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Unity Reflect adds Navisworks integration to enable BIM coordination

June 25, 2020 in AEC | 4 min. read
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New Unity Reflect release adds Navisworks support, project sharing through cloud, and improved navigation and visuals.

We created Unity Reflect to empower the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry to create highly customizable real-time 3D experiences in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) on an array of devices. 

Today, Unity is being used across the entire building lifecycle, from design to preconstruction, to the job site and beyond. Unity Reflect makes it easier to personalize your workflow. Last year, we launched Unity Reflect with support for Autodesk Revit as part of our strategic collaboration with Autodesk to enable real-time BIM for designers and engineers. In March, we expanded support for more design tools and platforms, including SketchUp, Rhino, and Android.

Now, Unity Reflect adds support for Navisworks, enabling the use of Unity Reflect for BIM coordination. In this release, we concentrated on enhancing the user experience and making collaboration in real-time 3D accessible for non-developers, such as designers, building owners, and contractors. We also improved the Unity Reflect Viewer to enable you to send projects to as many clients and collaborators as you want for free, meaning everyone has access to BIM data that they can understand!

BIM coordination with Navisworks

We launched Unity Reflect with integration for Autodesk Revit to enable designers and engineers to transfer Revit models into real-time 3D experiences, including in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. To expand on our partnership with Autodesk, we’re excited to announce that Unity Reflect’s metadata support now extends to Navisworks, the most popular software to bring design and BIM data to coordination and the field.

Navisworks improves project reviews and BIM coordination by combining design and construction data into a single model, identifying and resolving clash and interference problems before construction, and aggregating data from multiple trades to better control outcomes.

By integrating with Unity Reflect, AEC companies can improve BIM coordination, visualize design clashes, and better coordinate engineering reviews. Unity Reflect supports Navisworks 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

For details about our Navisworks integration, have a look at our documentation page.

Improved visual fidelity and viewer navigation

Real-time 3D enables companies to experience an environment before it exists, train without physical constraints, and iterate across teams before the concrete is poured. We’ve added enhanced visual quality, multithreading for faster model loading on mobile, and improved navigation to allow users to easily move around a scene.

Less development work required

You now have more flexibility to customize settings for better visual fidelity, meaning less development on your end. Improvements include post-effects adjustments, slight Bloom increase, glass transparency, light reflections, Sun Study tool, Tonemapping set to Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), and activated Screen Space Reflection.

Greater customization flexibility with Unity Editor tools

Workflow improvements allow Unity Reflect users to switch between Built-in, Universal Render Pipelines (URP), and High Definition Render Pipelines (HDRP) in the Unity Editor to allow for higher visual fidelity and greater customization.

Improved navigation for ease of use

We’ve added navigation features such as teleport mode, 2-finger drag, and easy-model reset to make gestures and model interactions more intuitive on any device, including iOS, Android, PC, and now Mac. 

Cloud hosting (Beta)

The cloud hosting Beta is available to all Unity Reflect users. You now have the option to host projects on-premise or in the cloud, allowing you to push data to mobile devices and share models with users outside of your network. We are launching this as a Beta so we can make it as scalable and robust as possible to ensure reliability for real-world use cases.

Improvements and support for existing plug-ins

The new release of Unity Reflect is packed full of requested improvements on the overall user experience. This Includes a new Unity Reflect Dashboard that allows you to monitor export progress and manage projects and servers. In addition to supporting Navisworks 2019, 2020, and 2021, we’ve added additional support for existing integrations, including Revit 2021 and SketchUp 2020.

What’s next

We want to continue bringing Unity Reflect to every phase of the building lifecycle. In future releases, we will continue investing heavily in the user experience and providing functionality to get Unity Reflect in the hands of on-site personnel to guide the construction process.

We’re constantly listening to feedback from users and implementing the top suggestions into our roadmap. You can view the Unity Reflect roadmap here to see what’s in development, planned, and under consideration. Submit ideas of your own or vote on how important the suggested features are to you.

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June 25, 2020 in AEC | 4 min. read

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