIDIA RTX. But that technology never really took off, outside of some companies like Maxon which tapped into it. 

Hardware-accelerated real-time ray tracing has become an important technology in the pro markets—including AEC where a plethora of interactive renderers have hit the market over the past several years (Lumion, Enscape, Twinmotion, LumenRT, etc). A lot of these tools tap the power of NVIDIA RTX. AMD now has a powerful equivalent technology and will need to court pro developers to like this to boost and excite users in the AEC space, particularly those dedicated to rendering tasks.

Meanwhile, these new cards are sure to boost performance over the prior AMD Vega II and Vego PRO II GPUs in the previous Mac Pro lineup. Mac pro applications like Final Cut Pro, Cinema 4D, Octane X, DaVinci, Resolve and many others are already taking advantage of AMD GPUs. Real-time ray tracing aside, these new AMD GPUs provide great value for the dollar with their exceptional memory configurations. 

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Redshift Renderer

Redshift is an award-winning, production-ready renderer. The software offers a rich set of features including ray switches, flexible shading networks, motion blur, AOVs, deep output, layered EXR, and much more.

The new Redshift for Mac supports M1-powered Mac computers in addition to a wide assortment of Intel-based Macs, including those with Thunderbolt eGPUs, the Mac Pro, iMac Pro, iMac and MacBook Pro.

Redshift is a GPU-based renderer and taps the power of your computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than its CPU like Maxon Cinema 4D’s default rendering engine. While many rival GPU-based renderers are “non-biased” Redshift is actually a biased renderer that enables artists to adjust the quality of individual rendering techniques to get optimal balances between quality and performance for overall production.

Redshift for Mac

Redshift is available for both Intel-based Macs and M1-powered Macs (aka: Apple Silicon-based Macs). Maxon says Redshift for macOS signifies a milestone because it brings cutting-edge cinematic rendering to Mac artists. With native M1-powered Mac support, 3D artists on macOS will experience a substantial improvement in their workflows since the integrated graphics in M1 provide a huge increase in graphics performance combined with low power consumption.

“When Redshift joined the Maxon family in 2019, extending support to our user community on the Mac platform was a top priority,” says Maxon CEO, David McGavran. “So we’re thrilled that creatives working in macOS environments can now take advantage of this powerful and flexible GPU-accelerated renderer built to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production.”

Early testers of Redshift on macOS have reported some significant performance results. James Rodgers, Director at UK-based Lunar Animation reported, “We’re seeing some crazy results when rendering with Redshift on Mac Pro. A typical frame from the very effects-heavy game cinematic we created for Mythic Legends, an action-packed strategy mobile game by Outfit7, previously took 26 minutes to render per frame. Now it’s rendering in only 58 seconds!”

Availability

Redshift for Intel-based Macs will be available this week. Support for M1-based Macs will be made available with the release of macOS Big Sur (11.3). As is typical with Redshift, updates to enhance stability and optimization will be regular and ongoing.

For supported host applications and system requirements, visit here.

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