Solibri or Navisworks

COLLIN VAN KOOTEN: My name is Collin van Kooten. I'm Dutch, as you probably can see. We love to give our color here at the AU. You see probably six guys running around over here today, all wearing an orange shirt with our flag. So yeah, we're Dutch, and we're proud of it.

So I'm going to take you, for the next 40 to 50 minutes, into what I called How to Check Your Building Information Model. So please be seated and be aware of what's coming.

Who of you in this audience is a BIM manager? Oh. Who wants to be one? Well, that's not any question anymore if everybody's already a BIM manager.

It's more than just a job. We all think you have the title. OK, I'm a BIM manager. But it's more than a job. I think it's a mission. It's a mission we have. And you see Superman and this construction site to create something that's even better, a virtual building that's being produced in the most possible way.

So what do we do as a BIM manager? I'm very proud to be a BIM manager of this building, a large hospital building in the Netherlands-- 40,000 square meters that's being built. And it's almost ready at this moment.

But what do we do? What is the function of a BIM manager? It's merging and making those federated models. OK, that's one of the things. It's also finding and resolving clashes. That's all the things we think as a BIM manager.

But we also give a lot of insight and knowledge into the details-- not only those simple or normal clashes, but also walking through a model and seeing things that shouldn't be there. It's not only the clash detection. It's more than that.

It's also supporting in collaboration. How do we combine all those models, and how do we work together to make this virtual building model as good as possible?

So where I think the best is is the BIM execution plan. You are managing the document that we all call the BIM execution plan. You want your building to have all that knowledge that you put in your BIM execution plan in the beginning.

So how do we manage this? In this session-- and I have to say, I'm not a trained Solibri user. I don't know if there's any trained Solibri users in here. It's an Autodesk convention, so it shouldn't be that easy. But OK, I'm going to show you a few possibilities how you can manage it; how you as a BIM manager, as you all here in the audience, can check your model in different ways.

So yeah, it's called Solibri versus Navisworks. And what do we think we all have to do? What does the application have to do? It's the model checking on geometry. But how many of you guys and girls over here already are checking on data? Who is really checking the data? I see a couple of hands. OK. Whew, I'm happy there's a couple of friends who are available over here.

So checking data and duplicates-- OK, it's awesome. But you are also doing the collaboration, the adjusting, and finally, keeping on track. How do we keep on track for this model? How do we make sure that every milestone of the building is getting better and better?

I'm at Autodesk University, but I also may say that yeah, we have some competitor. It's Solibri. It's the Solibri Model Checker. And in Europe, it's a very big competition for Navisworks.

And why is it competition? It's a model checker, but it's rule-based. It's a rule-based model checker. So I can provide a rule for every building in the same way. I can check the building or all my buildings in the same way.

[INAUDIBLE] is only IFC-based. And if you want to do some collaboration, you do it on BCF collaboration. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's just what it is.

So the model checker has clash detection. It has the rules to search the components like we use Find Items, information take-off, and material quantities and volumes.

So how does it work? If you look just general-- a few steps you can take in Solibri, if you imported your IFC model, what is the information you already got? What is information you can use immediately?

Just by selecting an element in the left corner-- left down corner for me-- you will see what it is. It's IFC geometry with a lot of information. It has the location. You know where it is.

It tells you something about the quantity. So it tells you how big it is, how much volume it has. But after all, it also tells you what material it is, what kind of material is put in this building; the relations with even the rooms behind it; and after all, also the classification.

And the classification, I think is very important to have that correct in your model. In the Netherlands, we use the classification for a lot of connections between different applications, different programs. So if I select another element in here, you can see it doesn't have any classification. So it isn't available in the IFC model or this. So this is just general things you can do with Solibri as far as you maybe didn't know already.

If we go to the rule-based checking part of Solibri-- so that's why a lot of customers of ours are also using. It's checking your model in a rule-based manner. So you can provide simple rules. And in the Netherlands, the rules are provided in the community.

