Posted: 29.09.2016
This post makes suggestions about what information can make your clash detection reports more useful to participants.
Astute use of clash detection reports will allow all participants to benefit from the BIM process and begin to realise the cost and productivity savings that are expected on a BIM project.
Component GUIDs
When a clash is detected the GUIDs (global unique identifiers) or IDs of the affected components can be added to the issue text.
A BIM author can copy the GUIDs/IDs from the clash report and do a find operation in their BIM system to navigate directly to the component. This reduces the time it takes to resolve errors, especially when components are small or difficult to navigate to.
For this reason, we find it useful to have GUIDs/IDs prominent in the clash report.
In the above example some MEP components are not correctly coordinating with the floor slab. Each of these components has an ID and GUID that can be added to the report.
Be aware that sometimes you will receive a clash report and your model has progressed since submitting your last clash rendition. Components may have been changed or remodelled which could change their GUIDs/IDs.
To prevent this from happening we recommend adding extra information in the form of…
Grid references and locations
A clash issue should contain a grid reference, building storey and other locational information.
Many project participants will be using a free viewer to look at everyone’s model, but others will still be relying on an Excel report. These people, relying on static screenshots and text instead of a fully navigable 3D federated model, will need more information to go on. This extra layer of information will also negate problems arising from missing IDs.
In the example on the left extra information about component location has been added to the report.
More posts on clash detection and analysis will be published in the future so please check back here regularly if this is something you’re interested in.
