Autodesk has acquired Datum360 in a move it says will enable more data connections between its authoring tools, such as Revit, and other construction project management tools. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The San Rafael, Calif.-based software giant also opened up its AEC data model API, now available through its Autodesk Docs platform, aimed at making granular data from its design tools author are more accessible.
Datum360 is a data platform for sharing information from the design stage of projects through construction and eventually operations.
“Datum360 and Autodesk are united by a shared mission to help our customers turn their data into a competitive advantage,” said Steve Wilson, CEO of Datum360. “By integrating our technologies, we’re not building a single source of truth, but a single source. going for the truth.”
Autodesk, with the release of the AEC Data Model API, is opening up its files and data formats to a more granular level of data exchange, allowing the underlying data that makes up a 3D model or file at its elementary level. Autodesk Docs is emerging as a sharing platform by making the API available.
“Docs is really our common data environment that we’re moving towards,” says Sasha Crotty, senior director of AEC Design at Autodesk. “We’re expanding it, where with the AEC data model, we’re adding the capability, the granular capabilities there, so ultimately everything we’re tying up will end up in Docs. That’s where our customers will access. the whole your information.”
Some Autodesk customers had already been testing the workflow through the API using Docs. Arcadis uses the AEC data model API for the standardization of enterprise project data.
“The Autodesk Data Model API allowed us to pull data from our Revit models and centralize it in the cloud so it’s accessible within our organization,” says Joshua van Reij, BIM Manager at Arcadis. “We’ve been able to access 60% more structured project data using the API compared to our previous way of working. This means we can get higher quality project insights and provide automated delivery to the client in a standardized way In addition, the API is not only used. We also dig into historical project data, applying AI to identify trends and insights that our teams leverage to generate new business opportunities.”
Autodesk has made several announcements and acquisitions, including Datum360, promising more data interoperability since the company’s CEO and president, Andrew Anagnost, took over in 2017. These connections may initially favor enterprise customers. says Crotty.
“The intent is that we want to evolve these capabilities so that they are more and more available to more and more customers. We want to have defined arc classification capabilities that are consistent across all of our products,” he says. This lends itself very easily, many of its own [enterprise customers] connections to other third-party tools that are really cool to bring into the ecosystem. That’s where we’re going to invest, is figuring out how we do the capabilities [Datum360] it has more access and lightness, so that kind of mid-market customer can start to adopt it, or a smaller customer.”
