Forma Site Design — Sold, Configured and Supported by Accienta.
Forma Site Design is Autodesk's early-stage concept design and environmental analysis platform — previously called Autodesk Forma (the standalone product). It is a completely separate tool from Forma Build, Forma Data Management and Forma Design Collaboration.
Forma Site Design is the platform architects, urban planners and sustainability consultants use at concept stage — to analyse solar exposure, wind conditions, daylight access, microclimate impact and carbon footprint directly in the 3D site model before design decisions are fixed.
On GCC projects where GSAS, LEED, NEOM environmental standards and Saudi Vision 2030 sustainability mandates are project requirements — Forma Site Design gives your design team the data they need at concept stage, not after detailed design is complete.
Formerly known as Autodesk Forma (standalone). All licences, workflows and integrations continue unchanged under the Forma Site Design name.
Forma Site Design — Sold, Configured and Supported by Accienta.
Forma Site Design is Autodesk's early-stage concept design and environmental analysis platform — previously called Autodesk Forma. It is a completely separate tool from Forma Build, Forma Data Management and Forma Design Collaboration.
Forma Site Design is the platform architects, urban planners and sustainability consultants use at concept stage — to analyse solar exposure, wind conditions, daylight access, microclimate impact and carbon footprint directly in the 3D site model before design decisions are fixed.
On GCC projects where GSAS, LEED, NEOM environmental standards and Saudi Vision 2030 sustainability mandates are project requirements — Forma Site Design gives your design team the data they need at concept stage, not after detailed design is complete.
Formerly known as Autodesk Forma (standalone). All licences, workflows and integrations continue unchanged.
Why Buy Forma Site Design Through Accienta?
Forma Site Design is the only Autodesk tool that analyses environmental performance at concept stage — before your design team commits to a massing, orientation or site layout that will fail GSAS, LEED or NEOM environmental requirements at a much more expensive stage to fix. Accienta deploys and configures Forma Site Design for GCC sustainability requirements — so your architects and sustainability consultants are running meaningful solar, wind and daylight analysis on their own project from day one, not learning a new platform while a design programme runs against them.
Solar Exposure and Shading Analysis for GCC Climate
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's solar analysis tools for GCC climate conditions — the intense solar radiation levels of UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that make solar exposure one of the most critical design parameters on any GCC building project. Your architects analyse solar exposure on building facades, roof surfaces and outdoor spaces at concept stage, identifying which orientations and massing forms minimise solar heat gain before structural systems are designed. On GCC projects where solar exposure drives cooling loads, energy consumption and occupant comfort — and where GSAS and LEED energy credits depend on solar performance — getting the orientation right at concept stage is worth significantly more than any mechanical cooling efficiency improvement added later in the design process.
GCC relevance: Solar radiation in UAE and KSA is among the highest globally — concept-stage solar analysis is not optional on any GSAS, LEED or Estidama-targeted project
Wind Comfort and Pedestrian Wind Analysis
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's wind analysis tools for GCC urban contexts — analysing pedestrian wind comfort at ground level around building massing, wind pressure on facades and natural ventilation potential for outdoor amenity spaces. On major GCC mixed-use and master plan developments — NEOM neighbourhoods, UAE waterfront developments and Saudi urban expansion projects — pedestrian wind comfort in outdoor spaces is increasingly a design requirement and a GSAS credit category. Analysing wind at concept stage identifies massing configurations that create wind tunnel effects or stagnant zones in outdoor spaces before the master plan layout is fixed — when changing a building's orientation or form is a simple model adjustment rather than a multi-million dirham design revision.
GCC relevance: NEOM and Saudi urban master plans require pedestrian comfort analysis — wind comfort is a GSAS credit category on KSA projects
GSAS, LEED and NEOM Environmental Standards
Accienta aligns your Forma Site Design analysis workflows to the specific sustainability certification standards your GCC project is targeting — GSAS (Global Sustainability Assessment System) for Saudi Arabia and Qatar projects, Estidama Pearl Rating for Abu Dhabi, LEED for international developer projects across the GCC and NEOM's own environmental performance standards. We configure your analysis parameters to the credit requirements of your target certification — solar access credits, daylight access requirements, urban heat island mitigation and outdoor thermal comfort — so your concept-stage analysis produces data that is directly relevant to your certification submission, not generic environmental data that your sustainability consultant has to reinterpret before it supports a credit claim.
