No more change orders
Vague project briefs, room programmes, and BIM manuals create costly ambiguity. pragmaticBIM gives owners one clear, machine-readable contract for what the project must deliver.
Trusted by leading AEC innovators
The problem
With BIM and without BIM. Requirements sit in texts, guidelines, and appendices, often mixed with solutions. What the client actually needs gets settled in design meetings instead of in the order. BIM made this worse, and AI makes it worse still.
Requirements are copied together from templates because that is just how BIM is done. Nobody can say which decision they are meant to support. Planners price the uncertainty in as a risk premium, deliver, and nobody uses the data.
What isn't written so it can be checked can neither be accepted nor settled in a dispute. Whoever has more leverage wins. In the end the difference is split, often 50/50, and the relationship is damaged. AI produces convincing-looking documents in seconds. You can no longer tell from them whether the content is right.
Project management talks about goals, deadlines, and decisions; BIM management about models and checking rules. The information requirements end up in the technical appendix. Project management doesn't read it, and BIM management doesn't know the project goals.
See the principle
Pick a use and set the goals. The use determines frame conditions, scenarios, and room types; the goals determine workflows, elements, and documents. You never pick information for its own sake.
Goals
Security / critical infrastructure
Costs & quantities
Schedule & coordination
Decision certainty
Permit certainty
Design certainty
Verifiable sustainability
Project definition
Information requirements
+4 more
You choose the matching solution for each scenario in the editor. Open the editor
What is pragmaticBIM?
pragmaticBIM connects the open pragmaticBIM Reference, the curated book edition, the editor for adapting it, and the viewer for communicating published requirements.
1 · Understand
The method: order results instead of prescribing methods. Why these elements, how to order them, and how to check them.
2 · Look up
All elements, attributes, and use cases of the Reference. Open and free.
3 · Adapt
Start with the Reference as a template: choose phases and domains, adapt attributes, check requirements, and publish.
4 · Share
Everyone on the project sees exactly what they have to deliver, without a login and without Excel.
How it works
A streamlined workflow that aligns project requirements and building data with real business goals through five simple steps.
Every project is based on a template. This can be the pragmaticBIM Reference or an organization-specific one.
Define usage scenarios and room types, then configure requirements from business goals or predefined use cases.
Change the data requirements by importing other use case definitions, IDS files, or by working directly on the requirements.
Provide different views on the data. A web interface as quick reference, IDS files for checking, or reports for contracts.
Run project-specific Actions on the published plan. Print site-logistics QR labels, check incoming IFCs with IDS Check, or open Dashboards.
The platform
Combine templates across clients, phases, or workflows into one consistent data contract.
Connect to your validation tools and extend workflows with custom integrations.
Treat your data contract like code - Draft, Review, Live Data, and Publish Version, with a full change history.
Publish specs in DE, FR, IT, and EN - automatically, from a single source.
Validate definitions against the IFC standard before they leave your desk.
Your project data stays in Switzerland - secure, GDPR-compliant, and under your control.
From Swiss AEC teams
With Simon's support, we were able to deepen our BIM expertise in a targeted way and integrate it optimally into our office processes. Clear modelling standards and the element plan were the key to success. Model-based cost estimation worked smoothly right away and greatly strengthened BIM acceptance across the entire team.
Bernhard Flühler
Partner, Gähler Flühler Fankhauser Architekten
The element plan is a key component for us to specify data requirements. Our path was long: from an Excel sheet with version chaos and the difficulty of checking data deliveries, through collaborative work in a database and automatic IDS generation, to today's form where requirements are treated like code and have helped us keep simplifying requirements and communicating them better. The journey isn't over yet, but we're on it.
Giuseppe Acciardi
Head of BIM Program, armasuisse Immobilien
The switch from Excel to a database solution with pragmaticBIM was challenging but decisive. For the first time, we were able to capture our infrastructure data in a structured, detailed way that all project stakeholders could use. A valuable and sustainable improvement.
Julie Picarel
Senior Project Leader, Civil Engineering/BIM, Flughafen Zürich
Read the case study
In GIS, we learned that what matters is not the volume of data, but its structure, quality, and usability. pragmaticBIM brings exactly this pragmatic approach to BIM. Use cases take centre stage and help you specify only what is actually needed. That prevents unnecessary complexity and creates real value for projects and operations.
