openAWP is the advanced work packaging platform, a web application that holds the packages, tags, constraints, and progress for a project. 3D for Power BI and 3D for Excel are add-ins that bring a 3D model into the tools where people report and plan. They work on their own, and they can also read their model and data from openAWP.
What Each One Does
openAWP is where the work packaging happens. Each project defines its own tables for CWAs, CWPs, EWPs, IWPs, and tags, clears constraints before release, and records progress against the work. It runs as a web application on your infrastructure or ours.
3D for Power BI is a Power BI custom visual. It embeds a 3D viewer in the report page, colors the model by any field in the dataset, and filters both ways, so selecting a package filters the model and selecting components filters the rest of the report.
3D for Excel is an Excel add-in. It puts the same viewer beside the workbook, so the rows of package data and the model they describe sit on one screen.
How They Connect
Both add-ins open a model through a source picker, and one of the sources is openAWP. You sign in to your openAWP platform, browse its projects, and load a model with the data openAWP already links to its components. Other sources include a demo model, an uploaded model, and Autodesk Construction Cloud.
Inside openAWP, the connection also runs the other way. Power BI reports can be embedded in openAWP's own Power BI page, and clicking a data point in a report selects, highlights, or colors the matching components in the viewer.
When to Use Which
- openAWP for planning and releasing work, where packages, constraints, and the lookahead live
- 3D for Power BI for weekly reporting to stakeholders, in the reports your team already publishes
- 3D for Excel for field engineers who work from a spreadsheet, beside the workbook they already use
Many teams use all three on one project. The package data is entered once in openAWP and read by the reports and workbooks around it. Power BI for construction reporting covers how the reporting layer itself is built.
Want reports like these built for your project? Our reporting and analytics team builds them, or explore openAWP directly.