Clash Detection vs Issue Management: What’s the Difference
Because finding a problem is not the same as solving it.
In BIM coordination, two terms often get tangled up: clash detection and issue management. They both play a critical role in delivering successful projects. But they are far from interchangeable.
Clash detection identifies problems in the model: physical overlaps, workflow conflicts, or misalignments.
Issue management is about what happens next: tracking, assigning, resolving, and verifying those problems across teams and disciplines.
The risk comes when teams assume that detecting a clash is enough. It isn’t. Without a structured approach to manage and close out those issues, coordination errors persist and resurface later when they’re far more expensive to fix. Discover how better communication frameworks reduce coordination errors before they escalate.
In this chapter, we’ll unpack the difference between clash detection and issue management, explain how they fit together, and show why connecting both processes is essential for smoother, smarter BIM collaboration.
What is Clash Detection in BIM?
Clash detection is the process of identifying conflicts within a BIM model, usually before a single shovel hits the ground. Tools like Navisworks, Solibri, or built-in clash detection in authoring platforms scan for inconsistencies where elements collide, overlap, or violate clearances.
Typical clash types include:
- Hard clashes: Physical intersections, like a duct running through a beam.
- Soft clashes: Proximity issues, where objects are too close, affecting maintenance or safety clearances.
- Workflow clashes: Scheduling conflicts, where construction tasks are planned in a way that creates sequencing problems.
Clash detection is an essential early warning system. It flags risks before they become site problems, helping teams reduce rework and delays.
But clash detection alone only answers one question: is there a conflict? It doesn’t answer who’s responsible for fixing it, when it should be resolved, whether the fix was reviewed and approved, or what the communication trail behind the decision was. Those are issue management questions.
What is Issue Management in BIM?
If clash detection highlights what’s wrong, issue management charts the course to make it right.
Issue management is the structured process of documenting, assigning, resolving, and validating problems across project stakeholders. Unlike clash detection, which is largely automated, issue management is human-driven—focused on ownership, follow-up, and accountability. Take a deeper look into how structured issue management improves accountability, ownership, and team clarity.
The process starts the moment a clash (or any coordination challenge) is discovered. From there, a good issue management system transforms a flagged problem into an actionable task with a clear owner, a defined deadline, a complete communication history and verification steps before closure.
And it’s not just about geometry. Issue management covers:
- Specification errors.
- Missing or inaccurate data.
- Regulatory compliance issues.
- Requests for design clarification from site teams.
- Misalignment across disciplines is often the root cause—here’s how to manage it effectively.
Why You Need Both
Clash detection and issue management are not optional choices. They are two halves of a complete, resilient coordination process. Clash detection finds the problems.
Issue management ensures they’re solved. It’s the integration of both systems that creates real, repeatable success.
Imagine this scenario:
During coordination, a clash is spotted—an HVAC duct intersecting a steel beam. A screenshot is taken and dropped into an email: “Please fix.” But no one assigns responsibility. No deadline is set. Two weeks later, the issue resurfaces during a site inspection—unfixed. Now it’s a costly problem delaying structural work.
Now picture the same clash managed properly:
- Detected automatically in Navisworks.
- Logged immediately as an issue using a BCF Manager.
- Assigned to the MEP coordinator with a due date.
- Progress tracked within the modelling environment.
- Resolution verified by the structural team, with full history.
No confusion. No lost time. No budget blowouts. The good news: this isn’t theory. It’s how connected BIM teams work every day with platforms like BIMcollab Nexus.
How to Connect Clash Detection and Issue Management in One Workflow
A complete coordination workflow looks like this:
- Clash detected during model review.
- Issue created from the clash, with view, description, and type recorded.
- Assignment to the responsible party with a realistic deadline.
- Progress tracking inside the modelling tools, with real-time updates.
- Resolution validation before closing the issue.
- Audit trail maintained for accountability and learning.
This seamless connection prevents issues from getting lost between detection and resolution—a gap where so many coordination errors are born. BIMcollab Nexus bridges that gap beautifully. Using BCF Managers, teams can raise issues directly from Navisworks or Revit, sync them instantly to a central dashboard, and track them through to verified closure, without relying on scattered emails or disconnected tools. See how automation eliminates manual tracking gaps and helps teams coordinate faster with fewer errors.
Don’t Just Detect—Resolve
In BIM coordination, identifying a clash is only half the job. Detection alone breeds a false sense of security, and management without detection leads to incomplete coordination.
But when you link them?
- Problems are caught early.
- Responsibility is clear.
- Progress is visible.
- Teams stay aligned—and projects move forward without costly surprises.
If your team is still flagging clashes in one system and trying to manage them manually elsewhere, now’s the time to rethink your workflow.
Explore how BIMcollab Nexus integrates clash detection and issue management into one smooth, scalable system. Explore how both clash detection and issue management fit into a complete collaboration strategy.
Clash detection is only half the story.
Bring structure to your coordination process with a connected workflow that moves from detection to resolution—without losing context.