New Reality Capture Tools, Suite Enhancements, and Expanded Cloud Capabilities Deliver Value to Architects, Engineers and Contractors

Autodesk today announced Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014, a comprehensive software portfolio that combines Building Information Modeling (BIM) and CAD tools to help building and construction professionals design, simulate, visualize, and build better buildings. Available in three versions Standard, Premium, and Ultimate—Autodesk Building Design Suite allows architects, engineers, and contractors to benefit from the depth and breadth of the Autodesk portfolio of intelligent model based design software and expanded cloud services.

“As the construction market is scheduled to grow to $12 trillion by 2020, design and construction professionals need the best tools to design and build the world’s most complex buildings. This past year, Autodesk bridged the gap between design and construction by providing our customers with a comprehensive portfolio that included the desktop software they were familiar with along with new cloud services and mobile applications that provided anywhere, anytime access to project information,” said Lisa Campbell, vice president, industry strategy marketing for AEC and ENI, Autodesk. “Building Design Suite 2014 will help further streamline the design and construction process by extending design intent
through to construction with the use of intelligent model based design from the earliest stages. This will allow our customers to more efficiently deliver projects on time and on budget.”

New in Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014

The flexible software access provided by Autodesk Building Design Suite means building design and construction professionals have a broader palette of tools so they can choose the best solution for the job at hand and quickly respond to changing business requirements.

New products in Building Design Suite include:

• Autodesk ReCap: Available to all users of Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014, Autodesk ReCap allows architects, engineers and contractors to create intelligent 3D data from laser scans and captured photos. Rather than beginning with a blank sheet, Autodesk ReCap now enables any designer, architect or engineer to add, modify, validate and document their design process in context from existing environments.
• Autodesk Raster Design: Powerful raster editing and raster-to-vector conversion tools that help architects, engineers and contractors increase the visual information on a building plan.
• Autodesk InfraWorks 2014 (formerly Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler): Easily create, evaluate and communicate building projects in the context of the broader site–to help architects and urban planners to gain faster stakeholder buy-in and decision making.

Key Enhancements to Building Design Suite include:

• Autodesk Revit 2014 enhancements: Specifically designed for BIM, Autodesk Revit 2014 combines features for architectural design, MEP and structural engineering, as well as for construction. The 2014 release provides enhanced design, analysis and documentation capabilities to improve architectural and engineering workflows. Revit 2014 also includes the new Building Element Energy Analysis tool, which provides advanced workflows for energy analysis using detailed Revit models.
• Interoperability enhancements: Enhanced interoperability between technologies allows more effective collaboration, including improvements for IFC, DWF^TM, DWG^TM/DXF^TM and 3D solids. There is also improved interoperability between AutoCAD and Revit, which makes it easier for firms making the transition to BIM.
• New quantification tools in Navisworks Manage and Navisworks Simulate: allow building customers to more easily bring quantities from an aggregated model into a project.

Expanded Cloud Services in Autodesk 360

As part of the Building Design Suite, architects, engineers and contractors now have access to select Autodesk 360 capabilities, which allow them to rapidly design, visualize, simulate, and share ideas anywhere, anytime with the secure and virtually infinite computing power in the cloud. Autodesk Building Design Suite customers have access to the following services as part of an active subscription (services vary by edition.)

• Rendering: Architects, engineers, and contractors can produce compelling, near-photorealistic visualizations in reduced time—without tying up the desktop or requiring specialized rendering hardware. Available for all Autodesk Building Design Suite customers on subscription.
• Autodesk Green Building Studio: Designers, architects, and engineers can optimize energy efficiency and support carbon neutrality and evaluate energy profiles and carbon footprints of various designs. Users can more easily share outcomes and data between engineering software programs–making sustainable design more efficient and cost-effective. Available for all Autodesk Building Design Suite customers on subscription.
• Energy Analysis for Autodesk Revit: Users can perform analysis of multiple building design iterations, optimize energy efficiency, and work toward carbon neutrality in the cloud. Available for both Premium and Ultimate Building Design Suite customers on subscription.
• Structural Analysis for Autodesk Revit: Provides users cloud-based static structural analysis capabilities allowing models to be sent to the cloud removing computational intensive tasks from the desktop. Available for both Premium and Ultimate Building Design Suite customers on subscription.
• Autodesk InfraWorks 360: Autodesk InfraWorks 360 enhances Autodesk InfraWorks workflows by enabling architects, engineers and contractors to publish, store, and manage large models centrally and more securely in the cloud. Available for Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014 Ultimate customers on subscription.
• Optimization for Autodesk Inventor: Allows architects, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers to easily integrate manufacturer building components into their design process. Available for Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014 Ultimate customers on subscription.

Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014: Three Editions

Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014 is available in three editions:  Standard, Premium and Ultimate.

• Autodesk Building Design Suite Standard 2014 – is for designers, drafters and detailers who need a foundational set of tools to efficiently design, document, and share drawings in the DWG file format. The Standard edition includes: Autodesk AutoCAD 2014, Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk AutoCAD MEP, Autodesk AutoCAD Structural Detailing, Autodesk Showcase, Autodesk Sketchbook Designer, and new products to the Standard edition are Autodesk AutoCAD Raster Design 2014 and Autodesk ReCap 2014.

• Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium 2014 – is for architects, engineers, and construction professionals who need an optimized set of tools for building design and construction. The Premium edition includes all of the products in the Standard edition and adds: Autodesk Revit 2014, Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2014, and Autodesk Navisworks Simulate.

• Autodesk Building Design Suite Ultimate 2014 – is for architecture, engineering, and construction professionals who need the power of BIM and an advanced set of tools for design and construction. The Ultimate edition includes all of the products and cloud capabilities in the Premium edition and adds: Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2014* , Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2014 , Autodesk InfraWorks 2104, and Autodesk Inventor 2014.

Availability

Autodesk Building Design Suite 2014 availability varies by country, with software and cloud services included varying by edition. Details and purchasing options are available at www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions.

Adding powerful quantification to the coordinated model.

Powerful, integrated, easy to use services that create intelligent 3D data from laser scans and photos