But I just selected a couple of rules. I check those rules. Now it's progressing in my building, and I immediately can see which are really red flags, which are orange or yellow.

If I want to know more in-depth about what's wrong, I can select it. And you can see that in the left corner. It tells me even the result, how many density it has in a clash. But if I have to go further into this detail or I have to go further into this wall dimension, as it says here, I have to go down, select the element. And I have a kind of drop-down system.

So now I have to find, in my building, where that element is. Or I have to isolate it. But now, here it shows me, in red, OK, there is a wall there. It only has a height of 90 millimeters, so how can we even make it?

If I have another one here, I select it again. I have to find in my building where that element is, or I have to isolate it. So it's not the most common way to do your clashing in this sense. But you can mark it as I did. OK, this is another clash. I can accept it. So very normal checking of your model.

If I go any further in my model, if I want to do another check, I provide myself with another rule. I now do a check on clashing or I do a check on duplicates. I can add it again to the checks I already did.

So now I'm editing. It gives me a pop-up. Oh, do you really want to do it? Yes, I want. And I run it again. So I'm going to run it again. And it's going to tell me the same information, or it's going to tell me new information.

But now, I want to do more with the clash. It's not just finding the clashes. I want to do something about it. So here again, OK, there's a miscommunication. I have a clash. It's got a really red flag for me.

It's a beam, and the beam is duplicated on its place. So by selecting it again, I have to find out where it is. OK, searching for a red beam in my project. OK, I found it. And probably, the other beam is on the same place because this is a duplicate.

How do I collaborate around such thing? How do I put this in an issue that I can resolve or in an issue that I can explain to another one? So this one, I accept, but there's another one I will select now. I want to really adjust an issue. I want to assign it to a specific person.

With my knowledge of Solibri, here it is. I have to add a slide. It was not the normal thing I thought to do, but I have to add a slide. And here, you can see there's a kind of BCF structure where you have different snapshots of the same issue. So you can provide more snapshots in Solibri to the same issue. You can provide it with a description. You can give it a title. And eventually, you want to assign it to a specific person.

So now I know, OK, I have an issue. I addressed it. But what do I have to do further? It's very strong that you have a rule-based engine to check the model, because you can do it in all your models in the same way. You have to provide the rules once. Thus, the rules are very easy to create.

It gives you an overview. It gives you every detailed information you wish, and you can accept and reject a kind of issue. What I think, with my knowledge of Solibri, was a lack is the views you get. You have to find for the rules or you have to find for the issues and the clashes-- you have to find them yourself. And so selecting objects wasn't that good. And I still don't know how to collaborate around it.

So one of the other things where Solibri is very strong is the classification. By just only opening my IFC model, I already have the classification. Here, you can see all-- our [INAUDIBLE]. It has the Revit identities in it. And I can easily select them and get enough knowledge of how my building is structured-- is it structured in the right way, yes or no.

In the Netherlands, we use NL/SfB as the classification code. So maybe you don't know this code. But OK, this is the kind of structured way we use in the Netherlands. Yes, you can also see that by selecting it, it will immediately show you what it is.

Eventually, you can add every kind of classification in the same way as I did here. Maybe you can use the only class for the same kind of structure. So it gives you a very structured way of showing the data, of showing your model.

Eventually-- I didn't do it in the video-- but if you have the classification, you can also use those selections for the quantity take-off. So by just selecting it, right-click on the mouse button, and you can take those elements off in the quantity take-off.

I found my issues. I found some clashes in my building. And now I have a whole team that I have to provide those clashes. I've got a lot of clients of me that are asking, what do I do? How can I make this more easy, a seamless workflow?

What I know from my clients, if they are using Solibri, they have one day in their agenda each week to provide their coworkers with an email that has an Excel list in it. Or it has a Word document in it with all those steps and all the clashes they have to resolve.

