One thing that is remarkably clear when speaking with designers and project managers working on BIM (and non BIM for that matter) projects, we do not spend enough of our time coordinating with the wider project team, and spend too much time within our common environments. In a nutshell, spending nearly 90% of our time designing inside tools like Autodesk Revit, and next to no time inside a federated environment such as Autodesk Navisworks or Solibri checking how the design is coming together, and validating our actions and decisions.

Now, I can’t sit here and define the ideal amount of time that we should be spending inside of these environment, but I can say with confidence that spending more time performing these checks will improve the quality of the individual design models, the information that is attached to them and the project in general. Typically, we hear of anywhere between 30% and 50%. Depending on who you speak with and what sources you read. But simply put, the more we communicate, coordinate and use the common environments for the review of the project, the more value we will see in return.

Nowadays, clash detection tools are nothing new, and the ability to check our models for clashes has long been a possibility in many different applications. From checking for simple interferences directly inside of Autodesk Revit to checking for hard clashes inside of Autodesk Navisworks or more sophisticated clashes inside of Solibri.

It is my opinion that we should be looking at leveraging these common environments to perform more tasks both as individuals, internal project teams, and wider project teams. For example:

• Clash Detection
• Validation of Information (COBie, AIM etc)
• Space and Area Validation
• Live Design Review (with traceability using BCF)
• Model and Regulation Validation

This is not an exhaustive list… any actually many of these can be done quickly, and easily using a variety of different technologies available today. For those Revit users out there, if you are not already, you should be leveraging the free Revit model Checker to validate and check the quality of your creations before sharing and publishing. The likelihood is, that if you are using Autodesk Revit you are actually using it as part of an Autodesk AEC Collection which, you guessed it, comes with Autodesk Navisworks Manage. One of the most likely, and readily accessible ways to run clash detections in both your individual models, and against the wider BIM (Building Information Model). If you really want to start seeing ROI and increased value in your checks and coordinating procedures, then Solibri Model Checker is the next step. Alongside your typical coordination tool sets, Solibri allows you to go above and beyond by actually validating your models against an intelligent set of rules, which by the way, are completely customisable.

If you take one thing from the last few minutes reading, take a look at these tools, and especially the BCF format. Just by taking your manual design review meetings and running these electronically through something like Navisworks, using a BCF plugin like BIMCollab will give you metrics, and traceability like you have never had before… Let alone the ability to actually see the resulting issues directly inside of Revit and other design tools at the press of a button! It really is that easy!

Using any one of these tools, you can find real and potential issues earlier, and increase the quality of both the work you are producing internally, and across the entire project.