Workflows to develop, manage & integrate Infrastructure BIM Projects

VIRAJ VODITEL: Hello, everyone. My name is Viraj and welcome to this talk of AU 2021. The talk is titled Workflows to Develop, Manage, and Integrate Infrastructure BIM Projects. So before we begin, I'll just start with a quick introduction about myself. So my name is Viraj Voditel. And I'm the founder and director of Techture.

So we are a global BIM consulting firm, having our offices in the US, UK, UAE, India, and Singapore. So I started back with Autodesk as a student expert. And I'm also an expert elite and certified in using various Autodesk tools and software. I have been a past Autodesk University speaker. I have spoken at the actual AU conference in Las Vegas in 2017.

And then, with the pandemic happening, last year's AU was virtual, as you all might be knowing. So I had that experience as well. And this year, again, specifically for the AU India track, here I am again presenting this talk in front of all of you. So along with me, today, I have also got my co-speaker, Dayesh. So I'll let Dayesh introduce himself.

DAYESH JAISWAL: Thank you, Viraj. Hello, everyone. I am Dayesh Jaiswal. I am one of the directors at Techture and a civil engineer. Of talking about myself, I am a technology consultant. I work along with various contractors, project owners, as well as design consultants in implementing custom technology solutions for their construction projects.

The how-to involved in any project, as we try to understand the current challenges, which they are facing in the design, execution, as well as the as-built stage. And we try to implement custom technology solutions, so that those issues are addressed. One of the ways in which we do this is we have an engineering team.

We also have a software development team. And both these teams come together and create custom solutions and applications for the AEC space. Talking about the Autodesk tools, we, and myself personally, we focus a lot on the infrastructure segment. One of the things which Techture has always focused upon is that a lot of BIM was happening in the building space, but we tried to extend it to the infrastructure space.

And I have myself spearheaded the BIM implementation of various methods of large scale infrastructure projects, like highways, of green field industrial townships. And we'll be covering that also. So, yeah, that's about it, thank you.

VIRAJ VODITEL: Thank you, Dayesh. So let's just dive directly into the topic and let's look at some of the learning objectives for this class that we have. So in today's class, we'll be looking at some upcoming trends in the AEC sector, and we'll also be looking at how Techture and how we have basically utilized these tools from Autodesk to deliver projects and drive adoption in this particular industry.

Also, the second thing is that looking at how much level of detail we can actually go into when doing various aspects of modeling, coordination, and general BIM implementation on infrastructure-specific projects, and how we can extend these further through the use of integrations. The third thing is that you can take away from this talk is how different cloud technologies, especially things like the Autodesk Construction Cloud and Autodesk Forge, can be utilized and collaboration can be improved, and also how it is becoming a standard in most projects and in most organizations these days.

And lastly, we'll also talk about a few advanced workflows related to rebar modeling, signaling, and telecommunication, and some of these aspects, by taking examples of some case studies of Indian projects, that will help you understand how these are being practically implemented. So we're talking about BIM workflow for building projects.

So as most of you might be aware, that a lot of projects nowadays, especially the ones, you know, which are either residential, commercial, hotel projects, hospitals, most of these projects have started adopting BIM in a very good way over the past many years. BIM adoption has been increasing quite a bit.

But if we look at the infrastructure segment, things are still not that standardized. There are a lot of people in the industry who are a bit skeptical about how various infrastructure projects can have BIM implemented within them. So a lot of the workflow is related to how much level of detail things need to be modeled to, what level of information should come in different components, what tools should be used, whether things can be automated.

So there are still a lot of questions around all of this. And also when it comes to taking things to the further dimensions, from 3D to 4D, 5D and beyond, a lot of projects in the building space are now being taken to that level. But in infrastructure there are still a lot of questions in people's minds. So the premise for today's talk is to kind of bust these myths, show you certain actual examples of how these things have been done, and how they can be done in the future.

So extending BIM to infrastructure projects, so like Dayesh was mentioning at the start, we have been involved in quite a few large scale infrastructure projects in India, where we've been implementing some of these new age workflows, and looking at how most value can be taken out from BIM and bring down the costs of projects and accelerate the project timelines. So we've been working to develop some customized workflows using various tools.

