The Age of Change: IFC is a thing of the past or why CAD vendors are willing to give up IFC for USD in 14 key facts

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20 November 2024

Das Zeitalter des Wandels: IFC gehört der Vergangenheit an oder warum ADS und andere CAD-Anbieter bereit sind, IFC für USD aufzugeben — 14 wichtige Fakten

3 December 2024

The Age of Change: IFC is a thing of the past or why CAD vendors are willing to give up IFC for USD in 14 key facts

1. Creating the AOUSD Alliance

In 2023, ADSK, Nvidia, Apple, and Apple will form the AOUSD global alliance to promote the USD format in the construction industry. Important bS members HXGN and TRMBL also join the alliance. The initiative is seen as a step towards an "open format" supported by new concepts aimed at unifying data and standardizing processes.

The concept of using the USD format, as was the case with the IFC format in the early 90s, is being promoted with the active support of HOK companies, which has taken a key role in popularizing USD in the construction industry.

2. HOK: from IFC registration to USD promotion

Since 2022, HOK representatives (HOK CEO P. MacLeamy registered the IFC format with ADSK in 1994 and organized bS) have been actively promoting the use of the USD format in construction at the bS level:

These documents and materials devoted to the promotion of USD emphasize the complexity of working with the IFC format, which may have become a serious obstacle for ADSK developers to use IFC in their products.

Image 2: USD as a Simplified Version of the IFC Format

3. ADSK does not know how to export IFCs

Despite the fact that, according to Wikipedia, ADSK initiated the creation of the IFC format (although de facto its development was started by L. Obermeyer), the company has not yet been able to independently implement full native support for IFC export in its products such as Revit. In 20 years, the development team at ADSK has failed to implement quality support in Revit, its main asset purchased in 2002, and as of 2019, the company officially uses an IFC SDK developed by the Open Design Alliance (ODA), an organization that has been reverse engineering ADSK formats since 1998 and with which ADSK has engaged in numerous legal battles over the past 15 years.

Originally, thanks to the relationship between Revit creator Leonid Reitz's team and SoftDev-ODA developers, ODA tools were integrated into Revit before it was acquired by ADSK. After purchasing Revit and releasing several versions of the product, ADSK accidentally discovered the presence of this "hostile" SDK in its product and promptly replaced it with its own RealDWG SDK. Almost 20 years later, the situation has changed dramatically: ADSK not only joined ODA, but also became one of its founding members, having the opportunity, along with other CAD vendors, to determine the direction of development of tools for working with open data, which initially ADSK fought since 1995.

4. IFC integration price for ADSK

ADSK pays between €50,000 and €200,000 annually to the ODA Alliance for access to the IFC SDK. Paradoxically, ADSK is essentially renting support for a format that, according to official sources, it "created".

This problem does not spare other CAD vendors: certification and development of complex modules for converting their own parametrics to IFC format parametrics require significant resources. For many CAD (BIM) companies this process is like a voluntary participation in a marathon with obstacles, where at every step you have to choose whether to invest in full IFC support or to look for workarounds such as SVF, GLTF, DAE, JSON, CPIXML or USD, which are already widely used in other popular ecosystems.

5. SVF/SVF ADSK and USD as a step towards simplification

For its own purposes of cross-platform interoperability, since 2013 ADSK has been actively using the SVF/SVF2 format - flat and optimized for rendering - in the Forge product. This format is proprietary, but resembles open USD: geometry is stored as "flat" meshes, and properties are stored in JSON.

ADSK uses its own flat standard in which all project information is securely locked behind a layered API, accessible only to those who have paid for an ACC subscription. In this context, the USD format, being flat, could become ADSK's open analog to their own SVF format, just as DXF has become an open version of the DWG format (DXF does not fully preserve DWG primitives).

Image 5: Comparison of SVF and SVF2 Formats

6. USD is actively implemented in ADSK products

ADSK is actively introducing USD support into its products starting in 2023. At the AOUSD Alliance session, ADSK announced that USD exports will soon be available in all of its products.

Eric Bourque, VP Content Creation, ADSK:

"We have been putting it in all of our products. At ADSK, we have a lot invested in USD, treating it like a standard, but it's not. This new alliance mitigates that risk, ensuring things continue to behave as expected. It helps with interoperability on different platforms and ensures data consistency."

