Apple and BIM could be a perfect match, but not in the way many might realize

It is said Apple considered buying Autodesk before it became a film industry tool giant with the emergence of Final Cut Pro and its subsequent acquisitions related to sound, film and motion tools. None of this has ever really been written about, more grapevine talk than anything. Surely if Apple had acquired Autodesk it might have ended up inheriting some established tools in markets more related to buildings than Hollywood blockbusters. But that is not the point here. Building Information Modeling (BIM) darling Revit become an obvious strategic target for Autodesk when in the early part of this decade marketing hype over its wholly parametric-based CAD methodology stole the limelight amongst the AEC CAD press -- exclusive of this site and some rare others.

Revit of course is not the only BIM game in town nor should one assume it is the best. And it was especially not the best when Autodesk acquired it. The reality is that in the market today there are two very strong BIM players in ArchiCAD and VectorWorks Architect that deserve more notice than they sometimes get. I am of course talking about attention and focus from Apple.

Apple and BIM

BIM started off like this little cat that has grown into this large lumbering lion. Along the way some companies -- namely Autodesk -- have been focusing around the implications of BIM as a transformational moment in the history of architecture. Meanwhile Apple's Steve Jobs has been making some significant architectural history of his own with its many flagship Apple retail stores.

Therein lies an unfortunate disconnect and a terrible lost opportunity. You see, BIM is coming of age right at this moment in history when the world has realized it has a very serious energy and environmental problem. The opportunities BIM affords those who design, engineer and manage buildings with respect to this problem is...well, tremendous.

There is a fantastically large and glowing opportunity for a company like Apple to demonstrate that it not only understands the social responsibility of being green from the point of view of being a large global manufacturer, but an opportunity to say to the world that it has developed the tools that are used by designers, architects and engineers to enable them to solve our global climate and energy crises.

Making the Apple Green Again

Apple doesn't need to build its own BIM. Nor does it need to acquire Gehry Technologies and make BIM radically simpler to use as was intimated by then Gehry Technologies CEO, Malcolm Davies, PhD. (more on that during tomorrow's article) at a fall 2006 BIM symposium event I attended in Washington DC.

What Apple needs to do is follow a similar formula it executed in the film industry and strategically acquire leading edge solutions and technology today that will be the necessary tools of tomorrow. Buy these things and bundle them into a suite of products and develop them so they can plug into other leading CAD, BIM and engineering software tools, even tools made by rival companies. This is what Autodesk has started to do, except that Autodesk may eventually make their tool buys work only within their product range.

A great example of the type of technology and tools that Apple should have acquired is Green Building Studios, which makes a web-enabled software service for building design energy analysis. Green Building Studio's technology enables whole building energy, water and carbon-emissions analysis. Too late for Apple though, the company was acquired by Autodesk on May 1 of this year. And if you read their website notice on the matter it says that Graphisoft ArchiCAD users will have to temporarily wait for the company to update its servers before ArchiCAD users can continue to use its great service. Meanwhile, Autodesk Revit, a rival of ArchiCAD can proceed to the front of the line.

Hmm? That's so interesting....

And why should Mr. Jobs care about that? For starters ArchiCAD was born on the Mac and about half of the user-base of ArchiCAD users worldwide work on the Mac today. In fact, many more would like to make the switch back. Unfortunately a key tool maker for Mac-based architects just lost -- temporarily at least -- a great tool that addresses an overwhelmingly important need.

And there are other tools that are out there, some being acquired all too quickly by Apple's major Hollywood industry rival Autodesk. What Apple may not yet understand is that being green and solving our global climate and energy crisis is far more lucrative an industry than the value derived from a bucket of popcorn and a DVD sale. Oh! Did I say DVD....? I meant AppleTV iTunes movie rental.

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Related Articles - Coming Tomorrow

Apple and BIM: Should Apple Buy Gehry Technologies?

Apple and BIM: Should Apple Buy Nemetschek of Germany?