bimeto
German scan-to-BIM service that turns 3D point clouds of existing buildings into ready-to-use BIM models and CAD plans. AI does the geometry, in-house BIM experts refine it, and output arrives as native Revit families or IFC files.
What is bimeto?
bimeto is a German scan-to-BIM service that converts 3D point clouds of real buildings into structured BIM models and CAD drawings. It was spun out of Fraunhofer IPM, the research institute whose speciality is optical metrology, and the company is run from Freiburg. The pitch is squarely about time: conventional scan-to-BIM work is manual and takes weeks, and bimeto promises usable models in days.
The workflow starts with a point cloud. The supported input is the E57 format, and the vendor states that the best results come from individual scan positions of stationary systems, or from portable systems that carry a trajectory. Incoming data is checked for completeness and quality free of charge before anything is modelled; small gaps can be closed by interpolation, while larger problems trigger a recommendation to re-survey. The output is either a native Revit family or an IFC file, and the vendor claims compatibility with Revit, Allplan, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks and AutoCAD, with no conversion or rework needed on receipt.
Three service levels are offered. The base model is produced entirely automatically at a lower level of geometric detail and can be downloaded within roughly six to twenty-four hours. The model service works from existing scan data, lets the customer select only the parts of a building that matter, and adds a review pass by bimeto's in-house BIM experts in Germany to reach a higher level of detail in three to five working days. The full-service package adds on-site 3D capture and runs one to two weeks depending on project size. An express option is available at a surcharge.
This human-in-the-loop arrangement is the vendor's central differentiator: it argues that expert review removes the black-box risk of a purely automated pipeline. Access is through a web application requiring registration; an Autodesk App Store plugin and a direct integration with MAVO 3D scanners provide alternative entry points. Buildings of any size are accepted, from single houses to large industrial complexes. Prospective customers should note that the site, the application and the support are available in German only.
What it does
- Convert a 3D point cloud of a building into a structured BIM model automatically
- Deliver the result as a native Revit family or an IFC file, ready to open without conversion
- Have an in-house architect refine the automated model up to a higher level of detail
- Model only selected parts of a building, such as a facade or a roof, and pay for those alone
- Order on-site 3D capture as part of a full-service package
- Check incoming scan data for completeness and quality before any modelling is paid for
- Push point clouds straight from Autodesk software or from a MAVO 3D scanner
When to use bimeto / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if bimeto is the right fit.
When to use bimeto
- Surveying practices sitting on E57 laser-scan data they need to turn into billable deliverables
- Architects and design offices working on existing buildings, refurbishment and conversion projects
- BIM managers and coordinators who want to remove weeks of manual as-built modelling from their pipeline
- Quantity surveyors and cost estimators who need dependable floor areas before pricing a project
- Facility and property managers building a digital record of a portfolio they already operate
When not to use bimeto
- Teams with no access to a laser scanner or scanning contractor, unless they buy the full-service package that includes on-site capture
- Anyone who needs an English-language interface or English support, because the site, the application and the service are German only
- Developers looking for programmatic access, since no API and no API documentation exist
- Buyers who want to try the software free of charge, as there is neither a free plan nor a free trial
- Projects needing MEP, structural or building-services modelling rather than architectural as-built geometry
How to use bimeto
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create an account in the web application, supplying a name, an e-mail address and a company
- Upload the building point cloud in E57 format
- Alternatively, send scans through the Autodesk plugin or import them directly from a MAVO 3D scanner
- Wait for the free quality and completeness check on the incoming data, and act on any issue the vendor flags
- Choose a service level: fully automatic base geometry, expert-reviewed model, or full service including on-site capture
- For the model service, select only the parts of the building to be modelled, such as facade or roof
- Pay per square metre through Stripe, or take out a monthly subscription instead
- Download the finished model as a Revit family or an IFC file
- Open it directly in Revit, Allplan, ArchiCAD or another IFC-capable application
- Use the thirty days of free post-delivery support for import help, minor adjustments and technical questions
