BIM 360 for Design Collaboration, Review and Issues Management

KALYANA SUNDARA ANNAMALAIL: Hello, everyone. Welcome to my presentation, BIM 360 for Design Collaboration and Review and Issues Management. My name is Kalyana Sundara Annamalail, BIM digital technology lead for WME consultants. Here are a few things about me.

I have overall 10 plus years in the select experience in AEC, implemented digital strategies for successfully completing the projects in BIM, a professional who is aware of BIM and enjoys the benefits of BIM and sharing the benefits with others. Let's start with the design collaboration. So before starting with the design collaboration, I have a couple of questions in my mind, which is like six W's and one how questions.

So the first question, what is design collaboration? Design collaboration is the BIM 360 model, which is used for sharing the documents with the other stakeholders or within other discipline members. So where do I need to use this in collaboration? In a traditional way, like the people will use the document controller, they will be uploading the models in the V-transfer link or SharePoint or any other things.

And there is another document controller from other company who will be primarily downloading the files and sharing with the design team for design development. So if you use the design collaboration, we can eliminate such kind of workflows, like the discipline team members directly shared the models with other stakeholders or other project team members, so no need of download and upload or use of V-transfer or the SharePoint links.

So the time question, when do I need to use design collaboration? So there are no fixed timelines you need to use, only this time for doing the design collaboration. It's different from the project requirement. That could be like, if you want to share the project's files on a weekly basis, you can do it in weekly basis or even you can do it twice in a week as well.

So there is no restriction for doing the design collaborations, how many times you share it, and how many times the other people need to use it. The next question is, where can I find the design collaboration. In the BIM 360 module, if you go to that, there is a dedicated module called the design collaboration.

And if you can go to that particular model, you can access the design collaboration module, and you can do the sharing and consuming of module, consuming of other discipline first using that model. The next one is, who is responsible for doing all this kind of activity? Your project member who has the access for the design collaboration module can do it.

And if in your company, if you are designing like the discipline lead needs to do that, that is also possible. Ultimately, he needs to have the access to the design collaboration. That's the one fundamental requirement.

The next question is, how can I do that. Like we have a number of steps involved, and that I'm going to say it in the upcoming slides. So let's move on. Before doing that, I'm just going to explain the workflows, basic simple workflows. Once the model is created or published in the BIM 360, it will go to the design collaboration module.

And once that model setting has been done, and it will be, there is still an option called the transmittal generations, which we are going to see, and once the transmittal has been generated, and the other discipline members or the other project stakeholders will be getting email notifications. Once they got the email notification, they can come to the BIM 360 and they can consume the model. And they can work on it.

And parallely, like we can share that NWC files and Federated NWD, and which can be used for creating issues or issue management workflows, that we are going to see in upcoming slides. OK, let's talk about what are the steps involved in the design collaboration.

There are a total six number of steps involved in this process. The first step is creation of the setup in the BIM 360. Primarily the BIM or the project lead, or the project admin for the particular project, is responsible for that. Once the setup has been done and the models are uploaded to the BIM 360, and they need to be published, all the discipline members who are involved in the project can do the publishing of the setup.

And once it is done, and it needs to come to the design collaboration workflow, for sharing it with other discipline team members, then as I told, we can go to the transmittals. We can generate the transmittal, so the other discipline team members will get it notified by Autodesk BIM 360 communication email system.

And then they can go to the BIM 360 and they can consume that model, and they can link it into Revit, and they can work on it. OK, let's talk about the design collaboration set up, how to do it in BIM 360. So being a project admin, he'll be accessed through the admin portal. And the admin portal, he can go to the services. Under services he can find design collaboration module. And here he needs to add the multiple disciplines, like architecture, structures, ID, and MEP services.

So first when he is starting about, he will be popped up with the dialog box, whether you need to use a default shared folder, or he can go with a customized share folder where it's made detailed from his company's procurement. Once he has selected and he can click on the Continue, but why we need to be very careful on this step, because once you have selected the step, you cannot change it through your project lifecycle. So please keep in mind that while selecting it, you need to select the proper file folder for doing the design collaborations.

