BIM Coordination
Every discipline federated into one model and clash-tested before site — structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical and plant — so issues are resolved in the model, not invoiced as variations on the programme.
OD3 provides BIM coordination and clash detection for contractors and design teams across the UK and Ireland — every discipline's model federated into one environment and clash-tested before the issue can reach site. We model and coordinate in the Autodesk suite: Revit for the federated model, Autodesk Robot for structural analysis, and ReCap to register point-cloud reality into the model. The coordinated model is shared and reviewed through Trimble Connect, so every party works to one source rather than a stack of drawings that meet for the first time on site.
The clash is cheap in the model and expensive on site
A clash caught in the model costs a coordination comment. The same clash discovered on site costs a variation claim, day-rate standing time for a trade that cannot proceed, and delay on a programme that was already time-sensitive. Our job is to keep clashes in the model. We identify the conflict, put it back to the discipline responsible for it, and have it resolved in the federated model — on the record — so the coordination is documented before anyone breaks ground and cannot resurface later as an unforeseen condition or a claim.
Every discipline in one federated model
We federate the models each discipline produces — structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical and plant — into a single coordinated model, then run hard and soft clash detection across every interface between them. Steel into slab, duct through beam, plant against access, services into structure: the conflicts that normally surface as RFIs and site stoppages are found and resolved while they are still lines in a model. We coordinate the disciplines' models; we do not replace the designers responsible for them — the output is a clash-free, documented federation that every party has signed off against.
Coordination inside one digital thread
BIM coordination sits in the middle of our capture-to-verify thread: the same reality-capture data that opens the model, the structural steel we detail in Tekla, and the site setout and as-built verification that close it out. On refurbishment and fit-out work, the coordination model starts from our own 3D laser scan, registered through ReCap, so the disciplines are coordinated against the building as it actually stands — accurate to ±2mm — not against record drawings. Because everything moves through Trimble Connect, backed up and encrypted in the cloud, it makes no difference where the project or the design team sits. We have delivered across the UK and Ireland since 2012, and the practice carries £2m professional indemnity insurance.
FAQs
- Which disciplines do you coordinate?
- We federate and clash-test the models every discipline produces — structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical and plant — in a single coordinated model. We coordinate the disciplines' models; we do not replace the designers responsible for them. The deliverable is a clash-free, documented federation that every party has reviewed and signed off against.
- What software do you coordinate in?
- The Autodesk suite — Revit for the federated model, Autodesk Robot for structural analysis, and ReCap to register point-cloud survey data into the model — with the federation shared and reviewed through Trimble Connect. Structural steel is detailed in Tekla Structures in the same practice, so the steel in the coordination model is the steel that gets fabricated.
- How does coordinating in the model protect us from variation claims?
- Because the clash is found and resolved before site, and the resolution is documented. We identify each conflict, put it back to the discipline responsible, and record the coordinated solution in the federated model. Once the issue is closed in the model, on the record, it cannot reappear on site as an unforeseen condition or a day-rate claim — the coordination history shows it was resolved at design stage.
- Do you need every consultant's model to start?
- We work with what the project has. Ideally each discipline issues a current model; where a discipline only has 2D information, we can model it into the federation so it can still be clash-tested. We will tell you up front what is missing and what risk that leaves uncovered, rather than report a clean clash result against an incomplete model.
- Can you coordinate against an existing building?
- Yes. We carry out our own 3D laser scanning and register the point cloud into the coordination model with ReCap, so the disciplines are coordinated against as-built geometry accurate to ±2mm — not against record drawings that may no longer match the building. On refurbishment and fit-out inside live buildings, that is the difference between a model that coordinates and one that surprises you on site.
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