The ones which we'll be focusing more on in this presentation revolve around Revit, Civil 3D, Infraworks, Navisworks, among the desktop tools from AC collection, as well as some of the cloud-based tools under the Autodesk Construction Cloud, which is a new umbrella of products, as a lot of you might be aware of the BIM 360 suite of product.

So we'll be talking about all of those and how we've been utilizing those in delivering these projects. And also we'll talk a little bit more on the automation side as well, as to how workflows can be sped up by the use of tools like Dynamo and extended and customized further by the use of things like Forge.

Yeah, so we will look at some case studies from large Indian construction projects. So we'll start with one of Delhi Metro, where we've worked to deliver a complete 3D to 5D related workflows through the use of various Autodesk tools. So let me move on by talking about what are the different components, which make up these complex BIM models.

So as a lot of you might be aware that the modeling tool of choice for most building projects is Revit, but when we talk about some complex infrastructural projects, we have to use various tools, depending on the end use case. So here, when it came to the creation of complex models of different kinds of girders, viaducts, so we decided to resort to utilizing Revit itself. And we developed very custom complex parametric families within Revit, within the Revit environment.

So these are some pictures that you can see on the left. So these families were especially very complex when it came to the modeling, because they had various structural components. At varying lengths, there were various kinds of solid elements, void elements, there were various kinds of cuts that were needed to be made for the different drainpipes, different cutouts for various reasons. And all of these needed to be parametric, because all these girders are linear elements, right?

They are part of linear infrastructure. So one of the very important aspects was developing these custom families. And the other aspect was actually placing those families along the alignment of the project, and this alignment actually came from Civil 3D, which is another infrastructure modeling tool. So we had to use some kind of automation. We had to use Dynamo scripts to make sure that these families were properly placed along the alignments.

Another aspect of the modeling, and especially when we talk about detailed modeling or construction level modeling or LOD 400 as it is popularly called, was that of reinforcement. So we had to incorporate all the reinforcement-related details in the 3D model elements itself. So that also was one of the challenges, to make those families readily adapt to all these rebar modeling workflows. So, as you can see in these images, so we modeled various rebar elements.

These rebar elements were very useful to visualize how the project was coming along. And it was not just limited to visualization, but various kinds of clash coordination to check feasibility of design was also done. And at the same time, we also used these models to create bar binding schedules, and very detailed 2D sheets, which were utilized by the contractor on site.

So when full construction drawings were extracted directly from the model, and they were utilized for construction on site. So this is, you know, one part of the model, that has been exported into a tool that is Navisworks. So as you can see over here, we have some of these structural elements. And when we hide those elements, we can see the reinforcement that is encased beneath so.

Now this video just gives you an idea of all the complexity of the model elements, as well as all the informational parameters that are contained within the model elements. So that was about reinforcement. The other major discipline that was a challenge to model was related to S&T or signaling and telecommunication.

So, as you can see in this image on the right, you'll see there are various different kinds of elements along the track, along the adapt along the girders, that, again, were modeled as parametric elements, that needed to be repeated after certain distances, based on certain model-based rules. So one of the major challenges in this discipline was that there were no set drawings or 2D related inputs that could be utilized for the modeling. Instead there were various kinds of rules which had to be incorporated.

And in a typical non-BIM workflow, these things were usually done on site directly. So, by incorporating all these different elements into the model, that entire model provided a platform for very extensive visualization of the accurate positions, crossovers, et cetera. And BIM helped coordinate with all the different disciplines as well.

So, as you can see in one of these images, all the complex equipment, all the cables, were also modeled. And here we've used no other tool than Revit itself, and a little bit of advanced modeling techniques and some scripting, to achieve this level of complex modeling. And then this model was further passed on to different consultants.

It was used to take various kinds of design decisions as well. So that was that. And then this model and this project in itself was posted on BIM 360, which is now the Autodesk Docs, and a part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud ecosystem. And this entire set of models, set of drawings, all of these were uploaded and managed in a common data environment, through the use of BIM 360. And as you can see here, like, different stakeholders could navigate across the model elements, extensively investigate the different elements, turn them on and off, isolate certain elements, comment on them, see the different sheets, like what you see here. All the sheets and the model elements are all interlinked.

