Did you know that 95 percent of construction data goes unused during building operations? Digital Twins may change the way owners interpret—and ultimately use—that data, but they have to know where to start. Digital Twin is an industry buzzword these days, and there is no shortage of companies who claim to be experts on these data-rich models. However, if the concept of a Digital Twin is going to survive its initial 15 minutes of fame, we must stop viewing Digital Twins as products and start seeing them for what they really are: intricately detailed processes. Every Digital Twin solution on the market looks and functions differently from the next. However, they all share a similar goal: to re-create a physical space in a dynamic, 3D environment. But the true appeal of a Digital Twin lies in the data. While most Digital Twin solutions have figured out how to integrate data and models, only a few have figured out how to present that data in an immersive, interactive and useful way.

When reading modern engineering articles about infrastructure and the built environment, it is difficult to find an occurance where Digital Twins are not mentioned. By all accounts, a digital twin of a fixed asset or real-world system is immensely valuable and can be used to support a number of use cases. But, building a digital twin requires a significant amount of data. So, how does one start to build a digital twin? Three-dimensional (3D) basemaps produced from high resolution aerial imagery serve as the foundation and fabric for digital twins. Automated feature extraction from AI uniquely identifies critical infrastructure and can be used to grow an urban digital twin, removes the guess work and shortening the digital twin development time. For engineering professionals interested in exploring the world of digital twins, Nearmap offers a variety of foundational products for getting started.

Digital twins for building owners are emerging tools for facilities management, operations, and maintenance. The large benefits of digital twins to overall businesses beyond traditional practice are just being realized. As an iteration of digital twins from the digital manufacturing, product, and machine space, the current industry definition is this: Digital twins are software representations of assets, and processes that are used to understand, predict, and optimize performance in order to achieve improved business outcomes. Digital twins consist of three components: a data model, a set of analytics or algorithms, and knowledge. This roundtable will be jointly hosted by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (WDPR), Brandon Wlosinski and Autodesk Consulting, and Dorian Chau to explore, define, and understand what digital twins mean for the building industry today. Bob Bray, senior director at ConstrucTwin at Autodesk, will provide his insights to the roundtable, as will other invited enterprise building owners.

"IoT sensors and smart devices are all around. BIM is all around. Why not marry BIM with IoT - and create the next generation powerful disruptive Digital Twins for a better today and tomorrow? Digital Twin is the Living Model with dynamics/functionality. It's the virtual representation of spaces, objects, smart devices and sensors binding in a single place to view the live updates, to perform analytics and simulations, and to create predictions for better decision making and predictive maintenance. Digital Twins are one of the top—and most discussed—industry disruptive technologies. Combining the power of BIM using Forge with IoT devices using Azure Digital twin/IoT services will create the digital twin that can help in multiple ways. This class will introduce the basics of Digital Twin and its applications and then talk about how to bring Forge and Azure APIs together to make a digital twin web application that can showcase live data and analytics."

Digital twins are digital replicas of physical assets—a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds. Combining real-time data from multiple sources (including your design data) with a 3D interactive model can help you generate greater insights into your project—leading to performance improvements at all phases of the project lifecycle. In this session, you’ll hear from three companies that are using Forge to power their digital twins. They’ll talk you through why they needed to create a digital twin, and how they achieved it with Forge.

Digital twins are the latest buzzword in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Are you being asked to deliver a digital twin to your clients? As an owner are you looking to have greater insights into your facilities’ performance and operations? Digital twins are simply the next step in the digital transformation of your business. This talk will help you cut through the hype, and understand the value of a digital twin and what is required to create one. Furthermore, we’ll introduce a new technology from Autodesk called Tandem that can maximize your existing data to create a digital twin. We’ll also discuss how Autodesk Tandem can integrate with new and existing systems to connect the digital model to the operational and performance data of its physical counterpart, unlocking the true value of a digital twin.

If you haven’t heard, the latest industry buzz is all about Digital Twins. If you have heard about Digital Twins, chances are you have some vague understanding about what they are, but possibly don’t fully understand the concept. Essentially, Digital Twins are a way that we can visually consume data in a plethora of different ways, through various platforms and peripherals. The goal of a Digital Twin is to get real-time feedback from our environment in ways that allow us to quickly analyze and react to data.

