With Nemetschek Allplan, Nemetschek provides object-oriented planning and design software for architects and engineers. It enables users to create architectural and structure models, as well as obtain information on quantities and costs throughout all project phases. What makes this software special is that you can switch between 2D drafting and 3D modeling depending on the project phase or type. In this way, you can combine the best of both worlds and use the approach that suits you best at any time.
Allplan BCM provides transparent CAD and cost planning based on understandable quantities, thereby ensuring greater construction cost security. The program serves as a link between Allplan CAD and any localized TAI system

Allplan enables all those involved to receive and forward the building data in full – without losses or transfer errors. Allplan makes it possible to design and construct buildings at low cost, without errors and on schedule.

Unlike any other types of CAD software, Allplan promotes interdisciplinary working in the areas of architecture, interior architecture, urban and landscape planning, structural planning, civil engineering, road construction, pre-cast factories and building services.

Allplan BCM is used for the purpose of estimating quantities and calculating costs.

The design and construction process for a building involves communication between participants with very different disciplines (architect, structural designer, building client, engineering professional), as well as an increasing level of information and data flow required to manage design and implementation.

An open platform that includes and networks all those involved in the building is required for simplified communication. Allplan supports you with more than fifty file formats, including the PDF and IFC standard formats as well as DWG, DXF and DGN. The software also provides interdisciplinary solutions such as cost determination and structural design, based on a central building model.

Allplan is the open platform for interdisciplinary working. This means greater efficiency, less information loss and fewer errors.

Allplan enables efficient working with its specialist functions as well as its openness to data and information flow. The software also makes consistent use of existing data sources, making your design work energy-aware, sustainable and cost-conscious.

BIM stands for "Building Information Modeling" and describes the seamless process of optimized design, implementation and management of buildings and real estate. All planning partners benefit from up-to-date, high-quality and freely accessible information about the respective design, implementation or current status. The goal of this method is to make the design, construction and management process more accurate and cost-efficient.

Besides creating architectural models, Allplan can also be used to determine quantities and costs. The software can also generate structural models that can be converted into structural analysis models. The calculation results from the structural analysis model then flow back into the structural model. Design professionals can also enrich the model with data for heating, ventilation, sanitation and electrical systems. The facility management software supports you in efficiently using and managing surfaces and resources, helping you to reduce costs.

Allplan Architecture is an object-oriented 3D design software. It covers all types of design – from simple 2D drafting to 3D modeling based on an object-oriented building model with quantity takeoff and cost determination. You, the user, decide how you wish to work. Allplan lets you switch between 2D and 3D as you need. Therefore, you can always adopt the most suitable working method and even combine methods as you like within a project.

The Allplan Architecture packages support you in efficient presentation and submission from the initial draft idea to the working drawing, detailed design and construction cost planning. The scope of the application covers building design, interior architecture, trade exhibition centers, landscape planning, urban planning, regional planning and much more.

In addition to the practical creation of a building model and the visualizations, drawings and schedules which can be derived from it, object-oriented CAD design with Allplan Architecture also provides extraordinary building cost transparency throughout the whole of the project.
In addition to an architecture model with integrated quantities and costs, the software also creates a structure model. This model, for example, forms the basis for automated general arrangement and reinforcement design.

Allplan will make renovation planning easier and more efficient for architects and designers in the future. The software offers special CAD support for the quick creation of restructuring, demolition and revision plans. Also, the demolition and new construction quantities to be determined within the framework of a renovation can be evaluated very quickly. This is based on a combination of programmed functions and predefined content (CAD design data).
The software enables a seamless transition to creating cost estimates and bills of quantity.

Sustainable design and construction is an increasingly important area. The aim is to minimize the consumption energy and resources throughout all phases of a building’s life cycle – from the initial design and creation of working drawings to building management, renovation and demolition. It is possible to reduce the environmental impact by using adaptable or recyclable construction products or materials. In order to satisfy requirements for the increasing demand for the use of renewable or re-useable building materials, Allplan has developed a special function to create walls in timber constructions.
In addition, Nemetschek Allplan together with Weto AG developed a solution that can be optionally extended to form a complete timber construction solution, including manufacturing planning and CNC machine control.

Allplan also supports you with tools for energy assessment. The optional energy performance certificate module means that the Allplan model can be used to assess buildings according to energy and environmental criteria. These assessments are based on German, Austrian, French or Italian standards.

