A.Engineer, a new agentic AI platform designed to help civil and structural engineers automate calculations and reporting, has launched in Europe.

Developed by Tyréns NEXT, the innovation arm of engineering consultancy Tyréns Group, A.Engineer combines engineering data, calculation tools, and report generation into a single “intelligent workspace”.

The platform is designed to simplify workflows, allowing engineers to spend less time on manual tasks and more time on creative design, instructions, and quality assurance.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

According to the developers, A.Engineer is built the principle that engineering is empowered by AI yet always verified by a professional user.

The platform provides a full audit trail for every step the AI takes. Engineers can see all data inputs, outputs, underlying code, and the reasoning behind each decision. There are no outputs without verification.

A.Engineer includes an Agentic Calculation Tool Builder, where engineers can upload their own data, Excel tools, or connect to legacy systems, and the system then generates the necessary calculation tools — including both the code and the user interface — “in minutes”.

Meanwhile, an Agentic Report Builder connects data and verified calculations to “automatically build” professional reports with tables, graphs, summaries, and visualisations.

The platform can integrate (via MCP connection) with established engineering tools such as Revit, Sparkel, ETABS, SAP2000, and Strusoft.

According to Richard Parker, senior structural engineer at AKT II and product lead for A.Engineer, early users are already seeing major efficiency gains, “Our research shows that 40–80% of engineering work is still manual,” he said. “With A.Engineer, we can automate over half of those manual tasks. A calculation report that might have taken half a day can now be done in under an hour. Engineers working side by side with A.Engineer deliver world‑class results in record time.”

Europe, the home market of the Tyréns Group, will be the first region to gain access to A.Engineer. A global rollout of A.Engineer is scheduled for Q1/2026.

The post Agentic AI platform to help automate engineering appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) has gone live with a digital twin of six hospitals as part of its strategy to create a smart estate. Designed to provide a single source of estates data to support new workflows and better decision making, the 3D model is a major milestone in MFT’s digital transformation to improve operational efficiency and patient safety.

Replacing disparate systems and paper-based processes, the digital twin visualises floors, rooms and spaces with associated data and is already being used to understand space optimisation and support the management of RAAC and asbestos. Future plans include adding indoor navigation, patient contact tracing and real-time asset tracking.

Created using Esri UK’s GIS platform, which includes indoor mapping, spatial analysis, navigation and asset tracking, the digital twin went live in October 2025. BIS Consult, MFT’s strategic data partner, led the development of the underlying data strategy and the integration of the multiple information sources required.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

Spanning 274,000 square metres of internal floor space, the 3D model includes Manchester Royal Infirmary, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Saint Mary’s Hospital on the Oxford Road campus, plus Altrincham Hospital and Withington Community Hospital.

David Bailey, Head of Digital Estates at MFT, who led the project, said: “Integrating all of our existing data into one 3D model has created the foundation for building a digital twin and is driving new opportunities for efficiency gains. Moving from analogue to digital achieves a better understanding of our buildings and assets which helps improve their management and maintenance, as well as improving patient safety.”

The digital twin is being used in a trial to better understand the use of space, by quickly showing where room usage is not being optimised. Full roll-out will provide all staff with a real-time view of occupancy levels and space requests, while clinicians will be able to examine existing facilities more easily and plan new services.

New applications for RAAC and asbestos management involve performing digital surveys on mobile devices, which feed directly into the 3D model and visualise the different risk levels.

The next phase will map the remaining four hospitals in MFT’s estate and digitise building condition surveys to help tackle the maintenance backlog. This will involve mobile data capture feeding into the digital twin, providing a clearer picture of requirements and helping to prioritise resources. Replacing a manual spreadsheet approach, data and reports will be shared more easily among project teams. Energy usage data will also be added to the digital twin to help analyse and reduce energy costs.

