DPC meets BIM: digital twins only scale when 3D starts at design
In footwear and apparel, Digital Product Creation works because the 3D asset is born at the design stage and then reused across review, planning, marketing, and XR. BIM follows the same rule, but construction often starts in 2D, so value arrives late (or not at all).
Why do so many buildings lack native BIM?
- Economics: small studios run on thin margins; licenses + training are hard to justify.
- Deliverables: clients still expect 2D PDF plans.
- Inertia: entrenched 2D workflows persist despite clear 3D benefits.
The rise of scan-to-BIM, and why semantics matter
Scanning an existing asset yields point clouds or dense meshes. Without semantics, the ability to select “a window” as a single object and attach properties, your twin is just a pretty picture. Operations, maintenance, refurb, everything downstream, depends on that semantic layer.
IFC/STEP vs the real-time web
IFC is a powerful data schema, but exchange typically happens via STEP. In practice, that means heavy parsing and thousands of boolean ops before the first frame, painful for browsers and for iterative workflows.
Fragments: open-source and purpose-built for speed
Fragments (from That Open Company) pre-bakes geometry + metadata, letting the browser open huge models in seconds after conversion, even on modest machines. It’s tuned for AEC reality: many unique low-poly site-built elements plus repeated high-poly factory components.
RapidPipeline: Converting 50+ CAD and BIM Formats to Open Standards
Antonio and Max also connected over their enthusiasm for open standards. RapidPipeline, built by Max’ team, supports the conversion of more than 50 CAD and BIM formats to standards such as USD or glTF. If you’re in BIM and haven’t tried it out yet, do so via the free trial of the RapidPipeline Web app or 3D tool plugins, or get in touch with the RapidPipeline team for batch processing or enterprise-grade solutions, converting proprietary CAD and BIM to optimized and standardized 3D assets.
What’s next: open editing and automated docs
- Native editing: moving beyond viewers using their geometry engine to modify BIM data openly.
- Automated documentation: generating 2D PDF plans directly from 3D models, still the sector’s primary deliverable in 2025.
Bottom line: Digital twins become truly useful when they’re semantic, fast to open, and easy to edit, ideally via open components so the next wave of BIM tools doesn’t keep reinventing the same foundation.
Meet the Author
DGG Team
The 3D Pipeline Company
DGG is on a mission to connect the real and virtual by making 3D models as easy to handle as 2D images.
