Thank you to our now 300+ beta users. We’re blown away by the response we’ve had to Konstru in just under two months. And now a shout out to the most vocal of our beta users. These users are very intentional early adopters who see great potential in the Konstru product offering. Because of that vision, these users are our most treasured gift, because they’ve used Konstru, and ask us the tough questions. Not a beta user yet? Sign up here for free.

Interoperability

Most of these questions are deep technical questions surrounding changing elements, geometry, and the accuracy and security of the data imported into, stored in, and exported from Konstru. However, one of the most painful questions we’ve been confronted with seemed quite innocuous at first.

What does Konstru actually do?!?

What? That’s easy! Konstru brings interoperability and version control to BIM. What more do you need to know? It’s at this point that the engineers in the room (aka, everyone except me) has very sour looks on their faces. Specifically, the conversation started with this fantastic observation from one of our beta users:

“Interoperability is a very vague word in the world of BIM…what would I use the software for exactly? Above and beyond the software I already use…what would it replace or enhance?”

And then this response from a user once we explained a little deeper:

“Oh! now I understand, [Konstru] actually enables Revit, Tekla, SAP2000, ETABS, Ram, Excel and Grasshopper to exchange actual BIM elements, not just geometry…“

Brilliant! This type of conversation is exactly why we value and soak in the beta process. Despite the fact that, during the entire beta testing period, Konstru is 100% free to all users, the beta period is a priceless exercise in learning who our users and and what they need most.

Our lead engineer added this description:

“IFC allows for that kind of (bim model) interoperability, too. What Konstru allows users is high-fidelity information exchange: pick which parts of which model you want to translate into another BIM software. Utilize bi-directional updates: synchronize two models. The models will stay in sync, and you will be able to update information back and forth continuously.”

Version Control

These user and engineer statements are a far better explanation of what Konstru does than simply “interoperability.” And then there’s the term “version control”. When I sat down with a friend of mine who has been a structural engineer for nearly 25 years, and I used the phrase “version control”, it sunk like a stone. When he heard “version control”, his mind understood “the backwards and forwards compatibility between different versions of software like Revit or Tekla. That’s not what we mean at all.

Last week, I spoke with a long time veteran of the BIM software industry, and I persisted in using that same term. He knows Konstru and what the software is and does. He said, “No. Not version control. Change management.” Knowing he saw the deer-in-the-headlights look on my face, he explained. “When someone changes or updates a BIM model, that’s a ‘change’ to the model, not a ‘version’ of the model. Change management. That’s what we mean by “version control.”

That’s what Konstru actually does, among other things. We marketers love words like “interoperability” and “version control”, because those words fit nicely in a tweet. But such words don’t always accurately describe what our users can actually do with Konstru.

Ready to experience Konstru? Join the free beta program here.