GCC relevance: GSAS is mandatory on Saudi Vision 2030 projects — concept-stage compliance analysis prevents costly late-stage design changes to meet certification requirements
Daylight Access and Visual Comfort Analysis
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's daylight analysis tools to evaluate daylight access to interior spaces and outdoor areas at concept stage — analysing which massing configurations provide adequate daylight to residential units, office floors and public spaces while minimising direct solar penetration that creates glare and overheating. On GCC residential developments where daylight access is a GSAS credit requirement and a sales value driver — apartments with better daylight access command higher prices in UAE and Saudi markets — concept-stage daylight analysis directly affects the commercial value of the design decisions your architects make before detailed design begins. Accienta configures your daylight analysis for the GCC sun path and the specific climate zone of your project location.
GCC relevance: Daylight access is a GSAS and Estidama credit requirement — and a residential sales value driver in UAE and Saudi Arabia markets
Master Plan and Urban Massing Analysis
Accienta configures Forma Site Design for master plan and urban development analysis — evaluating multiple massing options simultaneously to compare solar performance, wind behaviour, daylight distribution and carbon footprint across different site layouts before the master plan is submitted for authority approval. On NEOM, Saudi Vision 2030 urban developments and UAE master plan projects where concept design must demonstrate environmental performance compliance before detailed design investment is committed, Forma Site Design's ability to analyse and compare multiple massing scenarios in the same cloud environment is the tool that enables evidence-based design decisions at the stage when they cost almost nothing to make — rather than reactive compliance retrofitting at the stage when they cost everything.
GCC relevance: NEOM and Saudi Vision 2030 master plans require environmental impact analysis at concept submission — Forma Site Design produces this data directly
Carbon Footprint and Embodied Carbon Analysis
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's carbon analysis tools to evaluate operational carbon and embodied carbon at concept stage — comparing the carbon footprint of different structural systems, facade configurations and site layouts before structural and MEP engineering begins. On GCC projects where net-zero carbon commitments are becoming standard developer and government requirements — NEOM's net-zero carbon target, Saudi Vision 2030 sustainability commitments and UAE Net Zero 2050 — concept-stage carbon analysis identifies which design decisions have the highest carbon reduction impact at the stage when those decisions are still flexible. Accienta configures your carbon analysis parameters for GCC grid carbon intensity, local construction material carbon factors and the specific carbon reporting requirements of your project's sustainability certification.
GCC relevance: NEOM net-zero target and UAE Net Zero 2050 make carbon analysis at concept stage a project requirement, not an optional sustainability exercise
Revit, AutoCAD and Civil 3D Data Integration
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's integration with your existing Autodesk design tools — importing Revit building massing models, AutoCAD site plans and Civil 3D terrain surfaces directly into the Forma Site Design cloud environment for environmental analysis without manual model recreation. This integration means your architects and sustainability consultants analyse the actual design massing — not a simplified proxy model — from the first concept iteration, and analysis results feed back into the design decision process in the same Revit and AutoCAD environment where the design is being developed. Accienta configures the export settings from Revit and AutoCAD and the import workflow into Forma Site Design so your design team can move between authoring and analysis environments without technical barriers.
GCC relevance: GCC design teams working in Revit can analyse environmental performance without rebuilding models in a separate analysis platform
Sustainability Team Training on Live Projects
Accienta delivers Forma Site Design training mapped to each design role — architects on solar massing analysis, shading strategy development and wind comfort optimisation; sustainability consultants on GSAS credit analysis workflows, LEED daylight compliance reporting and carbon analysis configuration; urban planners on master plan environmental analysis and massing comparison workflows. Every training session is delivered on your own live project — your own site, your own massing model and your own sustainability certification targets — not a generic demonstration project in a temperate European climate that has no relevance to a GCC desert site with intense solar radiation and hot dry wind conditions. Your design team runs meaningful environmental analysis on a live GCC project from the first day of training.