You can use wizards in Allplan to define a single office-wide standard from the very outset. This enables you to optimize your internal work processes, allowing your team to achieve results significantly more quickly and to react extremely flexibly to changes.

The simple structure makes it easy for employees to switch between projects without losing their bearings. This avoids slack periods and reduces costly design errors, because the design is consistent and easy to understand. You can be sure that your office’s "corporate logo" is complied with in all design documents, because the layout is controlled centrally.

The building structure provides a useful framework for structuring, organizing and using Allplan documents (= drawing files). Whether your approach is 2D, 2½D- or 3D-object oriented, you can always benefit from a practical, organized building structure, using it to organize your building logically into hierarchical levels. Sections, views or lists can be generated directly from a building structure.
Allplan comes with several predefined building structures that you can adopt as templates.

Organize your data to reflect your building precisely – with projects, buildings, sections, stories and rooms.
On request, the building structure can also be exported 1:1 to an IFC file so that other project members and specialist design engineers can be integrated seamlessly in the planning process.

You can use Allplan to better structure and organize the designs of a project. Several predefined structures are provided with Allplan. They are created when you select a predefined building structure and can be used as an example for your own setup.

Of course, you also have the option to structure the designs in a project according to your own perspective in several structure levels.

When adopting an existing building structure from another project, its layout structure is also transferred automatically.

Allplan’s integrated Allplan Sketch module is the ideal solution for professional sketch creation, as the package means you are no longer dependent on your creative form on a particular day. Your sketches can be changed subsequently and can be combined in infinite ways with photos, renderings and much more. Allplan Sketch opens up numerous application areas to you, from redlining through to the individual design of your planning and competition documents.

When you draw in 2D using basic geometric entities like lines, circles and hatching, you are in effect working in the same way as on a drawing board. You have the advantage that you can quickly modify your design, but designing in 2D means ignoring the benefits offered by a sophisticated CAD system like Allplan. For example, area calculations have to be performed by hand and three-dimensional design checking is extremely time-consuming.

If you use architectural elements such as walls and openings, you will find that the effort involved is no more than if you were working in 2D. On the contrary, you no longer need to enter parallel lines and fill the space in between with wall hatching. You just draw the walls. You draw in the usual way in the floor plan and you proceed in exactly the same way as you would when drawing a line. But the wall that is created contains much more information.
Another advantage is that a preview of the wall is attached to the crosshairs not only in plan view but also in isometric view – this allows you to check your design in many different ways.

Three-dimensional design serves as the basis for analyses, quantity takeoffs, design checks and visualization of your building. This is the only way you can harness the advantages of graphical quantity takeoff with Allplan and Allplan BCM.
Allplan includes different tools that you can use to convert your 2D designs more or less automatically to three-dimensional architectural elements such as walls: based on rooms, 2D floor plans with walls consisting of parallel lines, as well as simple 2D lines.

Allplan uses "planes" to allow the height of architectural components to be defined flexibly. The advantage of this method is that when the reference planes are changed, all component heights that were defined as reference plane-dependent are also adjusted automatically.

Allplans Workgroup Manager optimizes your teams cooperation on a project. It is a module dedicated to the organization of CAD workstations in the local network.
All employees can access any and all projects from any workstation, even accessing the same project data pool simultaneously.
This prevents redundancy, the required office standard becomes mandatory for all colleagues and planning consistency is improved.

A 3D model says more than a thousand 2D figures or drawings. For this reason, you can use Allplan to import and export complex CAD data easily using the standard PDF format and then forward it to your customers or partners. You can include an animated 3D model in a PDF at the touch of a button. If appropriate formatting has been used, the client is even able to hide or show individual levels in the PDF and visualize the building with or without furnishings, room labels or dimensions.
In addition, you can create PDF files with additional intelligent functions, such as layers, scale information and searchable text.

Professional, attractive planning documents are essential in order to present an architecture office’s work to external parties. You can use the construction-specific data library to create architectural designs (drafts, building model designs and implementation designs) with impressive colors, textures, color transitions, transparencies and vivid presentations. A uniform project structure also makes an architecture office look well-organized.

Allplan provides you with intelligent symbols (smart symbols). The way they are displayed depends on the selected scale and the corresponding projection. You can, of course, also create your own intelligent symbols. Once saved, they can be adapted to different widths and lengths.
A smart symbol can be composed of several display foils. These control the scales and projections (e.g. only in the 2D floor plan or only in the 3D floor plan) in which the elements can be seen. A comprehensive smart symbol catalog is provided with Allplan. It includes many different windows, doors, gates, shadows, light wells, etc..

