You search across multiple common data environments (CDEs) at once by bringing their files, versions and metadata into one connected record and searching that record, because no single CDE's search can see inside the others. The Utopiaverse™ builds that record in your own Azure tenancy, and AI Insights then lets your team search and ask questions across every platform and project, with answers that cite the source files.
Why each CDE's search only goes so far
Every CDE has its own search, and many now add AI features. Each one only sees the data held in its own platform. An organisation running projects across Autodesk Forma, Bentley ProjectWise, Oracle Aconex, Procore and SharePoint has five separate searches with five different sets of fields and terms. Finding every document about a particular asset, supplier or design issue means searching each platform separately and stitching the results together by hand.
That gap matters most for portfolio questions. Which projects used a particular product? Where has a similar defect appeared before? What did we learn last time we built this type of structure? Our article on AI across multiple CDEs explains why one vendor's AI only ever sees part of the picture.
What cross-CDE search needs
Useful cross-CDE search depends on the record underneath it. Content has to be complete, covering every platform you care about. It has to be consistent, with metadata from each CDE translated into one schema so filters mean the same thing everywhere. It also has to be held somewhere you control, so you decide who can search it and how it is used. The Utopiaverse™ meets those conditions by landing files, versions and metadata in your own Azure, mapped to a common schema aligned with ISO 19650.
How to set up search across multiple CDEs, step by step
List the CDEs and projects you want to search, including completed projects that hold useful history.
Choose how each one feeds the record: CDE Sync™ for live projects, CDE Backup™ for ongoing copies and CDE Archive™ for completed work.
Agree the common metadata schema, usually based on the ISO 19650 fields your projects already use.
Set up the Azure tenancy and region where the record will live, with your IT and security teams.
Connect the platforms and let the first copies land and index.
Enable AI Insights and test it with real questions your teams ask, checking that answers cite the right files.
Extend access to more teams once the results are trusted.
How AI Insights answers questions
AI Insights uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and optical character recognition (OCR) over the record in your Azure. When someone asks a question, it finds the most relevant passages across every connected platform, including text inside scanned drawings and PDFs, and writes an answer that cites the source files. People can open those files to check the context, which matters on projects where decisions carry contractual weight. It also supports straightforward search and filtering by metadata for teams that prefer to browse.
Questions teams start asking
Once the record is connected, the questions change. Estimators look for similar past projects and the issues they hit. Design managers check how a detail was resolved on another job. Asset teams find every document related to a particular piece of equipment across construction and handover records. Commercial teams trace correspondence on a disputed variation across several platforms. Each of those used to take hours of searching in separate systems, or simply did not happen. With one connected record and AI search that cites sources, they become routine, and the organisation starts to learn from its own history.
Security and control
AI Insights runs on Azure inside your own tenancy, in the region you choose, so the record is not copied out to a third party to be indexed. Utopia Digital's products stream files without storing them, and the company holds SOC 2 Type II and Cyber Essentials. See the Security Trust Portal and the global data region map.
Cross-CDE search and the Utopiaverse™
Search across CDEs is where the Utopiaverse™ pays off. CDE Sync™ feeds live projects, CDE Backup™ keeps independent copies, CDE Migrate™ carries history across platform changes and CDE Archive™ adds completed projects. AI Insights then searches the whole connected record from one place. Read What Is the Utopiaverse™? for an overview.
See cross-CDE search in the monthly live demo, or talk to the team about your portfolio.
