Autodesk Announces New Features to Construction Cloud

Autodesk has announced that it has added three new features to its Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). The upgrades to the ACC are designed to help you get the right data, at the right time, to the right person—all while improving project collaboration and success. The three new features include Autodesk Assistant, Handover, and File Automated Drawing Extraction. 

Autodesk Assistant 

It’s common for teams to seek clarification when working on construction projects. Often, the information they need can be found in multiple, lengthy project specification documents. Sifting through all that paperwork takes time, which can slow decision-making. This is where the Autodesk Assistant within ACC comes in.

This new capability uses Autodesk AI to analyze and extract key details from extensive project specifications. When you ask a question, the tool can search, interpret, and surface relevant information so you get the answers you need exactly when you need them.  

With Autodesk Assistant, users gain more intuitive and flexible ways to access, validate, and summarize critical information in published project specifications. Since Autodesk Assistant uses natural language processing (NLP) models, you can prompt it to answer specific questions, generate lists of items, or summarize project details – much like you’re having a back-and-forth conversation with a coworker. Within the answers to your questions, you can easily see highlighted and clickable references to verify information directly from the specification document. 

Handover 

In the ACC, Handover automatically compiles and organizes relevant project information, making it easy to export. General contractors can efficiently assemble, collect, and structure required documents based on contractual obligations, and then export them as a shareable zip file for clients and owners. 

This saves teams a tremendous amount of time. The closeout process is notoriously lengthy, averaging 284 days, with the final payment to internal closeout adding another 247 days — bringing the total closeout timeline to a staggering 531 days.  

It’s not just about the length of closeout; a good amount of data also gets lost in the process. Research shows that roughly 30% of initial data created during design and construction is lost by construction project closeout. This is why tools like Handover can be so helpful. When you optimizing and automating closeout and handover can save time, data, and money. 

Files Automated Drawing Extraction 

Extracting data from project drawings doesn’t have to be a pain. Autodesk’s new release has expanded the ability to extract crucial data from project drawings beyond the Sheets tool in Autodesk Build to the Files tool. 

Files Automated Drawing Extraction uses optical character recognition (OCR) to pull custom attributes from the title block of single-page and multi-page PDFs. It then publishes these processed PDFs into your project folders or into Sheets. 

This gives users the right data at the right time. This feature simplifies the data extraction workflow from drawings while maintaining necessary file permissions. As such, teams can work more efficiently without compromising security or access controls.  

Managing construction data effectively means ensuring the right information reaches the right people at the right time. Autodesk’s latest releases are designed to help you do all that so you can streamline workflows and enhance decision-making.