Because if I look at how it works, the BCF manager in Solibri, here, you can create a report. I want a PDF report or an Excel list. And I want to export the total list.

OK, but what do I get if I export this? Well, you will see, in every second, I will get a list like this. Hm. Yeah, it's very nice if you like matrix way to resolve your clashes.

But the information that is in-- OK, it's great. I can see what clashes there are, how many, even what the density is. But I don't have any feeling about where it is in my building, how I can resolve it.

So with the standard way of producing a collaboration workflow, yeah, my customers decided to do it for themselves. So they take a lot of screenshots about what element is wrong, put it in a Word document, and say, OK, this issue has to be resolved. So that's what they do.

So for the collaboration, it's an IFC workflow. And what you get is a kind of BCF export you can create. Or you just uploaded your complete Solibri model to the cloud so everybody can download it and use it in their own Solibri.

The information you get is lacking, I guess. And you don't have the ability to assign it to a specific person. So if you want to use Solibri in your collaboration, you have to add something like BIMcollab or anything else to have a good assigning of those different issues.

So in overall, OK, it's very great in the rule-based checking for your intersections and your information, or your design rules you can check also. Your take-off information is very good. And it's strong in how the geometry is showing.

It's an IFC and PDF-based workflow. So for us, our Revit users, you always have to create an IFC, or all your co-mates have to create an IFC before you begin with your collaboration. It's not that seamless workflow as we want it to do. And if you want to collaborate with a whole team, you have to add extra software for that to do it.

So if we look at Navisworks, the difference is we have all file types available. So yeah, we can use our IFC models, but we also can use DWD or Revit files immediately. It's already in the collections for each one of you. And there are many add-ins also available.

Navisworks is well known. And I guess-- oh, Navisworks users in the house? Yeah, OK. But if we look at the website, I did it for this presentation. Otherwise, I didn't provide it.

But it's great in clash detection and clash management. Find items in all the data fields is very strong. Search sets creation is very strong also. And you can do your quantity take-off, your QTO. It also does model comparison, and it has a lot of export functionalities. The four above, I will address.

If you look at the Navisworks IFC model, it will give me a structured way of how my IFC is working with all the federated models. So you can see a lot of federated models in this one. And I can also select it here just like I did in Solibri. So it will tell me the same information. OK, I have to select it or unhide or hide it, just what you wish.

If I select an element, it's another way of working. But it will tell me the same information as it did in Solibri. It will give me the classification. It will give me the material type. It will give me the same numbers as it did before. So that's the same.

Here, it tells me to value, how long, how wide it is, and all this here. And again, the length and the volume is also available in Navisworks. o This is just from an IFC file.

So it also tells me the wall type in this one, and it will also tell me the classification. I also did it in Solibri. If I select this element, there was something missing in Solibri. But here, it will tell me the name, and it will tell me the classification. So maybe it's even stronger here to show it.

If I look at an RVT workflow, in Solibri, you can only load an IFC. But here, you can use your DWG or your RVT files immediately. I can select it. It will tell me immediately what kind of category it is. And it gives me that same information, but then in the way we are used to. As a Revit user, you are used to this kind of information. It will tell us immediately in Navisworks also.

Also, here are the length, as we already saw in Solibri. The heights, all that information is available. It's structured in the same way as we saw in Solibri, but I had to go to different steps. It gives me the same information. It gives me the same kind of geometry and material information.

What's very strong is that you have now a seamless workflow from your Revit file into your Navisworks. They're even connected. If you have an adjustment in your Revit file, you can easily update your Navisworks file, and it will show you this. You don't have to create a new IFC model to your customer or to your co-makers. They can easily get in the same structured way.

If we look at what's possible with QTO, as called in Navisworks, quantity take-off, I want to know how many columns are in my building or what different types there are. I just select one of those element, select it in the same name, and taking it off. So I now know, from this structure, its columns, how many, how much volume it is, how many elements there are, and I just can easily go through my whole building and take off all those different kinds.

