What could engineers achieve with less repetitive work? With Allplan Max, Allplan brings practical AI into everyday engineering workflows
Engineers are hearing a lot about AI, but an AI tool is only useful if it addresses genuine problems. Can it reduce repetitive work? Make important information easier to find? Help engineers navigate increasingly complex models and analysis results? And, crucially, can it do all this without taking engineering judgment out of the engineer’s hands?
That is the thinking behind Allplan Max, a new suite of AI-powered capabilities available with Allplan 2027. Rather than introducing AI for its own sake, Allplan Max brings practical AI capabilities into the tools and workflows engineers already use. The goal is simple: to remove some of the friction surrounding engineering work so professionals can spend more time applying their expertise where it adds most value.
Cutting through increasingly complex project data
Engineering projects generate enormous amounts of data. Therefore, the challenge is often finding the right information quickly enough to use it effectively.
AI BIM Analyst addresses this by enabling engineers to interrogate BIM data using natural language. Users can ask questions about the model, find and filter relevant information, and generate quantities and reports without having to manually search through large datasets or construct complex queries.
For structural engineers, AI Structural Analyser applies the same principle to analysis results. Available in SCIA Engineer 2027 and FRILO 2027, it can identify peaks, sign changes and critical sections that warrant attention, helping engineers locate significant results within complex calculations more quickly.
Importantly, it does not replace the engineer’s assessment of those results. Instead, it helps direct their attention to where their expertise is needed – allowing AI to process the complexity while the engineer makes the engineering decision.
Cutting down on repetitive work
Not every task on an engineer’s to-do list requires engineering judgment. Yet repetitive modelling, documentation and data management activities can consume a significant amount of time that could be spent on higher value work.
Several Allplan Max capabilities target these everyday tasks. AI Drafter, for example, automatically optimises reinforcement label placement to improve drawing readability, reducing the manual cleanup required during drawing production while leaving the underlying engineering content unchanged.
AI Formula Writer enables users to create complex formulas for automatically updating object attributes, filters, reports or labels without needing specialised Allplan coding knowledge.
Allplan Max can also accelerate the transition from existing information to usable BIM data. AI BIM Modeller transforms 2D drawings into BIM models in minutes, providing a basis for quantity take-off and cost estimation or a starting point for further BIM development.
Individually, these tasks may represent relatively small parts of the engineering process. Repeated across multiple drawings, models and projects, however, means automating them can give engineers valuable time back for the work that genuinely requires their expertise.
Making software expertise easier to access
Even experienced engineers do not use every software function every day. When an unfamiliar task arises, finding the right command or working out the most efficient workflow can interrupt progress and take valuable time away from the project.
AI Coach provides on-demand guidance on Allplan workflows and functionality directly within the working environment. Rather than searching through documentation or relying on colleagues for help, users can access relevant guidance when they need it and continue working.
This can also support less experienced team members as they build their software knowledge quickly, helping firms make expertise more accessible and encouraging more consistent use of the tools available to them.
Turning engineering knowledge into digital tools
Every engineering firm has its own ways of working – from established processes and internal standards to specialist knowledge developed over years of project delivery. Turning that expertise into customised digital tools, however, has traditionally required programming skills or dedicated software development resources.
Feature Builder is designed to lower that barrier. Users can describe the process or capability they want to add to Allplan, and AI generates the Python code needed to create it. The code can then be reviewed by a technical team before installing and used within Allplan.
This creates opportunities to turn company-specific knowledge and ideas into reusable tools without starting every software development project from scratch. Instead of being limited to predefined functionality, engineering firms can increasingly adapt Allplan around their own methods and workflows. This way, valuable knowledge is retained, successful processes are standardised, and more of the work that makes their organisation unique can be automated.
Connecting AI across the engineering workflow
Engineering workflows rarely exist within a single application. Project information moves between different tools and systems, so introducing AI effectively also means finding ways to connect it with the wider technology ecosystem.
Workflow Builder extends Allplan Max beyond individual Allplan tasks. Through an MCP server, it connects Allplan with compatible large language models and AI-agent platforms. This enables firms to create agentic automations that can retrieve project information, interact with other systems, and carry out workflows based on plain-language instructions.
Crucially, this gives organisations flexibility over how they adopt AI. Rather than being restricted to a predefined set of automated workflows, firms can build connections around their own processes and technology choices. As their approach to AI develops, Allplan Max can therefore become part of the wider digital workflow rather than another isolated tool.
Keeping engineers at the heart of engineering
The value of Allplan Max is not simply that it brings more AI into engineering software. It is what engineers can do with the time and insight those capabilities provide.
But greater automation does not mean handing engineering decisions over to AI. That distinction is built into individual capabilities. Instead, by making information easier to find, reducing repetitive production work, providing guidance on demand and opening new possibilities for customised automation, Allplan Max can help engineers spend less time working around their software and more time applying their expertise.
To learn more about Allplan Max, visit: Allplan Max.
*Please note, this is a commercial profile.