So this, through the use of this platform, we could save on a lot of time, a lot of back and forth that usually happen through various emails, through various communications and miscommunications happening. So that really helped us take the project to the next level. Apart from this, we were also involved in doing some level of design validation.

So, as you can see here, the model was overlaid on a point cloud. So this is in fact Navisworks, a screen recording the screen capture of Navisworks itself. And we could very easily see different kinds of design faults, or issues. Like one of the things that you see here, there's a photo of a bridge that is clashing with one of these flyovers. And even the design alignment had various clashes at different points with the existing flyover that was there.

So through this kind of advanced visualization technologies, with the tools that are already present today, it could help save a lot of time, because most of these design decisions were taken at the pre-construction stage, so it helped in changing the alignments and saving a lot of downstream additional rework. While let's move to the next slide, yeah. Apart from all the other benefits that we saw in the previous slides, one very useful thing that the models provided was quantification.

So all the different model elements were queried, and we could directly do various kinds of take-offs using the BIM authoring tools, like Revit itself. And all the different quantities of different elements were extracted at various stages. We even did a kind of level quantity comparison with the design comparison. So all of these kinds of things were extracted from the models, and then for the post process using tools like Excel.

So complex drawings, you know, 2D drawings are eventually the things that run the construction on the ground, still. So 2D drawings were a part of the standard deliverables that were needed to be developed from the 3D models, so that was not just restricted to some certain general arrangement drawings, but also very complex rebar drawings as well. And all of these drawings that you see have been extracted from the model itself, from the model elements themselves.

So it had all the requisite level of detail that was required for construction on site. And there was, again, a lot of back and forth to set the correct standards in them. But once we set everything up, it was all well worth the effort. We ended up saving quite a lot of time eventually.

Another very interesting thing that I would like to speak about is the use of Autodesk Forge. So, as you know, and as I said, that we use BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud for collaboration. But there were certain requirements of customizing these workflows and extending these workflows, which is where we used Autodesk Forge to develop custom applications. So our Techture is actually a systems integrator.

We are working with Autodesk as a systems integrator for Forge, and I would just like to give you a small glimpse of certain possibilities that are there. So this is a screen capture of a custom web application that we developed wherein various kinds of projects could be visualized. And then you can view the 3D models, most definitely.

But one very interesting aspect that we customized was that we could select any element in the model, and then generate a QR code for that element. So we had created a custom button, using our own printing, which was on top of Autodesk Forge, and then you could download these specific QR codes. And once all these QR codes were there, they could actually be used by the site team to track various model elements, when they actually physically arrived at the site.

So we could use those same QR codes and scan them using this app itself. Yeah, so as you can see, it opens up a camera and, using the camera, we can actually scan a QR code directly on site. And the software will automatically filter out and isolate the model element, which is matching that particular QR code. So we did this QR code linking of the model elements with the different QR codes.

And also we created certain custom interfaces like pie charts and graphs on top of it. So all this kind of customization was possible through the use of code. And lastly, we also use various kinds of dashboards. So we used things like Power BI. So this is actually a Power BI dashboard. And we pulled out certain data from the model itself, from wherever.

There was some data coming in from Primavera, which was the project tracking tool on site. And there was some data that can also be fetched from tools like the Autodesk Construction Cloud has assembled. So this kind of a dynamic dashboard was then provided to the end customers for them to visualize and dynamically view the concrete consumption at different stations in the overall project.

So with that, I would like to end this case study. And I would like to hand over the part of presentation to my co-speaker Dayesh. So Dayesh, you can pick up from here. Thank you.

DAYESH JAISWAL: Thank you, Viraj. That was a very insightful presentation on how BIM is being used on metro projects. And I'd like to give this piece of information, that this is the first project, in India as well as Middle East, where Revit is being used, not just to model concrete, but also to model all the reinforcement. And each and every GFC of the 30,000 tons of rebar is being generated from the model.

And even the drawing approvals are running through BIM collaborate and then use the Docs. So this is one of the very few implementations where Revit and Autodesk tools are not just being used for model creation, they're actually being used for construction on site and the requisite approvals. Now we'll talk about the next very important part, which is related to highways and urban infrastructure.