The project overcame a major data integration challenge, which involved combining MFT data from multiple systems, including CAFM (Computer-Aided Facility Management) and CAD floor plans and improving the overall data quality. Establishing new data governance so information connected to the 3D model was accurate and up to date was also achieved.

Duncan Booth, Head of Health & Social Care, Esri UK, said: “Indoor mapping is playing a central role in the modernisation of MFT’s estates and facilities department by giving users situational awareness of the entire site. Optimising the use of existing buildings and making RAAC and asbestos management more efficient are the first of many new benefits. Already used at airports, universities and industrial sites, the technology is helping large organisations realise plans for digital twins and is now experiencing growth in healthcare.”

Plans for the future include using Esri’s GIS platform to create applications for indoor navigation for patients and staff to reduce missed appointments, contact tracing of patients to help stop the spread of pathogens inside the hospital and digital asset tracking, enabling equipment such as beds, scanners or wheelchairs to be located more quickly.

Nicholas Campbell-Voegt, Ddrector at BIS Consult, commented: “This project shows how smart use of data can transform NHS estates. By creating a single source of truth for assets and space, MFT is paving the way for a new standard in how Trusts manage their estates. The approach provides a blueprint that other NHS organisations can follow, helping build smarter, safer and more sustainable healthcare environments.”

The post NHS Foundation Trust creates smart estate with digital twin appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Autodesk Estimate, a new cloud-based estimating solution that connects 2D and 3D takeoffs to costs, materials, and labour calculations, officially launched this week.

The software, which part of Autodesk Construction Cloud, aims to help general contractors and sub-contractors produce more accurate estimates and proposals.

According to Autodesk, Estimate eliminates the need for manual merges, juggling spreadsheets, and switching between disconnected tools.

Teams keep takeoffs in the same system, which can help cut down on errors, manual entries, and reduce duplicate work.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

Autodesk Estimate supports various data organisation structures such as Uniformat, MasterFormat, or custom formats.

The software enables cost library setup at the account level, helping teams maintain consistency across all projects. Autodesk says this centralised approach supports standardised estimating practices, promotes data accuracy, and enhances collaboration by ensuring everyone is working from the same reliable cost data.

Autodesk Estimate also centralises cost data helping teams manage labour rates — including standard, union, and prevailing wage rates — as well as equipment and material costs.

To help ensure that estimates are always current, the software offers real-time tracking and notifications for changes in connected takeoff quantities.

Finally, estimators have control over line items and can update costs for materials, labour, equipment, and subcontractors directly within the estimate table.

“I’m excited to see Autodesk take a truly holistic view of the construction process — not treating design, preconstruction, and construction as separate silos, but as interconnected phases within a unified lifecycle,” said Brian Alama, virtual design and preconstruction specialist, Jacobsen.

“Autodesk Estimate is a key part of that transformation — it helps bridge the gap between design intent and construction reality, bringing greater clarity, collaboration, and confidence to early project decisions.”

The post Autodesk Estimate launches for contractors appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Trimble has launched a new “Open and extensible” agentic AI platform, a collection of core services, security frameworks, and tools allow Trimble to build and deploy agentic AI systems.

The company’s vision is to enable partners and customers develop AI agents and multi-agent workflows across Trimble’s suite of construction solutions. Trimble is currently piloting the platform, Trimble Agent Studio, with select customers.

“As agentic AI use cases multiply, there is a growing need for common infrastructure that allows creators to rapidly and responsibly develop, deploy, monitor, and maintain high-value AI agents at scale,” said Mark Schwartz, senior vice president of AECO software at Trimble.

“We see the platform as the engine that will help Trimble, its partners, and its customers extract more value from both our solutions and their data.”

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

According to Trimble, its agentic AI platform and other AI capabilities are currently being used to help users learn and navigate Trimble software more efficiently. AI is also being used to eliminate many of the manual steps traditionally required to model from scratch, allowing users to generate 3D objects simply by describing what they want to create.

