CADD MicrosystemsMarch 30th, 2020
AutodeskBIM 360takes your project and connects it within the cloud, enabling BIM collaboration and coordination, review your documents, connect your project teams from field to the office, and helps streamline the handoff process to owners. A project can live withinBIM 360and have modules activated to manage the project within the cloud in several ways. In the first part of this series, we will take a look at each module and how each works within BIM 360.
BIM 360 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT provides the means to connect your project documents to the cloud. Within this module, you can host a variety of document types including but not limited to Revit Model Files (RVT), AutoCAD Drawing Files (DWG), PDFs, Word Documents, Images, Excel Spreadsheets, and more. Essentially, this allows you to manage your documents in a single cloud-based document management system providing you the ability to share your documents, distribute, and organize in one location. Features include permission settings to control your folder and document structures, PDF data extraction which allows you to upload a PDF and extract data from the PDF to help you organize your documents easily, Revit and AutoCAD file integration which provides a cloud-based means of collaboration with these file types, and more. This module helps you streamline your management process with documents by enabling features to interact with your 2D plans, 3D BIM models, construction documents, project specifications, and so much more.BIM 360Document Management acts as the tree trunk to theBIM 360Cloud; it feeds the other modules and connects them in a single source location.
BIM 360 PROJECT MANAGEMENT connects your documents with the people withinBIM 360by enabling project managers to assign RFIs, Submittals, track and approve these document packages, create meetings, and more. When a document is created and placed within Document Management, a user can provide feedback for the project through an RFI. This RFI can be tracked, managed, and assigned to a user within Project Management. This module provides a dashboard-like interface to enable project managers to manage their documents, projects, and digital processes in a single location.
BIM 360 INSIGHT provides a true dashboard of your project and its processes throughout its life on BIM 360. Track quality risk, RFIs, project and field issues, project document submissions, design issues, schedules, field reports, and so much more. This module ensures that your project managers, field coordinators, and other key members are receiving and keeping up to date with the same exact information in one single location.
BIM 360 DESIGN COLLABORATION enables your BIM designers and teams a means to connect their BIM design models and coordination processes to theBIM 360cloud. Design Collaboration creates a single location for design teams to connect their Revit files and design documents to a location and provide a means to manage their project updates through submission packages, keeping all project teams up to date with the latest and greatest files at any time and allows you to control when and what each project team is updated with. When you are ready to update the other design teams with your BIM model changes, you control when and how. This module connects with your current Revit environment by enabling your Revit file to be workshared via the cloud. Since the model is now in the cloud, this provides anywhere anytime access to your BIM design model by your design team.
BIM 360 MODEL COORDINATION brings your field team, construction, and design teams to the same table; connecting your design models with clash detection and resolution features built-in. In this module, we connect our coordination models with the teams we need to coordinate with and provide a means to clash these models and create a report for all teams to review. Here, we can review, approve, dismiss, and track each clash for project and coordination transparency. If a clash is assigned to me, this is the area I go to provide feedback, approve it, and when it is fixed to close out the clash.
BIM 360 FIELD MANAGEMENT connects your field team to your design teams, project managers, coordinators, and others to the cloud. Within this module you can perform field checklists that need to be coordinated with your other teams very easily. Within the module, you can build checklists, safety walkthrough checks, add issues, share pictures and field schedules, and create daily logs all in a single location which can be shared to the rest of the teams. When an RFI is created in the field for a project, that RFI can take a while before it reaches the right people such as design teams and project managers. When they are created withinBIM 360using Field Management, they are automatically tracked and processed within the Project Manager module and the Insight modules. This does provide a true connected environment for your project coordination efforts.
BIM 360 COST MANAGEMENT provides a means where an administrator can assign a cost to the project, manage significant project costs, and manage cost changes. In this module, you will find the ability to create a template for the project cost to be managed by and apply change orders as they come in. These items can be tracked by the project team as they come up in the other connected modules.
ACCOUNT ADMIN & PROJECT ADMIN are default modules designed to enable your administrative staff, project managers, design leaders, and field managers a way to control user access, project standards, and key features for eachBIM 360module. These are the modules used for every BIM 360 project.
Keep an eye out for the continuation of this blog series where we dive deeper into each one of theseBIM 360modules. We will describe how to setup a module, key features to understand and utilize for each module, how it connects to other modules, and provide insights and tips of how to best use these modules for your projects moving forward.