You can also provide yourself within type catalog, where you can put different formulas in it to make it easier or get more information to it. You're get, in your own structured way, your WBS to have it in your own workflow, connected.

Here, I'm also selecting the floor. I want to take it off. It's also hiding immediately, so you always have a good attention about what you already took off and what you still have to do. So in comparison with Solibri, this has the same functionality. Maybe it's even stronger because it's interactive with your Revit file.

So QTO, maybe not known already or not used. You can really use it in this way. You can have an interactive workflow with your co-makers to do this.

Where most of you probably use search sets, to do the clash detection. Or if you're not, please take attention. You can see how we use it. By selecting an element, selecting the same material type, you can create a search set so you can use it over and over again. Even if you update your model, the search set will provide you the same information because you are searching for a specific parameter, a specific value in your projects to do this.

So I can easily set up a complete system of searching my building. So if you want to provide it to your customers, if you provide it to your co-makers, you can easily set it up this way. But when something changed, you always have to provide a new XML file to your co-makers to do it.

So the search sets can easily be used in all different kind of ways. I'm here going to use it to do my clash detection. So where I had rules in Solibri, now I'm using my search sets in Navisworks to do the clash detection.

I can select the complete different file types, but I can also select different kind of sets. So doing a clash between wall and three different other types, it will give me this information. It will select the clash immediately, so I don't have to look where it is. It will hide the rest of my building or it will give it a translucent appearance.

And it tells me the information how many densities, or how much is the distance that's clashing, which different elements are shown. And you can create a report immediately.

Reports-- even further than we saw in Solibri, it will provide me with information of where the clash is. It will provide me with a picture of what the clash is. So this is an XML file you can easily share with your team to do the clash detection.

If we take a little bit comparison with Solibri, Navisworks reads all kind of file types. So you don't have to write any IFC models anymore, but you can do it with the file type that's normal for your application. It has the same information as we saw.

And you can easily make search sets to get a better workflow for your clash detection or for your QTO, your quantity take-off. And it has a reporting capability. So you can report to PDF, Excel. But what I showed was creating a report to a website, to XML.

It doesn't have any rule-based checking. The collaboration, as we saw, it wasn't assigned to a specific person. So that's still, how do I let my colleague know that he has to resolve something?

And it doesn't have any way of securing your knowledge. Every building, every time you have a new building as a BIM manager, you have to create the same or new search sets again. You have something that you have to change.

So one of the things we did was adding some elements to Navisworks. With the Forge technology, we added the rule-based checking to Navisworks. We added information take-off or issue management. We added better workflow and better workflow for collaboration.

What we did, we created an add-in for Navisworks. This way, you can standardize your workflow for each building. Once I have a rule, I can do it for all my buildings. I can check my buildings with the same rules over and over again. So I have to provide them just once.

The Forge technology allows us to get a workflow in the cloud. So all my co-makers just can go to a website and view the building over there, see what issues they have to resolve. Even with a workflow into Revit, we have a great understanding of what the modular or the guy who has to resolve the issues has to do. So no more rework for creating checks or doing new kind of searches. Oh, I'm sorry.

With Collaborea, as we call it, you have the ability to do some things that weren't available before. So here, I am looking into the properties of my complete building. And I want to know which classification is available.

It wasn't shown already. So what I do, I'm creating different kind of searches. I once created a rule, a rule that tells me which classifications are in my building. The same rule that I made, I'm using now to create my searches.

So in my search set, it gave me now all the different classifications, as I've shown before. But now I can select them, and I can use them in my clash detection. I can use them in my export functionality as I wish.

So that was not available before. It was not one of the standardized properties that was shown. So this will give me great knowledge of how my building is structured and how I can use it.

Oh, there we go. I'm sorry. I missed one. No. OK. This gave me a structured way of showing my data in Navisworks. But how do I do my checking with Collaborea? How can I make my checking more easy?

