Surmount Energy Solutions

Surmount Energy uses Forge to integrate intelligent models with its smart-building Internet of Things platform

Operation and Maintenance

Surmount Energy Solutions was founded in 2008 with the goal of bringing technology-enabled services to India’s sustainable-construction and building-maintenance & operations industries. The company works with builders and corporations to incorporate sustainability and automation into design, construction, and operations and to achieve certifications such as USGBC-LEED for new and existing buildings.

In 2012, Surmount Energy launched its BuildTrack brand, offering hardware and software products for IoT enabled home and building automation. Surmount Energy used Forge to integrate intelligent models into its BuildTrack platform and extract IoT data. As a result, building and facilities managers using BuildTrack can better manage control of lighting, heating/cooling, water pumps/motors as well as a variety of sensors and other building systems in ways that impact sustainability and asset efficiency goals.

Challenge

Intelligent models contain valuable data about buildings and their assets, helping construction teams successfully manage projects. Just as important, the value of that data reaches beyond construction—for example, providing visibility into building systems in ways that can help facilities managers reduce energy costs, meet sustainability goals, and improve safety and security. 

Surmount Energy wanted to share intelligent models through its BuildTrack platform—but it needed a way to make the models easily viewable, while also limiting access based on specific user roles and responsibilities. In addition, the company looked to link intelligent models to IoT sensor data; to controls for lighting, air conditioners and other electrical asset; and security cameras in order to provide a useful visual interface for users and also asset data from the models. 

How Surmount Energy solved it with Forge

Realizing that building the necessary tools in-house would take too much time, Surmount Energy chose Forge to add BIM viewing and data management to its BuildTrack IoT platform. The Forge Viewer API supports 2D and 3D views of intelligent models in browsers, letting BuildTrack users view intelligent models from a range of devices, independent of platforms. 

Using the Forge Model Derivative API, Surmount Energy extracted data from other systems within the intelligent models and linked it to BuildTrack's IoT sensors and other control hardware. With this data and control, BuildTrack users can view everything from sensor alert status to maintenance schedules and manuals just by clicking on images of facilities and actually control electrical assets and systems represented within those models. BuildTrack can also manage users' access to specific files within intelligent model data, such as particular building floors, rooms or specific lighting or climate-control systems.

Forge highlights include the following: 

  • Reduces platform development time by 50%
  • Broadens access to BIM models beyond construction teams into operations
  • Improves the ability to monitor asset performance and meet sustainability goals

"Forge's rapid development environment made it possible for us to build a platform interface with a visual context, so users could connect with physical spaces and assets within Buildtrack’s IoT platform. That means personnel can easily see asset data, status and even activate controls for efficient facility operations." —Dr. Narendra Bhat, President, Surmount Energy

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APIs and Services

Model Derivative API
Model Derivative API
Viewer
Viewer

Autodesk Products

AutoCAD
BIM 360
Inventor
Revit

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