Agorus Build's Utilization of Iron Suite for Sustainable Off-Site Home Construction

Overview

Agorus Build is revolutionizing off-site home construction through its ONESource platform—a tech-driven solution that unites architectural design, engineering, and manufacturing into one streamlined process. Built for scale and sustainability, Agorus helps developers deliver precision-built homes faster, on budget, and with reduced environmental impact.

Built on a .NET 6+ stack and deployed via Azure, Agorus integrates Iron Software products throughout their digital and physical operations to reduce waste, automate workflows, and accelerate delivery.

Challenge

The Agorus team needed solutions that could:

• Replace paper-based documentation with digital floorplans.

• Automate QA testing for internal workflows and vendor input.

• Improve accuracy in processing annotated construction drawings.

• Enable barcode-based inventory tracking across modular job sites.

• Integrate seamlessly into their C# backend without disrupting Azure deployment.

“We wanted to eliminate as much friction in the construction process as possible—digitally and physically,” said David Jones, Lead Engineer at Agorus Build.

Solution

After testing multiple commercial and open-source alternatives—including Tesseract and PDFSharp—Agorus selected Iron Software’s C# libraries for their unified ecosystem, server-side compatibility, and developer-first design.

IronPDF: Generating Digital Floorplans and Contracts

Agorus generates HTML-based architectural plans and bid documents using IronPDF, eliminating print dependency and ensuring version control. Using Razor templates, documents are rendered server-side into pixel-perfect PDFs in under 3 seconds.

“We generate hundreds of pages of renderings and documentation each week. IronPDF gave us control, speed, and fidelity—without needing extra services,” David said.

IronOCR: Extracting Data from Drawings

IronOCR handles a mix of scanned shop drawings and annotated PDFs from architects and contractors. Parsed values—including project codes, measurements, and material specs—are extracted and filtered through LINQ pipelines to power real-time dashboards.

“We use regex post-processing on OCR output and feed results straight into our scheduling and materials engine,” David explained.

OCR accuracy for mixed formats exceeded 95%—meeting internal QA benchmarks.

IronBarcode: Streamlined Inventory Tracking

QR codes are generated using IronBarcode to tag building components like framing kits and window units. These are scanned on-site to validate deliveries, track progress, and trigger inventory restocking.

IronWebScraper: Automating QA and Vendor Data Validation

Agorus uses IronWebScraper to monitor third-party data sources and internal staging environments, automating testing workflows. This is fully integrated into their Azure DevOps pipelines for nightly verification.

“We built lightweight test jobs that hit endpoints, grab PDFs, and validate content using IronWebScraper—no Selenium required,” David said.

Tech Stack Snapshot

• Framework: .NET 6+

• Cloud Platform: Azure WebApps, Functions, Blob Storage

• Language: C#

• CI/CD: Azure DevOps with automated PDF/QA validation

• Deployment: Server-side libraries integrated into web-based and API-driven apps

Environmental Impact & Recognition

Agorus Build was awarded the Iron Software EcoGrant for their commitment to reducing construction waste. Their framing materials are recyclable and renewable, and their waste processing model ensures 100% of offcuts are reused or recycled.

By favoring timber over steel and cement, Agorus dramatically reduces carbon output—a step toward carbon-neutral home construction.

Results

With Iron Software, Agorus Build has:

• Digitally transformed architectural and operations workflows.

• Reduced reliance on paper and printing by over 80%.

• Achieved OCR extraction accuracy of 95%+ across annotated plans.

• Delivered QR based inventory tracking with no added infrastructure.

• Integrated nightly automation checks into their Azure DevOps pipeline.

• Eliminated delays caused by tool fragmentation and manual processes.

“It’s more important to save developer time than CPU cycles. Iron Software gives us that. It just works,” said David.

Why Iron Software?

Agorus selected Iron Software based on four core criteria:

• Immediate Productivity: Plug-and-play libraries with clear C# examples and no steep ramp-up.

• Unified Toolset: One vendor for OCR, PDFs, barcodes, and scraping—reducing toolchain complexity.

• Server-Side Friendly: Designed for .NET Core and Azure—no interop or Office dependencies.

• Aligned Values: Iron Software’s support for sustainable development mirrored Agorus’ mission.

“We didn’t want to waste time managing four different tools. IronSuite let us move fast and stay focused on building homes—and our team,” David said.

Try It for Yourself

If your team is building .NET apps that rely on document workflows, OCR, barcode tracking, or automation, Iron Software can help. Like Agorus Build, you can replace manual processes with maintainable, high-performance C# libraries that scale with your goals.