The idea of the system based on using objects rather than just lines in a drawing allowed us to extend it to the areas related to BIM-based design. In subsequent years we have introduced ArCADia – EXTERNAL DRAINAGE, ArCADia – POWER GRIDS products to the market. Our purpose was not only to facilitate preparation of a drawing but to create a digital model of the designed building. During this period, our design works were focused on obtaining a design system incorporating all construction sectors, allowing a drawing to be prepared according to the assumptions of BIM technology, namely to devise a fully functional digital model of a building, which will contain not only plenty of digital information describing the building, its structures, applied systems, equipment as well as maintenance information such as energy demand etc. A breakthrough for the whole ArCADia software was the creation of ArCADia-START drawing software with an intuitive interface and ArCADia-TERMO program (now ArCADia-TERMOCAD) intended for calculations of the energy demand of buildings. In which the possibility of importing from a .dwg drawing, made using ArCADia-ARCHITECTURE extension, the idea of free data exchange between applications was demonstrated for the first time, certainly bringing a revolutionary benefit for the users of our programs. When designing subsequent ArCADia elements, designed for specific design disciplines, compliance with the BIM assumptions has become a priority for us. Along with subsequent modules, our design system has become an environment incorporating all of the construction sectors and all aspects of preparing an architectural design. Currently, the ArCADia BIM system consists of a dozen or so discipline modules and additional ArCADia-IFC, ArCADia-3D MAKER tool applications as well as free ArCADia-TEXT and ArCADia-3D VIEWER extensions.

BIM Technology brings a number of benefits for designers. First of all, it makes the multi-discipline designing process proceed in parallel and the designers of particular disciplines can work at the same time over the same design and watch the progress of another teams’ work, which significantly simplifies consultations and reduces the number of collisions arising in the design. However, in order to make it fully possible, thinking about BIM-based design we need to go beyond the restrictions imposed on us by an individual computer workstation and a single team of designers. That is why our present developmental work on the ArCADia BIM system is focused on increasing and facilitating the possibilities of communication between designers of particular sectors as well as a data exchange between them and between other manufacturers’ applications, so that the designer using the ArCADia BIM system would not be restricted with regard to the selection of their co-workers. The result of this work is our system’s constantly improving automation and cooperation with our subsequent programs. One of these is the ArCADia-FRAME software, an advanced tool for making complex calculations and designing construction structures. We are also developing ArCADia-IFC data export/import module in .ifc file format which allows us to exchange data with other manufacturers’ software.