Augmenta, the company automating building design for the construction industry, today announced the Electrical Design Module, the first Generative Design solution for its Augmenta Construction Platform (ACP). The module addresses the needs of electrical contractors and engineers, enabling them to accelerate the time it takes to estimate and create fully constructible, code-compliant electrical raceway designs by automating the entire process.
While today’s shop drawings typically only model the main runs of an electrical distribution system, the Augmenta Construction Platform can create fully detailed designs for entire projects in hours instead of weeks or months. Using Generative Design, the Electrical Design Module for the ACP delivers accurate, National Electrical Code® (NEC) compliant, fully detailed 3D raceway designs, complete with a bill of materials. This not only reduces design time by up to 70%, it also eliminates double entry, and provides the ability to evaluate multiple design options against cost, construction time, and maintainability. The generated designs are more efficient, requiring up to 20% less material and labor than traditional designs. The Electrical Design Module also cuts the time required to estimate projects by up to 50%. These benefits enable engineers and contractors to make better use of their teams, letting them focus on higher value activities.
“The Electrical Design Module for our Augmenta Construction Platform is the first of several solutions we are developing to automate building design, We’re tackling the toughest design challenges in the construction industry, and plan to also provide solutions for plumbing, mechanical, and structural engineers and contractors. Our ultimate goal is to deliver an integrated solution that eliminates the time consuming and error prone processes of designing systems, and sharing and coordinating those designs across trades.”
-Francesco Iorio, CEO and co-founder of Augmenta.
Using Generative Design and AI to solve one of the biggest design problems in construction
Today, the building design process is constrained by tools that act as little more than a digital drafting board. These tools make creating designs for electrical systems complex and time-consuming, often requiring several rounds of review, interpretation, and refinement. Each iteration takes time and money, making it impractical to explore alternative design options.
Until now, computational design and design automation have been used in the construction industry primarily for conceptual exploration by architects. For the first time, Augmenta is bringing the power of these techniques to all aspects of the design process. Using a novel combination of mathematical optimization and artificial intelligence to ensure designs are constructible and compliant, the ACP also leverages machine learning to continuously speed up the design process. This transformative approach enables the automated design of constructible buildings at a high level of detail, based on the requirements identified for a building and the applicable building codes.
The Electrical Design Module was developed in collaboration with Interstates, an innovative electrical contractor based in the U.S.
“In a very short period of time, we saw how dramatically Augmenta’s approach to automated design can reduce the cost of the design process, It enables us to decrease the risk of inaccurately scoping time and cost estimates while drastically reducing the time it takes to complete estimates for bids. This gives us additional time to present fully considered design alternatives, thus positioning our company as a strategic partner to our clients, which include general contractors, engineering firms, developers, and owners.”
-Josh Gillespie, BIM/VDC Director at Interstates.
About Augmenta:
Founded by pioneers of Generative Design at Autodesk, Augmenta is a software company that is driving a new level of efficiency for the construction industry by automating building design. The company’s flagship Augmenta Construction Platform (ACP) significantly accelerates the time it takes to detail and estimate designs, eliminates costly redesign and rework, and reduces overall risk. It also ensures buildings are designed to be energy efficient, use sustainable materials, are safer to build, and contribute less waste to landfill during construction. Once available commercially, this innovative new cloud-based platform – which uses artificial intelligence, including machine learning and mathematical optimization – will enable contractors and engineers to create error-free, constructible, code-compliant designs of buildings and systems in hours instead of weeks.