FAQ
Straight answers.
The questions design technology leaders, BIM managers, and principals ask us most — answered without the marketing gloss.
What is Frank, and how is it different from an AI chat assistant?
Frank is SWAPP’s agentic AI architect. It isn’t a chat sidebar that gives advice — Frank reads and writes your live BIM model, executing real documentation, modeling, and QA work inside Autodesk Revit and Graphisoft ArchiCAD. You ask in plain language, Frank does the work on the model and shows a live log of every change, and you stay in control: Frank proposes, your team approves.
Is Frank a Revit co-pilot or AI assistant?
If you’re looking for a “Revit co-pilot” or an “AI assistant for Revit or ArchiCAD,” Frank is the agentic AI assistant that works inside both. But it goes further than a co-pilot that only chats or suggests: as SWAPP’s AI architect, Frank reads and writes the live BIM model and executes real documentation, modeling, and QA work — grounded in your firm’s own standards. You ask in plain language; Frank does the work and shows a live log of every change, with your team approving.
How do we actually work with Frank day to day?
Conversationally, from a chat panel docked inside Revit or ArchiCAD. Ask for what you need — “add exterior dimensions to this plan,” “create floors for these rooms,” “run an ADA check on the toilet rooms” — and Frank executes it on the live model, showing a live log of every change as it goes.
What can Frank actually do?
Frank runs a constantly growing catalog of skills across modeling (floors, ceilings, finishes), dimensioning, tags and annotations, views, callouts and elevations, sheet production, model-health QA, and ADA checks. New skills ship continually — you can browse the full, current list, each with a short clip, on the Frank skills page.
Does Frank work in both Revit and ArchiCAD?
Yes. Frank executes the same firm-tuned workflows in Autodesk Revit and Graphisoft ArchiCAD — it isn’t locked to a single authoring platform. Mixed-platform firms run one intelligence layer across both.
How does Frank learn our firm’s standards and graphic conventions?
Frank builds a persistent model of your firm’s standards from your existing projects — annotation rules, QA logic, and graphic conventions. Every correction your team makes becomes workflow memory for the next project, so Frank gets more precisely tuned to your firm over time. That know-how stays yours.
How much time can we expect to save?
On a documentation-heavy project, Frank handles up to 80% of construction-documentation tasks — reducing overall workflow time by up to 50% and documentation time by up to 70%. Exact savings vary with project complexity, and the gains compound as Frank learns your firm’s standards.
Does Frank keep up with design iterations and changes?
Yes. Frank works across the whole project, not a single session — re-running dimensions, tags, views, and QA as the design changes, so documentation stays consistent through every revision.
Do we lose control over our design process?
No. Frank augments, it doesn’t replace. It takes the repetitive production work off your team so they can focus on design — and every action is something Frank proposes for your architects to approve. You keep full creative and final control.
What about liability — are we responsible for errors in AI-generated documentation?
The architect is always in control and ultimately responsible for document accuracy. That’s exactly why Frank is built for a liability-bearing profession: every action is explainable, auditable, and reversible, with a detailed trail of every change, and outputs are validated against your standards. Firms gate execution behind review steps, and automation earns trust over time.
How does Frank fit our AI governance and professional liability requirements?
The licensed design professional who reviews and seals the drawings remains responsible for the final work. Frank is designed to support, not replace, that professional judgment.
Each firm’s models, standards, and knowledge remain isolated within its own secure workspace. Customer data is not shared across firms and is not used to train general-purpose AI models. Frank evaluates its recommendations against your firm’s standards before presenting them for review.
These capabilities help firms implement AI governance practices such as human oversight, traceability, documentation, and data segregation, which are increasingly important in internal AI policies and professional risk management. However, Frank is a decision-support tool, not a substitute for professional judgment, regulatory compliance, or the firm’s own policies, quality assurance procedures, or professional liability insurance.
How does Frank protect our intellectual property?
Frank learns from your data only to serve your own models — it doesn’t replicate or share your designs. Each client’s data is strictly segregated, your firm’s know-how stays yours, native BIM files are never transmitted to third-party LLM providers, and your data is never used to train general models.
How secure is SWAPP, and where does our data live?
SWAPP is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified, with hard tenant isolation, encryption in transit and at rest, and enterprise SSO. It’s cloud-based with no server installation required, and it fits your existing workflows rather than disrupting them.
Can other firms access our data?
No. Each client’s data is strictly segregated by design. The same isolation that protects your confidentiality is what lets Frank stay precisely tuned to your firm’s standards.
Is Frank only for architects, or does it serve the full project team?
Frank starts where architectural intelligence has the most leverage — design and documentation. Projects documented with Frank reach construction with fewer RFIs, fewer coordination clashes, and fewer change orders, because the intelligence was built in upstream. SWAPP is expanding across the project lifecycle, with preconstruction, construction, and operations integrations rolling out through 2026.
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