Unity PiXYZ Collaboration Lets Users Take BIM 3D
Emily Pollock posted on March 12, 2019 |
The PiXYZ Unity plug-in has been improved, and users can take their metadata directly into the 3D visualization. (Image courtesy of Unity.)
Unity and PiXYZ have announced that you can now host AEC projects directly in the Unity platform, with all the associated metadata available in Unity. The two companies hope that their collaboration will start to bridge the divide between design visualization and data visualization workflows that exists in the industry today.
Previously, the PiXYZ plug-in let users import BIM geometries into Unity, which gave them a good feel for what a space might look like. Unfortunately, it meant that users still had to go back to the original BIM document for metadata like item materials. The updated plug-in enables users to conduct their whole workflow inside of Unity, without any need to switch back to the original file.
“The neat thing that’s starting to happen is that design visualization and data visualization are starting to converge,” said Tim McDonough, vice president and general manager of Unity. “You can build something that looks good and has all the data.”
Users can import BIM models from over 30 companies by turning them into a platform-agnostic IFC file and then uploading it directly into Unity. The plug-in also gives live updates: it recognizes when changes may have been made to the original model, and can bring them…