GRAPHISOFT BIMx Turns the iPad/iPhone into an Interactive Building Model Explorer

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Sep 07, 2011, 11:07 ET

BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- GRAPHISOFT announced today its latest innovation for the iPad/iPhone. GRAPHISOFT BIMx™, the ultimate communication and presentation tool for BIM projects, will soon be available for iOS devices as well. The integrated model sharing community on Facebook will help spread this innovative technology among architects and clients.

BIMx (Building Information Model Explorer) is an interactive environment with game-like navigation, whereby anyone can explore full BIM models without holding a license of the professional authoring software in which the building model was originally created. ArchiCAD users have been able to publish self-running BIMx models for their clients to run on desktop computers (Win/Mac) – now BIMx models are making their debut on the iPad/iPhone with a purpose-built app directly linked to the BIMx community for "social" model sharing on Facebook. With BIMx, GRAPHISOFT puts BIM into the hands of all stakeholders not actively involved in the actual creation of the BIM model such as contractors, builders, clients, owners, and principals of design practices.

BIMx for iPad/iPhone

"Demand for access to BIM projects off-site, or even off-line on mobile devices has been increasing in recent years. At the same time, BIM models are large, complex, and highly-integrated databases that have been difficult to port to handheld devices with satisfactory results," says Miklos Szovenyi-Lux, Vice President of Product Management at GRAPHISOFT. "With the introduction of BIMx for the iPad/iPhone, we have significantly extended the reach of BIM's benefits beyond building professionals to their clients -- the building owners."

Features of BIMx for iPad/iPhone include:

real-time 3D navigation
stereo, shaded and hidden line views
enhanced with gravity
fly-mode
egress recognition
'tap to go through the door'
'tap to go there'

BIMx Community on Facebook

The integrated BIMx community on Facebook is the central hub for sharing interactive 3D building models. Architects holding a BIMx license – either commercial or educational license – can publish their models directly to this online community. Native Facebook functions such as comments, likes and share are extended with customized functions for filtering models by educational or professional types; searching models using key-words or finding uploaded models of specific users, architects or clients. BIMx models can be uploaded, browsed and downloaded by non-Facebook users as well; only "liking" and "commenting" requires Facebook registration.

Availability

The BIMx desktop application is part of the standard ArchiCAD 15 installation. BIMx for the iPad/iPhone will be available as a free app from Apple's App Store and will be launched together with the Facebook integrated online BIMx community on September 20.

A special promotion from September 20 through October 31 allows ALL ArchiCAD 15 users to create full-fledged BIMx models and share them with their clients, either directly or through the Facebook BIMx community site for a six-week introductory period.

Following the promotion (from November 1 on), users holding a BIMx commercial license can continue using the full BIMx facilities. ArchiCAD 15 users without a commercial BIMx license may continue using the BIMx desktop application locally on their computers in TRIAL mode until the next release in 2012.

Academic users (students, teachers, schools) will have continuous access to the BIMx facilities as long as their ArchiCAD EDU license is valid.

Beginning September 20, the BIMx iPad/iPhone app will be available from the App Store free of charge. For more information about GRAPHISOFT BIMx, please visit www.gsBIMx.com.

About GRAPHISOFT

GRAPHISOFT ignited the BIM revolution with ArchiCAD, the industry first BIM software for architects. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative solutions such as the revolutionary GRAPHISOFT BIM Server™, the world's first real-time BIM collaboration environment and GRAPHISOFT EcoDesigner™, the world's first fully-integrated building energy modeling application that have fundamentally changed how architects worldwide design and collaborate today. GRAPHISOFT has been part of the Nemetschek Group, since its acquisition in 2007.

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SOURCE GRAPHISOFT