Integration of BIM and Hydraulic Modeling into a Single Workflow

PAULO MACEDO: I would like to start by thanking FF Solutions for the opportunity to return to Autodesk University. This work is the outcome of a journey involving thoughts, trials, successes, setbacks, and learnings. Since I've starting working with [INAUDIBLE] Water, it's been like 25 years. 25 years I'm trying to streamline the flow and the technical information in the sanitation industry.

My name is Paulo Macedo and I'm a project manager at FF Solutions, one of the Autodesk's main partners in Latin America. Currently, I lead the implementation projects at [INAUDIBLE] three of the leading sanitation companies in Brazil, serving over 900 municipalities and for 7 million people with water and sewerage services.

In recent years, I've been specializing in the use of BIM methodology, but I have over 27 years of experience in field surveys, GIS system implementation, EMM systems implementation, and hydraulic modeling. I started using InfoWorks ICM, and WS Pro from the earliest versions released.

At the time, in addition to using innovative software, I carried out dozens of web GIS implementations, using Autodesk MapGuide, when I became a partner and a client of FF Solutions. It's been a while. And so I have witnessed the tremendous growth of solutions which, year after year, consolidates itself as one of the leading digital transformation companies in AC market.

After many years of partnership, in 2022, I joined the professional services team of FF Solutions, participating in several pioneering and highly complex projects. We are currently involved in main building projects in the country, relating our working valley. Sao Paulo Metro, [INAUDIBLE] and, of course, the sanitation companies I have mentioned, among some others we are working right now.

I will essentially talk about the flow of information within the asset lifecycle and how we are structuring and integrated flow and to ensure the information from the different phases of the lifecycle is preserved without rework and keeping it reliable. To provide context, I will present the asset lifecycle that I consider, and the workflow that is common here in Brazil along with its problems and consequences. Then I will show the workflow created with the results we achieved and the recommendations for utilizing this workflow.

To start, I want to emphasize that this context is based on the Brazilian reality, and it's focused on linear infrastructures. To segment this workflow, I used the simplified framework of the asset lifecycle according to the ISO standard. So we divided it in plan, design, build, operation, and maintenance.

With current technological resources, our typical expectation is that in the planning phase, we have conceptual BIM models with the preliminary information about the location, such as the population survey, existing networks, interferences, dimensions, and estimated pipe depths. However, it's common to use a screenshot of a printed map or someone in operation draw something in a piece of paper to define what it will be built in a field.

In the design phase, instead of being modelled with all interferences and construction details, we have a CAD file with various sheets and details, which takes a lot of efforts to keep it updated.

In the construction phase, instead of a simulation of the construction, we have an executive project stamped as built. And in the operations and maintenance phase, instead of a digital twin with a predictive simulation, we have, at most, the GIS with information that is not always updated and reliable. So those are the main challenges we face.

And these problems occur because, throughout the lifecycle of the assets, the information about them passes through the hands of a lot of people involved at some point. The information in the hands of those people is not properly used. And this lack of integration makes it difficult to preserve and to make the information reliable.

The graph I'm showing shows the volume of information versus the timeline of the asset life cycle. At each stage, we add more information. And the assets gets more and more information each stage. But in the ideal scenario, like this one, this information is preserved throughout the life of the assets.

In the real world, it doesn't work like that. At each stage of the life cycle, we lose a lot of information due to the significant effort required to transfer information between all these stages. It's important to highlight that the loss of information requires a lot of resources to be recovered later.

For example, how much does it cost to recover information about the dimensions, material, and that of an operational pipeline? How much does it cost to obtain the information during the design and construction phase? Store the information at the right moment and preserve it-- it's essential for asset management and the efficiency of the water supply and sewage collectors collection systems.

The preservation of information is directly related to the systems used at each stage and also to the holistic view of the process. I mean, the focus only on the information necessary for the phase without considering the needs for information in other phases result in gaps and low reliability. Furthermore, if the data is [INAUDIBLE] but requires significant efforts to be migrated between phases, it will likely be difficult to keep updated.

So here, I summarize the systems for each phase, but let's take a look at each one of those phases. In a typical workflow here in Brazil, the planning stage is made by conception spreadsheets, free mapping tools like Google Earth or ArcGIS itself can be used as well just to show the paths of the pipe works.

In the best case, simplified hydraulic modeling is performed to check some parameters of the project. And the information from this stage is just record in reports, tables, spreadsheets, and simplified hydraulic models in a server or in a computer. But there is no structure information storage in a way we can share or reuse this information later in the design.

In the design stage, only the guidelines from the planning are used. Maps and earlier hydraulic models are completely disregarded. The search for information from the preceding phase usually requires effort, and as the current phase progresses, the information becomes completely ignored. In these stages, information is typically entered into CAD files.