We've seen a lot of metros being built to Autodesk platforms. But one of the areas wherein we've actually seen very few work or very less work happen, is majorly related to the highways and urban infrastructure projects. What we want to cover today, so we are going to cover today's case studies on certain urban infrastructure projects like green field townships, and we will be covering various highways and expressways, wherein Autodesk workflows were utilized to implement and complete them.

Just the way we talk about metros and how we extended the implementation, so I'm just making concrete blocks to actual reinforcement-based families. Even in highways, what we've done is we've created a custom workflow, with a combination of Revit, Civil 3D, as well as Infraworks, so that we are able to do the designing, the quantification, the drawing generation, as well as project management to the BIM model. So this is one of the images from a highway project.

So as an organization, we've done more than 500 kilometers of expressways and highways. And we've done more than 10,000 acres of green field projects, wherein we did the complete infrastructural work. So the first thing is the highways and roads model.

We, as an organization, utilize Civil 3D and Infraworks extensively, to do the complete design and modeling for highways and road projects. What we saw is, what we've observed from various organizations of different locations, is that organizations are using Civil 3D at a very initial level. They will just make a profile. They will set an alignment.

But what we've tried to do is just the way we've got a LOD 400 modeling and building, we've tried to come up with procedures so that the roads which we are building, the corridors which we're creating, can be utilized to generate accurate quantities and very definitive visualizations. So one of the things that we've done is we've created highways of different typical cross-section, different profiles at different alignments. And along with the highways, one of the things which we have actually, I would say innovated, is the integration of Revit built structures with all these highways.

So what we do is, like I say, we have a 50 kilometer highway. Then approximately there are 100 to 150 structures. They've got minor bridges. You've got major bridges. You've got underpasses. And one of the major challenges is to actually have these structures modeled in Revit, and have them integrated with the roads, which are created in Infraworks and Civil 3D.

So for that, we've created a very unique workflow, to which through geo-coordination, and through understanding the alignment of different functions, we are able to get very detailed and very cohesive roads as well as structures. So what we have is we have all the highways. You have the roads with the correct cross section profile and corridors.

You have all the structures which are created at level. We merge them in a software like Infraworks and Navisworks. And the next important thing which we do is we do not just limit ourselves to the things which are seen by the naked eye. We actually focus more on the subsurface utilities also.

We are one of the very few companies who are actually leveraging Autodesk tools like Civil 3D to not just create roads and bridges and structures, but to actually extend the utility from over the surface confidence to the subsurface utility. So as you can see on the right, on the right, we've got how a model looks like when we hide the road.

We've got the CV system. We've got the storm water system. You've got the potable water, we've got recycled water, firefighting, because, and I always say this to my clients, that it is very easy to resolve a clash in a building. You can just go reboot it. But if you have a clash beneath the ground, when you've actually made the storm water and now you are actually laying the CV and you've got a clash, to resolve one clash you have to remove the concrete pipe, and you could do a complete backfilling.

So we focus a lot on spatial coordination. We focus a lot on, first of all, creating the highways, the roads, then creating all these subsurface utilities, creating all the associated structures, and then creating a process so that we can do spatial coordination. We've worked on various projects where contractors were actually struggling, and they had done a lot of rework and spent a lot of money on this particular problem.

Even where there was no client requirement of them, we stepped in. We did the complete coordination. As you can see, when we got the drawings from the consulting, it was something like what you're seeing on the left. And when we actually did the coordination, we moved the pipes, we came up with a clash remodel. We got something which was on the right.

Once you create the model for the roads, for the utilities, once you do this complete coordination, you can supplement it with GPR ground penetrating radar for existing utilities. We are able to generate all the rungs. And it's very funny that a lot of companies and a lot of stakeholders are using Civil 3D to generate the roads, are using Civil 3D to generate a basic level of utility, but they are not taking the Civil 3D model on the construction site.

And how do you take it to the construction site? By actually generating growth. So we have a set workflow, whether we generate all these models. We do the coordination. We have coordination workshops, and eventually each and every drawing, the drawings that you're seeing on the screen for utilities, for roads, for profiles, all of them are generated from Civil 3D.

So you have a complete general workflow from design to visualization to coordination, to finally roads. Now when we talk about this complete workflow, and we've decided that, OK, this is how a coordinated model should look like, this is how the drawings should be, one of the major aspects of finalizing the design, are the quantities and the costs.

