Is Lunr a 12d Synergy alternative?

For an asset owner, yes. 12d Synergy is Australian AEC data management built around the design office, with managed datasets for 12d Model and other folder-based engineering data, CAD plugins at the desk, and a Windows client as the main application. Lunr is the owner's controlled record, held in the browser, with revision control, transmittals, and OCR search inside scanned sheets, and no client to deploy. Owners choose Lunr when the record has to stay reachable by everyone in the organisation for the decades after the job closes.

What is the difference between Lunr and 12d Synergy?

The difference is who the record is shaped for. 12d Synergy is shaped for the firms producing the data: jobs, folders, tasks, managed datasets, and byte-level replication between offices, reached through a Windows client. Lunr is shaped for the owner receiving it: a controlled register, revision history, transmittals, and full-text search across scans, reached through a browser on any operating system. 12d Synergy holds the advantage while the civil design is being made. Lunr holds it once the asset is built and has to be operated.

Do we still need a Windows client, Windows Server, and SQL Server?

No. Lunr runs as a hosted service, so there is no application server, no SQL Server instance, and no desktop client between a person and a drawing. There is no .NET prerequisite to push to workstations and no memory sizing to redo as your user count grows. Drawings, models, and Office files open in the browser on macOS, Windows, a tablet, or a phone, which matters most for the operations, facilities, and contractor users an owner never wanted to deploy software to.

What happens to our 12d Model, Civil 3D, and survey data?

It stays where it works best. 12d Synergy manages folder-based 12d Model projects, survey datasets, and CAD dependencies well, and a design office should keep it for that. Lunr takes the issued output: the drawings, models, reports, and as-constructed records that become the owner's controlled set. They arrive by connector, bulk import, or a transmittal from the consultant, and nothing is converted away from its native format.

Do people need a particular licence tier to view or mark up a drawing?

No. Every capability is standard: the viewers, revision control, project spaces, XRAY search, sovereign hosting, single sign-on, and the full audit trail. There is no Collaborator Pro, Information Management, or Advanced Data Management distinction to administer, so a facilities officer who needs to measure a sheet and a document controller who runs the register work in the same system without a licence change. Pricing is shaped to your organisation, so send an RFQ or an RFP and we will scope it with your team.

Both products are Australian. Where is the data actually hosted?

Lunr is built in Melbourne by Lunr Labs and hosted in Australia or the US, in the region your procurement policy requires, so data residency is a line item you can name in a tender rather than a question you carry. 12d Synergy publishes three deployment choices of its own: cloud hosted by 12d Synergy, self-hosted on your server, or deployed on your own cloud infrastructure. Ask both vendors to state the hosting region, the sovereignty terms, and the exit terms in writing, and read the answers side by side.

How does moving off 12d Synergy work, and what comes across?

Revisions, renditions, dates, and attributes come across as controlled records. Revision numbers land as controlled metadata, so REV C stays REV C, and the native drawing and its PDF rendition stay together as one record. Each 12d Synergy attribute is mapped to a Lunr tag, unmatched columns are flagged for you to resolve, and every batch is reconciled against the inventory before it is booked in. Your design office keeps working in 12d Synergy throughout, so the owner's record moves without touching a live project.

fig. 01 · 12d synergy alternative

A 12d Synergy alternative built for the asset owner’s record.

For the owners and document controllers who hold the record long after the design office moves on. Put every DWG, DGN, and RVT under revision control, search the text printed inside scanned sheets, and open any drawing in a browser tab, with no Windows client to deploy and no server of your own in the way.

Book a demo View a drawing in the browser

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail

fig. 02 · where 12d Synergy fits

12d Synergy is strong where civil design data is made.

It grew out of 12d Solutions, the Australian company behind 12d Model, and the heritage shows. Folder-based engineering datasets stay whole, DWG Xrefs and 12d projects keep their dependencies, project email files itself to the job from Outlook, and remote offices pull only the bytes that changed. A civil design office running 12d Model, Civil 3D, and survey data all day should keep it.

The claim here is narrow. It is about the record after handover, and about who can still reach that record in year fifteen of a thirty-year asset.

Read how an owner-side common data environment works

Keep 12d Synergy forcivil design data

Civil design data from 12d Model, held as a managed dataset so a folder-based project keeps its dependencies.
Survey and modelling folders from LISCAD, TUFLOW, XP SWMM, and SPACEGASS, protected as a single working set.
CAD authoring at the desk, through plugins for 12d Model, Civil 3D, BricsCAD, MicroStation, and OpenRoads.
Multi-office worksharing over a WAN, where a File Replication Server caches files and sends only the changed bytes.

fig. 03 · the walls

Where an owner hits the edge of a design-office platform.