Once you have done, and there is an option called Add team, and you can see it over here, and you can see it, give the names, and then you can click on the Continue, and then you can browse to the particular folder in the work in progress. And then you can add it. So, similarly, the cycle will be repeated, depends on the number of disciplines what you would like to add it over here. Once all the discipline has been added, and left ready for model sharing and other process, so let's start with the model sharing.

Before model sharing, what we need to do is we need to publish the models in the BIM 360. So as a step one, like, we will be doing it traditional-like publishing settings in the BIM Revit environment. What are the seeds, views that needs to go to the BIM 360, we can select it.

And this set-up later will help for our review process as well. For that, we are going to see later, for better we'll do the publish settings in the beginning itself. Once the setting has been done, and we can go to the Revit window or to publish the model, you can select the model and publish.

Or you can go to the collaborative and you can use the publish model options. Whichever is good, we can do it. And that publishing will take a little bit of time, depends on the file size and other requirements. Once the publishing has been done, and the discipline team members go to the design collaborations, and he can access that module, and once you have selected model, he needs to make sure that the discipline, what belongs to him, is selected.

Once it is selected, he can go to this plus symbol and he can click on the plus symbol and he can give the particular package name. And he can select what are the models needs to be shared. And he can click Save. Once the save has been done, the share options will be enabled, and he can click on the Share options.

And again, the package name and the package description dialog box will appear. And he can put the name and the descriptions, what primary changes he has made. So it will give the other discipline team members, and they will be understanding about what changes have been done. So finally, he can click Share.

Once he clicks the Share, what it will happen is on the background the document automatically will be copied to the shared folder, which has been, we defined it to you during our setup. So if you can go to the document management, and you can see the shared folder, the files will be getting copied over here.

Once this file is copied, we need to give the notification to the other project stakeholders, say, the model is ready for their consensus. So again, BIM 360's giving an option to share this communication with other stakeholders. He can use like create transmittal options.

Once you click on the model, and use the create transmittal options, and it will pop up with the dialog box, where we need to give that what is the title for the particular things. And you can choose the recipients. Again, the recipients may be like a users' company or role based.

They can select whatever the recipients to get it notified. And we can type the same message, what are the key updates, we have done it on there, and click Create. So the team members will be getting automatically the email notification from the BIM 360. So once they got the email notification, what the other discipline team members will need to do, or if you are getting the transmittal from the other discipline members, you need to do is, you need to go to the design collaboration again, and make sure that, this time, you are selecting your discipline files.

And the other discipline modules will be in the circle with no state. That means the package has been shared and it is not consumed in your disciplines. And then you can click on that particular package and the bottom, you can see like consume options. Then you can click on the consume.

So automatically these files, whatever has been shared with the other discipline team members, will be getting transferred to consumed folder. And inside the Revit, you can go and link that particular file from consumed folder. So let's move onto the quick demo, how we can do these setups.

OK, let's move to the quick demo of the design collaboration set-up in the BIM 360 environment. As I told that the project admin needs to go to the project admin portal. Then he needs to go to the services and under services, design collaboration is there. And he can click on Add-in. Since I have added this information multiple times, so the first time only, you will be getting notified for the selections. And this time, I will just simply go to add.

And I will just type 09 EFLS. So then you can go to here and select the existing folder, and you can browse through that folder structures. And this is number 9 FLS. And you can click Add it. So this is how you can add multiple disciplines over here, once this all has been done, and you are ready for sharing the models in BIM 360.

So you can go to the document management and, once the model has been published in the Revit, and you can come to the document management under the respective folders. In this case, I will go to the MEP. So Revit, you can select the document. Sorry, you will be checking that the files get re-published. Once it is published, you can go to the design collaboration, and there is three dots over here.

