Autodesk’s Forma Building Design is now fully live after its beta test launch last year.
Forma Building Design is a design and analysis platform specifically for the schematic design phase. Autodesk executive vice president AEC Amy Bunszel noted: “Early design is where the most important decisions are made, but also where teams are often constrained. Many architects still rely on tools built for later stages, making it harder to explore options quickly and confidently before committing to a direction. Forma Building Design is designed to remove that constraint.”
It enables users to set up geolocated sites in minutes, create and detail building options with tools, and design automations to add and edit facades, floor plans and units. Architects can evaluate performance through analyses such as daylight, sun hours and carbon. When a design direction is selected, projects move into Revit as geolocated, native models – complete with site context and building elements – reducing rework and preserving intent.
Bunzsel added: “This is a complementary workflow by design: Forma Building Design for exploration and decision-making, and Revit for detailed design and documentation. This helps reduce the gap between early exploration and detailed design, allowing teams to carry decisions forward instead of recreating them later in the process.”
Developing with Arcadis
Arcadis was involved in the development of Forma Building Design. Sandra Petkute Roberts, solutions consultant – major AEC platforms at Arcadis, said: “It’s showing real potential to connect early-stage and detailed design workflows. It’s making it easier for us to explore more facade and layout ideas without heavy manual effort or in-depth expertise in more complex tools. With the potential to scale well across different teams and regions, it makes early design exploration more accessible for our designers during the schematic design process.”
For deeper carbon analysis, Forma Carbon Insights is now available across Forma Building Design and Revit to help teams better understand carbon impacts in early-phase workflows and carry those insights into detailed design.
As announced last September, Revit as the first Forma Connected Client, now available in Tech Preview. With the Tech Preview, teams can move data from Forma Site Design and Forma Building Design into Revit without manual file exchanges, reducing rework and improving alignment as designs evolve. Contextual data from the Forma Data Marketplace can be added to projects in “just a few clicks” and environmental analysis can be performed directly within Revit as design decisions are being made.
All Revit subscribers also now have access to Forma Site Design, Forma Building Design, Forma Board, and Forma Data Management Essentials.