GCC relevance: Training on GCC climate conditions — not generic European defaults — ensures analysis outputs are relevant to your actual project environment
Autodesk Forma Migration and Platform Clarification
If your firm was using the previous Autodesk Forma standalone product — the early-stage design and environmental analysis tool, not Autodesk Construction Cloud — your licences have automatically rolled into Forma Site Design equivalents as of March 2026 with no data loss and no workflow disruption. The analysis capabilities, the Revit integration and the GCC climate analysis tools are all unchanged under the new name. Accienta clarifies which Autodesk Forma product your firm is licensed for — because the naming change has created genuine confusion between Forma Site Design (environmental analysis), Forma Build (construction management), Forma Data Management (document control) and Forma Design Collaboration (BIM coordination). If you are unsure which Forma product you need, Accienta will assess your project requirements and recommend the correct tool before any licence purchase is made.
Important: Forma Site Design is a completely separate product from Forma Build, Forma Data Management and Forma Design Collaboration — contact Accienta if you are unsure which Forma licence your project requires
How Accienta Deploys Forma Site Design
Forma Site Design is a cloud-based platform — Autodesk hosts the analysis engine. Accienta's role is not to build the software; it is to ensure your design team can use it correctly for GCC projects from day one. That means configuring the platform for GCC climate conditions, connecting it to your existing Revit and AutoCAD workflows, aligning analysis parameters to your sustainability certification requirements and training your architects and sustainability consultants on your own live project — not on a generic European climate model that has no relevance to a site in Dubai, Riyadh or Doha.
Accienta is an Autodesk implementation partner — we configure, integrate and train. We do not operate the Autodesk cloud infrastructure, guarantee specific GSAS or LEED credit outcomes (those depend on your design decisions and certification body assessment) or provide structural or mechanical engineering calculations. We ensure your team has the correctly configured platform and the training to use it — the environmental analysis results are generated by Autodesk's cloud engine from your design inputs.
Project and Sustainability Requirements Review
Accienta starts by reviewing your project brief, your sustainability certification target and your design programme. We identify which Forma Site Design analysis tools are relevant to your specific project — a GSAS-targeted residential tower in Riyadh has different analysis priorities than a LEED-targeted mixed-use master plan in Dubai or a NEOM neighbourhood with its own environmental performance standards. We map which analyses need to be run at which design stage, what outputs your certification submission requires and what your design team's current technical capability with environmental analysis tools is. This review takes one to two days and prevents the most common Forma Site Design deployment failure — configuring a platform for analyses the project does not need while missing the specific analysis requirements the certification body will ask for.
A clear deployment plan — which analysis tools to configure, which certification requirements to align to and which team members need training on which workflows
GCC Climate and Location Configuration
Forma Site Design uses climate data to drive its solar, wind and daylight analysis. Accienta configures the platform with the correct climate dataset for your project location — UAE coastal climate for Abu Dhabi and Dubai projects, inland desert climate for Riyadh and central Saudi Arabia, Red Sea coastal climate for NEOM and Jeddah projects, and Gulf coastal conditions for Qatar and Bahrain. The default Forma Site Design installation does not automatically use the correct GCC climate data — it requires configuration for your specific project location. Using incorrect climate data produces solar analysis results that underestimate actual solar radiation levels in GCC climates, leading your design team to make orientation and shading decisions based on data that does not reflect the actual environmental conditions their building will experience.
A Forma Site Design environment using verified climate data for your specific GCC project location — so every analysis result reflects the actual environmental conditions your design will face
Revit and AutoCAD Workflow Integration
Accienta configures the connection between your existing Autodesk design tools and Forma Site Design — setting up the Revit to Forma Site Design model export workflow so your architects can push their massing model directly into the analysis environment without rebuilding it from scratch. We configure AutoCAD site plan import for projects where the site context is authored in AutoCAD and Civil 3D terrain data import for projects where site topography affects solar and wind analysis. The goal is to remove the technical barrier between your design environment and your analysis environment — so running an analysis becomes a routine part of the design process rather than a separate technical exercise that only your most experienced BIM user can perform. We test the workflow end-to-end on your own project files before training begins.
