Everyone is asking the same question:

Can AI design? The jury is still out.
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But there is another question we can answer today:

Can AI make design software adapt to the way you work?
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For most of the history of design software, one product was built for an entire industry. All architecture firms were expected to adapt its process to the software.
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But all firms are not the same. They have different design methods and ways of solving problems. Projects are not all the same either. A multifamily development in one city is very different than a hospital in another.
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But, we design them using essentially the same software.
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Every firm is unique. Why isn’t your software?

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Until now, there were limited alternatives. You succumb and adapt your process to the tool, assemble spreadsheets and scripts around it, or invest years in building and maintaining custom software. Both are not ideal.

AI creates another possibility.
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Today, we are introducing Apps and App Builder in Snaptrude.
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A Snaptrude App is a design workflow turned into software. It captures the inputs that matter, the rules your team follows, and the outcomes you need. Because it operates directly on the building model, the geometry, data, quantities, costs, and drawings that remain connected.

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App Builder uses AI to help create these Apps.

You describe the workflow. You define the decisions and constraints that matter. App Builder turns that knowledge into a purpose-built experience inside Snaptrude.

An assistant can suggest what to do. An App can execute a workflow.
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To demonstrate this, we built two very different Apps.
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The first is a multifamily configurator that connects unit mix, circulation, efficiency, building form, and project economics. Teams can explore configurations without manually rebuilding every iteration.
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The second is a facade builder App that creates facade modules, calculates their cost, and generates renders.
These Apps solve very different problems. That is the point.
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The breakthrough is not that Snaptrude can ship two more workflows. It is that we no longer have to decide which workflows every firm gets.

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A firm can encode the methods using AI that make its work distinctive. This is what we believe the AEC world needs - more design and helping firms focus on the problems that matter.
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An owner can encode the requirements and benchmarks that define a successful project. Knowledge that once lived in spreadsheets, scripts, files, and the minds of a few experienced people can become reusable software.
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We are not automating design decisions. We are automating the execution of design decisions.
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People remain responsible for intent, judgment, and authorship. Software handles more of the work required to turn those decisions into geometry, data, analysis, and deliverables - the execution work.
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Apps and App Builder are the first part of our next major release at Snaptrude.

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The last generation of design software compelled every firm to adapt. The next generation will adapt the software to every firm.
Every firm is unique. Now, its software can be too.

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Starting today, the first Apps built by our team are available to every Snaptrude user. Log in to Snaptrude to try them.

We are also opening early access to App Builder. If you have interesting ideas to turn workflows, standards, and knowledge into reusable Apps, apply for early access.