In the seventeenth episode of openBIMvoice, I talk with Nicolas Arellano from Canada.
Nicolas is a researcher at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio at Carleton University. He is part of the team behind Collab Digital Twins, an award winning open source platform developed through years of research and publicly funded work.
The platform brings BIM, GIS, point clouds, documents, open data, sensors, BCF, and IDS into one browser based environment.
It can connect information at very different scales. From an entire country or city down to one building or a single IFC object.
The core idea is that a digital twin is not one product you buy. It is a maturity process built on open standards, reliable data, capable people, suitable technology, and clear governance.
What we discuss:
How The Project Started. Nicolas explains how years of work with heritage BIM, large campuses, cities, and regions exposed the limitations of the available tools.
Why It Became Open Source. The platform was developed with public funding. The team wanted the resulting technology to remain available to the community and useful beyond one organization.
BIM And GIS In One Environment. How the platform connects IFC models, geographic information, open data, infrastructure, and building portfolios in the same browser based environment.
48 Buildings In One View. Nicolas demonstrates a portfolio of 48 campus buildings, including large IFC models that can be explored together on a map.
Point Clouds, BCF, And IDS. How users can compare point clouds with BIM models, record issues through BCF, and validate model information against IDS requirements.
From A Country To One Object. Why a useful digital twin must connect information across scales, from national and regional data to individual building elements and their properties.
Your Data On Your Infrastructure. How organizations can self host the platform locally or on their preferred cloud infrastructure instead of depending entirely on one software vendor.
Who Can Use It. Why the platform may be relevant to asset owners, public organizations, universities, smaller design firms, and teams managing fragmented digital information.
Testing Real Scenarios. How plugins can support workflows such as life cycle carbon assessment, sensor integration, and simulations around critical infrastructure.
The strongest point from this conversation is that an open digital twin is not defined by one viewer or one model.
Its value comes from connecting reliable information, open standards, workflows, and people without giving one vendor control over the entire system.
Explore Collab Digital Twins: https://collabdt.org/
Read the documentation: https://docs.collabdt.org/
Find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petruconduraru/
Questions: petru@bimvoice.com