A tested, working connection between Revit and Forma Site Design — your architects push their massing model and receive analysis results without manual model recreation
GSAS, LEED and NEOM Analysis Parameter Configuration
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's analysis parameters to align with the specific requirements of your sustainability certification target. For GSAS projects — the mandatory certification on Saudi Vision 2030 developments — we align solar access analysis to GSAS credit SS-3 and SS-4 requirements, daylight analysis to indoor environment quality credits and urban heat island analysis to site sustainability credits. For LEED projects we align to Sustainable Sites and Indoor Environmental Quality prerequisite requirements. For NEOM projects we align to NEOM's own environmental performance framework. Accienta does not guarantee certification outcomes — certification decisions are made by the assessment body based on your design performance, not by the analysis platform. What we guarantee is that your analysis outputs are configured to the correct parameters for your certification target so the data your sustainability consultant uses for credit submissions is relevant and correctly formatted.
Analysis outputs aligned to your specific certification credit requirements — not generic environmental data your sustainability consultant has to reinterpret before it supports a credit claim
Role-Based Training on Your Live GCC Project
Accienta delivers Forma Site Design training mapped to each role — architects on solar massing analysis, shading strategy and wind comfort review in the context of their actual design decisions; sustainability consultants on analysis workflow management, output interpretation and credit submission data extraction; urban planners on master plan massing comparison and environmental performance benchmarking. Every training session uses your own project — your own site location, your own massing model in Revit and your own certification target. Training on a generic European demonstration project in Forma Site Design produces a team that understands the platform buttons but does not know how to interpret analysis results for a GCC climate, a GCC certification system or a GCC design standard. Accienta's training produces a team that can run and interpret environmental analysis on a live GCC project from the first day of deployment.
A design team that runs solar, wind and daylight analysis on their own live GCC project — not a team that has completed platform training but cannot apply it to real project conditions
Platform Updates and Ongoing Support
Autodesk updates Forma Site Design regularly — adding new analysis capabilities, updating climate datasets and changing the interface. Accienta monitors platform updates and advises your design team when changes affect your configured analysis workflows or introduce new analysis tools relevant to your GCC sustainability requirements. We provide direct support for platform access issues, Revit export failures and analysis configuration questions that arise during live design programme use. We are clear about what support we provide and what we do not — Accienta resolves platform configuration and integration issues. Autodesk's cloud infrastructure performance, analysis engine results and platform availability are Autodesk's responsibility. If you have issues with analysis accuracy or platform performance, Accienta will work with you to escalate to Autodesk support through our Gold Partner channel.
A deployment that stays current as Autodesk updates the platform — and a clear escalation path when issues arise that require Autodesk involvement
Who Uses Forma Site Design on GCC Projects
Forma Site Design is a concept-stage tool — it is used by the people who make early design decisions, not by the people who manage construction delivery or document control. If you are looking for a construction management platform, a CDE or a BIM coordination tool, those are different Autodesk Forma products. Forma Site Design is specifically for design and sustainability roles who need environmental analysis data before design decisions are fixed.
Forma Site Design = early-stage environmental analysis. Not Forma Build (construction), not Forma Data Management (documents), not Forma Design Collaboration (BIM coordination). Different products, different users, different project stages.
