With the growth of interest in BIM technology, new professions which are closely related to the technology are developing. Browsing through job offers we may encounter advertisements where people are looking for a position of BIM Manager, BIM Champion, BIM Coordinator, BIM Strategist, BIM Leader, BIM Specialist, and many others.
The roles and responsibilities of such people are often more or less similar. The name of the position itself depends on the country and the company they work for. In this series of articles, we will deal with the work of BIM Coordinator, whose name is used daily in Scandinavian countries.
If you are interested in the topics of multi-disciplinary coordination and you would like to familiarize yourself with the details of the BIM Coordinator’s work, you are in the right place. I am glad to welcome you.
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What will you find out?
By creating this series we aim to provide you, the reader, with all the information you need to understand the tasks of BIM Coordinator.
Initially, we will start with the definition of who such a person is in the organization and the project, what are their duties and competencies. Then we will go through the working methodologies and the tools they employ.
In the next part, we will divide the series into two parts. The first one will describe the coordination of construction projects, the second one will describe the coordination of infrastructure projects. We know the challenges and the nature of work in these two areas differ from each other, that is why such division is necessary.
Subsequent entries will develop the process of multi-disciplinary coordination, where we will explain the appropriate way to combine models, carry out clash tests, transfer information between models and automate repetitive tasks.
We focus on a practical approach to the subject, therefore we will also present a few case studies demonstrating the coordination implementation process carried out on real projects.
In the series, we will also discuss the new methodology applied in projects – Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) and show how BIM Coordinator can make use of it in their daily work.
The series concludes with our reflections on the work of BIM Coordinator. We will describe the lights and shadows of that profession. We will share our advice from our own experience, certainly helping other BIM Coordinators to work better and more effectively each day.
Below you may find a list of concepts we will deal with in the series
By creating this series we aim to provide you, the reader, with all the information you need to understand the tasks of BIM Coordinator.
- We will answer the question, who may become a BIM Coordinator,
- We will explain the roles and responsibilities of the BIM Coordinator,
- We will provide the most popular tools used by BIM Coordinator and a general usage description of such programs,
- We will prepare a BIM Execution Plan according to the requirements of the ordering party,
- We will explain the process of creating a BIM Coordination strategy for the project,
- We will learn about the structure of Folders/Files/Information in the project,
- We will understand what Raw Data is and how to improve the existing situation model,
- We will go through the multidisciplinary coordination of the construction and infrastructure project,
- We will make the clash detection check with Solibri,
- We will make the clash detection check with Navisworks,
- We will create our own clash detection rulesets in Solibri,
- We will review what are vital information in the IFC files,
- We will answer why is it worth working with open file formats,
- We will learn how to report clashes and communicate using open BCF files,
- Eventually, we will talk about the lights and shadows of the BIM Coordinator’s work.
But what if I don't want to become BIM Coordinator, is there anything for me in this series?
I’m sure the answer is yes. We will go through many topics that will be useful to anyone working with BIM technology and design.
The issues described in the series will help to consolidate existing knowledge and clarify many of the basic concepts often faced by people.
Do I need any knowledge of BIM technology to understand the series?
We will do our best to make the material we provide as clear as possible. However, some knowledge of the BIM principles will certainly help you in understanding some topics.
I encourage you to read our first article where we discuss the key BIM concepts (Everything You Should Know About Basics of BIM)
Do I need any program to follow the series?
In the initial phase of the series, you will not need any program. The issues discussed will not require using a computer. At some point, we will start to learn how to use Solibri Model Checker and Autodesk Navisworks coordination software. Then we recommend having these programs. A free version is allowed.
We will first begin with Solibri, where we will start from the basics, go through all the main functions of the program, and finish with creating advanced clash detection rules for the project. We will similarly work with Navisworks.
I have no idea what the abbreviations BCF, IFC, VDC, ICE mean, will they be explained?
Yes, the above-mentioned abbreviations will be clarified simply without going into details. This will allow you to understand the content of the articles, read them easily and get the right knowledge for you.
Furthermore, we recommend you to read our previous article (here) where the terms are already explained.
To sum up
As you can see, in this series we will cover a lot of topics. If you work with BIM technology, sooner or later you will come across some of previously mentioned concepcts in your daily work. Therefore, I encourage everyone who deals with BIM to become familiar with this article series .
If you have suggestions, what would you like to learn about BIM coordination, please write in the comments below or send us an email to [email protected].
