Case study - BIM/CAD Platform for Designing Lightning Protection Systems

Overview

Bolt Architecture is a cloud-native BIM/CAD analysis platform that turns the design of lightning protection systems (SPCA) into a computational-geometry workflow.

Built in March 2026, the solution tackles one of the most critical problems in electrical engineering: designing lightning protection for complex buildings remains a manual, error-prone, and two-dimensional process.

In Colombia, Article 15 of the RETIE and the NTC 4552 technical standard require an SPCA for all public buildings, hospitals, and industrial facilities. Bolt Architecture automates this regulatory compliance with millimeter-level 3D precision.

The technical challenge

Building a computational-geometry platform for lightning protection posed complex challenges:

1. Geometric complexity: Processing 150-500MB BIM models (IFC/DWG/DXF) with millions of triangles for precise boolean calculations.

2. Rolling Sphere Method: Implementing the protection algorithm through 3D boolean operations (Trimesh + Manifold3D) that simulate the strike radius of an electrical discharge.

3. Real-time visualization: Rendering massive 3D models in the browser with React Three Fiber + WebGL for instant presentations to clients and inspectors.

4. Regulatory compliance: Generating automatic reports formatted to NTC 4552-2 for ONAC inspection with full traceability.

5. Asynchronous processing: Running KD-Tree collision calculations and boolean operations in Celery workers without blocking the user interface.

What we did

Core Capabilities

Native BIM Import

• Supported formats: IFC 2x3/4, OBJ, DXF, DWG (via Teigha converter)
• Maximum size: 150-500MB per model
• Processing: Asynchronous parsing with visual progress

Rolling Sphere Method

• Precise 3D geometry: Trimesh + Manifold3D for boolean operations
• Variable radius: Configurable by protection level (20m, 45m, 60m)
• Volume calculation: Automatic identification of unprotected zones
• Optimized collision: KD-Tree for efficient intersection detection

Real-Time 3D Visualization

• Engine: React Three Fiber (R3F) on top of Three.js
• Rendering: WebGL at 60 FPS on mid-range GPUs
• Interaction: Interactive placement of protection spheres
• Preview: Real-time preview of the design

Risk Assessment Engine

• Asynchronous workers: Celery + Redis for non-blocking processing
• Applied standards: NTC 4552-2 (Colombia), IEC 62305 (International)
• Report generation: PDF with ReportLab + audited traceability
• Export: DXF (ezdxf) for CAD integration

Technical Architecture

Frontend (React + R3F)

Backend (FastAPI + Celery)

Computational Geometry Stack

Trimesh        - Triangular mesh manipulation
Manifold3D     - Solid boolean operations
Scikit-spatial - Spatial geometric calculations
R3F            - React 3D rendering
Three.js       - Underlying WebGL engine

Infrastructure and Deployment

Hardware Specifications

• Processing: 4-8 vCPU, 16GB RAM (no GPU required)
• Scaling: Celery workers process meshes asynchronously
• Deployment: Docker Compose (dev) / Kubernetes (prod)

Performance Benchmarks

Regulatory Compliance

IEC 62305 - Lightning Protection (International)

• IEC 62305-1: General principles
• IEC 62305-2: Risk assessment
• IEC 62305-3: Protection of physical structures
• IEC 62305-4: Protection of electrical systems

NTC 4552 - Colombian Technical Standard

• NTC 4552-1: General requirements
• NTC 4552-2: Lightning risk assessment
• NTC 4552-3: Structure protection
• NTC 4552-4: Internal protection systems

RETIE - Technical Regulation for Electrical Installations (Colombia)

• Article 15: Requires an SPCA for public, hospital, and industrial buildings
• Traceability: Immutable audit logs for ONAC inspection

SaaS Business Model

Revenue Streams

1. SaaS subscription - By project volume

   • Starter: $49/month (5 projects)
   • Professional: $149/month (unlimited)
   • Enterprise: Custom (API, SSO)

2. Per-project license - Occasional users

   • $25/project with 30-day access

3. Certification add-on - ONAC-format exports

   • $15/report with digital signature

Market Opportunity

Product Roadmap

Current Status (MVP Live)

• Dockerized infrastructure (PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO, FastAPI, Celery)
• Upload and 3D visualization of IFC models
• Rolling Sphere Method implementation
• Risk assessment module (NTC 4552-2)
• User authentication (admin/engineer roles)
• Production deployment with SSL (digelec.com.co subdomain)

Value Delivered

Status: MVP live in production with pilot clients in Colombia, processing real BIM models for certifiable lightning protection design.