GRAPHISOFT announced its latest innovation specifically targeted toward Android device users, GRAPHISOFT BIMx. A communication and presentation tool for BIM projects, GRAPHISOFT BIMx is now available as a 3D viewer app for a range of Android devices, in addition to the iPad/iPhone. The Facebook-integrated BIMx community and the new Model Transfer site help spread this innovative technology among architects, clients and all other stakeholders.
BIMx (Building Information Model Explorer) is an interactive environment with game-like navigation, allowing anyone to 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 to run on desktop computers (Win/Mac), and on the iPad/iPhone with a purpose-built app directly linked to the BIMx community for “social” model sharing. Now, Android users can enjoy the same benefits BIMx offers to iOS users by downloading the player. BIMx 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.
The integrated BIMx community on Facebook is the central hub for sharing interactive 3D building models. Architects holding either a commercial or educational BIMx 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, searching models using keywords or finding uploaded models of specific users, architects or clients. BIMx models can be uploaded, browsed and downloaded by non-Facebook users as well.
The BIMx Model Transfer Service is a brand new cloud service offered to BIMx users with an active ArchiCAD Software Services Agreement. Users are entitled to 1 GB free cloud storage space with each commercial BIMx license they own. For more security, users can also password protect their files.
The BIMx desktop application is part of the standard ArchiCAD 16 installation. Further information for the system requirements on desktop, iOS and Android devices can be found at http://www.graphisoft.com/support/bimx/system_requirements/.
