buildingSMART's open APIs for connecting common data environments and tools (BCF API, Documents API, Foundation API), and the model servers that store models as queryable data rather than files.
OpenCDE is a set of open web interfaces (APIs) from buildingSMART International that let a common data environment and the tools around it talk to each other without vendor-specific connections. Model servers are systems that store building models as data, object by object, so that people and programs can query, version and exchange parts of a model rather than whole files. The two ideas meet where a project wants its information to move between platforms without exporting and re-uploading files by hand.
The most common use is the BCF API: issues raised in a coordination tool appear in the authoring tool and in the CDE without anyone emailing a file. Model servers are used where many parties need the same live model data, such as on large programmes, in asset management or behind digital twin platforms. In both cases the gain is fewer manual copies and fewer out-of-date versions.
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