As of 2025, the marriage of BIM and Digital Twin technology is driving a paradigm shift in infrastructure planning, operations, and facility management. Market forecasts now estimate the global digital twin sector will reach $24–$25 billion in 2025, growing at a rapid 25–40% CAGR in the coming years, with infrastructure and smart-city deployments leading the charge. Faced with rising demands for real-time monitoring and predictive asset maintenance, firms are turning to digital twins built on BIM foundations. To help navigate this convergence, we interviewed Dinesh Desai, Technical Director at Revit Modeling India. With two decades of experience delivering BIM-based solutions for infrastructure and commercial sectors, Dinesh offers valuable insight into designing for data-driven, living models that endure far beyond handover.
Dinesh, let’s start with the basics. What exactly is a digital twin — and how does it connect to BIM?
Dinesh: Think of BIM as the building’s detailed digital blueprint — geometry, materials, systems. A digital twin takes that a step further — it adds live data from sensors, IoT devices, and asset systems to give you a “living” model that reflects real-time conditions. It’s like going from a blueprint to a real-time dashboard of the built asset.
Are digital twins just useful after construction?
Not at all. At ReviCAD, we’ve used Digital Twins during pre-construction planning for a large commercial space in the UK. By integrating BIM with IoT simulations, the client could forecast HVAC and lighting behavior before installation. It helped them avoid costly redesigns.
What’s the biggest benefit of integrating BIM with Digital Twin tech for infrastructure?
Lifecycle intelligence. For example, in a telecom facility project, we created a BIM-based digital twin that could track asset performance, maintenance cycles, and energy consumption — all in real time. It empowered the FM team to switch from reactive to predictive maintenance.
What technologies help bridge BIM and Digital Twins?
Autodesk Tandem, Siemens NX, and Bentley iTwin are all bridging that gap. At ReviCAD, we also use custom-developed APIs that connect Revit data with real-time dashboards. Cloud platforms like Azure Digital Twins or AWS IoT are also key.
What advice would you give firms exploring BIM-to-Digital Twin transformation?
Start from the end — define what you want to monitor or optimize post-handover. That drives what data you model in BIM. Keep models lean, standardize metadata, and always think long-term. A twin is only as smart as the BIM model it came from.