Eric Bourque's words about the advantages of USD about universality, interoperability, data consistency remarkably echo the same advantages that the IFC format de jure offers and that ADSK de jure created in 1994. So why create a new format now?

7. CAD vendors do not use IFC for interoperability

The problem of interoperability remains one of the key issues for CAD vendors. Its roots go back to the 1990s, when many legacy products were developed that still require support. For example, Revit code is still partially documented in languages other than English. The situation is complicated by the fact that companies at different times purchased different products built on different technology stacks, which today creates difficulties in ensuring their interaction.

Most major CAD and BIM software companies do not provide direct access to their application data. Among ADSK products, only InfraWorks is an exception: its projects are stored in an open SQLite database format, which allows users to work directly with model data. In contrast, ADSK Revit uses a closed data storage format, limiting direct access to model information.

Instead of open access to the database, it is proposed to work through many different APIs. The solution to this problem of closedness became specialized data converters and SDKs for reverse engineering, the history of which is described in detail in the article "The struggle for open data in the construction industry. The history of AUTOLISP, intelliCAD, openDWG, ODA and openCASCADE". Large companies working with CAD and MCAD formats have to spend between €40,000 and €200,000 annually to access these tools.

Image 7: Model-Centric Approach in OpenBIM and ClosedBIM

The emergence of the IFC format in the late 1990s, replacing DXF, temporarily diverted users' attention from the problem of data openness and the need for SDKs to reverse-engineer DWG format (such solutions were already offered at that time by MarComp, Vision and later openDWG). However, over time, the complexity of the IFC format raises many questions for both CAD (BIM) application developers and users who faced problems with the quality of exporting and importing data from closed CAD systems. According to the chief technical director of bS, some problems, especially those related to geometry transfer, could be solved by using simpler and flatter alternative forms.

Image 8: MarComp's Website and ADSK's Interest (1996)

8. GLTF (~USD) in Ten Principles for a Future IFC

Back in 2020, in the manifesto "Ten Principles for a Future IFC", bS's CTO, Leon van Berlo, proposed that the glTF format be used as the standard for representing geometry in IFC format in the future.

Parametric geometry is a weakness of the IFC format because of the possibility of losing the logic of geometry construction between different software products, which is circumvented by using MESH geometry in IFC. Together with the complex classification, this creates a headache for both developers and users who try to export and import data from IFC.

Image 8: MarComp's Website and ADSK's Interest (1996)

GLTF format, according to the bS technical director, should bypass the problems associated with the import and export of various parametrics geometry, converting it from a complex parametric BREP to a simplified MESH format. Behind the development of GLTF is Khronos Group, an influential alliance of almost all major companies in the world (from Google and Nvidia to IKEA and Samsung) interested in 3D visualization. The format has already received widespread support from key players in the 3D content creation industry, including Unreal Engine, Blender and Unity. Notably, the Khronos Group, founded by Sun Microsystems and Intel, has become one of the main partners in the new AOUSD alliance, demonstrating the continuity and interconnectivity of the two formats - GLTF and USD.

9. Outdated IFC structure vs. simplified USD

IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is the successor to legacy standards such as IGES and STEP, which originated in the era of punched cards and minimal computing resources in the 1970s. IFC's line-by-line structure is a result of its origins in STEP Part 21, which was created based on the IGES experience. Although such formats were cutting edge in the 1980s and 1990s and well suited for use in CNC machines, today their textual line-by-line organization looks archaic and not really suitable for modern digital data processing and analytics.

In contrast, flat formats, such as USD, GLTF, offer a simple flat object hierarchy structure that simplifies data integration and speeds up data retrieval and transformation. USD was originally designed to allow multiple authors to work together and minimize latency, making it more suitable for modern processes than the outdated and complex IFC. You can find a general comparison by parameters important for processing and process automation in the comparison table.

Image 10: Comparative Analysis of Construction CAD/BIM Data Formats

10. IFC authors help develop German USD - CPIXML

In the early 2000s, one of Europe's largest construction companies, Züblin-Strabag, faced the limitations of the IFC format when using it in ERP-CAFM systems, especially for 4D-7D calculation processes. To solve this problem, the company brought in experienced engineers, including one of the engineers who had worked with Leonard Obermeyer on IFC registration in the early 1990s.