If you can expand it, you will come to know that which discipline you are in. And as I told, I need to be in the MEP services. You can go to MEP, and there is a click plus symbol over here. You can select the plus symbol, and you can give the name called like a package, one or two different from that name, you can give it over here.

Once the name has been given, you can go and select the file, which needs to be shared, and click Save, and the Share button will be enabled now. You can click Share. And you can mention the changes what has been done. I will just simply mention that ground floor is updated.

So the other team members will be getting email notifications. So he will become to know that, OK, the ground floor has been updated. Then you can click Share. So once it is shared, as I mentioned, like, it will automatically go to the shared folder. If it goes to the shared folder, the files will be getting transferred or copied. And you can see it here, it is being updated over here.

And then you can select the file and click Save, create transmittal. So you can give this name over here, like MEP work in progress models. And you can select the recipients who need to receive the input, or you can select the company what needs to be done. And you can type a message and then create transmittal.

So once this transmittal has been created, the other discipline members who are addressed, they will be getting an email notification. Once it is done, they can go to the design collaboration module. And this time, what they will be doing is they need to select the other discipline, their discipline model. In this case, I will select architecture.

And if we look into here, the MEP model has been shared, so with the circle with no state. So you can select it and you can consume the model. So once it is consumed, what will happen is it will automatically transfer that information to your consumed folder, and the model can be linked from the consumed folder. So let's move back to the presentation.

So once this all setting has been done, let's talk about the key benefits. So the collaborative work flow has been, the design collaboration has a lot of benefit. So I'm going to give up a key benefit what we had out of that. So when it comes to the collaborative working for, as I mentioned earlier, we don't need to have a document controller who is primarily downloading the files and uploading. All this kind of workflows has been eliminated.

So once the email, or transmittal, has been received, and the other discipline members directly can consume that model, and they can keep working on it, so that durations of uploading, downloading, and sharing the documents from maintaining a proper queue or proper history, everything becomes easy now. And next we talk about like a control of data.

So, for example, the architect needs to share the model for structural discipline, whereas the MEP is not required to use that particular file. So in that case, we don't require to consume that architectural model from the MEP team. So we have a very good control of record of the data, what we need to refer in our design environment.

So, like, whenever we are sharing that model, we will be having a version, keep on getting upgraded. So if we want to, if in case, if we lost any file or any corruption, the work in progress, and later, any time we can retrieve from the shared folder and we can recreate the file in work in progress. So like that, we will not be having any sort of losses, in terms of work, what we've done.

The next good important thing is, like, the changes comparison. Since all the files keep incriminating in terms of the versions will be easy to track, using the BIM 360 comparison, if not only for the one file, like, starting from the schematic stage to till the ED stage or IFC stage, we can easily compare how the design has been moved, or maybe like on the weekly basis, the changes or the models are being shared. So we will easily come to know that, what are the changes has been made from the previous version of model to this version.

So when I compare all of these benefits, from the design collaboration module, and which needs to be done like either a weekly basis or twice in a week, it depends on the project duration and the timeline. We can, minimum, we can save it 27 hours per week. And it's going to be like, if it is a bigger project, and it's, obviously, you are sharing it, like, n number of files, when it comes to that, the hours will keep growing.

And we cannot predict like how much hours we will be saving, like if it is a very big project with multiple files, needs to be shared. OK, let's move into the design review process. Before I started this design review, and I would like to mention like how the industry has been grown, in terms of the technology, and this design review process.

So 10 years ago, when I started my career, literally this design review was happened in the paper printout, and for reviewing one drawing, they will be taking out minimum two to three prints, like a rough copy, file copy, and other things. So they started reviewing everything in the paper environment. When the technology has grown, like everybody started talking about the digital reviews, and, again, Autodesk has bring up the product like Autodesk Design Review, which is quite easy for revision of the comments and putting the comment tracking, all those things.

And some people will do it using a PDF. So when we started off using BIM 360 for this design review process, and we started initially with the reviews in the BIM 360 live file itself, and the comments started providing in the live file. And when it keep progressing, like the publishing is taking so much time, and the review is not possible during the publish, so then, like, we thought of, OK, we will publish it in the night time, so the reviews can be done in the daytime, so there will not be no hindrance to the review process.