Each point below is drawn from 12d Synergy’s own published system requirements, help documentation, and pricing tiers, so your IT department can check every one of them. Together they describe what an owner carries to keep the drawing record available to the whole organisation.

01The primary application is a Windows desktop client. The published requirements list Windows 10 or later with .NET Framework 4.8 on every workstation, so giving a facilities officer or a contractor sight of a drawing starts with a deployment.

02The web and mobile apps are documented as secondary. 12d Synergy's own help describes them as a stripped-down version of the client running in a browser and on Android and iOS. That is a sensible design for a field top-up, and a hard ceiling for an owner whose whole organisation works in a browser tab.

03A self-hosted install carries a server estate. The published requirements expect Windows Server, a SQL Server instance with full-text search enabled, and .NET 4.8, with memory scaled to user count and SQL moved onto its own machine past a hundred users. That is hardware to patch, back up, and certify before a single drawing is read.

04Capability is sorted into subscription tiers. Collaborator Pro, Information Management, and Advanced Data Management each draw a different line around what a person may do, with CAD and geospatial workflows in the top tier and the File Replication Server, Workflows, and CDE Connect published as add-ons. Wide, casual access across an owner's organisation runs straight into that sorting.

05The shape is the job and the delivery team. 12d Synergy organises around jobs, folders, tasks, and the firms producing the data, which is exactly right for a consultancy. An owner needs a register that outlives the job number, the consultant, and the contract it was delivered under.

06The archive an owner inherits is paper. Decades of scanned sheets, microfiche captures, and PDFs with no text layer arrive with the asset, and none of it behaves like a folder-based CAD dataset with live dependencies.

fig. 04 · side by side

12d Synergy and Lunr, capability by capability.

A factual read of what each system does across the life of a drawing. The two are not rivals for every row. 12d Synergy holds the advantage while the civil design is being produced, and Lunr holds it once the drawing is issued and the rest of the organisation needs to read, search, and control the record.

Capability	On 12d Synergy	On Lunr
Managing live 12d Model and civil design data	Yes, managed datasets built around it	Not a design data manager; issued drawings arrive by connector, upload, or transmittal
Folder-based datasets such as TUFLOW, XP SWMM, and SPACEGASS	Held as one protected working set with dependencies	Held as controlled documents, without folder dependency management
The primary way a person reaches the record	A Windows desktop client, with a stripped-down web and mobile app	The browser, on any operating system
Workstation requirements to read a drawing	Windows 10 or later, with .NET Framework 4.8	A browser, with nothing installed
Servers needed to run the record	Windows Server and SQL Server when self-hosted	None, the record runs in the browser
What a person is allowed to do	Set by the Collaborator Pro, Information Management, or Advanced Data Management tier	Every capability standard, for everyone you grant access
Multi-office worksharing over a WAN	File Replication Server, sending byte-level deltas	One hosted record, reached over the internet from anywhere
Opening a DWG, DGN, or RVT without a CAD licence	IFC model viewer in the web app, CAD plugins at the desk	Rift for drawings, Foundry for models, Nimbus for point clouds
Finding a note printed inside a scanned sheet	Search across jobs, files, and attributes	XRAY reads every sheet with OCR, and Deep XRAY re-scans a dense drawing tile by tile
A controlled record for the operating life of the asset	Delivery focused, with handover into downstream systems	The owner's register, held for the decades the asset runs
Where the data sits	Vendor cloud, your own server, or your own cloud	Hosted in Australia or the US, in the region you require

12d Synergy rows describe the platform as published by 12d Synergy in its product pages, pricing tiers, and system requirements. Where a capability is unpublished, the row states what Lunr does rather than guessing.

fig. 05 · nothing to install

Open a DWG, DGN, or RVT in a browser tab, on any machine.

With 12d Synergy, full access means the Windows client, and the web and mobile apps are documented as a stripped-down version of it. In Lunr the Rift viewer renders DWG, DGN, and PDF at full fidelity, with layers, measurement, and markup, in the browser. Models open in Foundry, point clouds in Nimbus, on a laptop or from the field.

