Ara 3D

Modern Scalable Software for AEC

About Us

We are a Montreal based start-up specializing in 3D software development for AEC professionals founded by Christopher Diggins.

The construction industry has an enormous opportunity to steamline processes and reduce costs, through the application of modern software technology, and good data management practices. Not only can this help increase profit, it can help increas efficiency and eliminate waste. This in turn has a direct and substantial positive impact on the environment.

Our expertise in software engineering, computer science, and data modeling can bring siginficant savings to any organization trying to streamline their processes and make better usage of the data.

Custom 3D and BIM Software Development for AEC

We offer custom software development for the AEC industry. We have many years of experience in web-development, desktop application development, and plug-in development (particularly for Autodesk products).

We specialize in hard computer science problems, but are also excited to work on automating tasks and optimizing workflows for professionals.

Tell us what would make your life easier, and we can work together to do it!

Services

In addition to custom software development, we offer data conversion and extraction as a service. Provide us with your BIM models, and we will generate the output you desire: whether it is a file, database, report, dashboard, application, or game project.

We also offer executive consulting services to businesses working with 3D data or developing software for use in the AEC industry. Our expertise is called upon to provide guidance on:

  • Selling and marketing to software developers
  • Business development
  • Software architecture
  • Improving data interoperability

Out CEO Christopher Diggins is an experienced instructor and public speaker and is also available for seminars and workshops at public or private events.

Ara Studio

We are currently developing the foundations of an open-source 3D design tool called Ara Studio. Existing tools lack the features expected from modern architecture, adn

Ara Studio is based on two observations:

  1. BIM (Building Information Modeling) has failed to achieve the expected level of benefits for all stakeholders in the construction industry. Particularly to those who build and operate the buildings.
  2. Existing tools for the AEC are outdated. Modern computing hardware and platforms are very different then they were 25 years ago, and software engineering practices have evolved to facilitate building more extensible and scalable software.

There are many points of weakness in the myriad inteconnected processes and tools used in a major construction project but it boils down to a few basic problems:

  • Data is duplicated
  • Data is unstructured
  • Data is closed
  • Data is represented inefficiently
  • Tools are slow and outdated
  • Data is not maintained

After trying to address the problem by bolting solutions onto older proprietary software using limited and outdated APIs, we realized that the only way to really move the industry forward is to tackle how the data is created, and assure that tools can work together efficiently without resorting to data duplication, and hacking incomplete solution.

Ara Studio will support an ecosystem of tools which work together using efficient open standards, and an open and modern API architecture. If you want to stay informed of our progress, show your support, or contribute, please let us know!

Projects

We have constributed to a large number of open-source libraries and commerical tools. Here are a few of them:

  • Plato - a cross platform programming language
  • LinqArray - A C# library for efficient processing of immutable array data structures
  • Math3D - A C# library of basic data structures and 3D vector math
  • BFAST - A data/file format for storing arrays of binary data
  • BFAST - A data/file format for storing arrays of binary data
  • VIM WebGL Viewer - A 3D WebGL viewer for AEC data
  • VIM File Format - A file format optimized for rendering and querying very large BIM models

Contact Us

“As long as we work together—with both urgency and determination—there are no limits to what we can achieve.”
—Paul Allen

We are always interested in creating new relationships with people and business passionate about 3D. We would love to hear about your projects and needs, and answer any questions you may have.

Copyright 2018-2023 Ara 3D Inc. | Montreal QC, Canada
(438) 828-7208 | info@ara3d.com