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Turnaround measured in hours or days rather than the weeks that manual as-built modelling normally takes
- Complete and unusually transparent price list, published down to the price per square metre and the project base fee
- Human expert review of every model, presented explicitly as an alternative to an opaque automated pipeline
- Output usable on arrival, with native Revit files alongside IFC and no conversion step
- Customer data stored on servers in Germany, with every processor named individually and with its full address
- Free quality check of incoming scan data before any modelling is billed
- Monthly cancellable subscriptions, no setup fee, and thirty days of free support after delivery
Cons
- No English version at all: the website, the web application and the support are German only
- No API and no API documentation, so the service cannot be integrated programmatically
- Neither a free plan nor a free trial of the software; only a sales demonstration is offered
- No terms and conditions are published, leaving liability, service levels and ownership of the delivered models unverifiable
- The privacy notice is entirely silent on whether customer data is used to train AI models, and documents no way to opt out
- A very thin public presence of six pages in total, with no product documentation and no social channels
- The homepage claims data is processed and stored exclusively on German servers, while the privacy notice concedes possible access from Singapore and the United States
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no free trial of the software; a live demonstration and sample data are offered free of charge, but they are a sales presentation rather than access to the product. Pricing is fully published and quoted in euros across two models. Usage-based pricing starts at EUR 0.30 per square metre of gross floor area for the automatic base model, which is the cheapest paid entry point. The expert-reviewed model service starts at EUR 1.05 per selected modelling area and adds a project base fee of EUR 250, while the full-service package including on-site capture starts at EUR 2.50 per square metre of modelling scope. Monthly subscriptions run in parallel, from EUR 899 per month for the entry tier up to EUR 4,299 per month, with an enterprise tier priced on request. Because the entry price is billed per square metre, a unit the platform's closed billing vocabulary cannot express, no numeric starting price is recorded in the structured fields of this record.
- fully automatic base geometry
- Revit and IFC output
- immediate download
- for whole buildings or clearly delimited units such as flats and rooms
- freely selectable building parts such as facade or roof
- data assessment and quality control
- AI-assisted architectural model refined by in-house BIM experts
- with special constructions
- sections and elevations available at a surcharge
- precise on-site capture
- AI-assisted BIM model refined by in-house experts
- Revit
- Allplan
- ArchiCAD and IFC formats
- project supervision and support
- three buildings per month
- up to 5
- 000 square metres per month
- base model service
- standard support
- six buildings per month
- up to 10
- 000 square metres per month
- expert-reviewed model service at the higher detail level
- priority support and monthly consulting
- unlimited buildings
- no size limit
- both model services
- dedicated account manager
- service level guarantee
- 24/7 support and custom integrations
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how bimeto handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR implementation is concrete and above average for a company of this size. The privacy notice runs to ten sections and names bimeto GmbH as controller under Article 4(7), citing Article 6(1)(a), (b) and (f) as legal bases for each processing purpose. All processors are named individually with full postal addresses: Strato for website hosting, Supabase for the database, Amazon Web Services as the underlying server operator, and Stripe for payments. Data processing agreements are stated to be in place with Strato and Supabase, and standard contractual clauses cover the transfer to Singapore. The full set of data-subject rights is listed, including access, rectification, erasure, portability, objection, withdrawal of consent, protection against automated decision-making and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. No effective date or version number is shown on the document.
Who owns the data?
bimeto GmbH is named as the controller under Article 4(7) GDPR, with a postal address in Freiburg and a single published contact address. The privacy notice describes what the company collects: registration details (name, e-mail, company), company records including VAT number and Stripe customer ID, and project, building and user records such as identifiers, names and floor areas. Payment card data is never stored by the vendor; only a Stripe customer identifier is kept. Notably, the notice says nothing about ownership of the uploaded point clouds or of the delivered BIM models, and the site publishes no terms and conditions, so contractual ownership of the deliverables cannot be established from public documents.
