Page 231 - Divyank Tyagi

Chapter 6

Working with Consultants

Whether you work on large or small projects—residential, commercial, or industrial building
types—collaboration is an almost certain aspect of the workflow you will encounter when
implementing BIM. This chapter discusses important considerations for interdisciplinary
®
coordination as well as the tools within Autodesk Revit software to help you manage the
®
process. This chapter covers aspects of collaboration solely utilizing the Revit platform, and
Chapter 7, “Interoperability: Working Multiplatform,” focuses on collaborating with other
software programs.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to:
◆ ◆◆ Prepare for interdisciplinary collaboration

◆ ◆◆ Collaborate using linked Revit models
◆ ◆◆ Use Copy/Monitor between linked models
◆ ◆◆ Run interference checks

Preparing for Collaboration

Working alone in the Revit environment will deliver measurable increases in productivity,
quality, and consistency; however, the true benefit of building information modeling (BIM)
is the ability to effectively collaborate between design disciplines, share model data with
contractors, and deliver useful information to facility operators.
The difference between these working paradigms has been described as lonely BIM versus
social BIM. Lonely BIM can be thought of as the use of isolated BIM techniques for targeted tasks
such as architectural design or structural analysis. Social BIM is the act of sharing model data
between project stakeholders in order to enhance collaboration while developing a building
design. The importance of increased efficiency in collaboration is the underpinning for the goals
set forth by organizations such as buildingSMART International (www.buildingsmart.com)
or the UK’s BIM Task Group (www.bimtaskgroup.org).
The ability to support high-quality information exchanges necessitates the proper use of
3D models and nongraphic data in a highly collaborative environment. Although we will be
discussing collaboration solely within the Revit platform in this chapter, the buildingSMART
Alliance and the National BIM Standard (NBIMS-US) stress the need for open interoperability
between BIM applications.

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