As mentioned, this is a key element of our Design to Value approach, as it enables us to get closer to an optimum solution..

We need to share information more efficiently in order to keep people safer at work, cause less disruption to the local economy by digging up roads, and provide better utility services.. What is a digital twin?.That said, when we talk about digital twins, we might not always be referring to the same thing.

To some people the term ‘digital twin’ implies a highly advanced, digital replication of an aircraft engine, while others imagine a real time digital model of an entire city.But that latter level of sophistication isn’t required, or even necessarily advisable.A digital twin of a city would be too expensive to store and use, and it would also be immediately out-of-date.

We need to keep things simple as we work out how to achieve our goals, and the meaning of digital twin is simply a digital representation of a real thing.. Now, by real, we don’t necessarily mean physical.Sharp explains that the digital representation of a train timetable is just as important as the digital representation of a train itself, each providing important, but different, information.. Further, when we use digital twin technology there should always be a two-way interaction between the digital twin and the real thing.

The digital twin is used for simulation and experimentation, while the real-world thing provides feedback that can be used to affect the digital world.

It’s possible that a digital twin could be real time, but it’s not a requirement.The marketplace hosts its own configurator, making it possible to see how the price changes as design decisions are made, and then to procure the exact components needed.

This capability would be enormously powerful for Platforms, helping clients and designers see the effect of decisions in real time, in terms of cost but also potentially carbon, social and other value criteria..The configurator is a piece of software developed to leverage standard components made by the original manufacturer; for construction Platforms it is entirely possible that a range of configurators will be needed, albeit built on some common, open protocols and using common components.

Repeat clients may want to create their own configurators linked to their internal business processes, for instance, but the ‘Spatial Analysis’ work could help create a common ‘operating system’ for construction.Brick Link hosts thousands of third parties from which one can select by region, rating, price etc.