But we also have created various automated procedures, so that we can generate the quantities of the roads, the quantities of the utilities, quantities of the connections of the utilities, in a very accurate way. And we can generate them automatically through Civil 3D and export them to Excel, and give it to the client in the required format. So we're completely changing the workflow of just using design models, and then doing manual calculations, to creating construction-based model, which can be used for coordination, as well as quantity estimation.

I'll just show a video now, which actually showcases how these models will play, and what is the kind of level of detail, which you can expect while we are navigating to BIM models. But this project is an India based project. So this project is basically called Aurangabad Industrial City. And what you can see is we had all the roads modeled according to the typical cross-section.

We had all the signages placed. You can see that you've got this difference between the ground level and the pavement level, because the profile is static. And the most important thing is we do not just have roads, we have all the utilities also. But as you can see here, we can see the covers of different kind of manhole.

So this is the level of detail, which you can actually get while having a workflow of Revit plus Civil 3D, plus you can then eventually integrate it to uncover. So what you're seeing on the screen right now is the road model. Now I'll just go a bit ahead and I'll showcase you the utility.

So I can switch off the road, and I can see the utility. So you can see that we've got the storm water here. We've got the industrial and residential sewage in different colors. You've got the firefighting line, and you've got the recycled water line. So all these components are modeled, the roads, the utilities.

Once these are modeled, we do the complete coordination. I'll give you an example of coordination. So this is one of the intersections. So in this intersection itself, we had around 14 clashes. So we start with the design consultant. We resolved all the clashes. We first of all resolved all the gravity to gravity clash, then we resolved all the gravity to pressure clashes.

Eventually we removed all the pressure to pressure clashes. So eventually we got a completely coordinated intersection. As you can see here we've added certain banks here on the dug side, and now this section is coordinated. So we create this model, we do the coordination, we give the quantities, and then for each and every intersection, we generate a coordinated road.

The same model now, I've already shown you the model. But let us say you do show this model to the project owner, to a government authority, or to a county. Then what we can do is we can integrate these models with Infraworks, and actually provide the visualization of how this project will look in its actual location. But the same model which you were seeing just a few moments back, the same model has been exported to Infraworks. We've put in the correct layers, the correct shape files, the correct image raster files of GIA, and now as a client, even before construction, you know there are no clashes.

You know you have the accurate quantity. You have coordinated drawings, and you also have a very clear presentation of what will come in after 24 months, or after 30 months once the construction is completed. If you want to make any changes, those changes could be done at this stage of work. We've done similar implementations, as I told you, for more than 500 kilometers of highways. We've done it for more than 7,000 to 8,000 acres of green field industrial cities, not just in India, but in the Maldives and other various different regions.

When we talk about urban infrastructure projects, we've talked about roads, we talked about water-based utilities. But one of the major challenges are the utility structures, because you cannot model the utility structures above a specific level of detail in Civil 3D. So you will have to model these utility structures in Revit.

Now once we start modeling these utility structures in Revit, it is fine. We can generate a particular utility structure. But you can imagine that we've got, in a small or in a general area of 200 hectares, or 50 kilometers of a pipeline, we will at least have 200 to 250 manholes. And if you've got four utilities, we'll have 1,000 manholes.

So if you've got 1,000 manholes, we have to create the model of all these manholes. We have to create the drawings of all these manholes. It becomes a very big challenge. So another thing which we did and the software development team did was we analyzed this process of generation of manholes.

And what we got to know was, out of these 400 manholes, there are just five types of manholes, which are differing in their lengths. So you've got the shape, the shape is the same. The only thing which reverts is the length, and the invert level, and the invert level of the ingoing and the outgoing pipe.

But instead of spending, so instead of spending a lot of time on actually creating all these manholes one by one and placing them at different locations, what we did was we created a Dynamo program, so that all these manholes can be converted into a particular file, so that we can have the locations automated and we can have the drawings automated. So the first part of this presentation is, we've created the list of all these manholes.

We had around 400 manholes. The first part, which we're doing is, we are generating the Dynamo to position these manholes at the correct coordinates. So one option is, I put those 400-500 manholes manually at different locations. The second option is I have the coordinates. I have the levels. I just run a Dynamo file, and I'm able to place them at the correct location.