Trimble’s AI can also convert voice memos into field documents, capture status updates from crews, and reduce the time teams spend in front of computer screens back at the office. Beyond design, Trimble’s AI accelerates access to data and streamlines asset maintenance and permitting workflows.

“We are building an industry ecosystem aimed at breaking down data silos and empowering our customers to make smarter decisions, collaborate effectively and work faster,” said Rob Painter, Trimble CEO.

“By embedding AI into our solutions and enabling improved data flow, we’re taking the next steps towards unlocking the power of connected data.”

Trimble is making several AI tools available through Trimble Labs (Labs), a pre-release, early engagement program that enables customers to test new features and provide user feedback.

The post Trimble launches Agentic AI Platform appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Chaos has released Corona 14, the latest version of its photorealistic architectural rendering engine for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D. New features include AI-assisted creation tools, support for Gaussian Splats, procedural material generation, and new environmental effects.

In Corona 14, Gaussian Splats enables visualisers to “rapidly create” 3D scenes by placing buildings in a real world context, and rendering complex 3D environments with accurate reflections and refractions.

Gaussian Splats, which use AI to create a rich 3D scene from a series of photos or videos, are said to yield smoother surfaces, richer volumetric detail and a more natural sense of depth for designers looking to bring real-life environments and objects into their work.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

Corona 14 also provides access to range of AI tools, which can be enabled/disabled so creatives can decide when to apply them or firms need to follow strict AI policies and adhere to client requirements.

The Chaos AI Material Generator allows creators to upload a photo of a real-world surface and then turn the image into a tileable, render-ready PBR, including all necessary maps, in a few clicks. According to Chaos, it’s an ideal solution for secondary materials that don’t require art direction ― but without loss of realism.

Meanwhile, the Chaos AI Image Enhancer is designed to elevate the realism, texture, and detail of supporting elements — such as foliage, people, or terrain — without altering the core design.

Advanced controls allow users to adjust the appearance of people assets and refine vegetation for precision and consistency. Corona 14 can also enhance AI creativity with the power to send LightMix results directly to the AI Image Enhancer to explore multiple lighting scenarios or fine-tune mood.

AI Upscaler is designed to turn low-resolution drafts or renders into high-quality, presentation-ready visual. According to Chaos, this can save hours of rendering time while still delivering crisp, photoreal results.

Elsewhere, a new Night Sky feature allows designers to add realistic moonlight, stars, and the galactic backdrop of the Milky Way without having to rely on HDRIs.

Finally, a new Fabric Material feature creates fabrics with “true-to-life” woven detail, with full control over the weave or threads — including opacity, bump, displacement, and more.

The post Chaos boosts Corona 14 with AI appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Trimble has announced ProjectSight 360 Capture a new tool designed to give contractors better visibility into site progress by applying AI to 360-degree images, captured while walking the construction site.

ProjectSight 360 Capture, which is built into Trimble’s ProjectSight project management software, enables construction teams to conduct virtual jobsite walkthroughs, track progress and resolve issues collaboratively.

A cloud-based AI algorithm automatically processes the 360-degree images, identifies key locations, and links them to project drawings to, enabling comparison of as-built conditions over time or against the design. AI-powered privacy filtering also blurs faces on the jobsite, protecting individual privacy.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

Project managers can connect these images directly to workflows — such as change orders or RFIs — by embedding captures within requests. Through Trimble Connect’s common data environment, all imagery is shared and accessed in one centralised location.

“Traditional methods of capturing and communicating project status are typically time consuming, complex and incomplete, making it difficult for contractors to collaborate, quickly correct problems and keep projects on budget and on schedule,” said Lawrence Smith, vice president and general manager of construction management solutions at Trimble. “Directly pairing critical project management tasks with 360-degree image captures gives users a clear picture of actual conditions and status on job sites, helping turn data into effective decision making.