On GCC projects: Solar orientation decisions made at concept stage directly affect cooling loads, energy consumption and GSAS or LEED energy credit performance for the entire life of the building — Forma Site Design gives architects the data to make those decisions correctly at the cheapest possible stage
On GCC projects: GSAS is mandatory on Saudi Vision 2030 developments — sustainability consultants need concept-stage analysis data to advise design teams before certification-critical decisions are fixed in detailed design
On GCC projects: NEOM and Saudi Vision 2030 master plans require environmental performance analysis at concept submission stage — Forma Site Design produces this data at urban scale
On GCC projects: Major Saudi and UAE development projects require environmental impact assessment as part of the planning approval process — Forma Site Design produces the solar and wind data EIA consultants need
On GCC projects: Cooling system sizing is the largest energy cost in GCC buildings — concept-stage solar analysis directly informs the mechanical system specification that drives energy performance for the building's lifetime
On GCC projects: Developers on NEOM and UAE programmes with sustainability commitments use Forma Site Design outputs to verify design proposals meet environmental targets before approving detailed design investment
On GCC projects: Outdoor thermal comfort in UAE and Saudi Arabia summer conditions requires specific analysis — Forma Site Design provides the solar and wind data landscape architects need to design usable outdoor spaces in extreme heat
On GCC projects: UAE and Saudi architecture schools are integrating environmental analysis into design education — Forma Site Design provides the accessible analysis platform for teaching climate-responsive design in GCC conditions
Important: Contact Accienta before purchasing any Autodesk Forma product — the naming is genuinely confusing and buying the wrong licence is a common and avoidable mistake
Forma Site Design in the GCC — Answered Honestly
The questions architects, sustainability consultants and urban planners in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar ask before purchasing Forma Site Design. Every answer reflects what the platform actually does, what Accienta actually provides and what neither the platform nor Accienta can guarantee — because accurate information at this stage saves everyone time and money.
Forma Site Design (this page) — early-stage concept design and environmental analysis. Solar, wind, daylight and carbon analysis at massing stage. Used by architects, sustainability consultants and urban planners.
Forma Build — construction site management. RFIs, submittals, snagging, quality inspections and cost management on site. Used by project managers, site engineers and QA teams.
Forma Data Management — project document control and CDE. Drawing registers, transmittals, version control and ISO 19650 document management. Used by document controllers and BIM managers.
Forma Design Collaboration — cloud BIM coordination. Clash detection, cloud worksharing and multi-discipline model coordination. Used by BIM managers and BIM coordinators.
If you searched "Autodesk Forma" and are not sure which product you need, contact Accienta before purchasing. Buying the wrong licence is a common and avoidable mistake.
Accienta will assess your project requirements and confirm which Autodesk Forma product — or combination of products — your team actually needs before any licence purchase is made. This is a free pre-purchase consultation that takes 30 minutes and saves firms from purchasing licences for the wrong platform.
On GCC projects with GSAS certification targets (mandatory on Saudi Vision 2030 developments), LEED targets (common on international developer projects across UAE and Saudi Arabia), Estidama Pearl Rating (Abu Dhabi), or NEOM's own environmental performance standards, Forma Site Design produces the concept-stage analysis data that sustainability consultants need to advise design teams before certification-critical decisions are fixed.
Accienta configures Forma Site Design with verified climate data for your specific GCC project location — UAE coastal, inland desert, Red Sea coastal or Gulf coastal — so your analysis results reflect actual GCC environmental conditions rather than default climate assumptions that underestimate solar radiation in the region.
GSAS is mandatory on Saudi Vision 2030 developments. If your firm is designing buildings for NEOM, Red Sea Global, Diriyah Gate, Qiddiya or any Saudi government infrastructure programme, your sustainability consultant needs concept-stage environmental data to advise the design team before GSAS-critical decisions are fixed. Producing that data after detailed design is complete — when changing orientation or massing form costs millions — is the most expensive way to try to meet a certification target.
Accienta configures Forma Site Design's analysis parameters to align with the specific GSAS credits your project is targeting — so the analysis outputs your sustainability consultant uses for credit submissions are correctly formatted for the GSAS assessment process, not generic environmental data that needs reinterpretation before it supports a credit claim.
Honest answer: Accienta configures the platform and trains your team. Achieving the GSAS credit depends on your design decisions and the assessment body's evaluation — not on the analysis platform or its implementation partner.
