This is a guest blog by Vishakha Jadav
The construction industry has gained tremendous marketability throughout its existence. Earlier when the technologies were not mainstream and not fully used by contractors, builders, and owners, they prepared a model drawing on paper with a pencil to drive their visualization of how their buildings would look.
Since the 1960s, drafters and designers prepared drawings in a 2D Model with the help of AutoCAD software wherein the model design could showcase drawings as per architectural, structural and MEP engineers. However, it took a lot of time to design the model to be able to accurately visualize how the building would materialize after construction.
There are many pros and cons of making drawings on 2D CAD Models. One con is that it is often rework might be required during construction due to installations and design of elements not adequately depicted on the 2D Drawings. In other words, you could draw them in 2D, but building them the way they were drawn in 2D wasn’t practical.
Later in the 1980s, many construction companies started growing and looking forward to adopting BIM and other digital technologies as digital transformation had enabled the construction industry. BIM was an early adoption in the construction industry but was not known by many companies. Since the government has mandated the use of BIM Drafting Services in public and private projects, it has gained momentum.
BIM (Building Information Modeling) can help architects and engineers to visualize and look into the model closely enough and identify any potential clashes and resolve them during the design stage itself. It will enhance collaboration among the three disciplines and is an accurately detailed model. Let’s take a look at how BIM coordination and clash detection services works in a construction project:
What are BIM Coordination and BIM Clash Detection?
In the construction industry, these two services are interchangeable terms which are considered essential for any design to come out accurate as expected and without any clashes in 3D BIM Models. BIM Coordination Services is an important design criterion and process used in all construction projects. It provides better collaboration within the design domain to get an accurate digital representation amongst all three disciplines of any construction project. It is a process of Building Information Modeling which coordinates between architectural, structural and MEP engineering based on design and its elemental outcome. BIM Coordination and Clash detection services also outlined the installation process in all three disciplines along with the coordinated model and aids in providing collaboration that will align and improve the construction design of a project.
Clash Detection Services is the initial stage in the BIM Coordination Process which identifies clashes by getting accurate interferences to check reports that is vital for BIM Model trades. Clashes can be hard or soft that depends on extraction reports in a specific format. Extracting clash reports helps to check the level of interference between architects, structural and MEP engineer’s disciplines which aid in differentiating between severe and routine clashes.
Soft clashes can be resolved by easily re-modeling a BIM Model, whereas some hard clashes need to be clearly understood and worked on by expert engineers. Inspection, identification, and reporting of clashes across the three disciplines ensure efficient execution of new and existing projects.
Traditional Method vs. BIM for Coordination
In primitive times, when construction projects were manually done through hand drawings, it took a lot of time to make it accurate and precisely the same as visualized by the designers. Projects had a lot of rework done due to design issues not getting resolved until during construction. This lead to sub-optimal productivity and delayed projects in delivery, which is costly. The construction industry in the early stages was also not stable and had many issues during the turnover, when handing over the final projects to its clients.
With the emergence of the BIM Process, it has transformed the way construction projects used are done. In the event of digitalization, many technologies along with BIM is widely becoming accepted and used in projects to leverage all the benefits of cost reduction on a project, minimal wastage of materials, etc.
BIM Model is prepared in 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D & 7D dimensions to individually deal with the geographical representation of the model and to see how it will look when constructed. It is also to flesh out any faults in the design so that the project comes out accurate and as expected.
BIM coordinated and collaborated with architectural, structural and MEP engineering disciplines can streamline the design process, identify clashes and resolve them during the design stage. It has proved to provide many benefits to construction projects and hence is being used by more and more architects and engineers.
BIM Coordination and Clash Detection Process
BIM Coordination Services forms the backbone for most implementation in BIM related projects. While BIM Coordination Process includes Clash Detection reports, constructability reviews and virtual or personal coordinated meetings with construction professionals, it enhances the operability and purpose of BIM software to ensure that the project is not delayed or incurs unnecessary costs for the team and clients.
It ensures coordination is done prior to installation to minimize design changes. It identifies constructability issues in the pre-design stages to avoid errors in design, reduce clashes and improve coordination among architectural, structural and MEP disciplines. It aids in reducing wastage, conflicts, and installation issues.
Design drawings are converted into virtual 3D Models for geometry representation where all the models are then created in Revit or Navisworks to detect errors, interference’s or collisions, etc.
Benefits to Architects and Engineers
BIM Coordination and Clash Detection Services are essential aspects of the design process and preparation of a model in the construction industry today. Applying BIM methodology can bring out effective benefits to both architects and engineers working on it as stated above including:
- During an inspection of the model, Clash Detection in Revit and Navisworks can reduce the number of change orders during construction leading to less human errors saving time, money and resources for contractors, companies and building owners.
- 3D Clash detection reports with detailed mapping of parts of the current structure help the engineers to make additional design modifications and improvements in existing structures that are later handed over to contractors.
- These tools aid in reducing design errors and inadequacies that are costly during and after the completion of the project design.
- BIM Coordination and Clash Detection Services provide an avenue for collaboration between architects, engineers, contractors, and builder to resolve issues early on and make the project design precise and accurate.
- Real-time construction scheduling can be derived from BIM Coordination and Clash Detection Services.
- BIM Coordination can help to maximize building space utilization.
- It enables multiple engineers to work on a single model and synchronize the model to reflect changes made by every user in a project.
Conclusion
BIM Coordination and Clash Detection Services are essential for designing a 3D Model through a process that ultimately helps to make the design more accurate and detailed and easier to read by the clients through a virtual representation of a model.
In the coming years, technologies and BIM together are going to gain momentum in achieving the accurate design and a clash-free model through complete tracking, analysis, and supervision by the architects, engineers, and building owners.
About Vishakha Jadav
Mrs. Vishakha Jadav is a content writer and editor at Tesla Outsourcing Services. This is a Global BIM & CAD Outsourcing Services in the industry since 12+ years serving its client in US, UK, Europe, Canada & Australia. She has a flair for writing articles, website content and blogs for the construction industry based on trends and technology changes.
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To your success,
Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP
Engineering Management Institute
Author of Engineer Your Own Success