“ProjectSight 360 Capture makes real-world data easy to capture and use, giving project managers critical insights through intuitive visualisation and navigation,” added Smith. “By streamlining documentation, tracking changes over time, and simplifying issue management across the Trimble ecosystem, it gives project managers a reliable, real-time view of job site conditions regardless of their location.”

The post Trimble ProjectSight 360 Capture enhances site visibility appeared first on AEC Magazine.

E.R.B. Rail JV PS, the joint venture leading the construction of the Rail Baltica mainline in Latvia, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe, has chosen Vektor.io as its digital platform for managing and visualising infrastructure design information.

ERB will used the platform to bring together 2D plans, BIM models, GIS data, and other reference materials spread across many different formats and systems, directly in the browser, accessible both in the office and on site

“We chose Vektor.io because it enables our team to access all design information in one platform, regardless of file format – to view 2D, 3D and survey data together,” said Agnis Mārtiņš Bērziņš, Regional BIM Coordinator of E.R.B. Rail JV PS.

“This helps all team members to work more efficiently by providing access to not only design, point clouds, orthophotos, and public maps with various data, but also to impressive measurement, sectioning, quantifying and analysing tools to ensure rapid and well-informed decision making.”

“We are proud to work alongside E.R.B. Rail on Rail Baltica,” added Teemu Nivell, Chief Commercial Officer, Vektor.io. “What excites us most is how technology supports their teams in daily work – from design reviews to measurements – turning complex data into a practical tool everyone can use.”

E.R.B. Rail JV PS is a partnership between Eiffage Génie Civil SAS (France), Budimex S.A. (Poland), and Rizzani de Eccher S.p.A. (Italy).

The consortium is delivering a high-speed rail corridor that will connect the Baltic States with the broader European network.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

The post Vektor.io to bring visibility to Baltic States rail project appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Arup has designed a Net Zero Carbon in operation (NZCio) Welsh school campus using performance modelling technology from global climate tech firm, IES.

IES’s Virtual Environment (VE) dynamic modelling software played a central role in the design of the Mynydd Isa Campus, which provides nursery, primary, and secondary education for more than 1,300 pupils, helping to reduce carbon emissions by over 100 tonnes per year.

Designed in 2023 and completed in 2025, the two-storey, 10,500m² campus meets Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ‘Excellent’ standards, reflecting strong performance across areas such as energy use, materials, water and occupant wellbeing.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

The IESVE software was used to assess and refine energy performance, taking into account overheating risks under various climate scenarios, including typical years, warm summers and prolonged heatwaves.

The solutions included installing more than 1,000 solar panels, which are expected to generate over 500,000 kWh of electricity each year. This enables the building to produce as much energy as it consumes. To manage comfort, a complex cross-ventilation chimney concept and a ‘traffic light system’ in classrooms is used to alert teachers to open/close windows. The project also made a 25-year performance commitment to ensure the building remains efficient and resilient to future climate conditions.

“This project exemplifies how performance modelling technology can deliver on multiple fronts – achieving Net Zero Carbon in operation, supporting BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certification, and closing the gap between design and real-world performance,” said Niall Gibson, Building Performance Specialist at IES.

“Rising heat is putting huge pressure on infrastructure that was never designed for these conditions. This isn’t about futureproofing; it’s about catching up with a crisis that’s already here. If we’re serious about tackling climate change, making existing infrastructure more resilient, efficient, and climate-ready must be a national priority. We’re proud to support Arup in delivering a school that sets the standard for future-proof public buildings.”

“I feel honoured to have worked on this project from the very beginning and take it through to completion,” said Steven Burrows, associate building physics engineer at Arup. “IESVE modelling played a significant role in the design of the scheme – from developing the complex cross ventilation chimney concept to achieving Net Zero Carbon in operation. It’s an incredible achievement that the building generates as much energy as it will consume over the course of a year.”

The post Arup uses IES VE to design net zero school appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Tektome has unveiled KnowledgeBuilder, an AI-powered platform designed to automatically organise massive volumes of siloed project documents to help AEC teams make smarter decisions while avoiding repeated mistakes.

