Building CATALYST offers a comprehensive suite of outputs designed to simplify project planning, budgeting, and decision-making. From high-level program-based summaries to detailed system breakdowns, CATALYST equips you with the insights needed to drive cost certainty, reduce variation, and ensure project success.
The “How CATALYST Works” page provides a step-by-step guide to creating a project and entering the essential functions and attributes that drive outcome predictions. Once your project is set up, you can access the results through the Project Overview Console. In the upper section of the console, you can edit project information, upload documents, assign organizational labels, and share projects externally.
The lower section groups Project Sets, which can be organized based on categories like Feasibility or Site Selection. For example, Site A1 and A2 represent single buildings, while Site 3 includes multiple building types such as a tower, parking structure, and skywalk. CATALYST allows these separate elements to be modeled independently and then aggregated into one master project, ideal for campus planning or complex additions.
The full range of outputs and reports is accessible via the "hamburger" menu in the upper right corner. Here, you can access dashboards, project summaries, import and export data, or integrate CATALYST with other data sources such as estimates and schedules.
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Program-based results provide owners with valuable insights, expressed in terms of the facility’s purpose, or business case. This high-level summary quickly conveys project attributes, space programs, and costs, all at a glance.
Next, we break down the sitework, building core and shell, and supporting spaces from the functional areas. It’s essential to model projects according to the owner’s business case, which allows for more accurate and actionable insights. For example, we see significant cost variations, from $29/SF for shell spaces to $774/SF for commercial kitchens, all driven by the unique business requirements of each area. These cost models will soon extend to soft costs, lifecycle costs, and total ownership costs, allowing owners to confidently plan for long-term value.
Effective planning and budgeting require a unified approach to track, steer, and finally record projects on a ONE DATA System basis. Uniformat provides that basis. CATALYST uses Uniformat Level 1, 2 and 2.5, as previously described, to structure project data, organizing building systems in a way that mirrors a traditional cost estimate.
Even in early stages, CATALYST can generate a complete cost model. All parameters and costs are easily adjustable, making it possible to refine estimates as more detailed information is entered. This flexible, system-based approach ensures that project data is consistent and comprehensive throughout the planning and execution phases.
Comparing Project Sets is essential for making informed decisions. CATALYST enables users to compare projects in several ways. For instance, a two-set comparison displays program data, showing both area and cost rolled up into departments or functional groups.
A system by system comparison can also be made.
For more detailed comparisons, the system-level analysis shows variations in cost by building system, displayed on a bell curve. As more detailed program and design data is added, the range of variation narrows, allowing for greater certainty in cost predictions. The example below provides graphical representation of the steering progress toward the approved target value or budget. This shows the total project cost, but any building system can be selected for comparison.In addition, the Project Dashboard can track progress toward target budgets across milestones, displaying key metrics such as total project cost or building system-specific data.
Back to the TopBuilding CATALYST enables the original National BIM Standard vision to become a reality. With CATALYST you have the knowledge resource to make decisions and solve problems before producing a room-by-room space program or conceptual design. You can then push the CATALYST data model outputs into an Autodesk REVIT geometric model.
CATALYST’s export feature currently integrates with Excel, allowing users to export raw project data and feed it into a variety of pre-developed templates. From here, building blocks can be imported into Revit and placed on real sites using Infraworks, dramatically reducing the time and effort required for mass modeling.
This capability is the first step toward streamlining design and construction, similar to how Toyota’s set-based design approach revolutionized auto manufacturing.
