Trimble is a leading platform and data company connecting the physical world with the digital world through technology. As such, the company has an unwavering commitment to fostering ecosystems that align with our vision of transforming the way the world works.
Central to this strategy is Trimble’s active commitment to open and industry standards, reflecting our long-standing involvement in standardization initiatives as illustrated through our membership on buildingSMART’s Strategic Advisory Council. Our goal is to empower customers through uninterrupted and innovative 3D and data workflows, both within our platform and in harmonized integrations with the broader industry ecosystems. By championing data interoperability, accessibility, governance, and security, Trimble is not just a provider of data but a trusted custodian of our customers' data.
Universal Scene Description (USD)
Approximately 328.77 million terabytes of data is created each day and data creation is not slowing down. Across sectors such as Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO), Geospatial and Transportation, this trend continues. In order to nurture the growth of these industries in a sustainable and scalable fashion, Trimble and others are stepping up to support new ways of collaboration, content generation, and data visualization.
One particular ecosystem the company is helping to champion is the interoperability of 3D tools and data. To that end, Trimble recently joined the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) to help strengthen the OpenUSD ecosystem and democratize 3D, ensuring that all stakeholders benefit from the sustainable and interoperable data standards. As a result, Trimble is one of several companies that will help shape the standards that will advance 3D content generation and collaborative experiences for creatives and professionals.
OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description), is an emerging software platform originally developed by the film studio, Pixar, in 2012. The intention of OpenUSD is to enable teams to collaboratively construct animated 3D scenes through the robust interchange between digital content creation tools with an expanding set of schemas, covering domains like geometry, shading, lighting and physics.
Fast forward to 2021, NVIDIA Omniverse™ launched to bring a platform for connecting and developing OpenUSD applications beyond the movie industry, and particularly for sectors such as industrial manufacturing and AECO. As a result, new technology collaborations are emerging as Omniverse enables companies like Trimble who have extensive domain expertise across geospatial, AECO and the public sector, to leverage the OpenUSD platform and enable new 3D workflows for its customers.
Together with companies like NVIDIA, Trimble looks to contribute engineering efforts to the mission of AOUSD regarding:
Digital twins and industrial digitalization applications in urban planning, construction, transportation, robotics and IoT.
3D data for geospatial and building information modeling (BIM) for industries such as architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO), and the public sector.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases across various industrial applications.
Point cloud interoperability, visualization and optimization for massive amounts of real-world data capture from laser scans or other reality capture technologies.
NVIDIA + OpenUSD Power Up with Trimble SketchUp
Trimble is excited for the ability to supercharge its popular 3D software application SketchUp by leveraging the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, where users can utilize the collective power of OpenUSD and NVIDIA RTX.
"We are committed to supporting open standards and enabling our customers’ design process through new and exciting 3D workflows,” said Chris Cronin, vice president and general manager of Trimble SketchUp. “With our improved data interoperability functionality for USDZ, users will have a more seamless transition between SketchUp and USD-based platforms, such as Omniverse."
One such example of how SketchUp and Omniverse can be used in the future is for urban planning projects. At GTC 2024, Houseal Lavigne presented “Revolutionizing Urban Planning: Omniverse and OpenUSD for City Scale Digital Twins” to showcase their advanced visualization workflow. With SketchUp’s new import and export functionality for USDZ, users have a more seamless transition between SketchUp and Omniverse. The new export options are game-changers for designers at Houseal Lavigne, who have for the first time ever, taken an entire city modeled in SketchUp into Omniverse Creator. Read more about their project here.
Another example where the benefits of advanced visualization workflows can be realized is in the public sector. An application solution like the urban planning example above could also be a game changer for owners and operators globally, such as the U.S. State Departments of Transportation. “These organizations have both large projects and large groups of assets that generate enormous amounts of data that is not easy to consume via traditional methods. Trimble has seen public sector owners in the Nordics and EU leverage visualizations to make data concepts like 3D BIM accessible to all users within an owner organization,” said Cyndee Hoagland, senior vice president for Trimble’s Owner and Public Sector. “Humans inherently experience their world in 3D, for owners this is the next step in extending BIM beyond the project and taking advantage of asset lifecycle management. Enabling asset operators and owners to leverage digital project delivery and as-constructed data with the opportunity to reduce operations cost by as much as 40%," Hoagland continued.
Trimble’s engagement in these emerging standards are providing solutions to customers and the company recognizes the capabilities this unlocks through the seamless integration into the broader industry ecosystem.