Shedmate

Founded in Australia in early 2020, Shedmate develops software for the Australian and American construction industries, integrating BIM (Building Information Modeling) and parametric design into all of its projects. The company’s collaborative web platform helps users design, document, and quote a small structure like a shed or garage ready for regulatory building approval. Shedmate empowers people with no design or construction experience to design these structures and quickly move them from idea to completion. The firm uses Forge to save customers and shed manufacturers time, money, and frustration.

Challenge

Shedmate founders Artur Bessoni and Thiago Almeida met while working for a shed manufacturing company located in a rural area in Australia. There, the shortage of skilled workers made the task of designing a different shed every day—coupled with very basic communication, multiple design changes, and final product manufacturing—error-prone and difficult to accomplish.

Customers came in with basic design ideas and little to no knowledge of engineering and local building regulations. The in-house designers would create drawings, but customer-led changes would result in unreliable information as the design moved through multiple iterations in the hands of different draftspeople. The time-consuming, inefficient back and forth sometimes even led to the company losing jobs as customers would drag their feet on decisions, forcing the designers to move on to other projects.

How Shedmate solved it with Forge

Almeida and Bessoni saw an opportunity to streamline the design and production process with a web-based software system that would enable customers and non-designer sales people to take greater design control. The team already used Revit building design software; the addition of the Forge platform enabled them to store everything about the process in the cloud and make it accessible to any user in any location.

With Shedmate, sales people and other non-designers can sit down with customers or visit them onsite, and within 15 minutes, design a structure on any cloud-connected device without prior training or design experience. Forge APIs free users from the need to use installed programs, letting anyone view and change the design in a browser. The platform enables any changes made to the design to be updated in real time for any user to see.

Clients can immediately see their ideas come to life in detailed drawings and models. Any changes automatically adapt the design and building regulations, streamlining decision making and reducing conflicts with regulatory compliance. The design can then quickly be moved to production phase, speeding the idea to finished product. 

Shedmate uses the Design Automation API for Revit to send raw data to the custom plugin. The BIM 360 API helps the firm to create projects, add users and folder structures, and simplify the process for the user. The firm supports these BIM 360 processes with the Data Management API. While Shedmate currently uses its own viewer, future plans include using the Forge Viewer API for final design viewing.

By removing the input of different draftspeople, enabling all-user access from any point, and automating the design process to reflect changes in real time and comply with all necessary fabrication elements and regulations, Shedmate has greatly simplified and sped design and production. The process entirely removes the need for designers and places the customers in a hands-on position.

Forge highlights include the following:

• Reduces design time from up to weeks to 15 minutes
• Streamlines and automates design process, reducing error and cost
• Increases sales significantly

APIs and Services

BIM 360 API

Design Automation API for Revit