This is part of where the rule-based check comes in. In the left window, you can see that we have different kind of categories to check on, and I provide a rule. And in the middle screen, you can see how the rule is provided, how it is.

So in this sense, I want to search for all my assembly codes that have a particular kind of value. Depending on what you're searching or how deep you want to search, you can search every parameter, every property that's available in Navisworks. And you can give me a list or you can give a specific value that you want to check. In this sense, it's 13, 23, 33, and 43. It's just a normal check, in the Netherlands, to see if all the walls have the same information.

I've shown you this before we go into the demo. Here, I'm selecting four rules I want to check. It is now checking 2,300 different elements. Normally, it will take me a day to do those kind of checks by hand. Now I'm just searching for what's wrong and what's not.

It gives me the values that do meet, or it gives me an idea of the values that are wrong or invalid. Just by clicking a few buttons, I can see which elements have the correct value, yes or no.

I'm not going to create any search sets. I'm not going to create any view boards at this moment, because I have a new way of communicating this with my team. I'm communicating through the Forge technology. But before I do it, I'm going to assign the specific issues to a specific person. I want them to resolve my issues. So in this way, I'm just uploading my issues to the cloud with a complete new model.

Before I show you the next thing in the workflow, the Collaborea add-in provides me the rule-based checking capabilities. It's going to store the building in the cloud so everybody can see the building in the cloud, can see it in a website. It's easy to use. So also, your subcontractors can use the same rules as you provide them.

If I want to check the walls and the doors, why not my co-maker use same checks? I can provide them through the website. So your whole team can do the same checks over and over again. So it's not only in my hands to create a great building. As a whole team, you can create it.

It's very easy to use. And with the structure for the BIM manager and they use this, there's a permission structure there.

Rules that I have to provide-- and the rule, as you just saw, was just for a wall. But the rule is in a private mode. It can be in a mode for only your project team, or it can be available for the complete community.

So we have specific rules that are for a specific region. In the Netherlands, it's NL/SfB. But look at NBS in the UK. We make rules that are only available in the UK so everybody can use them.

I did my check, and now I want to know my team what I did check and what they have to resolve. I uploaded my model to the cloud. And here, this website, BLDNG360, it will show me my building, the building that's a federated model in this matter.

It will give me the issues I just found. So this issue, by selecting them, having them in a tower view or having them in a grid view-- by selecting them, it will select this element immediately on the website. So even without any knowledge of 3D, selecting an issue will select the element in the view on a website. So even a BIM manager without any knowledge of Navisworks or Revit can use it. He just opens a website and uses the interface for adding issues to it.

So what you just saw was the 3D viewer with all different kind of issues. It will give me detailed information about the issue, who is it assigned to, and which model is it, what does he have to do. So it's kind of getting your knowledge, your BIM managing knowledge, to the guy who has to resolve it.

Very strong is by selecting the issue, as you can see here, it will select the element in the viewer. So it's not Excel file anymore with only the data. OK, you have to resolve something on the second floor. Now it has a good knowledge of what element it is, where it is, and what he has to resolve.

So the issue reporting is not a PDF anymore. You just provide them with an email address on a website, and they can see the issues on the website. This website was using the Forge technology that gives you a great idea about all the projects and all the issues that are in.

Even a dashboard is available so you can see or you can keep on track how many issues are open or how many has to be resolved. It's also a portfolio for the rest of your building. It's not only one building that's on your BLDNG360 account. It's all your building. So you have a great idea about all the buildings you're working on and how many issues are open.

But it doesn't stop there as a BIM manager. You want them, the Revit uses, to adjust the issues you found. And by adjusting them, it's not that you provide a PDF report. They don't have to look where it is.

In Revit, we have created an add-in. And the add-in is bidirectional with the website, as I've just shown. By selecting the issue also in Revit, it will select the element in Revit so someone can start adjusting the model immediately.