Reuse rights
The vendor publishes no terms and conditions, so there is no public document setting out what a customer may do with the delivered models, whether they may be resold, sub-licensed or reused across projects. What the privacy notice does cover is bimeto's own use of personal data, and it is narrow: contact-form entries serve only to handle the enquiry and are expressly not passed to third parties, registration and booking data serve contract performance, and cookies are limited to technically necessary session cookies holding login information. No advertising use and no profiling are described. The notice is equally silent on whether customer content is used to improve or train AI models, stating neither that it is nor that it is not, and it documents no mechanism for a customer to object to such use.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The homepage states that customer data is processed and stored exclusively on servers in Germany. The privacy notice is more granular and slightly less absolute. Website hosting is handled by a Berlin-based provider, with a data processing agreement in place and server logs that include IP addresses. Application data sits in a database run by a provider headquartered in Singapore, on a server located in Frankfurt and therefore inside the European Union, again under a data processing agreement, with standard contractual clauses covering the Singapore link because no adequacy decision exists for that country. The underlying server is operated by Amazon Web Services through its European entity, processing on EU servers, and payments are handled by the Irish entity of Stripe, also on EU servers. In both of those cases the notice concedes that the American parent company may be able to reach data stored in the EU, relying on the adequacy decision for the United States. The gap between the homepage's exclusivity claim and these concessions is worth noting before committing sensitive project data.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting bimeto.
- The homepage promise that data is processed and stored exclusively on German servers is contradicted by the privacy notice, which concedes possible access from Singapore and the United States
- The privacy notice names one company as the website host, yet the site is actually served from a different content delivery network that appears nowhere in the processor list, so the disclosure is incomplete
- The data processing agreements mentioned are those bimeto has signed with its own suppliers; no such agreement is offered to customers, and the two should not be confused
- No terms and conditions are published at all, so ownership of the delivered models, liability limits and service levels rest on private correspondence
- Nothing is said about whether uploaded scans and generated models are used to improve AI models, and no opt-out is documented
- Usage-based prices depend on floor area, complexity, added services and data quality, so the published rates do not let a buyer predict the final cost of a project on their own
- Automated as-built models still describe a building at a stated level of detail only; treating them as a survey of record without independent verification would put weight on geometry that the vendor itself submits to a human review step
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low on the software side, but there is a hardware prerequisite. The web application needs no installation, only an account with a name, e-mail address and company. The Autodesk plugin is optional. The real barrier is the input: a point cloud in E57 format, which means owning a laser scanner or hiring a surveying contractor, unless the full-service package including on-site capture is bought. Scan quality matters to the result. Output needs no conversion. The interface and support are German only, and the absence of an API rules out any automated pipeline.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind bimeto
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What scan format does bimeto accept?
In what format do I receive the finished model?
How long does processing take?
What happens if my scan data is not good enough?
Is there a free plan or a free trial?
What does it cost to start?
Does bimeto offer an API?
Is the service available in English?
Where is my data stored?
Is my data used to train AI models?
Should you pick bimeto?
bimeto does one thing and describes it clearly: it turns building point clouds into BIM models and CAD plans, faster than manual modelling and at a price it is willing to publish in full. That transparency is the strongest signal here. The complete ladder is on the page, from the cost per square metre to the project base fee and the subscription caps, which is rarer than it should be in this market. The origin in a research institute specialising in optical metrology, the explicit human review of every model, the German hosting and the processor-by-processor disclosure all point to a vendor that has thought about credibility.
The reservations are equally clear. There is no English at all, which rules the service out for anyone outside a German-speaking team. There is no API, no free plan and no free trial, and no published terms and conditions, so the contractual questions that matter most for professional deliverables, ownership of the models, liability and service levels, cannot be answered from public documents. The privacy notice is thorough on the usual GDPR ground yet completely silent on whether customer content feeds model training, which is an odd gap for a vendor whose product is AI.
The public presence is also thin: six pages in total, no product documentation, no social channels, and a pricing page that still carries an unfinished hidden block. None of this contradicts the offer, but it leaves a buyer relying on a sales conversation for anything beyond the headline. For a surveying practice or an architecture office with scan data waiting and a German-speaking team, bimeto is worth a demonstration. For everyone else, the language barrier alone will decide it.
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