You can also create PDF/A documents in Allplan. PDF/A is an ISO standard for the long-term electronic archiving of documents. The PDF/A standard ensures readability for many years and helps you to store documents quickly, easily and cost-effectively for long retention periods.

Allplan Engineering is a CAD solution for structural planning that supports all levels of use – from traditional 2D working methods to hybrid use of 2D shell / 3D reinforcement, through to the use of an intelligent building model.
Together with Frilo Structural Analysis and Scia Engineer, it provides an integrated solution for CAD and structural analysis from a single source.

Allplan offers you a unique, integrated solution package across different disciplines. An Allplan model created in your office can be reused and edited in the different Allplan solutions: architecture, engineering (solid construction, steel construction, prefabricated components, structural analysis and civil engineering), cost management, tendering, awarding & accounting, building services and facility and real estate management. Specific solutions are provided for other construction methods (timber), structural calculations, as well as civil engineering and road construction.

The Allplan product family is unique as an integrated solution for architecture, civil engineering (CAD and structural analysis), building services and costs. The standard-setting high-performance and flexibility of the solution’s 3D reinforcement is based on many years of experience. The interaction of CAD and structural analysis is one of the traditional strengths of Allplan. This is complemented by high-performance layout and design tools that far surpass other civil engineering solutions.

Allplan enables free, interactive general arrangement and reinforcement design, which is extremely advantageous for individual building projects with complex geometry. Depending on their suitability, you can include plans, isometric views, elevations or sections when creating a spatial model. The system automatically adopts changes to the shell object or the reinforcement in all designs and lists. Interaction between the object-oriented general arrangement design, automatic shell edge recognition, predefined reinforcement groups and intelligent fixtures provide users with practical benefits in their day-to-day work.

Sustainable design and construction is an increasingly important area. The aim is to minimize the consumption energy and resources throughout all phases of a building’s life cycle – from design and creation to management, renovation and demolition. It is possible to reduce environmental impact by using adaptable or recyclable construction products or materials. In order to satisfy requirements for the increasing use of renewable or re-useable building materials, Allplan has developed a special function to create walls in timber constructions. In addition, Nemetschek Allplan together with Weto AG has developed a solution can be optionally extended to form a complete timber construction solution, including manufacturing planning and CNC machine control.

Allplan also supports you with tools for energy assessment. The optional energy performance certificate module means that the Allplan model can be used to assess buildings according to energy and environmental criteria. These assessments are based on German, Austrian, French or Italian standards.

Many offices still use CAD and structural analysis software from different manufacturers, so that data often has to be re-entered in the structural analysis software. With Allplan, this is a thing of the past. Now you can transfer individual components from the Allplan CAD system to the Frilo Statics structural analysis software or even a complete building model to the Scia Engineer structural analysis software and derive the structural system automatically.

Frequent design alterations are no longer a source of irritation. Allplan has an update mechanism with which you simply retransfer the load-bearing components from Allplan to Scia Engineer. The structural analysis software lists the differences between the previous and the current status and displays them graphically. You may decide which changes you want to accept. Immediately afterwards, you can perform the structural analysis calculations again. The results from the structural analysis may be used as the basis for the reinforcement design.
This solution optimizes your daily work processes. You benefit from the time savings, ease of use in geometry transfer and the creation of structural systems, as well as higher quality for planning changes. As a result, you can keep to schedules effectively and execute projects within the calculated cost budget.

In Allplan, you can work end-to-end from the first architectural draft or design to the final reinforcement drawings in a single model. That means you can place the reinforcement directly in the architecture components without an intermediate step. Associative sections and views ensure that changes are automatically and consistently updated in all drawings and reinforcement schedules.

Allplan was designed from the ground up as free-form, interactive general arrangement and reinforcement design software. This becomes particularly evident during individually created construction projects with complex geometries. The interaction of object-based general arrangement design, automatic shell edge recognition, complete, predefined reinforcement groups, intelligent fixtures and comprehensive, handle-based control options helps create non-colliding reinforcement designs and a high level of practicality.