When he adjusts it, he can also give some comments to it. He can provide the BIM manager with feedback. I resolved it, and this was the issue that occurred. Or I have to know more information. It's bidirectional with the website, so it works seamlessly. And it's immediately available for the BIM manager.

Here, you can see that someone resolved the issue. And when I go to the website, if I refresh my website, it will give me the same information. So here, it just resolves it, gives it to me, and now I can really close that issue. So I really know that it is resolved, and I can go to my next one. This will also tell me, in the dashboard, how many issues are open, how long they were open, and who the guys are who really has to work on it.

The adjusting with the Revit add-in, it's very nice if everybody was using Revit. That's a dream we all have, everyone using Revit. But yeah, that's not going to happen in the next couple of months or years.

So also for other users of Tekla ArchiCAD, we have a BCF import and export. So also, those users can go to the website, see those issues. They download this BCF, put them in their own system in a Tekla system, and start adjusting it.

When they resolved it, they can provide the BIM manager or they can upload the new BCF file. And it also will tell, on the website, which cases or which issues are closed or not. But yeah, eventually, we all want it in Revit in a complete workflow like this.

There are three things that I've just shown. We start with checking the model in Navisworks. In Navisworks, you already have your models. And the checks you provide are the checks you have created in a rule.

Those rules are provided to your whole team, or they are in public mode. But they're stored in the cloud so everybody can use it. Everybody in your company can use the same rules. Everybody can adjust it in that way.

To do some collaboration, I put my model. I did my checks in Navisworks. And I uploaded the checks, the issues, and my model to the cloud. So with the Forge technology, you now have the ability to show all the issues just on a website. It will even provide a BIM manager without any knowledge the capability of adding issues on a website. He just can put it on iPad, open it, and see if he has an issue somewhere.

It's also a portfolio for the owner of the building. Or for the owner of the multiple buildings, they can put all their buildings up there as a kind of portfolio. For the adjusting, we want everybody to use Revit and have a bidirectional link with the website for adjusting all the different issues. If it's another Revit user, he can import or export the BCF functionality. So that's very strong.

And this will continue over and over again. As a BIM manager, you have the same workflow maybe each week, maybe each two weeks. You created a new federated model. But in Navisworks, it's just uploading your models. It's just refreshing your models. And you can start over again.

After that-- and I think everybody has a clear understanding. When you check the data and you know the data is correct, you can use that information upstream. Think about what's next after the model is correct.

You can use it in your ERP system. You can use it in your planning software or in your master scheduling software. But you first have to provide something that is correct that you have checked and you know that all the information is available. That's something that we see to the near future, where we provide export functionalities from the platform to different systems, where you can use the same information for your master scheduling or for your ERP system.

So with adding Collaborea or with adding the Forge technology to your Navisworks workflow, you now have the capability of using the rule-based check engine. You can take off the different information instead of only going for the clashes. You now know the information in your model, if your BIM execution your plan is well executed.

By providing simple rules to everyone in your team, by providing everybody the same capability, you get a better building. You want to create a supermodel, as we call it. Also with the add-in and the website, you have a very good collaboration. Your whole team can use it, can use the website to show different kind of elements, to show those issues, and create the export and import functionality.

So it's not only for the BIM managers. If I look at the users at this moment, it's also the building owners who wants to see what's happening on that website. They can go through the building, see those issues. But they also can see the different [INAUDIBLE] functionality on the website by just a simple click.

So if you want a simple workflow, try Collaborea. Try to add this to your workflow to have the knowledge secured and have the knowledge for all the different kind of buildings you are creating. Make better buildings in an easy way.

And it's already in your AEC collections. You already have Navisworks, but you may be in doubt how you can use it in a better way. Well, this is a good way.

If you have any questions, if you want a demo, please meet us at the booth. We're near the Forge Center at booth D522. And you can search for me, or you can search for my colleague. He will be there to answer all your questions. If there's any question at this moment, I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you.

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