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The 2026 EPC software reshuffle: new owners, new names, same plants

A spin-off, a rebrand, a run of acquisitions and a retirement have redrawn the EPC software map this year. Here is what changed, and what project teams should update.

EPC Softwares desk4 min read

Generated transmission plate for this story: an illustration, not a photograph.

Most EPC software changes slowly: plant models, schedules and document registers outlive the versions they were started in. 2026 has been different. In the space of a few months one of the two largest engineering software vendors split off its plant business under a new name, Autodesk renamed its construction cloud, and a series of acquisitions moved familiar products into new hands. None of this changes the physics of a pipe rack, but it does change the names in specifications, licence agreements and integration diagrams.

Hexagon's plant software is now Octave

The largest change is Octave. Hexagon completed the distribution of Octave to its shareholders on 28 May 2026. The new company, Octave Intelligence plc, combines Hexagon's former Asset Lifecycle Intelligence business with its Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial business and the ETQ and Bricsys businesses, and trades on Nasdaq as OCTV. Hexagon has no continuing ownership interest.

For EPC teams the practical consequence is a new product vocabulary. Octave has renamed the former Intergraph and HxGN products:

  • Intergraph Smart 3D is now Octave Forte 3D, and CADWorx Plant Professional is Octave Forte 3DWorx.
  • Smart P&ID, Smart Instrumentation and Smart Electrical now sit in the Octave Facets line.
  • CAESAR II is Octave Aspect Pipe Stress, and PV Elite is Octave Aspect Pressure Vessel.
  • Smart Materials is Octave Loop Core, and EcoSys is Octave Sequence Enterprise.
  • HxGN SDx2 is Octave InConcert, while Smart Construction and Smart Completions are now OnSite Construction Planning and OnSite Completions.

The software underneath is the same lineage; the names in a contract specification, a licence schedule or a staffing plan are not. Every one of these products is catalogued in this guide under its new name, with its former names kept on the plate.

Autodesk Construction Cloud became Forma

On 24 March 2026 Autodesk moved Autodesk Construction Cloud under its Forma industry cloud brand. Autodesk Docs became Forma Data Management, Autodesk Build became Forma Build and BIM Collaborate Pro became Forma Design Collaboration. Autodesk partners describe it as a rebrand rather than a migration: projects, users and settings carry over. The product formerly called Autodesk Forma was renamed Forma Site Design, which is worth noting before anyone searches old documentation.

Industrial software consolidates around data

On 30 June 2026 Schneider Electric agreed to acquire Cognite for $3.1 billion in cash and to integrate it with AVEVA, which Schneider has owned outright since 2023. Cognite Data Fusion and its Atlas AI platform are intended to become data and AI foundations within AVEVA CONNECT. The deal still needed regulatory approvals when it was announced, and the companies expected it to close in the coming quarters.

AspenTech, meanwhile, has been wholly owned by Emerson since March 2025, and its 2026 product messaging (the AVA AI platform presented ahead of OPTIMIZE 26) now comes from Emerson. Octave's first independent results, published in August, emphasised recurring revenue and an agentic AI co-innovation programme whose initial participants are Bechtel and Fluor.

Construction technology buys capability

Construction software vendors spent the year buying reach rather than renaming it. Trimble completed its acquisition of the AI contract-analysis company Document Crunch on 4 April 2026 for $246.4 million. Nemetschek agreed in April to acquire HCSS, the heavy civil estimating and operations software company, and has consolidated it since 1 July 2026. Procore agreed in July to buy DroneDeploy for about $845 million to bring drone, robot and camera data into its platform, with closing expected later in 2026.

Ownership changed further down the stack too. Idox, whose FusionLive is an engineering document management service for capital projects, was taken private by Long Path Partners in May. Eleco, the developer of the Asta Powerproject scheduler, agreed in September to a takeover by Accel-KKR that is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2027.

Retirements to plan around

Microsoft retired Project Online on 30 September 2026, having already folded Project for the web into Planner; Project desktop is unaffected. And although it is not a 2026 event, AVEVA's statement that PDMS has not been sold or supported since 1 April 2024 still drives migration work on brownfield projects modelled in it.

What to update now

  • Specifications and contract exhibits: replace retired product names, or name both old and new where an owner standard still uses the old one.
  • Licence entitlements: confirm how renamed products appear on renewals and whether bundles changed.
  • Integrations: check that endpoints, APIs and file formats you depend on are unchanged after rebrands and ownership changes, even when vendors say they are.
  • Recruitment and training: advertise with both names for a while; engineers will search for CAESAR II and Smart 3D long after the rebrand.
  • Migration plans: anything still on Project Online or PDMS needs a dated plan.

None of these changes alter the EPC Index scores on their own: the products, and the evidence behind each assessment, are the same software. Where an ownership change could affect roadmaps or support, the product's plate says so in its considerations.

Sources

  1. Octave separationHexagon · accessed 23 October 2026
  2. Product namingOctave · accessed 23 October 2026
  3. Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) is now Autodesk FormaArchitosh · accessed 23 October 2026
  4. Autodesk Construction Cloud transitioned to Forma on 24th MarchSymetri · accessed 23 October 2026
  5. Schneider Electric announces agreement to acquire CogniteCognite · 30 June 2026 · accessed 23 October 2026
  6. Octave announces second quarter 2026 financial resultsOctave (via MFN) · 12 August 2026 · accessed 23 October 2026
  7. Trimble Inc. Form 10-Q, quarter ended 3 July 2026US Securities and Exchange Commission · accessed 23 October 2026
  8. Nemetschek Group to acquire HCSSNemetschek Group · 13 April 2026 · accessed 23 October 2026
  9. Procore to acquire DroneDeployProcore · 29 July 2026 · accessed 23 October 2026
  10. Long Path Partners completes take-private acquisition of Idox plcCIMdata · accessed 23 October 2026
  11. Eleco accepts £200 million takeover offer from Accel-KKRAJ Bell · accessed 23 October 2026
  12. Final reminder: Microsoft Project Online retires on September 30, 2026 (MC1478955)Microsoft 365 Message Center archive · 24 September 2026 · accessed 23 October 2026

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