5 inspiring examples of how BIM professionals use BIMcollab

You are starting another project and you know the drill. You have a well-established workflow, a capable and experienced team, they have their preferred BIM modeling tools, and you use BIMcollab to coordinate your project issues. You’ve been down this path many times before.

But every now and then we all could use something fresh in the mix. That is why we want to share 5 unique and exciting BIMcollab use examples, that some of our biggest clients use. Have a look, and who knows… it might inspire you to incorporate BIMcollab tools in new ways on your projects.

1. Involve your non-BIM stakeholders

Sure, issue management is commonly used on BIM projects. But on any project, not all team members are BIM users. And often the non-BIM savvy members feel excluded from project coordination.

But not with BIMcollab, as we hear from many of our users. The user-friendly interface of BIMcollab Cloud, makes it easy for any member to connect to the project and participate in the coordination, without having an access to a BIM tool. And if you add to that the BIMcollab’s integration with AutodeskDocs and Trimble Connect, now even non-BIM users can see the 3D issues in the model context without leaving the web browser.

And for the users that are ready to dive into the BIM world, you can always share the BIMcollab ZOOM Viewer download link that will give them access to a free model viewing tool, which is highly approachable and intuitive for a new user. Now you just need to share the models with them, and you are on the path of making all of your team members BIM savvy.

2. Work with latest models across all your BIM tools

BIMcollab’s integration with CDE platforms like Autodesk Docs and Trimble Connect provides you access to the latest models across all your BIM tools, as well as access to issue management in the context of browser-based model viewing. Users on the move, on a tablet while traveling between meetings on the train or the airplane, appreciate having the possibility to work on project coordination via a web browser rather than having to open a complete BIM software package.

You are probably using Autodesk Docs or Trimble Connect to share models with the team and their modeling BIM tools. Next, through ZOOM’s unique feature, Project Folder, you can link a shared folder on Autodesk Docs and Trimble desktop apps to your BIMcollab project. Then you can rest assured that all of your team members are validating and checking the latest models in ZOOM.

Finally, BIMcollab’ s integration with both platforms allows you to access models stored in the CDE platform, directly from BIMcollab Cloud. Team members (even the non-BIM users) can review the federated model, and create new or review existing issues without ever leaving the web browser.

3. Prevent reporting of duplicate clashes

It is no surprise that in the project coordination process, occasionally unnecessary issues are added.
A situation we often encounter, is that when a new project starts and new team members join, they first like to test out the platform. Naturally, a new tool is added to their workflow, and users want to review all the features and add some test issues to try out the coordination flow.

Additionally, it often happens that mistake issues are added in the actual coordination process, for example, coordinators checking the models and reporting duplicate clashes to issues. If this sounds familiar, you should check out BIMcollab ZOOM where it is impossible to accidentally report any already reported clashes.

With our Delete Issue feature, we see project leaders allowing for coordination flexibility, in both accounting for new team members adding test issues and experienced members adding issues by mistake. The Delete Issue feature provides an opportunity for project leaders to keep a clean and organized project history, without any unnecessary issues cluttering the project library.

4. Get the most out of your data with Power BI

You don’t have to be a data analyst to manage construction risks through your project data. We see more and more users share their examples of how they use the BIMcollab’s integration with Power BI to monitor the project‘s health.

With BIMcollab’s powerful integration with Power BI, which offers custom data visualization tools, you can harvest your data to track the project progress, identify trends, isolate problem areas, and predict future bottlenecks. Staying on top of your current data, allows you to proactively stay on top of future risks before they impact your project delivery.

TIP: If you want to try out Power BI but don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered. Start by downloading and connecting our Power BI Dashboard template file, that you can further customize for your needs.

5. Organize coordination meetings in virtual reality

With the current pandemic situation, many team members are not able to join in-person coordination meetings, many stakeholders work from several location, and many site jobs have limited access. Here is where having an option to host virtual project walkthroughs inside the project 3D models comes in really handy. It not only gives you the flexibility in physical meeting location, but also offers a unique opportunity to easily visualize the issue’s setting, even for stakeholders that lack understanding of the project context.

Through BIMcollab’s integration with most powerful virtual reality platforms on the market like Vrex, Formitas and Verify3d, teams can organize remote coordination and design reviews in the model context, review constructability problems, and flag issues directly in the model as they come up. All project stakeholders can join the session from their computers, and participate in the collaboration process with a few clicks.

There you have it, 5 unique BIMcollab use examples, to shake up your existing coordination process. We hope we gave you some ideas of new tools and workflows to potentially try out on your project, while keeping up with the latest industry developments.

Want to see how these can be used for your projects?

Then reach out to our experts! They’re more than willing to demonstrate it to you and your team. Simply select a date and time.