Actively collaborating with the architectural industry representatives and balancing their profit requirements, TechSimple was facing a challenge because their existing application had limited functionality — couldn’t work with architectural drawings and models. Used to provide the top services, the client found itself in need of developing a web-based interactive tool that will allow home builders to fit a customer’s dream home on a preferred lot, while preventing mistakes and saving process time and cost. Moreover, it was essential to implement a solution integrated with Autodesk Forge to construct a cloud-powered application that can display both 2D and 3D design files and related data, upload and store AutoCAD® and Revit® files, extract geometry from AutoCAD files, and check them for errors.
Relying on the proven track record of creating 2D and 3D design applications, extensive experience in providing advanced solutions, an exhaustive analysis of the selected approaches, and cutting-edge optimization techniques, AMC Bridge was entrusted with the development of the following solution.
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Customer Benefits
- New functionality implemented as a subscription model.
- A growing list of customers using the application for their business purposes.
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Project highlights
- Development of functionality that leverages existing architectural drawings to present a dream home or a lot in a 2D or 3D environment.
- Integration with the Autodesk® Forge platform to maintain the efficient design process.
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Why AMC Bridge?
- AMC Bridge always keeps its clients ahead of the curve via progressive solutions and has an excellent track record in software development.
- Having deep expertise with Autodesk Forge, AMC Bridge was ready to implement a high-level Forge-based solution.
- The professional team of AMC Bridge can compensate for the lack of internal resources on the client’s side.
Client
TechSimple™ is a Michigan-based limited liability company that offers a wide range of services and information on the Internet and business process topics.
To create a competitive business environment, the TechSimple’s central focus is to identify the right web look for their customers’ companies by constructing a unique website that will look great on all platforms, browsers, and mobile devices. Along with that, the company specializes in increasing the value of their customers' websites by maximizing organic traffic using advanced SEO tactics, arranging PPC campaigns, and providing analytics on specified issues.
Challenges
3D rendering options are certainly changing the market because of their visual wow-factor and their ease of adaptation and use. The real estate companies strive to present their clients with accurate renderings and simulations, so that they understand spaces and forms much better and early in a project.
Actively collaborating with the architectural industry representatives and balancing their profit requirements, TechSimple was facing a challenge because their existing application had limited functionality — couldn’t work with architectural drawings and models. Used to provide the top services, the client found itself in need of developing a web-based interactive tool that will allow home builders to fit a customer’s dream home on a preferred lot, while preventing mistakes and saving process time and cost. Moreover, it was essential to implement a solution integrated with Autodesk Forge to construct a cloud-powered application that can display both 2D and 3D design files and related data, upload and store AutoCAD® and Revit® files, extract geometry from AutoCAD files, and check them for errors.
Relying on the proven track record of creating 2D and 3D design applications, extensive experience in providing advanced solutions, an exhaustive analysis of the selected approaches, and cutting-edge optimization techniques, AMC Bridge was entrusted with the development of the following solution.
Solution
The project goal was to implement a cloud-based web application for real estate companies that enhance buyer experience by leveraging existing engineering files to represent a 3D depiction of the dream home and lot.
As a result, AMC Bridge was instrumental in developing LotFits™, a SaaS solution that determines whether a building can be built on a parcel of land by comparing this building design footprint against a permissible build envelope of this parcel.
The LotFits functionality implements:
- Uploading AutoCAD (.dwg) and Revit (.rvt) files to process them and send them to the viewers.
- Using a real-time interactive map for community planning, tracking homes and lots for sale, pending deals, and so on.
- Creating a matrix report to determine if all the houses fit the community lots, considering the garages and necessary driveways.
- Converting a 2D plan into 3D topography, which represents a 3D depiction of a house and lot.
- Using a terrain tool for 3D manipulations, such as auto-grading of a lot and changing house elevation.
- Applying textures and Google Earth overlay.
- Measuring distances between objects in 2D and 3D.
- Using a payment system to sell application subscriptions.
To achieve maximum design productivity, LotFits is improved with 2D and 3D Forge Viewers and custom geometry created using the Three.js library. The Viewers work simultaneously if a user opens them side by side. 3D Viewer will immediately show any change made in 2D Viewer.
The improvement of the fitting process effectively eliminates a lot of fitting errors, enabling LotFits to quickly find all the lots that fit the given house and options. Furthermore, the user experience is enhanced with capabilities to move the home, rotate it, place a driveway, apply textures, measure distances between objects, add options like a pool, swing set, and so on.
Process
With a list of technical requirements that was continuously changing, the AMC Bridge team started the application development from scratch.
The project team was in charge of:
- Analyzing the requirements.
- Selecting a technology for application development.
- Solving the issues with the current client’s software.
- Developing a web-based software solution with extended modern functionality.
- Integrating the solution with Autodesk Forge.
As an Autodesk Forge Certified Systems Integrator and a member of Autodesk Developer Network, the AMC Bridge team conducted extensive research on Forge Viewer (2D, 3D), and Forge APIs (Data Management, Design Automation, Model Derivative) to provide the client with deep Forge expertise, essential for this project.
The project had the following stages:
- Communities creation (handling multiple communities and homes, implementing a top-down view of a whole community on an interactive map).
- The fitting process improvement (adding automatic features to find lots that fit a particular home and place it in the perfect spot).
- Implementation of additional features (moving and rotating homes, adding a driveway, applying textures, and so on).
- Implementation of the interactive map to observe the community on a real map (adding an option to place a home and inspect it in three different modes: 5 miles view (2D), zoomed community view (2D), and 3 lot view (3D) including all the placed homes).
To ensure active collaboration during the development process and receive valuable feedback, regular meetings with the client were held.
Results
Possessing unique expertise with Forge, AMC Bridge designed a highly specialized web application to meet fully specific customer needs.
The improved fitting process, which helps to see whether a home fits a lot, the enhanced 3D Viewer, which enables dynamic 3D rendering, and the functionality to apply textures and Google Earth overlay exceeded the client’s expectations.
Initially, LotFits was created for the specific real estate companies, but after its implementation, TechSimple decided to sell the application on a subscription basis. Thus, TechSimple has an excellent opportunity to expand its customer list.
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