When this digital twin journey was first shared by Brandon Wlosinski (Walt Disney Parks and Resorts—WDPR) and Dorian Chau (Autodesk) at Autodesk University 2020 as a roundtable discussion on digital twins for building owners, it focused on objectives, value, and vision. This year, the speakers are expanding the session into in a panel discussion to include Ken Kurihara from WDPR; Bill Kwon, VP of Digital at CRTKL, and Bob Bray, Autodesk Tandem GM, as well as invited enterprise business leaders. The panelists will share their experiences with industry challenges involving the optimization of project data for digital handover and other digital twin use cases. Digital twin practices have gained momentum in the building industry in the past year, and we will discuss the impact on and value to the businesses and changes in management approaches. Our panelists will share their perspectives on why digital twins are important from both the owners’ and consultants’ perspectives with digital handover, smart operations, and greater building insights.

AIA CES  Believe it or not, digital twins are more than just a buzzword! Owners are realizing there's a lot more they can do with the (on average) 95%+ of design and construction data that goes to waste-and they're turning to us to help them put that data to meaningful use. In this session, you'll hear about some real-world case studies showcasing why digital twins are here to stay. Of course, the path to development and integration is never without bumps along the way. We'll discuss common obstacles and challenges in getting started with digital twins, and we'll evaluate the growing digital twin ecosystem with platforms like Autodesk Tandem technology, Esri ArcGIS, EcoDomus, Unreal Engine, and many others that can serve a variety of owner needs. Join this vibrant roundtable and share your thoughts and experiences with digital twins and digital transformation in general. Let's discuss ways we can help transition our industry toward a better future!

During the BIM (Building Information Modeling) evolution, we’ve seen many different solutions for many different contexts. Easy access to information means that our customers are coming to us much better informed and more curious. During the COVID-19 crisis, there was an abundance of information available via webinars, online workshops, and other channels that helped people understand BIM better. But how do we keep moving forward? Much has been heard about digital twins, the new proposal for project analysis in construction and postconstruction processes. Innovation raises questions such as: “How am I supposed to offer this solution to my customers?” In this class, we’ll explore the differences between a digital twin and an intelligent model, help you understand Unity solutions for digital twins, and highlight the advantages of this innovation by showing you how we can do it with the support of Autodesk partner Unity.

A digital twin needs to be powered by an energy called information. At a time when many facilities owners are considering developing a digital twin, the AEC industry needs to empower this smart replica, by producing information for this purpose. Ultimately, this allows for more sustainable design, more efficient construction and informed maintenance. Nevertheless to make it work, a paradigm shift is needed: to treat information as an asset, just like the physical infrastructure. Based on the case of Montreal's new metro line project, this Class describes a methodology that includes the strategic actions to be taken, the requirements to be imposed and the operational means to be settled. It provides the keys to exploit the data generated during the D&B phase, so that at the time of handover, a virtual representation of the infrastructure is available to support operations throughout the asset's life cycle. (This class is subject to our customer agreement, “CDPQ infra")

The Autodesk Tandem team have been working closely with industry leading innovators during product development and early adoption. In this panel you'll hear directly from customers implementing digital twins on real-world projects. Each panelist will bring their unique industry experience to cover topics including how digital twins can become a part of an AEC firm’s digital practice, the value digital twins offer to building owner/operators, the requirements driving the need for digital handover, the industry challenges in curating project data for digital handover, and how Autodesk Tandem is being used in practice to overcome these challenges.

Operational digital twins link real-time IoT data with digital representations of real-world processes to model what is happening and to optimize what is going to happen next. In 2021, Autodesk acquired Innovyze’s industry-leading water modeling solutions along with the Info360 SaaS platform delivering an operational digital twin for water catchment, treatment and distribution. Info360 joins together water simulation models used by most utilities worldwide with cloud technology, IoT monitoring, machine learning, AI, and physics-based modeling techniques to create a dynamic digital twin for the entire water processing cycle. We will demonstrate Info360. We will review trends in operational digital twins and how simulation models can move to the cloud to enable real-time simulation. We will review machine learning and AI modeling approaches that are being used to optimize in real time. We will assess the challenges in deploying these systems, and what you should do to prepare.

