The history of Common Data Environments (CDEs) has been long, with many twists and turns. CDEs were necessary because BIM tools made huge files and developed deep silos to inhibit collaboration. The CDE developers who survived have gone on to build broad platforms to liberate design and construction data far and wide. Dalux is one of those firms, as Martyn Day reports
Established in 2005, Dalux is a Danish software firm which has created a digital platform for almost everything outside of BIM authoring tools. It focusses on information management, design management, model validation, tendering, site inspections, and snagging, for construction firms, developers and consultants. Dalux’s software expands through the lifecycle to data handover and facilities management. The company is also scaling up into infrastructure and GIS.
Dalux started off creating what it claims to be the fastest BIM model viewing tool, being first to apply games technology to BIM geometry, an early entry into what is now the Common Data Environment (CDE) market. From that initial product Dalux has built a whole platform around its centralised data model, expanding to mobile and augmented reality.
Dalux now has a global user base of over 1 million professionals across 147 countries. Despite its scope and reach, the company is very much headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the centre of operations and development.
The company has an annual user meeting, the Dalux Summit, which is hosted in Copenhagen. This year AEC Magazine attended to delve deeper into the products and the community. With over 1,800 attendees, the scale was much larger than we anticipated and the whole vibe was a unique experience.
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Dalux feels like a family business and the dialogue and interactions between customers and the team gave the distinct impression that development of features and capabilities was a much more interactive process than at other software companies. Dalux has ‘Hygge’, a Danish word that roughly translates to ‘cosiness.’
The family business is run by two brothers, Torben and Bent Dalgaard. Torben is the CEO and Bent is the CTO. In their morning address to attendees, one slide caught the zeitgeist perfectly – the brothers reassured the audience that Dalux is an independent software firm, that has no loans, no investors and is owned by Bent & Torben.
While many 19-year old firms that have been growing 60% annually for almost a decade would be wafting share value, revenue or profit as an essential part of their mainstage moment, they opted to reassure customers that, unlike firms with shareholders that are repeat plunderers of their customers’ design technology budgets, Dalux is not in that game. There are very few AEC software companies with this attitude that come to mind – the most notable others being McNeel (Rhino) and Qonic.
The Dalux product family
At the moment, Dalux offers nine products, which it has grouped in information management, onsite management and facility management, with almost half of its brands in on-site management.
BIM Viewer is free and works on desktop and mobile. It supports native BIM, IFC and drawings, with a range of free plug-ins for Revit, Solibri, Archicad, Navisworks and Tekla. It offers a suite of tools including measure, filter, properties, and make sections. Comments can be added, clashes from Solibri and Navisworks can be imported. We suspect that this is the gateway drug to the Dalux ecosystem!
Box is the core collaboration and CDE platform that delivers BIM geometry and data to collaborating project teams. It is accessed via the web browsers of supported mobile devices (iOS or Android).
Having extracted the data from the BIM authoring tool, Box centralises all the project information in managed folders for design and construction teams to view, review and approve 2D and 3D data with individual team controls. Additionally, Box offers the ‘always requested’ clash detection, for both hard and soft clashes, as well as perform other geometry checks, such as point clouds from as-built.
Dalux Box Sync will download folders and files between the web and a local computer. It will also upload any files you want or have changed, making them available to other project participants.
Field is the product for quality control, health and safety, snagging/punch list and on-site reality capture. It brings the latest drawings to site and assists in scheduling and managing site inspections with customisable checklists. While onsite observation/ snags, health and safety reports can be quickly created and documented with the phone’s camera, the system is smart enough to know where in the site you are located – time and floor. There are workflow tools to trigger actions to those who need to resolve remedial work. The reports are accessible to project workers and issues clearly identified on the latest drawings.
Field Basic is a free punch list tool that supports drawings and BIM models and enables tasks, collaboration amongst defined groups, and sign-off.
Field Sitewalk enables the quick capture of a site using video from a helmet-mounted 360 degree camera. The video frames make photographing the site effortless. These are automatically mapped in the Dalux system. Teams back in the office can use the system to see the current state of construction and even compare the site against the BIM model to see if the work is on track. The system offers some very clever registration between the rooms captured and generating the same view from the BIM geometry.
Infrafield is Dalux spreading its wings into the world of projects that span tens of kilometres, rather than metres with individual buildings. Given Dalux’s client list, we can well understand how Infrastructure became inevitable.
Infrafield required a new modelling engine technology to provide the expansive co-ordinate system. It supports 2D and 3D, Google Maps 3D tiles, drawings, GIS layers, terrain layers, and point clouds. Like ‘Field’ it can be used to track progress and capture issues. Users can create sections and cuts, measurements. It is seamlessly integrated into the Dalux ecosystem, so infrastructure models can be shared.
FM – facilities management – is probably another no brainer for following the design and construction data, into operations. It’s quite refreshing to not have to deal with the branding bludgeon that is digital twin. FM is a web and mobile content management system for 2D and 3D asset management, operations and maintenance. It combines floorplans, mapping and modelling based on location, aiding navigation. It offers a helpdesk ticketing system, work order generation, maintenance schedule and is a conduit for additional digitised documents, asset information, photos etc.
Again, the smart application uses GPS to position the user in floorplans and can be used in conjunction with QR codes for asset tagging or room tagging. The system comes with workflow tools to route tickets to the right department or person.
Handover is the Dalux product for packaging up and handing over design, construction and associated project information post build. Using templates, Handover can save a lot of time making sure the right information is used for FM downstream. It can output PDF reports and COBie files.
Tender is the secure app for distributing tenders on projects through Dalux and integrates to Dalux Field. Tender bids come with ready packaged up documents in a logical folder structure. The project owner remains in control and Dalux provides a full audit trail of any changes.
Conclusion
While US giants Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud look to dominate the flow of data among construction and subcontractor firms, Dalux appears to be a European equivalent that is holding its own. However, the Dalgaard brothers have managed to keep the firm accessible to its customers and build a unique relationship.
As I understand, firms pay fees based on project size, as opposed to by number of users, meaning Dalux becomes the single source of truth for the construction data for all participants.
Dalux appears very support-centric, and it prioritises ongoing connection with developers and product champions in their customer base. It’s another reason why 1,800 people would visit Copenhagen to meet up with what felt more like a bespoke outsourced software developer, than a firm trying to meet next quarter’s targets.
Main image: In their morning address to attendees the Dalgaard brothers caught the zeitgeist perfectly