The result of this initiative is CPIXML, a new format designed specifically for the current needs of construction companies in German-speaking countries. Although CPIXML is a proprietary format, it is open to read and has remarkable similarities to the recently introduced USD format: both use flat data to store information about geometry and element properties. The main technical difference is that CPIXML uses XML format to store geometry (OBJ) and properties, while USD relies on a JSON structure.

As a digression from the topic and in the context of the history of IFC format creation I would like to address N AG with a proposal to initiate an important historical clarification in the official bS chronology. It is about recognition of the key role of one of the leading engineers of Munich, Mr. Obermaier, a colleague and friend of Mr. NMT, in the creation of the IFC format.

11. Instead of IFC, central Europe uses CPIXML, a USD-like format for 4D-7D

IFC was invented and developed in Germany (TU Munchen and the Obermeyer office), but most large companies in German-speaking countries use the flat CPIXML (OBJXML) format for their 4D-7D processes. ZÜBLIN, STRABAG, HOCHTIEF, Bilfinger, Buro Happold, Implenia, Peter Gross Bau, Deutsche Bahn, Firmengruppe Max Bögl, WOLFF & MÜLLER, Drees & Sommer, ZECH Bau, Kohlbecker Gesamtplan GmbH, Arcadis, Deutsche Telekom, Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes. Almost all large companies in the German-speaking region use the ERP systems ITWO and MTWO, developed in the early 2000s in Stuttgart by Züblin and RIB Software. The success of these platforms is largely due to the extensive global network of joint ventures and the strategic partnership with Microsoft. In 2021, the international group Schneider Electric acquired RIB Software together with the CPIXML format and the ERP based on it for 1.5 billion euros

Despite the fact that large German companies increasingly prefer more simplified formats for their specific 4D-7D tasks, the development of the IFC format continues thanks to an active community of openBIM developers who use the IFC format as the main format in their tools. The OPENBIM marketing concept was created and trademarked by CAD vendors in 2012. Later the trademark rights were transferred to bS, which also registered the trademark and updated the openBIM logo.

12. Blender and UE are actively implementing USD support

BlenderBIM (Bonsai) is one of the main contenders for the first native product in which IFCs can be created and edited. But here too, instead of working with parametric IFC in BlenderBIM, which uses a non-native OpenCascade geometry kernel, users will soon be able to start working directly in Blender with USD - which may soon be offloaded from CAD products. The Blender team is actively integrating USD, potentially lowering the barrier to adoption among users of open and free tools in the future. In addition to Blender, the USD format can be used in Unreal Engine and Unity, which are increasingly winning the hearts of architects and CAFM professionals in the construction industry.

FreeCAD, IfcOpenShell and almost all other IFC libraries such as BlenderBIM use OpenCascade - the only free geometry kernel being developed in Nizhny Novgorod. OCCT (Open CASCADE Technology) is a tool that helps to work with object geometry. It can read data from files of different formats, for example, STEP, OBJ, DWG, and then convert them to another format, for example, IFC. OCCT itself works only with geometry, i.e. the shape and dimensions of objects. Like other openBIM platforms IfcOpenShell uses OpenCascade to work with IFC (acting as a wrapper and working with data about object types or their relationships), but does not participate in the development of the geometry core itself, and has no influence on the development and licensing of OpenCascade.

As a result, in the process of work, users face certain difficulties when using the IFC format, especially in terms of the quality of data export and import. These difficulties prompt the search for alternative solutions. As a result, developers pay attention to the USD format, which is characterized by a simpler and flatter structure. It is promoted by various partner alliances, which contributes to its growing popularity in the industry.

13. HOK and ARUP start to promote USD agenda in bS

At the end of August 2024, TRMBL hosted the bS Developers General Assembly in Westminster at its offices. The main focus of the event was to discuss the benefits of USD in the context of open standards and its potential to improve data sharing in the construction industry.

The largest consulting and design firms, HOK and ARUP, have actively participated in the discussion of the benefits of USD for improved data sharing and have actively begun to actively promote its adoption in the industry:

These papers discuss the advantages of the USD format over IFC, including improved support for complex animations, more flexible integration of 3D models, and efficient data management in construction and architecture.

14. USD appears in the IFC5 development documents

Already a month after the 2024 General Assembly at TRMBL's office, in September, the bS CTO publishes the Examples_FAQ document on GitHub in the IFC5-development repository as preliminary material and development direction for IFC version 5.