As main contractors on The UCD Dublin BIM Level 2 project, we are required to deliver a digital twin of the physical building prior to construction. This digital twin will contain accurate geometry and asset information relevant to FM, including drawings, manuals, and warranties. The UCD Student Residences masterplan consists of 3 phases. Phase 1 consists of 3 separate buildings, 2 student accommodation blocks and a student centre building with accommodation over to the northeast. Phase 2 consists of 3 separate residential buildings to the centre spanning northwest of the site. Phase 3 consists of surface car parking to the south associated with Roebuck Hall Residences and a building centred on Roebuck Castle (a protected structure to the south). The proposed 3-phase development will increase student residential accommodation by 3,006 bed spaces and provide ancillary and complementary facilities to create a living campus community in a new residential village connected to and integrated with existing residential village.

Today’s plant operations and maintenance processes require a highly experienced workforce to gather information from multiple sources while collaborating seamlessly across all stakeholders. Discover how the global operating company ANDRITZ has equipped their teams with an Information Hub which centralizes multiple data sources into an up-to-date Digital Twin of their plants. The class will highlight how 3D model data, 2D schematic diagrams, Equipment information, Documents, Maintenance tasks and even real time sensor information gets interactive linked together and provided to the stakeholders as an easy to use web application. Together with best practices how to build a sophisticated solution based on Autodesk Forge we will also share practical benefits the teams now experience by taking faster and better-informed decisions. The session will conclude with the various positive business outcomes companies can achieve by providing such a hybrid environment to their stakeholders.

The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is heading toward Industry 4.0 and digital twins are a trend. As MEP design processes become more intelligent, digital twins are now feasible to reach and have many advantages ahead. These are powerful and can enable building owners to create smart buildings and operate with less. MEP models and point-cloud scans are more accessible toward more-affordable sensors. How can we use MEP models after project handover to enhance the operation of buildings along their lifecycles? This class will show the process of converting MEP models to digital twins using IoT devices—specifically, how to connect MEP models and sensors together by using cloud technology, Dynamo, and Revit 2020 software. Also, this class will show how to visualize IoT live data with BI dashboards to increase awareness of how people use buildings and to enhance the maintenance process of buildings. So, learn how to bring MEP models to life as digital twins, comply with client needs, and make the build environment more sustainable

Autodesk Research has been exploring the intersection of BIM (Building Information Modeling) and Internet of Things (IoT) for the last decade. Project Dasher (http://dasher360.com) integrates sensor data with model data from Autodesk's Forge platform to contextualize IoT data in 3D. This session will look at what is happening with Dasher, but also will talk in detail about the Forge capabilities that Dasher has used—which are available to all Forge developers—to build a digital twin integrating real-world performance data.

Today, companies have to achieve perfect products in the shortest possible time and in high quality. This is possible through the use of virtual commissioning with a digital twin along the entire value chain. IndustrialPhysics is a physics-based 3D simulation software for the virtual commissioning of mechatronic systems. In this workshop, we will use numerous practical examples from different industries to show how other companies have already implemented this important topic and reveal the results that have been achieved.

In this class, you’ll learn how digital engineering expert firm Willow Consulting has pioneered new cloud technologies as part of its digital twin service, by adopting BIM 360 software to its business process and expanding service offerings with Forge. WillowTwin™ integrates, analyzes, and manages data at scale, delivering insights to improve performance and experience of buildings and infrastructure networks.

Industrialized construction is becoming more important than ever, considering current housing shortages and a decline in skilled labor. Optimizing factory processes is thus essential for productivity; however, changes to lines can be both expensive and disruptive. In this presentation we will demonstrate how a process-based digital twin can help to analyze and optimize a factory. First, a factory information model is created using discrete event simulation and virtual reality. This model is then updated using a variety of sensors that can measure baseline performance. Together, the model and sensors produce a digital twin of a factory that serves as a virtual test bed for evaluating the manufacturing process and optimizing factory layout and resource allocation to mitigate any adverse effects. We’ll share preliminary results from an ongoing project to integrate energy efficiency technologies into modular buildings with little or no additional lead time and first cost.