Always Learning with Sakari Featured

When I was maybe six years old, my dad asked me: What do you want to do when you grow up? Like they do. I remember answering that I want to invent something.

At the university, I first studied programming and computer science. Nokia mobile phones were a big thing at the time, but working on their software didn’t really inspire me. I went and tried something completely different and almost became a screenwriter.

When I came back to university, I wanted to do something more concrete, so I transferred to the construction department. I finally graduated as a structural engineer, but did my master's thesis on BIM data exchange. This is when we met with Jiri. After a short period of structural engineering, I went to work for the same software company as Jiri to develop a BIM solution. At the same time, we were still working at the university as part-time researchers.

We tried everything to make the BIM data exchange work. We worked with Building Smart to help develop the IFC and its usage. Jiri invented the MVD concept, and I was making the first implementations of it. We made an IFC software certification for the energy analysis software. We did BIM pilot and deployment projects. Jiri wrote part of the first Finnish national BIM requirements; later, I wrote the data exchange part of the Finnish Transport Agency’s BIM requirements. We did BIM coordination and model feasibility checks (a new way of doing model checking). All the while, we were developing a QTO BIM software. Nothing seemed to solve the issues in a scalable way.

Little by little, an idea of a new kind of technology to solve the problem matured. Finally, in 2009, we decided with Jiri to create Datacubist and start developing Simplebim. Imagine my surprise when I realized how well all the things I had done previously supported this idea in the end.

16 years later, here we are. It has been continuous and interesting learning. Whether that has meant learning how to implement IFC import, merging, export, QTO calculations, clash detection, locations tool, statistic calculations, 3D window, build and train machine learning models, or even a Helmert transformation. Haha. Or how to design pricing models, build a distribution network, do marketing and advertising, work through the legal things, run a company, or position the product to the market - tell the story of the product. 

It’s not structural engineering. It’s not just programming either. And it’s not a movie script. It is all of that at once, and an amazing story to tell.

The story is not yet finished. In many ways, it feels that it has just begun. There’s so much more to learn. For example, the BIM dataflows have such great potential.

None of this would matter if there weren’t users of the product. One thing I’m especially grateful for is all the detailed and deep conversations and interactions we had the possibility to have with our customers and partners over the years, all over the world. That might be the most important thing. I hope Simplebim Community will continue that legacy, or rather, take it to the next level if possible. Looking forward to continuing to learn together with you all, and hopefully in the process, changing how the industry works with digital data.

Thanks,

Sakari