You can use wizards in Allplan to define a single office-wide standard from the very outset. This enables you to optimize your internal work processes, allowing your team to achieve results significantly more quickly and to react extremely flexibly to changes.
The simple structure makes it easy for employees to switch between projects without losing their bearings. This avoids slack periods and reduces costly design errors, because the design is consistent and easy to understand. You can be sure that your office’s "corporate logo" is complied with in all design documents, because the layout is controlled centrally.

An important key to efficient planning processes and high-quality planning documents is an intelligent building model.
With conventional working methods, floor plans, views from below, elevations, sections, details and lists are mostly created independently of each other.

By contrast, the comprehensive, construction-specific data library is used to create a central model from which all the engineering designs (site plans, shell drawings and reinforcement designs) can be derived. The visibility and representation are controlled by layer, line and area styles and variable label styles and it is possible to switch between them with a mouse click using plan types and drawing types. This ensures the correct representation of the plan, regardless of whether a 3D-component-based, 2D-line-based or a hybrid method is used.
This type of integrated working avoids redundancies. Changes are only incorporated in the building model once and are then taken into consideration in all the derived plans and lists. This working method saves a great deal of time for users and avoids typical planning errors such as inconsistent plan representations.

As part of an end-to-end product line, Allplan provides engineers with new layout and design tools. This enables you to create design documentation with textures, color gradients and transparencies incorporating bitmaps and impressive visualizations.

Engineers can now create PDF/A documents in Allplan. PDF/A is an ISO standard for long-term electronic archiving of documents. The PDF/A standard ensures readability for many years and helps you to store documents quickly, easily and cost-effectively for long retention periods.

Allplan BCM provides transparent CAD and cost planning based on understandable quantities, thereby ensuring greater construction cost security. The program serves as a link between Allplan CAD and any localized TAI system.

Allplan BCM is used for the purpose of estimating quantities and calculating costs. It supports users when estimating quantities for technical specifications, which can then be transferred to a TAI system and used as the basis for tendering. Allplan BCM offers cost transparency by providing a range of different analyses.

Allplan BCM is able to link drawings and planning documents such as room and building data sheets or detailed estimates directly one with another. The results are clearly documented and can be easily visualized. The linking of data helps avoid inconsistencies and allows the quantities calculated to be easily understood. The system is able to handle modifications, documenting the changes and analyzing them. Using Allplan BCM helps the relationship between cost and workmanship to be quickly and clearly understood.
Thus, costs can be estimated precisely at an early stage in the planning process. The effects of project modifications on costs are easily understood. Any departures from planned expenditures also becomes apparent early on.

Clarity and traceability are extremely important for the automation of quantity takeoff. In the case of graphical quantity takeoff, not only the calculation itself and the result are displayed, but also the topology i.e. the place where the quantities were determined. The building element items in Allplan BCM Quantities contain all the information relevant for quantity takeoff, such as short text, dimension, building trade, as well as the calculation rules. These building elements enable CAD objects to be described with qualities. As a result, quantity takeoff is more efficient. The completion certificate (checklist) shows quantity changes or service items that are still required. The documented quantities in Allplan BCM can be presented in the CAD system.

Allplan 2009 can be installed on top of the Allplan 2006 and Allplan 2008 versions. The existing version can be converted to Allplan 2009, if desired.

For a list of graphics cards from AMD/ATI & NVidia that have received the CERTIFIED FOR ALLPLAN logo from Nemetschek Allplan, click here.

