Presentations will focus on new CAD and BIM interoperability, IFC updates, and more.

The Open Design Alliance, a consortium of vendors, customers, software developers, retailers, and interested organizations is dedicated to creating interoperability solutions for CAD and BIM. The group is growing and taking on more technology challenges. The group’s annual conference is a chance for members to outline the work they have done so far, present roadmaps for the future, and to get feedback from members about future work. The ODA says they have more than 1,200 member companies.

Guest speakers will include representatives from buildingSmart International (bSI) and Google.

The summit will focus on the following technology areas:

• CAD Interoperability. Latest advancements in ODA’s universal CAD engine for DWG.
• BIM Interoperability. Independent support for working with Autodesk Revit and Navisworks files, along with ODA’s industry-leading solution for IFC including a new validation module and support for the OpenCDE (Common Data Environment) standard from buildingSMART International.
• Beyond Data Interoperability. Fast-track your application development with ODA solutions for visualization, web development, PDF publishing, solid modeling, and more.

Members will also demonstrate their implementation of ODA technologies.

Neil Peterson, ODA President, says the format has been expanded to include two new industry panels. They’ll be discussing scan to BIM, a new ODA project to automate the conversion of LIDAR scans to BIM Models. Another panel will present bSI’s new IDS validation standard which is being developed to improve the use of IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) as a standard for BIM data exchange.

“If you’re curious about ODA, the summit is a great opportunity to learn more about our technologies, future plans, and our vital role within the industry,” says Peterson.

ODA Summit 2021 will be virtual again this year and it will be free to all. More details including registration can be found at https://conference.opendesign.com/#cad.