View DWG, DGN, RVT, and PDF in the browser, with no CAD licence and nothing to install.
Toggle layers, measure to the drawing's own scale, and mark up with a revision cloud.
Work on macOS, Windows, a tablet, or a phone, without a supported-client list to police.
Give operations, facilities, and contractors access without a workstation rollout.

browser viewers · layers · measurement · markup · no client install

Try the viewers

A drawing open in Lunr's Rift viewer in a browser tab, showing the sheet with its panel rail and viewer toolbar, with no client install required.

fig. 06 · after handover

A record that outlasts the job it was delivered under.

A job closes, a consultant’s contract ends, and the asset runs for another thirty years. Lunr holds the issued set as a controlled register from that day on, receives transmittals against a manifest, and keeps an audit trail behind every approval, revision, and metadata change. Hosting sits in Australia or the US, so data residency is a line item you can name in a tender.

Hold the issued set as a controlled register that survives the job number, the consultant, and the contract.
Receive tracked transmittals at handover, validated against a manifest so a missing as-constructed is caught on delivery.
Keep a full audit trail behind every approval, revision, and metadata change, ready for a compliance review.
Host the record in Australia or the US, in the region your procurement policy requires.

controlled register · transmittals · manifest validation · full audit trail · sovereign hosting

See handover and transmittals Read about hosting and security

Lunr's document activity view, showing an audit trail of transmittals, workflow transitions, and metadata changes on a controlled drawing.

fig. 07 · search

Search the words printed inside a scanned drawing.

An owner inherits decades of scanned sheets that no attribute index can see into. XRAY runs OCR and AI full-text search across everything you store, so a valve tag from a 1994 scan turns up as fast as a file you saved this morning. For a dense drawing, Deep XRAY re-reads the sheet in high-resolution tiles, so faint or crowded text still resolves.

OCR and AI full-text search across every DWG, DGN, RVT, PDF, and scanned image.
Find a tag, a reference, or a note printed inside the drawing, not just the file name.
Deep XRAY re-scans a dense sheet tile by tile, so nothing on the drawing is missed.
Filter by tag and metadata, or find geo-tagged drawings on a map with polygon search.

OCR · AI full-text search · deep XRAY tile re-scan · tag and map filters

See how XRAY search works Read about drawing OCR

Lunr's XRAY search returning drawings matched on text found inside the sheets, scanned drawings included, with metadata and revision shown for each result.

fig. 08 · the drawing register

A register your own team configures.

Book a drawing in and Lunr numbers it, keeps its full revision history, and marks the previous revision as superseded. Title-block fields come across as searchable metadata, workflows and tags are set up by your document controllers, and every controlled document carries an audit trail behind it.

A controlled register per set, showing the current revision and status of every sheet.
Automatic document and version numbering, applied in your register format as drawings are booked in.
Configurable review and approval workflows, with tag-based permissions your team sets.
Superseded revisions kept and marked, never deleted and never mistaken for the current sheet.

controlled register · automatic numbering · configurable workflows · superseded marking

See document control

A drawing's metadata and workflow panel in Lunr, showing title-block fields such as drawing number, revision, and discipline held as searchable metadata.

fig. 09 · moving across

Move the owner’s record, leave the design office alone.

Nothing is ripped out on day one, and no live project is interrupted. Take the inventory, map the attributes, load and reconcile in batches, then cut over on your date. Your consultants keep 12d Synergy for the design data it manages well, and issue the controlled set to Lunr.

01
Take the inventory
Read the jobs and folders you want to hold as the owner's record, and count what is there: documents, versions, renditions, and the attributes in use. Nothing moves before the inventory is agreed.
02
Map attributes to tags
Each 12d Synergy attribute is matched to a Lunr tag, so drawing number, revision, and discipline stay searchable metadata. Unmatched columns are surfaced for you to resolve, and the mapping is saved and re-runnable.
03
Load and reconcile
Documents come across in batches with their PDF renditions, then every record is reconciled against the inventory. Anything without a file or a tag is reported rather than dropped.
04
Let the design office keep 12d Synergy
Your consultants and survey teams carry on with managed datasets, CAD plugins, and their File Replication Servers through delivery, and issue the controlled set to Lunr. Nothing forces an all-or-nothing move.

Lunr's repository folder view, showing an imported folder structure on the left beside the controlled drawing documents on the right.

Export all metadata, drawings, and models at any time, so the record is never locked to us. See the CAD, GIS, and facilities connectors that bring drawings and models in on the connectors page.

fig. 10 · proof

Australian owners already run their record on Lunr.

