Customer Story: TeamCAD

TeamCAD has been Autodesk’s leading partner in Serbia since 2005, and is the only Forge Certified Systems Integrator in Southeast Europe. TeamCAD trains companies to maximize Autodesk software systems, with a focus on the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) and product design and manufacturing industries, as well as media and entertainment. In addition to sales and education, TeamCAD helps companies implement BIM (Building Information Modeling) in their processes, and the firm develops its own software solutions. TeamCAD sells Autodesk products throughout its region, and extends training, implementation, consultation, and sales of TeamCAD products in the Adriatic region, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.

Challenge

As the AEC industry began the radical digital shift towards mandating BIM (Building Information Modeling), TeamCAD started receiving requests from customers to digitize paper plans for buildings. However, once the TeamCAD team had spent months digitizing the plans, the owners and other stakeholders were not always equipped with the hardware and software necessary to access model files. Some commercial building owners wanted to show potential tenants the ins and outs of their properties via a web browser. Others were looking for ways to highlight opportunities for investment teams. Seeing an opportunity to offer more-holistic services to customers, TeamCAD took on the challenge to democratize model information.

How TeamCAD solved it with Forge

When Forge was released, TeamCAD knew that the platform was the missing element it needed, and immediately began its first project: migrating the paper plans of a Novi Sad shopping mall considered one of the city’s architectural jewels. The team created a 3D digital twin of the mall, and used the Forge platform to make it accessible to all stakeholders in a web-based browser. With the digital twin, the owner/operator can easily keep track of building systems, equipment warranties, and energy costs—all of which are visible and navigable in the 3D model. Additionally, the mall has a high turnover, and the owner/operator can send potential tenants a link directing them to the 3D model so they can see prospective space and their possibilities, speeding the rental process and cutting down on costly vacancies.

In another Forge-powered win, TeamCAD helped Xella Serbia (a producer of wall construction material, and part of Xella International) develop BIM Xella, an application that makes the customer ordering process quicker and more efficient. BIM Xella centralizes Xella Serbia’s products in a web-based, 3D, interactive catalogue that customers can access in any browser on any device. With a few clicks, customers can explore wall materials, discovering the materials’ many characteristics and how they apply to different wall types. They can monitor the price and construction costs of the material, and choose the best materials for their projects, significantly saving time, reducing errors, and saving on budget. Located on the Forge platform, the system is automated, centralized, and easy to use. The BIM Xella application has been exceptionally effective—so much so that as part of the March 2021 Autodesk “One Team” conference, TeamCAD was ranked among the top eight companies in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) in the “Business Innovation Award” category for the app.

TeamCAD has since developed many Forge-based solutions for BIM, facility management, product configuration, and product data management. The team uses the Authentication API to provide clients with access to BIM 360 software files. The Design Automation API enables TeamCAD to help clients translate simple product designs into 3D models with their complete documentation in PDF format. The team uses the Model Derivative API to translate original file formats to formats that are then viewable as 3D models in the Viewer API. Throughout, the Webhooks API keeps the team updated on process statuses with notifications.

Since adopting Forge, TeamCAD has gained flexibility in the solutions it offers customers, and the firm’s customers have increased revenue because of Forge-based solutions.

Forge highlights include the following:

Broadens customer base and revenue for both TeamCAD and its customers.
Democratizes access to 3D models with no need for additional software or training.
Translates more than 70 file formats into web-based viewable 3D models.

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“Forge is the perfect platform to take all the data you spent months creating, and make it easily accessible to the general public.” — Vladimir Guteša, Development Manager, TeamCAD