SWAPP

Tel Aviv-based SWAPP is a building planning service that maximizes artificial intelligence (AI) to help real estate developers construct more efficiently and accelerate the readiness of their buildings and other assets. SWAPP’s planning services include assessment, testing, and feasibility studies for existing buildings or empty lots, as well as schematic designs throughout every project phase to produce buildouts that serve project stakeholders.

Challenge

A key challenge in the construction industry, whether building from scratch or modifying an existing structure, is that the planning process can be lengthy and inefficient. Project managers have to gather extensive information from project sites—regarding land quality, density, environmental impact, sun exposure, noise, and regulations, for example—in order to keep architects and other project stakeholders informed throughout the design and build process. Normally, various stakeholders gather this site information in disparate, time-consuming, manual ways that are not based on actual data. The information has to be translated into a form that real estate developers can understand and use as a basis for decision making. The ineffective process can cause costly construction delays, clashes, and errors, as well as friction between stakeholders and conflicts with planning regulatory bodies.

How Swapp solved it with Forge

In January 2019, Eitan Tsarfati, Noam Gat, and Adi Shavit founded SWAPP with a mission: A project’s entire planning process should start with data, supported by artificial intelligence. SWAPP works with real estate developers from the very outset of projects. The team uses AI to collect the mountains of data related to a build site or existing structure and perform a much deeper and more accurate analysis than a human could accomplish.

From there, the team examines optimization and efficiency parameters to generate the most data-driven, AI-based, optimized floor plan for the property. SWAPP also uses the data to predict different scenarios and plans for rapid transitions, helping customers gain flexibility with their properties. The result is cost-efficient, timely buildouts that adhere to green building standards and provide maximum value for customers while improving sustainability.

Before co-founding SWAPP, Tsarfati (a former architect) worked for Autodesk developing the Forge platform. Knowing the power of Forge, he had no doubt about the platform’s ability to meet SWAPP’s needs, and help customers clearly understand the choices that need to be made.

SWAPP uses the Forge Model Derivative API to upload and prepare AutoCAD and Revit files for the Viewer API. The team integrates the Viewer API with React Hooks to ensure easy loading and maintaining of the Viewer in SWAPP’s application. Stakeholders can then simply view 2D and 3D models in any browser, and sync 2 viewers simultaneously to compare 2 different layouts for better decision making.

With 2D models, SWAPP provides filtering layers that appear when the customer hovers over a part of the model. With 3D models, Forge empowers SWAPP to customize the way the firm displays lights and materials, different points of view, and walkthrough modes to achieve most aesthetically accurate results.

SWAPP maximizes Forge to provide customers with a clear visual understanding of the floor plan model–simplifying and accelerating the decision-making process, and helping to enable conflict-free, cost-efficient buildings.

Forge highlights include the following:

• Empowers 2D/3D visualization of more efficient and accurate site-data analysis
• Provides 2 viewable 2D/3D models, enabling comparison and minimizing confusion
• Enables more-accurate decision making, speeding timely, cost-efficient buildings

APIs and Services

Viewer

Model Derivative API