And it went well for some time. Again, we had another issue, like, due to the previous stage comments, and when the user started new comments, again it got like overlap of the previous comments. And we thought of archiving it. And again, we have ended up another challenge. And only the review, what our project admin can archive that.

And it's when the review comments are more, archiving takes a lot of time. And we are losing like some sort of records, as well. Then we had a discussion with Autodesk team. And, after multiple discussions, we come to a common solution, like a review can be done in the separate folder. So this triggered a quick workflow, and this is that workflow.

So once the model is ready for the submission, like ready for the review, and the model is shared in the BIM 360, and it is, the result more often, in the BIM 360, which is used for submit for review. And once it is submitted, the particular reviewer, or the discipline lead, will look into the content, OK, is it good? Then he will just approve the document.

As soon as he approves the document, it will go to the review folder, and the design team can take into the account and they can start to review the comments and put it on. Let's quickly see about the steps involved in the review process. There are seven steps involved in it. The step one is the review workflow setup. That will be done with the project admin.

So he can define the workflows, how it needs to be done. And once the workflow has been defined, and the model has been published in the BIM 360, he can submit the model for review. And once the discipline team members submit it, the lead will check whether it is good for review, and he will approve the document.

And he will send the notification to the design team. Once the design team receives the notification, he will start commenting on it, and putting their review comments over there. And once complete review has been done, he will be transferred to those review comments have been completed, and notified to the BIM team.

So they will action on the comment, and they will put their response into it. This is how the whole review steps have been done. And let's quickly look into that, how we can do the setup in the BIM 360. As a tool, like the project admin needs to define the workflows, and he will go to the admin module, and the services, document management, there is one tab called reviews, and he can create the workflow in that particular tab.

Once the workflow has been created, and he can choose the step of what kind of approval he needs. So we just keep minimum, like one step approval. Once it is done, he will put in the name and who is the approver, who is the authorizers, and who is the initiator. And he will define the part where the file needs to be copied. Once this all set-up has been done, and we are ready for the review, this design review process.

So in the design review process, as I told, the model will be published in the BIM 360. And once it is published, he will go to the particular location in the document management, and he will select the file and use submit for review option. So once he's using this option, he will be prompted for selecting a workflow. And he can select the workflow and he can choose the review name, whether it is a ground floor completed, first floor completed, whatever the way we want.

He can give the review names and send, click Next. So then he will notify to the discipline lead, this model is ready for review, and these are the floors here, they can preview it. Then the discipline lead will come to hear on the review folders, and he will select the file, find open, and start review of it.

And once he is happy with the content, he will just approve these things, and submit for review. Once it is done, the document will copy to the design review folder, what has been defined in the workflow. So then he will notify to the engineer. So he will select the file and he will click, go to the particular views or the folders where it needs to be, and, using this like a markup or comment tools, he will add the comments, using all these things.

And before saving the markup, he needs to be very careful, like there are two options available on this private mode. Another one is published mode. So he needs to select either one of them. And if you want to share the comments to other people, always it's recommended to use the publish mode, so then only the other team's discipline members can see his comment.

So he will select the Publish mode, and then once all the review has been done, and he will be notifying to the BIM team who needs to action on it, and he will come to the particular site and he will put his comment, whether it is updated or if there are any clarifications, he can trace it in a separate meeting column. So again, he will also make published mode, and he will save the markup. And this is how the whole review process has been done.

So let's quickly run through it. What are the key benefits we have? And as I mentioned in the earlier slide, it is a collaborative review process. Once the review has been done by the engineer, he can directly share the same link to either their superiors, like a senior engineer, or the principal engineer, or he can directly share the link with the BIM team for updating their comments.