For concept-stage design decisions, Forma Site Design's analysis is accurate enough to identify which orientation is better, which massing form reduces solar heat gain, which shading strategy improves daylight access and which site layout creates wind comfort problems. For detailed energy modelling, HVAC system sizing calculations or certified energy performance reports required for building permits in UAE or Saudi Arabia, a dedicated energy simulation tool — IES VE, EnergyPlus or DesignBuilder — is the appropriate platform. Forma Site Design and detailed energy modelling tools are complementary, not competing: Forma Site Design informs the concept stage, detailed energy modelling validates the detailed design stage.
Accienta configures the correct GCC climate dataset for your project location and validates that your Revit massing model is correctly imported before analysis runs begin — ensuring the analysis inputs are accurate so the outputs are meaningful for your design decisions.
Honest answer: Forma Site Design is a concept-stage comparative analysis tool — not a certified energy calculation platform. Use it to make better design decisions, not to produce engineering certification documents.
AutoCAD site plans can be imported to provide the site context surrounding the building massing. Civil 3D terrain data can be imported for projects where site topography affects solar and wind analysis. The integration is straightforward when configured correctly — the common failure is attempting to export an overly detailed Revit model that contains elements Forma Site Design does not need, creating file size and import issues that slow the analysis workflow down.
Accienta configures the Revit to Forma Site Design export workflow — setting the correct export parameters, testing the connection on your actual project files and training your architects on the export process so pushing a massing model to analysis takes minutes, not a support call.
The name change happened because Autodesk rebranded Autodesk Construction Cloud as Autodesk Forma — and suddenly there were two different products called "Autodesk Forma." To resolve the confusion, the standalone environmental analysis tool was renamed Forma Site Design and the construction cloud products were renamed Forma Build, Forma Data Management and Forma Design Collaboration. The analysis capabilities of Forma Site Design are unchanged from the previous Autodesk Forma product.
If your firm was using the previous Autodesk Forma standalone product, Accienta can review your existing configuration and update it for the Forma Site Design platform's current capabilities — particularly the GCC climate configuration and Revit integration settings that affect the accuracy of your analysis outputs.
NEOM's scale — multiple neighbourhoods, each with different building typologies, climate zones and environmental performance targets — makes concept-stage environmental analysis particularly important. Design decisions that are wrong at NEOM's scale are extraordinarily expensive to reverse. Forma Site Design's ability to analyse and compare multiple massing configurations simultaneously is directly applicable to the design option evaluation process that NEOM concept design submissions require.
Accienta cannot provide NEOM's internal environmental performance specifications — those are available through the NEOM design guidelines issued to contracted design teams. What Accienta can provide is a Forma Site Design environment configured for NEOM's Red Sea coastal climate zone and trained to produce analysis outputs in the formats NEOM's environmental review process uses.
Accienta configures Forma Site Design for NEOM's specific climate zone and trains your design team on the analysis workflows relevant to NEOM's environmental review requirements — solar access, wind comfort, outdoor thermal comfort and carbon analysis at both building and neighbourhood scale.
Accienta does not publish standard service pricing on this page because deployment scope varies significantly between projects — a single architect on a residential building in Dubai has different configuration and training requirements than a sustainability team on a master plan submission for a Saudi Vision 2030 programme. Contact Accienta for a deployment scope and fee based on your specific team size, project requirements and sustainability certification target.
The Autodesk Forma Site Design licence cost is separate from Accienta's implementation fee and is purchased through Accienta as an authorised Autodesk distributor channel partner. Accienta will provide licence pricing alongside the implementation fee in a single proposal so you have full cost visibility before committing.
Accienta provides a combined proposal covering Autodesk licence cost and implementation fee in a single document — so you have complete cost visibility for both the platform and the professional services required to make it work for your GCC project from day one.
Deploy Forma Site Design — Configured for GCC Climate Conditions, Your Sustainability Certification Target and Your Design Team's Workflow.
Accienta configures Forma Site Design with verified GCC climate data, correct Revit integration, GSAS and LEED-aligned analysis parameters and role-based training on your own live project. Your architects and sustainability consultants run meaningful environmental analysis from the first day of deployment — not generic platform training that does not reflect GCC climate conditions or GCC certification requirements.