For many project teams, virtual design and construction and BIM are opening up a whole new world where products and materials are specified in models and clashes are detected before ground is even broken. The ability to design and share instructions in 3D is making teams more efficient.<\/p>\n
As firms make the transition to BIM with enhanced coordination tools for early clash detection and issue resolution, communication among inter-disciplinary project partners remains challenging. Design teams are often decentralised, and project schedules are usually constrained. Design decisions from all project partners are needed much earlier in the process, yet modelling skills and access are limited to the architect and designers. All team members must have access to critical project documents, but ensuring that everyone is referencing a single, up-to-date master document set can be difficult at best.<\/p>\n
The goal of BIM is to tie together valuable information created, distributed and gathered during the project life cycle, remove process inefficiencies, and change the way information is shared and utilised. More and more, teams are implementing electronic plan rooms and BIM rooms so all stakeholders can interact with project data, documents and each other to get on the same page at the start of a project.<\/p>\n
But what happens when project partners don\u2019t have access to or technical knowledge of solutions leveraging BIM? How can teams make sure that all members \u2014 including consultants, engineers, contractors and clients \u2014 can contribute to the conversation as early as possible?<\/p>\n
For many project teams, the answer is to leverage PDFs. Owners, engineers, architects, contractors and facilities professionals are transforming industry workflows by using PDFs to go digital. Users electronically create, redline and share 2D PDFs for design reviews, estimates and RFIs through punch lists, closeouts and facilities management. Easily navigable digital document sets are created with assigned user access and document management permissions to ensure that the right team members receive the right information at the right time. And, robust PDF solutions track all annotations for built-in accountability.<\/p>\n
The most innovative teams are bridging the gap between those who typically have access to BIM, and those who don\u2019t via 3D PDFs. All team members can contribute to and greatly benefit from the ability to view, navigate and comment on portions of 3D models exported from Revit, Navisworks Manage, Navisworks Simulate or any IFC file.<\/p>\n
Invaluable content is more accessible than ever before with the ability to slice 3D models, paste 3D views onto RFIs, isolate 3D model regions and manipulate objects within 3D assemblies \u2014 all to get answers more quickly.<\/p>\n
Once exported into a 3D PDF format, users can manipulate and navigate 3D PDF models and add industry-standard or customisable markups to 3D views. The 3D functionality in some digital solutions makes it easier to clarify questions and resolve<\/p>\n
issues more accurately and earlier in the process. For example, in addition to simply adding markups to 3D views, users can copy and paste specific 3D objects from one PDF to another, to more clearly document questions about a particular building element, essentially creating the next generation of RFIs.<\/p>\n
Watch how 3D PDFs work:<\/p>\n