General import formats	Extension	Version, comments
DXF, DWG, AutoCAD data	.dxf, .dwg, .dwt, .dxb	Up to version 2009
DGN, MicroStation data	.dgn	Up to version 8
PDF (also 3D)	.pdf	in drawing file and design
IFC	.ifc	Versions 2x3, 2x, XML 2x3, XML 2x
CINEMA 4D	.c4d	As of CINEMA 4D R 10.5 (Mélange exchange)
Google SketchUp	.skp	Version 3 to 6
Rhino	.3dm	(Version 1…4)
VRML	.wrl	Version 2
Hpgl/2 plot files	.plt, .hp, .hpg, .hpl, .prn
Step CDS *	.stp	Upon request via www.weltweitbau.de
Import via CINEMA 4D (selection) *	Extension	Version, comments
3D studio *	.3ds
Adobe Illustrator *	.ai	Up to version 8
STL *	.stl
Import formats via CINEMA 4D Engineering Edition Plus (selection) *	Extension	Version, comments
STEP *	.stp, .step, .ste	AP203 and AP214
Inventor *	.iv	Version 7
IGES *	.iges, .igs	Version 13
Rhino *	.3dm	Version 1 - 4
Solid Edge *	.asm, .prt
Solid Works *	.sldasm, .sldprt
ACIS SAT *	.sat	Version 7
Parasolid *	.xmt, .xmt_txt, .xmt_bin	Version 13
Pro/Engineer native *	.asm, .prt, .neu	PTC
Import formats coordinate values, terrain model	Extension	Version, comments
Coordinate data, axis and curve trace data	.re1, .reb, .re2, .asc, lin	Also lines with attributes
Terrain model: longitudinal profiles, transverse profiles	.lpr, .qpr
* Available with additional software
Engineering import formats	Extension	Version, comments
FEM data (Friedrich+Lochner, SCIA *)	.asf	Also Infograf, Cedrus, Mb, Tornow, PCAE (4H-ALFA), Arche, RoboBAT, SCAD
SCIA ESA PT *	.esa
Reinforcement data	.a
Glaser isb cad *
ELPOS file		Formwork system data
CEDRUS elements	.sin	Cubus finite elements
Bridge and civil engineering designer	.ndk
Precast factory import formats	Extension	Version, comments
Contract data from commercial software	.ads
* Available with additional software

General export formats	Extension	Version, comments
DXF, DWG - AutoCAD data	.dxf, .dwg, .dwf	Versions 12 to 2009
DGN – MicroStation data	.dgn	Versions 7 to 8
PDF (also 3D)	.pdf	With layers ("planes"), from drawing file and design
IFC	.ifc	Versions 2x3, 2x, XML 2x3, XML 2x
SVG	.svg
Hpgl/2 plot files	.plt, .hp, .hpg, .hpl, .prn
Google Earth *	.kml	Via free Nemetschek IFC Viewer
Google SketchUp *	.skp	Via IFC and free SketchUp plug-in IFC2SKP
CINEMA 4D	.c4d, .c4u	CINEMA 4D from version 5 (C4U for update plug-in)
Rhino	.3dm	Version 4
VRML	.wrl	Version 2, e.g. for “rapid prototyping”
Universal 3D	.u3d	E.g. for further processing in Adobe Acrobat 3D
3D Studio Max	.3ds
Step CDS *	.stp	Upon request via www.weltweitbau.de
Export formats via CINEMA 4D Engineering Edition Plus (selection) *	Extension	Version, comments
Direct 3D / DirectX *	.x
QuickDraw 3D *	.3dm
STL *	.stl	For “rapid prototyping”
Shockwave *	.w3d
Wavefront *	.obj
Quantity data export formats	Extension	Version, comments
Quantities for Allplan BCM, Excel	.xac, .xls
XML attributes	.xml	For EDM controlling (e.g. Rivera)
Coordinates, terrain model export formats	Extension	Version, comments
Coordinate data, axis and curve trace data	.re1, .reb, .re2, .asc, lin	Also lines with attributes
Terrain model: longitudinal profiles, transverse profiles	.lpr, .qpr
* Available with additional software
Building physics/thermal insulation export formats	Extension	Version, comments
Kern Dämmwerk	.cdk
Engineering export formats	Extension	Version, comments
Friedrich+Lochner PLT, SC7, GEO	.asc
SCIA ESA PT *	.esa
BAMTEC file	.tec	BAMTEC robot
FEM data LIMACAD 1045.1	.fem
CEDRUS elements	.sin	Cubus finite elements
* Available with additional software

Import and export formats: bitmap files	Extension	Version, comments
JPEG	.jpg, jff, jtf	24-Bit (also with georeference info)
PNG	.png	(1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, 24-bit)
Mac PICT	.pct	(8-, 24-bit)
OS/2 BMP	.bmp	(1-, 4-, 8-, 24-bit)
PCX	.pcx	(1-, 8-, 24-bit)
PSD	.psd	(1-, 8-, 24-bit)
TGA	.tga	(8-,16-, 24-, 32-bit)
TIF	.tif	(1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, 24-, 32-bit) as well as geotiff
BMP	.bmp	(1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, 24-, 32-bit)

Allplan provides regular training courses and webinars for customers and prospective customers. Contact your sales partner for further information.

Your Allplan package includes a small demo project that shows you the most important Allplan work processes. This will give you an initial overview of Allplan’s functions. Your sales partner can give you an Allplan introductory course of about two days. Contact them for further information.