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Smarter BIM - from day one

by FormIt team, 27 October 2015

I get this question quite a bit these days: what makes FormIt 360 different? Is it just like SketchUp running on an iPad and in the browser? There are so many ways that sets FormIt 360 apart, I thought it was a good time to address them one by one:

Design any time, any where

Yes, FormIt 360 runs on tablets as native iOS and Android apps and inside modern web browsers so you can access you design projects on any operating system on almost any machine (even your kid's Chrome book!) We made this choice because tablets provide so many opportunities to bring the "hand" of the designer back to design work. Web-based delivery allows us to release new functionality and updates whenever they are ready. And yes, we are as excited about the iPad Pro as many of you are and we are working hard on getting FormIt 360 ready for this exciting new device.

BIM Intelligence – From Day One

From the day we shipped the first version almost three years ago, FormIt 360 has had a killer feature that remains one of the most popular: level datums and gross area tracking. Want to quickly find out how much floor area is being used by your design? No problem, we provide that automatically.Doing this in other non-BIM modelers will require a lot of time manually measuring each floor plate. I thought computers were supposed to save us time! FormIt 360 Space Usage

FormIt 360 speaks Revit fluently

FormIt 360 creates a native Revit file every time you save. So while Revit users have been able to import SKP files for many years, it just brings in a single mesh-based import that is completely un-editable. FormIt 360 creates a Revit file with:

  • Levels: Remember the level datums I mentioned above? These are translated into real Revit level elements.

  • Location: When you set location in FormIt 360, the location data transfers so continue to do deeper shadow, solar and energy analysis in Revit.

  • **Smooth surfaces:**Splines, arcs and curves surfaces come into Revit smooth, not faceted.

  • Editable Mass Families: Each solid object in FormIt 360 becomes an extruded mass family in Revit that can be edited, moved, and used as the basis for more detailed modeling. Furthermore, Group instances become Family instances, maintaining their parent/child relationship - even through multiple levels of nesting!

  • Categorize Elements: Beyond just massing, FormIt 360 now allows you to assign grouped objects to a select number of Revit categories, including Furniture and Generic. These objects maintain their categorization when translated to Revit. This requires the cumbersome use of an intermediary IFC file if you want to do something similar in SketchUp.

Work with your existing content

You have existing content from another application that you want to use with FormIt 360? That is no problem! Our FormIt Converter add-in for Revit allows you to convert SKP and Revit family files (RFA) and place them right into FormIt 360 using our Content Library.

Cloud services for analysis, collaboration, materials and more

Last, and definitely not least, by subscribing to our optional Pro offering, you are connected to a myriad of Autodesk's cloud services to provide additional advanced functionality.

  • Analysis: With FormIt 360 Pro, you can understand performance from day one with energy and solar analysis. FormIt utilizes Revit's groundbreaking method for automatically creating ASHRAE 90.1 compliant thermal zones from either massing or detailed Revit models.

  • Collaboration: Need to collaborate with colleagues around the globe? FormIt 360 Pro allows multiple people to view and edit the same model simultaneously. You have to try it to understand how cool this is.

  • Autodesk Materials Library: Coming soon!

"But I really need layers and saved scenes!" We heard you, and many other users. In just a few days we will be releasing a new version of FormIt 360 with these features. Stay tuned and follow us here and on Twitter @FormIt360.