Image 14: IFC 5 Examples - Early Stage Guidance

The paper describes examples and key features of the new standard, including an emphasis on the implementation of openUSD concepts and a shift from traditional STEP syntax to more modern and readable formats such as JSON, which is used in USD.

IFC, IFC5 or USD

USD and IFC can be called "cousins" rather than competitors, as both formats address similar challenges of data organization and collaboration on large projects, but from different angles. USD focuses on efficient visualization and combining models from different sources, while IFC stands out for its strength in semantic description of building objects. In theory, this makes them complementary rather than interchangeable. It is possible that in the near future bS will start to borrow the graphical part from USD in IFC5 format, which will allow CAD companies to smoothly transition to full support of USD data export in their products later on.

It is hard to imagine that CAD vendors will support two full-fledged data export formats, creating a kind of "Frankenstein" from a mixture of formats. Most likely, sooner or later vendors and users themselves will be forced to make a choice: either to completely switch to USD export, or to use IFC, borrowing necessary elements from USD.

Currently ADSK is forced to attract third-party developers to create a module for exporting to the IFC format. It is noteworthy that over the past 15 years these developers have been ADSK's main competitors in open data issues and have created a lot of problems for ADSK by opening the company's main formats. Therefore, it is very likely that ADSK will switch to exporting data from Revit directly to the USD format without the use of third-party SDKs, since this format is already similar in many ways to its own flat MESH format SFV/SVF2 used in the ADSK ecosystem.

Support of IFC format in the construction industry is often justified by a simple argument: "IFC is needed by the industry, so it should be supported". However, the situation is more complicated: since IFC is not a native format for modern CAD programs, and the quality of its export and import depends not so much on the real needs of the industry as on the readiness of CAD system developers to provide this support. It is indicative that most developers, including the industry leader ADSK, turn to Open Design Alliance for "quality" IFC SDK and tools to create interoperability between different platforms.

This raises a legitimate question: how necessary are the formats offered by CAD vendors if the same SDKs and reverse engineering methods can be used to convert any CAD data into the most appropriate format for a particular case - be it SQLite, XML, JSON, Parquet or even XLSX? This approach provides more flexibility and convenience than using only USD or IFC, which store information about project elements with their own peculiarities.

Image 16: Transition from Closed Data to Open Data

The current situation with formats in the construction industry resembles a soap opera, in which a leading CAD vendor, acting through its representatives in various alliances, promotes a new format, positioning it as an open format, although it is primarily in the interests of the vendor itself. Instead of providing users with full access to the project database (which is already realized in Infraworks or CAD Exchanger and ODA solutions), only a limited set of data is offered. At the same time, even to obtain this reduced information through the vendor-controlled export, a mandatory subscription to the company's services is required.

Global change, transformation and paradigm shift?

Global changes in format and approach to data are probably related to the long-term strategic interests of vendors. IFC support is less attractive to them, as their main focus is to retain users within their own ecosystems. IFC, on the other hand, is not tied to any particular platform and does not have its own native product with its own geometric core that can fully work with this format.

The main problem with IFC is the lack of its own native geometry kernel product that can fully work with this format. Existing open source projects such as BlenderBIM and IfcOpenShell and many others in the openBIM ecosystem depend on the only free open source OpenCascade kernel being developed in Asia. They have no influence on its development or licensing terms.

In this context, it becomes obvious that in order to achieve real independence in the openBIM ecosystem, it is necessary to develop our own geometry kernel specifically optimized to work with the IFC format. This would reduce dependency on existing commercial solutions and create a more sustainable ecosystem of open tools. But whether it will be needed when CAD vendors can choose a new development vector remains a question.

Image 17: Unified CAD (BIM) Data Formats Through SDKs and Converters

Due to quality issues, complexity and the dependence of the IFC format on various affiliated organizations, funding and interest in its development remains limited. On the other hand, collaboration with technology leaders in the development of the USD format, such as NVIDIA and Apple, provides CAD vendors with opportunities to create new platforms with potentially great prospects for monetizing the use of design data.

The myth of interoperability

There is an interesting phenomenon in the construction industry right now. Many development teams are focusing their efforts on building bridges between closedBIM and openBIM solutions, in the belief that this is the universal key to solving data exchange problems in construction.