The software, already piloted by Takenaka Corporation, one of Japan’s largest construction firms, analyses and extracts key content from scattered files — including drawings, reports, photos, and handwritten notes on marked up PDFs — and consolidates the data into a central, structured, and “instantly searchable” knowledge base.

The platform enables architects and engineers to ask questions in plain language and quickly see how similar issues were handled in past projects, eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel.”

According to the company, even non-IT staff can configure what to pull from drawings, proposals, photos or meeting minutes without coding or complex setup.

KnowledgeBuilder works across PDFs, CAD files (DWG and DXF), scanned images, handwritten markups, and more, with support for BIM files (RVT and IFC) coming soon.

Its search functionality includes two modes: combined filtering across project attributes, file-level attributes, and keywords for precise narrowing, and a semantic keyword search that understands context and synonyms, and highlights matches inside documents and drawings.

According to Tektome, this natural query ability helps teams retrieve critical insights on demand, greatly improving decision-making speed and confidence.

For its KnowledgeBuilder implementation, Takenaka Corporation established multiple working groups. On-site team members took the lead in verifying how as-built drawing data could be structured and after a three-month pilot programme, were able to set up their own custom extraction criteria tailored to their needs. This allowed them to quickly retrieve practical information such as past as-built drawings that matched specific project requirements, reference examples from similar projects, and summaries of relevant numerical data from previous designs.

Takenaka is now expanding the system by importing a larger volume of past as-built drawings and further enhancing search options and usability.

“The shift from manually searching hundreds of thousands of pages of drawings to instant access through natural language has revived veteran design expertise as actionable knowledge, allowing designers to focus on more creative tasks,” said Mr. Takaoka of the Structural Department, Design Division at Takenaka’s Tokyo headquarters.

The post AI extracts knowledge from past projects appeared first on AEC Magazine.

Sisk, one of Ireland’s largest construction and engineering companies, is using DroneDeploy’s reality capture platform to enable faster inspections, higher data accuracy and real-time visibility across 20+ projects in Ireland and the UK.

Sisk’s geospatial engineering program has scaled from initial pilot projects to a multi-year enterprise agreement covering capture with aerial drones and 360 cameras.

The DroneDeploy platform is now used across flagship developments including Dublin’s Glass Bottle project and the Kex Gill road realignment scheme in Yorkshire, helping teams capture, analyse and share high-resolution site data for progress tracking, design verification and stakeholder communication.

From automated earthworks analysis to aerial progress tracker and logistics planning, Sisk’s use of DroneDeploy has reportedly improved project safety and coordination while reducing costs associated with manual surveys and site visits. According to DroneDeploy, unified visual data enables Sisk to align subcontractors, design teams and owners around a single source of truth.

“DroneDeploy allows us to capture and interpret site data with a level of speed and accuracy that simply wasn’t possible before,” said Cillian Kelly, head of digital project delivery at Sisk.

“This isn’t just about flying drones, it’s about transforming how we plan, collaborate and deliver projects.

“By embedding aerial reality capture into our daily operations, for traffic management, lifting operations, logistics and groundwork analysis we’re not only improving efficiency and safety, but also reshaping how complex infrastructure and building projects are delivered across Ireland, The UK and Europe.”

“The impact has been transformational,” said Kieran Crowley, project director at Sisk. “DroneDeploy gives us a real-time visual record of work in place – across phases, teams and sites. Whether it’s a road project in the UK or a life sciences campus in Ireland, we now have one platform to validate progress and collaborate effectively.”

Learn more about DroneDeploy in AEC Magazine’s AI Spotlight directory , a comprehensive database of AI-powered tools for AEC.

Discover what’s new in technology for architecture, engineering and construction — read the latest edition of AEC Magazine

Subscribe FREE here

The post Sisk boosts reality capture with DroneDeploy appeared first on AEC Magazine.