In best case, Visual Basic applications or [INAUDIBLE] plugins are used to optimize sizing and the creation of profiles. In very few cases, we have the use of the CD. But most of our customers here still use local storage servers and the [INAUDIBLE] applications to manage the documentation of this phase.

In the construction stage, the greatest information gap occurs because of the lack of this systematization in project changes. I mean, we don't record the design changes properly, so those changes are not evaluated by the team that developed the product or even with someone that we receive the asset built. And we don't have a process to update the information sent to the operation and maintenance here.

Finally, in the stage of operation maintenance, we have several systems operated separately in parallel, each one with its own data repository. The information of the project is available for consultation in paper, sometimes in a browser. But to be used in the other systems, like in GIS, the ERP systems, we need some kind of rework. We need to type in how to input the information into those systems. We cannot use the information from the CAD files and get into and migrate this automatically to the GIS system or to the ERP systems.

The only instance where we can reuse the information is in hydraulic modeling, where we can import the data directly from the GIS. So we have problems with the information we got from the GIS because it has low reliability. So we need a significant effort to update the data in order to calibrate and make the hydraulic model minimally reliable.

In the current workflow, the information does not flow at all. It gets trapped at each stage of the life cycle, resulting in a tremendous effort to keep the operation and the maintenance systems running. Moreover, the analysis of the asset performance at all stages is quite superficial, with no effective hidraulic studies of the alternatives and the impacts of each decision made in this process, in this workflow.

So we start developing a new workflow with the objective to enable information to flow throughout the process with less effort to transfer it from one station to another, and also to include hydraulic modeling at all stages, allowing the improvement decision-making based on studies and simulations using those softwares. All of this should be done swiftly, using technology to transmit information rather than relying on the individuals to make this handover.

To illustrate this new workflow, we will separate the water workflow and the sewage workflow, highlighting some particularities of each flow.

So we start with the water workflow. In the water workflow, at the planning stage, we use the InfraWorks to build the context. In InfraWorks, we consolidate all the information from this phase. Instead of reports or spreadsheets, we input all the information in this model, allowing the structure of the information into this model. So we can create alternatives and keep it structured and select the better proposal and forward all the information from this proposal to the design stage.

We also can exchange information with InfoWorks Pro so we can improve the dimensioning, the sizing of the pipes, and the consumption of the pump stations, and the main idea for the main section for the system. We can model-- hydraulic modeling it and get the results and also including the InfraWorks model in order to collaborate these information through the Docs, through Autodesk Construction Cloud, and get approval from other departments, like environmental, operation, maintenance.

So all information will be in the Construction Cloud being approved or shared with everybody in the company instead of being in a report that is very hard to share, to involve other areas, other people to approver to collaborate with this information.

The exchange of information is made basically with export and import files using shapefiles or GDB files here so we can bring the information from InfraWorks to InfoWorks WS Pro or from WS Pro to InfraWorks as well. The information will be concentrated at InfraWorks, so the information can be shared through the Construction Cloud using the InfraWorks format.

In the next stage, for design, we will import the information from the approved proposal in the plan stage. We will import the proposal into Civil 3D. And with the information in Civil 3D, we can make the improvement using templates, using the library of objects.

So we can improve the drawings, the details we will have in a BIM model to detail every aspect of the construction and also use the exchange between Navisworks and InfoWorks WS Pro to analyze the changes, the improvements that we make in the design and also to get the quantities that they [INAUDIBLE] and also to simulate the construction, the phases of the construction in Navisworks. So this interoperability between those three pieces of software of softwares will be very important to improve the quality of the design.

After finishing all the analysis, the information must be updated in Civil 3D to get all the information transmitted to the next phase to the build. And so the build-- the Civil 3D files will be transmitted to the build stage an using build tools from Autodesk Construction Cloud. We will make the issues marked-- we will appoint the issues so we can notify and control all the requests of changes in the designing, assuring that all changes will be updated in the Civil 3D files.

So here, we don't have so much exchange of information, but mostly, we have the control of the information changing. It's also important to say if there is an important change, we can take the information back to WS Pro and model it to see the impact of the changes, considering the whole distribution system and not only the aspects of the build itself.

And in the last workflow for water, in the last stage of the water workflow, we use two tools here that is already available. That is Autodesk Connector for ArcGIS and also the Exchange from WS Pro, where we can take all the information from the Civil 3D and impart it to ArcGIS. And from ArcGIS, we can exchange information with the model. All changes we have in the information, considering the operations and maintenance stage, must be done in Civil 3D but importing the information from the ArcGIS.

So here, ArcGIS takes the central the central picture, the central-- all the information must be kept, must be stored in the ArcGIS. And this way, you assure that the information that you will provide for consultants will be updated in ArcGIS.

