Nemetschek Group’s new AI Assistant is a start—but a small one

The AI chatbot will debut in Allplan and Graphisoft, and eventually spread to Nemetschek’s whole portfolio.

By Michael Alba

Welcome to Engineering Paper, our weekly roundup of design and simulation software news.

Today’s top story is Nemetschek Group’s new AI Assistant, a chatbot which will debut in both Allplan and Graphisoft Archicad.

In Archicad, the AI Assistant will be able to interact with BIM models in limited ways. For example, you could ask the chatbot to render your model in some particular style (such as with a wooden fa?ade), and it will return an image generated with Nemetschek’s “AI Visualizer” powered by Stable Diffusion. You could also ask the AI Assistant to reveal some specific elements of your model, such as “the wall section at the East entry,” and it will bring up the proper view.

In Allplan, the assistant connects to the internet to help users find industry knowledge such as the minimum width of emergency exits in London.

You can see a brief demo of these capabilities in this video from Nemetschek:

This is the first manifestation of Nemetschek’s plan to launch an “artificial intelligence layer” across its portfolio this year, a plan which wasn’t so much a roadmap as a signpost declaring that Nemetschek has, in fact, heard of AI and does, in fact, plan to do something with it.

Well, this is something. The AI Assistant could prove to be a nifty feature for users of Allplan and Archicad, but by now chatbots are basically the “Hello World” of AI applications—the first step everyone takes when trying to figure out a new language. The real question is how far Nemetschek can go from here.

On that note…

It’s not just Nemetschek trying to figure out this whole AI thing. As I recently opined, every engineering software developer is racing to get in on the action.

To expand on that line of thought, I’m hosting a webinar on February 18 at 12:00pm EST. AI for engineers: Proof, pudding, and possibilities will kick off Engineering.com’s annual Design and Simulation series, where we’re bringing in industry experts to discuss the most impactful trends in engineering software today.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. How tasty is today’s batch of AI for engineers? Register for the webinar to find out!

CAD in point: Acquisitions and updates

Here are some quick hits for your news radar:

• Software reseller GoEngineer announced that it’s acquired Canadian reseller CAD MicroSolutions, effective as of January 3, 2025. CAD MicroSolutions customers will retain access to their current software licenses and annual maintenance plans, and can call the same support line as before, according to an FAQ posted by GoEngineer.
• Jetcam released an update for CAD Viewer, its free software for viewing 2D CAD files. The update adds folder and file count display, window position and size memory, and other quality of life improvements.
• Hexagon has acquired CAD Service, an Italian developer of visualization tools. Effective January 21, 2025, CAD Service will join Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division.
• Datakit announced version 2025.1 of its data exchange software, which includes enhanced support for 2D and 3D B-Rep geometry alongside other updates.

One last link

You have to love it when CAD marketers get catty. Piggybacking on the popularity of Peter Brinkhuis’ blog post 37 things that confuse me about 3DEXPERIENCE, Onshape posted a blog of their own: 37 Ways Onshape Simplifies What 3DEXPERIENCE Overcomplicates.

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Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way:?[email protected].