openBIM for Power Infrastructure and Structured Information
Edition: 22 September 2026 · Category: BIM News
This archived article adapts the original English publication package. Dates, previews and planned availability below refer to the edition date; confirm current product status before acting.
Today’s lead story is the expansion of openBIM beyond traditional building BIM. On September 22, buildingSMART International opened a project plan for voting covering high- and medium-voltage power transmission and distribution. The objective is not to create a separate energy-specific IFC. The plan is to develop a domain taxonomy, map it to existing IFC versions, publish relevant concepts in bSDD, define lifecycle information requirements using IDS, and use the buildingSMART Use Case Management service. Voting is scheduled to remain open until November 13.
Why does this matter to a BIM manager? Because openBIM is moving from file exchange toward structured, machine-readable information requirements. In power infrastructure, designers, network operators, manufacturers and asset owners often work across different software ecosystems. If the project proceeds, IFC, bSDD and IDS can provide a shared semantic layer between them. Practical action: if your organization works on energy or infrastructure projects, follow how the taxonomy and requirements are defined and review whether internal classifications can map cleanly to bSDD.
The second story is buildingSMART’s community survey on IDS 1.0. It received 186 completed responses. Seventy-three percent of respondents reported practical or expert IDS knowledge, and 58 percent had already used IDS on real projects. IDS 1.0 received an average score of 6.7 out of 10, with experienced and frequent users rating it higher than people who only know it in theory.
The strongest signals for IDS 1.1 are clear. Seventy-six percent rated better symmetry between applicability and requirements as important. Seventy-four percent prioritized better alignment with LOIN. Up to 70 percent called for better documentation, and 68 percent want an IDS API. In addition, 70 percent of respondents want some form of IDS software certification. The core problem is not the idea of IDS itself, but inconsistent implementation: the same IDS file can produce different checking results in different tools.
For BIM management, the conclusion is practical. IDS should now be treated as a serious mechanism for automating information requirements, not just as an experimental format. But until certification and implementation consistency improve, critical IDS rules should be validated in more than one tool before they become contractual quality gates.
The third story is Autodesk Revit Automation. Effective September 21, the Revit 2026 automation environment in Autodesk Platform Services moved to Revit 2026.5 and .NET 10. Autodesk stated that the older Revit or .NET runtime would not be retained for security reasons. Most AppBundles are expected to continue working, but Autodesk recommends validating third-party libraries, Revit API behavior and complete automation workflows.
The practical action is immediate. If you operate Design Automation or Revit Automation processes, migration planning is over; production logs after the change are now the evidence that matters. Pay particular attention to dependencies compiled for older .NET runtimes, unmanaged libraries, and workflows with runtime-specific file I/O behavior.
The fourth story is the Autodesk Content Catalog API, which reached General Availability on September 14. During public beta, the API expanded from content discovery and download to upload, collection management, and user and group administration. The latest capabilities include programmatic group membership management and group-based permissions for collections.
From a BIM governance perspective, this is a significant shift. Revit content management can now be connected to organizational identity and permission management rather than relying only on manual Content Catalog administration. Practical action: separate content creation, validation, publication and access control in your library governance process. API automation should implement those controls, not bypass them.
The fifth story is the direction of Autodesk Assistant after Autodesk University 2026. Autodesk presented a context-aware Assistant designed to use project data, decision history and workflow context rather than only the text in a prompt. Assistant Builder is intended to connect an organization’s own AI, partner AI and tools, while AI Orchestrator is intended to select the appropriate model for a task. Autodesk also previewed a standalone Assistant experience for work that crosses products, projects and teams.
The governance risk is important. This is not a signal that BIM management can be delegated to an agent. The more project context an agent can access, the more important data quality, permissions, auditability and explicit human approval become. A sensible starting point is work where AI can find, structure or compare information while the professional retains the decision.
The sixth story is that Civil 3D will become the next Forma Connected Client. The first Tech Preview is focused on reference-based interoperability between Civil 3D, Forma and Revit, together with consistent geolocation. Autodesk also introduced the closed-beta direction for Forma Street Design, targeting early street and transportation design using GIS layers, terrain, property boundaries and parametric street geometry, with downstream transfer of alignments, assemblies and sub-assemblies into Civil 3D.
This directly affects coordination between building and infrastructure BIM. The main value is not better visualization. It is reducing loss of geospatial context between early planning and detailed engineering. Practical action: standardize coordinate systems, geolocation and project-context rules before adopting new Connected Client workflows.
The seventh story is Autodesk Forma for construction moving from AI assistance toward agentic workflows. At AU 2026 Autodesk showed Bid Proposal Agent, Document Agent and Submittals Evaluation Agent in beta, along with Sheets Agent and Drawing Change Analysis. Smart Controls were also presented, allowing file access to change based on metadata such as approval status without physically moving the file between folders.
Today’s analysis. These developments point in the same architectural direction: BIM process control is shifting from files and folders toward semantics, metadata, APIs and executable rules. IDS formalizes what information is required. bSDD helps define terms consistently. The Content Catalog API governs standardized content. Smart Controls can use status metadata for access control. AI agents can then use this structured context for search, comparison and automated action.
The opportunity is less manual BIM administration. The risk is automating a poorly defined process and scaling bad data faster. The first step is therefore not an AI agent. The first step is a reliable information schema: classifications, attributes, statuses, LOIN, IDS rules and responsibilities.
Three actions for a BIM team this week. First, verify that critical Revit Automation workflows are stable under Revit 2026.5 and .NET 10. Second, select one real IFC delivery use case and test IDS as a machine-readable quality criterion. Third, assess whether library and CDE metadata are consistent enough to become trusted context for future agentic AI workflows.
Original edition sources
- https://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/standards-committee-consultation/ - https://www.buildingsmart.org/ids-survey-results-2026/ - https://www.buildingsmart.org/resources/webinars/ - https://aps.autodesk.com/blog/revit-automation-engine-upgrading-revit-20265-and-net-10-september-21-2026 - https://aps.autodesk.com/blog/content-catalog-api-now-generally-available - https://aps.autodesk.com/blog/autodesk-assistant-built-way-you-design-make - https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/aec/2026/09/15/civil-3d-the-next-forma-connected-client/ - https://blogs.autodesk.com/forma/2026/09/15/introducing-autodesk-forma-street-design/ - https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/autodesk-university-2026-forma-product-highlights-across-the-construction-lifecycle/
Archive media note: This is the verified written publication package. A separate recording differs from this source text, so no video is embedded. Original date-matched images have not been recovered.
