QC Check BIM Models - Part 2

In the previous blog post Part-1 I touched upon two main QC check categories. In this blog post I will look at the first category in detail.

I have now discussed the software specific checks with some Design/BIM folks and come up with the following software (Revit) specific QC check list.

(1) SOFTWARE SPECIFIC QC CHECKS

The following is a list of minimum items (in no particular order) that should be checked when issuing your BIM Model(s) for coordination.

• Model Naming convention
• Model Origin (shared coordinate)
• All Revit+CAD+DWF+Other links are removed
• Model is purged
• Model elements are on appropriate worksets
• Model elements are modeled using appropriate categories, i.e. floor is not modeled using ceiling command etc. 
• Check in-place families and find out reasons for them being in-place as oppose to custom families. Ask them to be converted to custom families where possible. [this one is biggie for model performance]
• Model elements reflect agreed LOD and LOI as per the project specific BIM Execution Plan
• Model contains agreed elements as per the modelling responsibility matrix set out in BIM Execution Plan
• Model title page is updated with the revision information (if you have one)
• Model title page is set as "Start View" (if you have one)
• Delete sheets, schedules and views as per your office standard protocol
• Family naming convention meets your internal protocol or project specific protocol [suggest you set up QC Check schedules in your template to quickly check critical items such as Walls, Floors, Ceilings, Roofs, Doors, Windows etc.]
• Worksets exist as per the agreed breakdown mentioned in BIM Execution Plan
• Worksets are named as per the agreed naming convention (if you have one in place)

Phew! Good luck with this. I would like to know how many of these QC checks you perform every time you issue your model(s) Or If there are any additional software specific checks you perform.

Please leave your thoughts under comments here so that all readers can see how software specific QC checks are performed universally.

QC Check BIM Models - Part 1

Do you perform a QC check every time your BIM models go out of your office? If Yes, that's great! If No, ...well why not? If your company is ISO 9000 compliant then you should QC check your BIM models every time you share your BIM models with the project team.

Forget ISO 9000 for time being. One could argue that BIM Model(s) (oops!) are not contractual deliverables  therefore we don't QC check them. IMHO, that's just bollocks. If you are generating most of your contractual 2D deliverables from your "For Information" BIM Model(s) then how can you afford to ignore QC checking the single source of your 2D deliverables even though you share your BIM Model(s) "For Information" only?

As you know, BIM is going to become contractual on publicly procured projects by 2016 in the UK. This means your BIM models will become part of contractual deliverables and therefore you will be required to perform QC checks every time your BIM Model goes out of the door.

So what should you be looking for when you perform a QC check? I will throw some ideas here for a starter.

First of all prepare a QC check list with two distinct categories as shown below. Now sit down with your Revit (or BIM for that matter) users and populate software specific check list and sit down with your design team (if you are lucky, your design team would be same as your Revit team) and populate design specific check list.

(1) SOFTWARE SPECIFIC QC CHECKS

(2) DESIGN SPECIFIC QC CHECKS

While you are populating your checklists, I will sit down with my BIM/Design team and populate this checklist in next couple of days and share my list with you soon. Stay tuned!

In the mean time if you have any ideas then please feel free to share with other readers by leaving your comments here.