Universities, utilities, energy companies, and government departments run their drawing record on Lunr, from project delivery through the operating life of the asset, on their own team.

over10,000,000

documents under management on Lunr. Proof the drawing record holds up at owner-and-portfolio scale.

Case study · University of Canberra

20,000+drawings and documents brought under a controlled owner record.

“Lunr is a simple solution that provides the flexibility to develop the system to our needs. Lunr is simple to use, and minimal training is required.”
Daniel Byrnes, Digital Systems Coordinator, Campus Estate, University of Canberra

Read the University of Canberra case study Engineering document management for local government

fig. 11 · questions

Questions owners ask about Lunr and 12d Synergy.

What 12d Synergy is built for, what an owner carries to keep it running across a whole organisation, and what it takes to move the record into the browser without interrupting the design office.

Is Lunr a 12d Synergy alternative?: For an asset owner, yes. 12d Synergy is Australian AEC data management built around the design office, with managed datasets for 12d Model and other folder-based engineering data, CAD plugins at the desk, and a Windows client as the main application. Lunr is the owner's controlled record, held in the browser, with revision control, transmittals, and OCR search inside scanned sheets, and no client to deploy. Owners choose Lunr when the record has to stay reachable by everyone in the organisation for the decades after the job closes.
What is the difference between Lunr and 12d Synergy?: The difference is who the record is shaped for. 12d Synergy is shaped for the firms producing the data: jobs, folders, tasks, managed datasets, and byte-level replication between offices, reached through a Windows client. Lunr is shaped for the owner receiving it: a controlled register, revision history, transmittals, and full-text search across scans, reached through a browser on any operating system. 12d Synergy holds the advantage while the civil design is being made. Lunr holds it once the asset is built and has to be operated.
Do we still need a Windows client, Windows Server, and SQL Server?: No. Lunr runs as a hosted service, so there is no application server, no SQL Server instance, and no desktop client between a person and a drawing. There is no .NET prerequisite to push to workstations and no memory sizing to redo as your user count grows. Drawings, models, and Office files open in the browser on macOS, Windows, a tablet, or a phone, which matters most for the operations, facilities, and contractor users an owner never wanted to deploy software to.
What happens to our 12d Model, Civil 3D, and survey data?: It stays where it works best. 12d Synergy manages folder-based 12d Model projects, survey datasets, and CAD dependencies well, and a design office should keep it for that. Lunr takes the issued output: the drawings, models, reports, and as-constructed records that become the owner's controlled set. They arrive by connector, bulk import, or a transmittal from the consultant, and nothing is converted away from its native format.
Do people need a particular licence tier to view or mark up a drawing?: No. Every capability is standard: the viewers, revision control, project spaces, XRAY search, sovereign hosting, single sign-on, and the full audit trail. There is no Collaborator Pro, Information Management, or Advanced Data Management distinction to administer, so a facilities officer who needs to measure a sheet and a document controller who runs the register work in the same system without a licence change. Pricing is shaped to your organisation, so send an RFQ or an RFP and we will scope it with your team.
Both products are Australian. Where is the data actually hosted?: Lunr is built in Melbourne by Lunr Labs and hosted in Australia or the US, in the region your procurement policy requires, so data residency is a line item you can name in a tender rather than a question you carry. 12d Synergy publishes three deployment choices of its own: cloud hosted by 12d Synergy, self-hosted on your server, or deployed on your own cloud infrastructure. Ask both vendors to state the hosting region, the sovereignty terms, and the exit terms in writing, and read the answers side by side.
How does moving off 12d Synergy work, and what comes across?: Revisions, renditions, dates, and attributes come across as controlled records. Revision numbers land as controlled metadata, so REV C stays REV C, and the native drawing and its PDF rendition stay together as one record. Each 12d Synergy attribute is mapped to a Lunr tag, unmatched columns are flagged for you to resolve, and every batch is reconciled against the inventory before it is booked in. Your design office keeps working in 12d Synergy throughout, so the owner's record moves without touching a live project.

fig. 12 · get started

Let the design office keep 12d Synergy. Give the owner the record.

Book a walkthrough with someone who knows what a transmittal and an as-constructed drawing are, and watch Lunr run against a set of your own.

Book a demo Explore features

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail · Export anytime

entity: Lunr Labs Pty Ltd
location: Melbourne AU
workspace: documents.lunr.app
rev: 2026