But it is enough to recall the events of twenty years ago, when developers, tired of Adobe's dominance in the market of graphic editors, tried to establish seamless integration between Photoshop and GIMP. This historical example can tell us a lot about the pitfalls of such an approach.

Image 18: Interoperability and Data Formats in Construction

Then, as now, efforts were focused on creating links between closed and open systems, seeking to enable interoperability between proprietary and open source software solutions. However, users were actually looking for simple solutions - flat, open data without the unnecessary complexity of layers and program parameters. They just wanted the flat data they needed, ready to use without additional customization.

As a result, almost no one in the imaging industry uses closed formats like PSD or open XCF for applications, social media like Facebook and Instagram, or as content on websites. Instead, most use flat and open JPEG, PNG and GIF formats for ease of use and broad compatibility.

Image 19: Interoperability and Data Exchange Formats

Today in the construction industry, USD,OBJ, glTF, DAE formats play the same role in 3D modeling as flat images do in graphics. These formats simplify and speed up work by overriding compatibility issues. The popular simplified formats NWC, SVF, and CP2 perform similar functions, but they are closed, unlike the aforementioned open standards.

Vendors are following the historical trends of other industries: most users don't need closed formats like PSD or complex GIMP files with layer logic. They need simple object images that can be used in construction Instagram (CAFM), Facebook (ERP) and thousands of other processes filled with excel spreadsheets and PDF documents. Similarly in construction: the closed logic of Revit or the complex parametric files of IFC are often redundant. Users are looking for simplified and flat formats such as USD, CPIXML, DXF, DXF, glTF, SQL, DAE and XLSX that contain all the necessary element information, but are not burdened by redundant BREP geometry logic and internal classifications of specific CAD and BIM products.

Image 20: Common Data Formats Across Media

The situation with data formats in the CAD industry is approaching a denouement. ADSK, the leading developer in the industry, already seems to have made a choice in favor of USD and the AOUSD alliance. The simplicity and versatility of USD looks more attractive compared to the complex parametric structure of IFC.

However, the debate about data formats loses sight of the main question: what is the real value of these dozens of different formats containing the same information in different forms, and what are they really for?

Granular data, analytics, machine learning and big language models

Working with data in construction involves interacting with a large amount of information from different sources, which sooner or later need to be integrated with each other.

Image 21: Comprehensive AEC Workflow and BIM Integration

In today's design and construction world, the complexity of data access leads to over-engineered project management. Medium to large companies in the BIM market are either forced to maintain close relationships with CAD vendors to access data via APIs and products such as Forge and ACC, or bypass CAD vendor restrictions by using expensive SDK converters to reverse engineer for open data.

With access to open data, any construction industry professional who has picked up an LLM and Python can transition to alternative tools for quantitative calculations (QTO), data validation, document creation, spreadsheets and dashboards, moving away from traditional CAD (BIM) solutions. CAD vendors are trying to delay the seamless open data and data analytics transition by creating new formats, concepts and alliances.

The advent of the AOUSD alliance in 2023 marks an important turnaround for the construction industry. We're seeing the formation of a new reality in dealing with construction data through several significant changes. The first major change concerns the perception of CAD data. Market participants are beginning to realize that construction design is just the beginning of the journey. The data created in CAD systems is becoming the basis for in-depth analysis and subsequent operation of facilities.

At the same time, there is a revolution in the approach of leading developers. ADSK, one of the industry leaders, is taking an unexpected turn in its strategy. The company is moving away from the traditional storage of data in separate files, focusing on working with normalized and structured data and moving to a data-centric approach.

Image 22: Data-Centric vs. Model-Centric Approach in Construction Data

No less important is the activation of cloud giants. Amazon and Huawei, seeing the market potential, are accelerating the development of specialized solutions. Their goal is to create marketplace tools for efficient normalization and structuring of construction projects stored in their cloud systems and sourced from various CAD platforms.

By 2025, changes in data processing are expected to accelerate significantly. According to the CEO of Nvidia, already now 30% of computing resources are used to process structured data - dataframes. Meta is preparing to introduce a new LLaMa model, whose key application scenario involves working with normalized columnar information. The popularity of data analysis tools such as Pandas continues to grow rapidly, reaching 10 million downloads per day.

