Construction projects have multidisciplinary teams working together with their own knowledge expertise. Thus, to carry out successful project execution, it is very important to review the data produced by each of these disciplines and identify conflict of information between their drawings/models. Traditionally, project members spend countless hours over light tables manually searching for clashes with each model revision. The use of BIM models has not only made this process faster and easier, but has helped reduce the risk of human error and oversights during model reviews.

There are various types of ‘clashes’ that a project needs to identify. They can be categorized as,

• Missing/duplicate information in 2D drawings
• 3D geometrical clashes such as, pipes running through a HVAC duct or a ceiling intersecting with a structural beam, etc.
• 4D scheduling clashes such as, too many crews scheduled to work in the same space at the same time or sequence and duration of trades arranged in a way that leads to conflict.

It can result into significant time-saving and cost-efficiency if these 2D/3D/4D clashes are detected before the project execution stage, as the cost of improving and resolving these issues are lower off-site than on-site. Clash-detection also plays an important role in bringing together all the different 3D models in a coordinated and error-free way, which can be further utilized for quantity-take off which then, helps create more realistic scheduling and facility management.

Very often, instead of conducting clash detection only one-time for coordination of completed design work, it is used as a continuously on-going project audit and quality control process. The various software applications and tools are available to identify, inspect and report the clashes from the composite project model. Clash detection checks can be performed at any level of detail and across any number of building systems and trades. But their results need to be judged according to the level of detail provided in each model. This highlights the importance of having an experienced model manager who is also equally knowledgeable about construction and design workflows. HOCHTIEF ViCon has specialized services for Clash detection and is supported by years of experience in model management.

To know more about 3D Clash detection services, visit HOCHTIEF ViCon Services page here...

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