BIMcollab has made managing clash detection enjoyable

“Great places can improve the way we live together,” is the ambitious motto of Maber Associates. Bringing together knowledge from a breadth of industry sectors, the architects and BIM consultants at Maber work on construction projects ranging from £1m to £350m both in the UK and abroad. Over the past years, Head of BIM Josh Chrystal, has implemented BIMcollab Nexus and BIMcollab Zoom enhancing control significantly in the design and construction process.

Josh Chrystal: “Managing clash detection results through spreadsheets was time consuming and not engaging for the design team. Before BIMcollab, clash detection issues were managed via an excel spreadsheet exported from Solibri. This spreadsheet would be shared around the design team for consultants to make comments on issues assigned to them. These comments would then be federated back into the main spreadsheet before the next round of clash detection. A tricky approach, since construction on site moves quickly and the status of clashes, whether they have been resolved or closed, needs to be quickly reflected. Otherwise, the information is not useful.”

Single source of truth

As the BIM projects at Maber became larger and more complex, it was important that the team developed a more streamlined and sophisticated way of sharing clash detection results. Josh: “We first tested BIMcollab Nexus with a free account and quickly realised this was a great way of sharing clash detection information and a tool that would bring us enormous time and efficiency savings.”

“We now have adopted BIMcollab Nexus on all projects where we are providing clash detection services. BIMcollab Nexus provides a single source of truth on the status of clashes – removing the need to combine email, spreadsheet and meeting comments. The live link connection between design team members commenting on clashes and their resolution, encourages collaboration. Consultants can see that their comments are being actioned rather than wasting time filling in a spreadsheet that gets filed away.”

BIMcollab is a tool that brings us enormous time and efficiency savings.
– Josh Chrystal, Head of BIM

Working remotely with BIMcollab Zoom

“We typically use BIMcollab Zoom to visualise outstanding clashes in a dedicated section of design team meetings. Particularly during the pandemic, being able to share the models over videoconferencing systems such as Teams has been truly invaluable. Now, the dashboards and graphics we generate form part of our monthly BIM reports on how we are meeting the KPI’s of the project.”

BIMcollab Zoom is highly recommended

“BIMcollab has made managing the clash detection process an enjoyable process. Ease of use. Simple but effective. Flexible system in terms of user defined fields. Quick and responsive to changes. We encourage all consultants on our projects to use the BCF manager plugin for their particular design software, whether that be Revit or Archicad. Using the BCF manager removes another step between the design teams and clash results as they can view, action and comment clashes directly in the native design environment they are used to.

I would recommend everybody to try BIMcollab Zoom as a great IFC viewing software and any business interested in hosting clash detection should try the whole BIMcollab ecosystem!”

Sumary

CompanyMaber Associates
BranchArchitecture, BIM Consultancy
SoftwareBIMcollab Nexus and BIMcollab Zoom
ChallengeAs (BIM) projects grew larger, the clash detection process increased in time-consumption, complexity and lack of engagement of the team members.
SolutionBIMcollab Nexus and BIMcollab Zoom provided the proper instrumentation for managing the clash detection and resolving process, throughout teams and even by working remotely.
ResultsA single source of truth for managing clashes in both the design and construction phases, happy team members, continuous insight through dashboards and serious time savings.