Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) Archibus was created in 1983. The platform has grown since then to offer and improve upon many capabilities and features that serve owners/operators in managing their workplaces.
The platform found a new direction in 2018 when Archibus and Serraview merged. They continued to make other acquisitions like ProxyClick and more such as SpaceIQ in 2020 and iOffice in 2021. Additional changes were made in 2022 when Condeco merged with them, creating Eptura. This has resulted in a client base of over 16 million users from 16,000 companies across 115 countries.
Here’s a roundup of the new features found in Archibus v.2023.02.
BIM Viewer
In v.2022.02, the BIM Viewer was first introduced for demonstration purposes, but with v.2022.03, that functionality has opened up to those with the Archibus Digital Twins license. You may connect your instance to Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIM 360 account, but if you do not have those accounts, you can publish your models directly from Revit and they will be stored in the Archibus Forge private bucket.
Navigate Through Models with Autodesk Project
You now have the ability to search through Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIM 360 Docs to easily find the building models you need.
Custom 2D and 3D Views from Revit Models
When using Revit, you can define your own views (2D or 3D) for a particular section of a building or building system. Due to the use of the Autodesk Documents Explorer, you will be able to access those custom views using the Document Browser within the Web Central BIM Viewer. In addition to viewing the parts of your model, you can also click on parts to explore their properties.
Display Settings
Additional controls have been added, enabling you to tweak how your model is displayed. Modifications are possible for the colors used by default when selecting and highlighting assets and equipment. It is also possible now to highlight rooms with opaque rather than simply using solid colors. And you can also set the default zoom when searching for assets, which can be tricky in a large, busy model.
Asset Information in One Place
Archibus Web Central holds an abundance of information, which is often spread across many different views. In this update, new features have been added to enable the display of more information directly from the BIM Viewer, such as Division, Department, Asset Owner and Warranty Expiration. You may also use labels to display warranty vendors. From the Equipment Details form, you can access additional warranty documents and related fields.
Bulk Renewal of Leases
Lease management can be quite tedious, especially if one is manually copying information from many existing lease records to new lease records during the renewal process. In this version update, the Lease Portfolio Console provides the ability to renew many leases simultaneously. When in the Lease Portfolio Console, perform a search for any leases that are expiring, tick the boxes next to each one and click the Renew button. This gives you the ability to automatically create new lease records, make copies of contacts and other lease data and reassign suites to the new leases. The software can even copy active, recurring costs. All you need to do is adjust the start date and end date values and adjust any other details that might have changed between the existing lease and the renewal.
The only caveat here is that clauses, amendments, documents and communication logs will not be copied to the new lease because they are specific to the terms of the earlier lease.
Integration with VergeSense Occupancy Sensors
Traditionally, facilities have been monitored with complicated and expensive platforms called building automation systems (BAS) or building management systems (BMS). However, networks like those are not practical ways to monitor things other than your HVAC and other building systems, such as occupancy.
Fortunately, Internet of Things (IoT) vendors are becoming more prevalent and affordable. One of those vendors is VergeSense, which has partnered with platforms such as Archibus to display its occupancy monitoring information to building managers.
These sensors can detect people in desks, conference rooms, offices, patient rooms in hospitals and warehouses. With actual information on building usage, users can get a better understanding of how (and how much) certain spaces are being utilized. Usage reports can be used to analyze peak hours, patterns of use and other trends that can reveal ways to optimize the usage of your real estate portfolio.
Workplace Mobile App: Service Request Documents
The Archibus mobile application has long supported the upload of images of service and work requests. In v.2023.02, it is possible for Workplace mobile app users to upload other types of documents.
There is a file size limit of 2 MB and you must first disable camera permissions for Workplace using the device settings but you can upload and download different file types from your mobile device.
System Requirements
The Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD now supports AutoCAD 2024. (Note that Revit 2023 is the most recent version currently supported.) Smart Client is a locally installed application that, depending on role permissions, allows the querying, viewing and updating of data locally while also providing the AutoCAD and Revit plug-ins that let building owners/operators publish their drawings and models.
Web Central, the browser-based Archibus interface, has been rebuilt with Java 11. With previous versions, Web Central ran under Java 8.
The default connection of your data is now done using secure sockets layer (SSL). You may still, however, specify in your afm-projects.xml to use Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). If you fail to add ‘encrypt=false’ to the JDBC connection URL parameters, your Web Central instance will not start up.
Summary
In addition to the major changes and feature enhancements highlighted here, Archibus v.2023.02 Help can provide additional information about smaller tweaks and modifications. The company also usually provides a Help entry for enhancements that are currently in development as well as occasionally highlights testing opportunities if you would like to try out specific features in your facility before they are available to the public.