You can see that is the Dynamo, we put in the host Excel file. And with the click of a button, all the manholes will get placed at the requisite location. So when I zoom in, you can see that all these manholes have been placed at the correct location. So this saved me more than 100 hours of effort, of putting in all these manholes correctly.

Now the second challenge is, another thing which we observed was for all these 400 manholes, the way the drawings are produced is the same. So we need two sections. We need two plans, at a very specific length from the top. So rather than creating four views for each and every manhole, and dragging those four views into a specific sheet, we created another Dynamo program, so that all these manholes, the sheets for all these manholes, would be generated automatically.

So we knew that we needed for two plans and two sections. Another Dynamo program was generated, as you can see, so we've generated a very complex Dynamo program, which will actually generate all the sheets automatically, as per the plans, as per the sections required. And the moment I placed this particular, or the moment I run this particular Dynamo program, what I'm able to see is, I'm able to see that all these drawings are generated automatically.

But the major challenge of building structures or utility structures is not creating a complex family. The basic challenge is that you've got extensive number of utility structures. You need some automation, so that you can place them at the right location. Then you can generate the joins in a very quick manner. And that is what we did in this particular project, so that a team of three people could generate the drawings of around 1,000 manholes of different types and distribute.

But this is how you actually have to think, as Viraj also said in the beginning, you have to actually be a little creative, and you have to understand how these three softwares could work in the best way for you. You might need a bit of Dynamo. You might need a bit of Forge. But once you have all these solutions in hand, all these things become very convenient and very easy.

So we covered highway. We covered all the utility, wet utilities of severe storm water. We also talked about all the different trap lines, all the different utility structures. Now one last thing which I'd like to cover, four years back we used to face a lot of challenges in having different people work on the same model on Civil 3D.

Now we've got them collaborate pro even for Civil 3D. So you can have people at different locations. And different people work on the same file, so that just the way we have got synchronization and collaborative work and benefits on Revit, we're having, or we are extending the same benefits to Civil 3D. Another thing which we have done is we've done BIM to GIS integration for a lot of projects.

A lot of infrastructure projects use GIS systems for the facility management. The work we've done is the computer has built the models which we create. We convert them to a very proper GIS file, including as such the integrations, so at the as-built state, if your client does not want to view the 3D model, they want to be limited to the GI system which they use for asset management, we can export this complete data, along with all the parameters, to the GIS.

So we come to work, so we covered the complete process of hybrids, utilities, utility structures, GIS integration, and how can BIM collaborate through use of helper cells and better working. And I hope that I was able to give a very quick idea of how Autodesk tools can actually benefit you in infrastructure, especially highway and urban infrastructure projects.

So that's it from my side. I request Viraj to summarize our session. So thank you everyone.

VIRAJ VODITEL: Yeah, thank you, Dayesh. So I'll just quickly summarize whatever we've covered in the past few minutes. So, yeah, so as we started off, you know, all the infrastructure projects in India are kind of, they haven't utilized a lot of Autodesk tools and Autodesk products to their potential. We would say that there is actually a lot to explore, a lot to see.

And I hope that the presentation and the videos and the project examples that we showcased help you understand how these things could be done. So a lot of these tools already have some robust capabilities to incorporate not just building projects, but also look at very complex linear infrastructure, metro rail projects, water utilities, as well as highways, as Dayesh mentioned in the last case study. And also a lot of the tools are being enhanced in the upcoming versions.

So we've seen a lot of difference, in especially the rebar modeling capabilities, from the time we have been using Revit since past almost eight, nine years. So things are definitely improving. And we are seeing a shift to not just design workflows, but to actually fabrication and further construction-related workflows, through the use of these tools.

And we definitely need to think out of the box, for establishing certain workflows. But all of those possibilities are most definitely out there. And we've tried to showcase some of those possibilities through our presentation. So I think, with that, I would like to close, and restrict not just to the desktop-based tools that are out there, but start thinking about cloud-based tools that are coming to the use of Autodesk Construction Cloud, Autodesk Docs, Autodesk Take-Off, Autodesk Tandem.

Some of these are new and upcoming tools, which will help drive much faster project delivery and much more value addition to the projects and to the clients. So thank you. That's me and Dayesh signing off. Thank you, all of you, for your attention.