So all the information in Civil 3D will just be as from earlier stages or from changes that have been updated in ArcGIS. Also, we will import every-- we will keep the hydraulic model in WS Pro updated from the ArcGIS. So ArcGIS is the center point of this workflow in this stage.

For sewer applications, we have a very similar workflow. Two main differences-- the first one, in the planning stage, instead of using InfoWorks ICM, here we use the InfoDrainage. That is there to do the sizing, to do the depth studies, using it for drainage. That is the main activity we have to do in the planning stage. So we keep the same logic.

We build the trace of the pipeworks in InfraWorks. We collaborate this model with Civil 3D here because the exchange from InfoDrainage and Civil 3D is very easy, very automated. So instead of bringing it directly to InfoDrainage, we put in Civil 3D. Then we bring it to InfoDrainage, do the excavation studies and the sizing studies, and bring it back to Civil 3D.

And with the Civil 3D updated, we go to design phase, where we have the same workflow we have for water. I mean, we can share the information with InfoWorks ICM and Navisworks here. Of course, we use InfoWorks ICM, and so we can model the hydraulics for the whole system and look how the pump stations will operate, how the system will behave, the behavior of the whole system considering the hydrology or the rains.

Then, after we have all this information, all the design ready, we will put all the information into Civil 3D to go to the build stage-- keep the same logic of the water workflow. So we will just use the build tool here to update the changes of this design, and same logic for the sewer workflow. So we just include InfoDrainage in the planning stage and the Civil 3D as the exchange tool from InfoWorks to InfoDrainage. That's the main difference between those workflows.

The results we got-- first one, what is very important-- the information gets preserved. I mean, there is no rework. We can fully reuse the information we got in earlier phases and get all the handouts with the interoperability tools. So we have no loss of information or no big effort to do the handouts.

We also have the traceability. I mean, we can look in the planning stage and see what was the information we plan to have. What was the flow we planned? What is the pump capacity we plan? So what is the pump capacity in operation? So we can compare. We see if the pump in operation is correct or we changed the capacity of the pump and we are using a much more powerful pump than it was necessary in the plan [INAUDIBLE].

Also, we included the collaboration in this process. I mean, the model becomes collaborative from the start. I mean, in the first step, we can collaborate and involve other areas. So we spend the information from the workflow across more than eight different areas. It's a huge gain to the process, a huge benefit to the process. Usually, this information didn't get to those different areas, and they just received the information when the asset was built. So if it was any different consideration, it's too late. It's too expensive to change.

And also, we improved the time to market-- I mean, the time spent to get the asset ready to operate. It's shorter because we moved from a finish-to-start to a start-to-start project management methodology. I mean, with the old workflow, we need to wait someone to finish to start the next step.

With the collaboration, with the use of CD, the Autodesk Construction Cloud, we can start a new stage and collaborate the information we have in this stage and get the information earlier than it used to be in the old workflow. So it improves in more than 25% of the timeline in the end of the process.

We also need the interoperability. Here, in the operations maintenance, we can, for example, use the GIS system to fit, to input data. So we start the use of Civil 3D in operation maintenance from the GIS system. So we go to the GIS system using the connector for ArcGIS. And we take the information from the ArcGIS, the information available for operation and maintenance. We added this information in Civil 3D, and we just publish the change in ArcGIS.

So, I mean, this process is much, much faster than it used to be when we need to update both systems. We need to do the BIM model with Civil 3D or a 3D drawing. And then we need to update ArcGIS manually or, I mean, input the same information in both systems.

Now we can just publish the information we put on the BIM model into the new system and use the GIS system to exchange information with the hydraulic model software, the InfoWorks ICM or InfoWorks WS Pro and make much faster the use of the hydraulic modeling in operation and maintenance to build a kind of a digital twin-- very reliable and, with a good level, to be predictive to imagine what will be the next scenario and improve a lot the decision-making with these tools in those stage.

And so, to end the presentation, I'd like to share with you my thoughts of this path, this workflow I showed you. So some important issues-- as I mentioned, we eliminate the rework. We improved a lot the time for market to put the asset operating. We need to improve the interoperability to make it even easier to transmit the information from the stages, from the softwares.

But the primary issue, keeping the humans-- the main issue has been the cultural resistance. We still find a huge resistance to make those changes, to change the workflow, and get a proven more efficient workflow. It's not being so easy as it should be because the people are afraid of these new possibilities or the new tools we have, how to use those tools. Will I be able to use this workflow as it is drawn here?

So we are still facing those questions and those situations, those issues. But I keep believing we can improve the way we are doing and the way we store our information and integrate the BIM products with the hydraulic model. We will certainly [INAUDIBLE] and bring this to the reality. So thank you, everyone, for the opportunity and I hope it's been useful for you. Bye-bye.