Software Tools Supporting Advanced Design Requirements for Digital Twins

This paper intends to present considerations for designing a Digital Twin (DT). DT’s have up till now primarily been developed post construction, when Operation & Maintenance (O&M) where involved in the final phase of a new construction. When DT’s are looked at as add-ons one has already lost a vital momentum during the design phase. DT’s have to be considered as part of the BIM design and take its origin in the O&M demands but should also be used for extensive simulations long before construction or implementation of any kind of construction including infrastructure systems. Unfortunately, this is not really possible because design tools do not provide any features during design to include DT related functionality. This positional paper will discuss and present relevant considerations for necessary tools to develop DT’s during the design phases, what is needed, where the challenges lie from a software development point of view, but certainly how DT’s can profit from early design considerations.