Peter Maag
Head of Geomatics & Utility Coordination, Flughafen Zürich
Read the case studyPricing
Order versioned project and BIM requirements from your goals. Add Project Briefing when you publish a room programme and project brief; continue into IDS, Excel, and a live Presenter from the same source.
| Feature | Free 0 CHF Upgradeable | Project 400 CHF / year per project Pay by invoice | Private Project 1'200 CHF / year per project Pay by invoice | Planner 1'800 CHF / year per project Pay by invoice | Full Enterprise 16'000 CHF / year Pay by invoice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start Now | Open the editor | Open the editor | |||
| Scope | Drafts only | Listed project | Private project | Planner / Department | Organization-wide |
| Templates | pragmaticBIM Reference | pragmaticBIM Reference | pragmaticBIM Reference | Up to 3 own | Unlimited own |
| Active projects | Drafts only | 1 | 1 | Per project | Unlimited |
| Roles | Editor only | Editor only | Editor only | Editors + admins | Editors + admins |
| Branding | Not included | Not included | Not included | Custom subdomain | Custom domain |
| Support | Docs | Standard SLA | Priority SLA |
Add-on module
Configure usage scenarios, the room programme and the project brief here for free. Add the module only when you publish the project.
Professional services
Workshop with leadership to identify use cases and their data requirements.
1-day workshop (3'000 CHF). Language English or German.
Transition your legacy PDF manuals into structured data infrastructure. We convert your existing guidelines into clean machine-readable schemas.
FAQ
Answers about versioned project and BIM requirements, Project Briefing, the open standard, Git traceability, IDS exports, and Actions on the published plan.
Project briefs, room programmes, and BIM manuals often become disconnected PDF and spreadsheet files that are difficult to trace, check, and enforce.
pragmaticBIM turns them into one structured, versioned, machine-readable contract. Define what the project needs once, publish a controlled version, and use the same source for human-readable reports, IDS, and automated checks.
Everyone tells you to follow ISO 19650 and write information requirement documents. pragmaticBIM asks what you actually need and turns it into a contract that people, software, and AI can read and trace.
That is abstract's Define step: disagree with documentation-first projects, automate checkable requirements instead of 300-page manuals nobody reads.
The platform replaces dense, static documents with clear, actionable data contracts. Stakeholders agree on goal levels, not on a raw use-case checklist. The platform activates the use cases those goals require, so every party sees a contract that matches the project.
External collaborators can coordinate seamlessly depending on your plan:
Yes. The platform presents and exports your data standards in every format your team needs.
Human-readable documentation for reference, machine-readable configurations for software tools - bridged automatically, without manual re-entry.
Yes. Built-in IFC consistency checks and standard schema format support are included.
Automated validation ensures incoming model data matches your EIR data contracts exactly - no tedious manual data audits.
Project Briefing is the module for defining usage scenarios, building on predefined room types, and producing a professional room programme and project brief for the design team.
Those decisions continue into model specifications, IDS, and validation, so BIM requirements become a byproduct of the project brief. Configuration is free. The add-on costs 750 CHF per year for each project when you order publication.
We offer five pricing tiers tailored to your organization's scale. Free is self-serve in the editor. Project and Private Project plans are ordered and invoiced through abstract; Planner and Full Enterprise run on an agreement with your organization.
Both speak ISO 19650. The medium of truth differs. They can coexist: Plannerly runs the delivery team's documents; pragmaticBIM is what the appointing party orders first.
Different architectures for defining and managing requirements.
Both support structured project briefing, but the underlying source of truth is different.
An IDS Editor and a data contract platform solve different problems.
Instead of managing dozens of detached, un-versioned .ids or Excel files across a CDE, pragmaticBIM uses GitHub-style versioning. Every update is permanently committed as a fixed, controlled version.
The platform records who made each change, what was altered, and why - eliminating accidental edits and lost tracking.
Your team always works from a strictly managed, live single source of truth instead of trading static, unverified files back and forth.
