pragmaticBIM FAQ

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:

• Free: Editor-only drafts on the pragmaticBIM Reference. No publish, no listing. Community and docs support.
• Project Plan: Email access for planners and clients on one live Presenter project
• Private Project: Email access on one live Presenter project that is not listed
• Planner: As many Presenter projects as a planner / department needs, billed per project, on up to 3 own templates
• Full Enterprise: Unlimited projects, org-wide editor admins, and default viewer lists

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.

• Free: 0 CHF. Editor-only drafts on the pragmaticBIM Reference. No publish, no listing. Unlimited drafts, 0 published. Community and docs support. Upgradeable.
• Project Plan: 400 CHF / year per project. Start from the pragmaticBIM Reference, import additional requirements by IDS, configure one project by goal levels, one live Presenter, German and English. Pay by invoice.
• Private Project: 1'200 CHF / year per project. The project is not listed. Start from the pragmaticBIM Reference, import additional requirements by IDS, configure one project by goal levels, one live Presenter, German and English. Pay by invoice.
• Planner: 1'800 CHF / year per project, plus a one-time onboarding fee of 1'000 CHF that includes up to 3 own templates. Planner / Department, as many Presenter projects as you need, separate editor and admin roles, custom subdomain, standard plugins and API access. Pay by invoice.
• Full Enterprise: 16'000 CHF / year. Organization-wide, unlimited projects with no per-project fee, unlimited own templates, custom domain, dedicated GitHub repo, custom actions and pipelines, priority SLA. Pay by invoice.

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.

• Plannerly: Project execution suite. ISO 19650 as documents (BEP, eSign, CDE, in-app Verify).
• pragmaticBIM: Appointing-party ordering. ISO 19650 as data (goals, workflows, IDP, then IDS, Excel, and Presenter).

Different architectures for defining and managing requirements.

• bimQ: Traditional heavy database for internal asset standardization and technical validation rules
• pragmaticBIM: Lightweight GitHub-style versioning - data contracts like clean code, transparent change history, goal-driven configuration instead of a use-case checklist

Both support structured project briefing, but the underlying source of truth is different.

• BriefBuilder: A dedicated workflow for creating and managing project briefs
• pragmaticBIM: Project and BIM requirements built on an open, machine-readable standard, with Git-style commits that record who changed what and why, plus immutable published versions
• AI-ready by design: Structured requirements with version history and known provenance can be safely read, compared, generated, and reviewed by AI

An IDS Editor and a data contract platform solve different problems.

• IDS Editor (e.g. Solibri): Excellent for creating raw, machine-readable validation files - but no collaborative framework
• pragmaticBIM: Full platform - host requirements in a web portal where clients and collaborators align on goal levels and legally agree before modeling begins

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.