Okay, so you have a "cloud" service with an API, where you can access all your BIM data and that data can be sync'ed with your 3D models.

The BIM models are unlocked, now you need to reap the benefits.

At this point I would like draw a parallel from software development.
When you develop software, your code is stored in a repository. That repository is hosted by a cloud service, so everyone in the team have access to the same code.

Whenever a developer adds new code to the repository, he makes a request to merge a so called "Pull Request" or PR. Whenever a PR is created a Continuous Integration pipeline is kicked off. In software Continuous Integration pipelines are a series of tasks or commands that runs to check code quality and test the code. The intention is to ensure that no bugs or low quality code is introduced to the main code base.
The whole processes happens automatically in the background without the developer's interaction. The only action needed is when the pipeline is successfully completed and the PR should be approved.

In my opinion a similar workflow should be possible in the AEC world - probably with some modifications.

BIM models are synchronized with the cloud.

  • Automatic quality checks are run. Quality metrics are exported and presented in dashboards.
  • Automatic daylight/LCA/etc. analyses are run. Results are applied as a PR for a specialist to review before being merged.

Continuous Integration Pipelines for BIM Data

Okay, so you have a "cloud" service with an API, where you can access all your BIM data and that data can be sync'ed with your 3D models. The BIM models are unlocked, now you need to reap the benefits.