You enable AI to read Autodesk Forma across your projects by copying Forma files, versions and custom attributes into a record you control, mapping the attributes into a consistent schema and indexing the content so an AI model can search it and cite its sources. The Utopiaverse™ does this in your own Azure tenancy, using CDE Backup™ for live projects and CDE Archive™ for completed ones, with AI Insights answering questions across every project and hub.
Why Forma content benefits from AI search
Autodesk Forma, and BIM 360 before it, holds drawings, models, reports, RFIs and correspondence for many design and construction organisations. Large organisations often run many projects across several hubs, sometimes in different regions. Finding information across all of them is hard, especially when it sits inside PDFs, scanned documents or older BIM 360 projects.
Autodesk is adding AI features to its own platform, and those features work within Forma. Organisations whose projects also run on ProjectWise, Aconex, Procore or SharePoint need search that reaches beyond one platform, and that can include completed projects whose Forma licences have been released.
What needs to happen before AI can read Forma at scale
Content needs to be copied into a location AI can index at scale without affecting live projects. Forma custom attributes, such as status, revision and discipline, need to be mapped into a common schema so AI can filter consistently across projects and hubs. Scanned content needs OCR. Version history should be preserved so AI knows which revision is current and can explain what changed.
The Utopiaverse™ handles each of these, landing files, versions and attributes in your own Azure with metadata mapped to a schema aligned with ISO 19650.
How to enable AI on Autodesk Forma, step by step
Decide which hubs and projects to include, starting with those your teams search most.
Use CDE Backup™ for live projects and CDE Archive™ for completed projects, including older BIM 360 work.
Set up the Azure tenancy and region that will hold the record.
Have the Forma account administrator add a service account with read access to the chosen projects.
Agree how Forma custom attributes map to the common schema.
Let content copy and index, then test AI Insights with real questions and check the citations.
Add further hubs and other platforms on the same projects as confidence grows.
Forma across hubs, regions and platforms
Many organisations have more than one Forma hub, for joint ventures, regions or operating companies. Each hub is separate, so searching across them inside Forma is not straightforward. Bringing content from every hub into one record makes cross-hub search simple. The same record can hold content from other platforms, so a question about a project can draw on Forma design documents alongside a client's Aconex register or a builder's Procore records. CDE Sync™ keeps those platforms connected during delivery, and our article on connecting Forma hubs and regions covers the hub side.
What teams can ask
With Forma content indexed, design and construction teams can ask direct questions. Which RFIs on past projects related to this facade system? What did the structural report say about transfer beams? Which projects used this product, and were there defects? AI Insights finds relevant passages across every project and hub, including text inside scanned PDFs, and writes an answer that cites each source file. People open the cited files to confirm the detail before acting on it.
Security and data residency
AI Insights runs natively on Azure inside your own tenancy, in the region you choose, so Forma content is not sent to a third party to be indexed. That matters for organisations with data residency obligations across regions. Utopia Digital's products stream files without storing them, and Utopia Digital holds SOC 2 Type II and Cyber Essentials. See the Security Trust Portal and the global data region map.
Autodesk Forma, AI and the Utopiaverse™
Making Forma readable by AI brings it into the Utopiaverse™. CDE Backup™ and CDE Archive™ bring content into your Azure, CDE Sync™ connects Forma with other platforms, CDE Migrate™ carries history through hub and platform changes, and AI Insights answers questions across everything. See also How Can I Enable AI to Read My Common Data Environment? and the Autodesk Forma integration page.
See AI over Forma content in the monthly live demo, or talk to the team about your hubs.