All of these trends mark the beginning of a new era where working with data becomes the foundation of professional activity. The industry is gearing up for a new era - the era of data analytics in construction. Manually moving data between spreadsheets is a thing of the past, giving way to automation, data flow analysis, analytics and machine learning becoming key decision-making tools.

The choice is yours: adapt to this new reality or stay in a world of outdated concepts and closed ecosystems.

The same thing happened with the closed formats of Revit and other CAD/BIM systems that happened with DWG 20 years ago. Reverse engineering SDKs and converters have made these formats available to both developers and users. Almost all major CAD, MCAD and construction companies spend between 10,000 and 200,000 Euros per year to access data via converters and none of the world's leading companies work with data via APIs, plugins or formats offered by CAD vendors - be it IFC or USD.

Old solutions and closed platforms with API documentation are a thing of the past. The de facto marketing concept of BIM is the transformation of customer requirements into reality through the "magic" of metrics and data analysis. If you haven't started learning about analytics, now is the time to do so. Don't wait for vendors to introduce a new format, a new training course, certificate or concept on data analytics. Start working with data and data analytics today - it's the key to the future of the conscruction industry and beyond....

The data that is being created today in the construction industry will be a key resource for business decisions in the future. They will act as strategic "fuel" that fuels the development and efficiency of construction companies.

Conclusion

The future of the construction industry lies in the ability to work with data, not in the choice of format. Results for 2024:

Data formats such as RVT, IFC, PLN, DB1, CP2, CPIXML, USD, SQLite, XLSX, PARQUET and others contain the same information about project elements. This means that knowing a specific format is no longer a barrier to working with data.
The data from these formats are combined into one open granular structure containing MESH geometry and object properties.
Data analytics is the key to versatility: using open data you can learn how to work with project data regardless of the format used. This is not just a useful skill, but your pass to the future of design and construction.
Goodbye APIs: working with data no longer depends on API skills. Learn how to work with open data and start collecting it today!

Developers and users are facing a strategic choice that could determine the future of the industry for years to come. Creating a hybrid solution combining IFC and USD formats seems unlikely - such an artificial combination would be too complex and inefficient. Instead, the industry will have to make a clear choice: either fully transition to a modern USD format or modernize the time-tested IFC, integrating the best elements of USD. This decision will be one of the key factors determining the direction of the entire construction industry.

Current trends in the construction industry will potentially set the stage for a gradual shift away from the aging IFC format in favor of the more versatile USD, reflecting the strategy of major market players such as ADSK, TRMBL and HXGN, already seeking to consolidate their influence through the AOUSD alliance. Historical leaders, including HOK, who once actively promoted IFC along with ADSK and the IAI-bS alliance, are openly promoting USD, emphasizing its simplicity and versatility. The mass adoption of USD in products, GLTF compatibility, and active integration into tools such as Blender and Unreal Engine show the potential for the beginning of a new paradigm for working with data. Along with the popularity of localized solutions such as the European flat USD - CPIXML used in ITWO/MTWO can potentially strengthen the position of USD in Central Europe.

Image 24: Transition from IFC to USD in Construction

Against this backdrop, USD has the potential to become the de facto standard, promising to overcome many current constraints. And bS is already adapting its strategy to USD, which only confirms the inevitability of the shift. USD is rapidly gaining ground in the construction industry due to its simplicity, flexibility and support for large technology alliances. However, the facade of "open data" may hide the intention of market leaders to monopolize project data management. Users find themselves in a position where the choice of format has more to do with corporate interests than actual needs.

The era of change in the construction industry, at first glance, appears to be a technological breakthrough in the form of a transition from the aging IFC to the more modern USD. However, at the moment this transformation is more about big corporations fighting over data management. By analyzing 14 key facts, we can see that the main goal of these changes is not only user convenience, but also retaining control over ecosystems and data flows.

The key lesson: the future lies in open, flat, unified data available for analytics. However, to avoid becoming pawns in the game of the big vendors, construction and engineering companies should bet on true openness and independence today.

I would be grateful for your support and dissemination of this information. Open data and formats will inevitably become a standard in the construction industry - it is only a matter of time. This transition will be accelerated if we all spread the word about open formats, database access tools and SDKs for reverse engineering. Each and every one of you can help in this process. If you find the information you read useful, please share it with your colleagues.