And another one, important thing, is there is no need of additional software to be installed, like either PDF for the design review or any other mediums. And he can directly review it in the web platform only, and anywhere in the world, he can just look into the models and update or provide his comment. And the next one is we'll be having a very good quality control, because each time, whenever we want to have the record of the previous comments, and we can simply update the location, the workflow, which we have seen so earlier.

And we can put it, we can change the location. It will have, keep increment all the history of the particular file. And from the concept stage to still the handover, all the project reviews, we can see it in one folder called review folder. And as it is going to be like minimizing the losses as well, because we will not lose any track of the history or the comment has been provided. And entire things will be in one folder, under one folder all the reviews have been placed.

So when I talk about the time saving, here I just talk about the whole project. So if it is a small or medium sized project, it can save around 100 hours for per project. And it is going to be more like when the review process keeps going. And it's just a tentative figure.

So let's move on to the next topic, which is issue management. So before starting with the issue management, here I have given a small comparison, like how the typical process in the BIM 360 issue management has done. And their process will look like the same, but it has a huge difference, in terms of the actions, what taken into place.

For example, if while you are working on the project, if you identify a lot of issues, and if you are sending it email or Excel it in the traditional way, you need to capture the image as well as the grid's locations, what exactly the locations, for other people to identify it. So when it goes to the other discipline member who is the receiver, and he needs to go to the location, identify it, and what exactly the issue is, it's going to be taking some sort of considerable amount of time for one issue.

And when it goes to the actions, he will be sending, again, under the Excel sheet or the email. And there might be chances he may start a new email and respond it. So in that case, it's like we'll be losing some sort of continuity. And there may be chances of missing some information such as that.

When it comes to the BIM 360, once you have identified the issues, and you can directly pinpoint that issue and putting the comments, OK, this is the issue, you need to action on it. And on the other user, he can, no need to go to anywhere else. He can directly click on the issues.

It will redirect to the particular locations, and he can easily access on it. And all the history of the particular project will be saved in one location. So from the concept till the handover stage for the particular project, whatever the history or the issues, we can easily get it. And even we can add what actions have been done, and everything will be captured in one location.

So when it comes to the types of issue management, there are two different types we have identified. One is the web-based issue creation and update. Another one is the software issue-based creation and update. So on the web-based, you can use the BIM 360. It will simply create the issues and put in attachments, what action needs to be done, what is the proof of evidence what has been done, everything, we can do it in the web platform itself.

The other one is, you can use Navisworks or Revit, for creating the issues in the Navisworks. And you can put all the histories, activities, what has been done. And when it comes to the Revit, the issue that is currently supporting only the updating of the issues, what has been created in the BIM 360.

So let's move into the small workflow, how the issue management works. And once the model has been created, and if you identified any issues, then you can create the issues either in the BIM 360 or Revit or even Federated NWD file. And you can put the pinpoint locations, what exactly the issue is, putting some title, status, and who is responsible for the particular persons, and what is the due date, and other things.

Once it is assigned, the respective person who can act on it, and resolve the issues in the BIM 360, and providing some supports like this, this is the locations I have taken into account. You can add some, you may just adjust. And then he will change the status to answer.

Once it is done, the person will notify to the issue created, the issue is action around it. And the issue creator will look into that and he will close the issues. This is how the typical issue management process in the BIM 360 works.

So when it comes to the Setup, and, again, here also, like the project admin, who needs to do all kind of setups, and in the admin portal, services, issues, there are like four options. Or like one is the permissions, another one is type and route costs, and the fourth one is the custom attribute. If there are any users who can't see the issues or some issues, then he can check over here on the permissions, whether he got allocated with the right permissions.

When it comes to the type or the BIM 360's providing a default type, so if the user wants to create some sort of custom types, also it is possible. You can go to the Types tab, and you can add custom types as well. On the root cause also, the same thing, BIM 360 providing default options, like if you need to add some more additional construction issues, design issues, or constructability issues, all causes, root causes, you can easily add it as a custom value.

