AS501404

Sweco's Use of Autodesk and Esri Digi

Tech to Streamline Workflows in

Learning Objectives
• Learn how to maximize Autodesk's and Esri's technology to achieve efficient
workflows.
• Learn about synergies between GIS, Spacemaker, Revit, and other tools.
• Learn how to ensure efficiency when sharing data between stakeholders, processes,
and platforms.
• Gain insights into efficient BIM-GIS workflows.

Projects often employ tools such as GIS, Spacemaker, Revit, or all the above, but the different
contributors and stakeholders are frequently stuck in silos, focusing simply on their immediate
needs and not a project’s full timeline, which makes them inefficient. To mitigate this, Sweco
has developed methods and workflows to streamline the flow of data in projects and to digitalize
this process and utilize all available and new data early on. This ensures that the project starts
on the right foot, workflows are efficient, and all the data is available and utilized. With this
method, you can pinpoint a place of interest, analyze the potential of the site, and work through
to a finished project.

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Speaker

Adam Sjödin
Urban Planner & Digital Strategist
Sweco Architects
[email protected]

Adam has over 10 years of experience as an Urban Planner, working with regional and urban
planning projects across the whole spectrum of scales and phases, in Sweden, Europe, Asia
and the Middle East. Adam also plays a key role in the development of projects as a digital
strategist at Sweco where he has a leading role in setting the digitalization strategies for
Sweco’s architects and their projects.

Adam has worked extensively as a process leader and working with the digitization of these
working methods. Adam has experience as an expert and project manager in both small and
large projects. He is an experienced process manager working in complex urban planning
assignments on different scales with multiple stakeholders involved. Adam is a leading expert in
practical integration of GIS and BIM data in architecture and planning projects.

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 #1 in the Nordics
#4 Largest global architectural prac�ce
17,500 Architects and Engineers
How did we do?
More than 100 offices worldwide
Over 50,000 projects per year
in 70 Countries

Sweco
At Sweco we are 17,500 experts across more than 100 offices and our ambition is to help our
clients solve any challenge at hand, no matter scale or location.

ARCHITECTURE

ENERGY
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT We were founded in 1958.
STRUCTURAL
Sweco is based on our founder Gunnar
INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING Nordstrom’s vision of a combined architecture
and engineering company.
The idea is to bring different perspectives
BUILDING SUSTAINABLE together to solve the challenges of our time.
BUILDINGS
SERVICE
SYSTEMS We carry out over 50 000 assignments in 70
countries every year.
IT FOR URBAN
DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY

WATER AND HIGHWAY

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How do you go from idea to a project ready to be realized?

In the early stages of the architecture process, the client's needs and vision are investigated. In
close dialogue with our clients, ideas are developed into tangible projects with the potential to
be realized. In these early stages the "what" and "why" are as important as the "how."

These stage often (but not always) involves finding a site suitable for development, assessing
the site conditions and potential then developing an idea and proposal that suits the site.

One of the biggest challenges in this stage, besides just finding available plots in a heavily
developed metropolitan region, is managing risk. This because in this stage everything is purely
speculative, there are no guarantees that a project will go all the way.

Therefore, it’s important to have efficient workflows and have consistency in the results.

Figure 1 BIM-GIS process. (Source Autodesk / ESRI)

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Context
The digitalization organization at Sweco Architects have defined some overarching trends in
digitalization for our industry. These three major trends have guided our strategic work withing
digitalization for the last couple of years. Our methods and workflows in the early stages of the
architecture process are very much a reflection on our view on these trends.

The three trends are:

OPEN DATA
How does it affect the industry when authorities and municipalities make their
information available?
GIS will be almost as important a tool as BIM for architects
Municipal authorities will, with open data and digital service, get a new way to
compete for citizens and companies

PARAMETRIC DESIGN
Design will be guided more by data and largely on open data.
Greater work volume in the very earliest stages while construction documents will
be largely automated.
Evidence-based design will help us in sustainability, accessibility, etc.

AUTOMATION
The automation of processes takes place continuously.
Automation in design will be less than in production.

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Parametric & generative design

Parametric design enables detailed analyses to be carried out quickly and accurately to map a
place's possibilities and conditions. It is also possible to produce analyses quickly and efficiently
on how different solutions respond to the design parameters that are important for a specific
project. Everything that is measurable can be analyzed, which gives unlimited possibilities.

By effectively analyzing a site and taking maximum advantage of its conditions, sustainable
construction is facilitated. For example, parametric analyses can show how renewable energy
sources such as solar and wind can be integrated into the design and how the effect of these
can be optimized.

Parametric design also allows for changes at a later stage without the need to re-model
anything. This contributes to a more cost-effective flow.

By automating repetitive and monotonous tasks, more focus can be placed on architecture and
sustainability in our projects.

Traditionally we have worked with parametric and generative design in Rhino/Grasshopper and
Revit/Dynamo, but these tools require a high level of specialized expertise and has thus made
parametric design unavailable for many colleges.

With Spacemaker being verry easy to use and cloud based, we have been able to make
parametric design available to a much wider audience at the office and reap the benefits of
parametric design in more projects.

Figure 2 Parametric design script in Grasshopper

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Workflow

The architectural process is often visualized as one continuous line or circle, where you start
somewhere and then move in one direction forward through the line/circle. This however is not
reflecting reality, in real projects you constantly move back and forward in the process, thing
might be because of new information, new requirements or just the nature of a creative process.

This combined with the large number of tools and software usually involved in workflows can
lead to a lot of extra work exporting, importing, and converting different file formats. Because of
this we have focused on fining a streamlined ideal workflow with software that we know work
well together, which is the foundation of our methodology.

Figure 3 Architecture process and a selection of software used in different stages

Figure 4 Sweco's Digi MAP process and software used

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Additional links for more information:

Read more about Sweco’s work with digitalization and sustainability

Urban Insight – a knowledge platform where we bring experts together to develop new
innovations, ideas and solutions on how to plan and design sustainable cities and societies.
https://www.swecourbaninsight.com/

Report: Building the future through circular data – Tools for mining the ‘green gold’
https://www.swecourbaninsight.com/building-the-future-through-circular-data-tools-for-mining-the-green-gold/

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