And even more, if you feel that I need to add a purpose or level for room names, all is possible using BIM 360. What we need to do is we can choose the custom attribute in that particular thing. OK, now all has been done. And as I told in the BIM 360 web platform, either you can choose it a Revit file or Federated NWD file. In this case, I have just selected a Revit file.

And then you can identify the location of issues and you can use the create issues options. Once you have defined them, and you will be popped up with the type, what type of class it is, and you can select the status, and you can put the title, OK, here in this case, the pipes are exposed. So I typed it, and who is action needs to be done. You can put it and what is the tentative due date for that.

Then you can click Create issues. So, in order to get some sort of solid proof, like there is an option called attachment, where you can take a snap of the current stage and you can drag and drop the file in the web browser itself. Or even you can use it to Revit or Navisworks, whatever it is. You can add that image as well in the attachment mode.

And, if you go to the activity mode, like what are the actions have been taken in the particular thing, you can easily capture it. For example, starting from the open, in all these cases, currently I have made it. I created the issues. And I changed the issues to answer.

I have made the comment stating like, the pipe has been updated, or rerouted, whatever has been done. And I have added an image of current scenario, what has been already done. So previously, there is an exposed pipe. Now it has been done, or rerouted the pipe. And I have changed to the status answer to closed after verifying the model.

This is all done in the web platform. And, at the same time, Autodesk is providing other issues add-in, which is used for updating issues only currently. The issues need to be created in the BIM 360, if you want to use this add-in also. Like, once the issue has been created, you can go to the Issues tab in the Revit window, and you can load the issues.

So what are the issues has been created in the BIM 360, you can see it over here. And with the pin mark, with the illustrated box like shown in the below image, and the other options are similar, like you can capture that issue, saying the responses, all this history can be seen. These all things can be updated within Revit itself, you learn to go to the BIM 360 also.

Then the third step, which is using the Navisworks. And in this case, like we'll be using a coordination add-in. Once the coordination add-in has been installed, it will be a separate tab in the build or Navisworks itself.

It can go to here and manage issues, and be using this coordination item, you can create the issues, and you can update the issues, everything like a BIM 360 web platform, and everything will be a dynamic update. Once you have created the issue, you can dynamically see it in the web platform as well. The rest of all other features are similar to the previous slides.

When I talk about the key benefits, like, there are many benefits we have, as I told you, it's going to be like very easy to raise an issue. And it is a great interoperability between BIM 360, Revit, and Navisworks, because as soon as you create the issues in the Revit file, you can see it inside the Revit using issue sharing. Or if you're creating in the Navisworks, you can see the same using a coordination edit.

Vice versa, like if you are creating any issues in the Navisworks, you can see it in the BIM 360 as well. And if you can capture the entire history of one particular issue, how many times it has been modified, what are the changes it has been done, everything we can see it.

And, again, all the history of the particular project issues, you can see it in one location. And there is many missing, or there is no loss of information, because whatever the issues we are creating, it is automatically keep incrementing the numbers in the BIM 360, so there is no loss. And if you are adding any images, or everything will be stored in the BIM 360.

So you have no need to search for any emails on the background, or you have need to maintain a separate Excel record for whatever the issue is closed, or open, all entire history has been captured by the BIM 360 itself. And at any point of the project lifetime, you can easily generate the report, what is the open and pending items.

When I talk about the time saving, again, I have taken it to the small and medium projects, approximately you can save more than 200 hours. If it is like a bigger project, like a 30,000 meter squared, which is currently some of our ongoing projects, still the hours are counting. It's like a huge number of hours we can save it.

So I have a quick bonus item for you, and which is interoperability between Power BI and BIM 360. The BIM 360 insights, which gives an opportunity for us, getting the Power BI report to the BIM 360, where, without Power BI, we can easily access the data, and we can show the progress to the plan. So I'm not going to explain about the process over here. It's just food for thought.

I have never seen some of the AU presentations, this kind of opportunities available, which you can add more workflows and reports to the BIM 360, to show the progress to your plan, and other things. So thank you for watching this presentation, and thank you for your patience. And let's open for the question and answer session.