Conflict analysis in a BIM based design

The development of an engineering design requires the participation of several parties involved in different disciplines, where each discipline conducts its own project in a somewhat disconnected manner from the remaining, therefore requiring project compatibility. In this context, an efficient conflict analysis between disciplines is essential to guarantee a well-developed design. The Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology and tools associated with it present themselves as an excellent asset to support the process of conflict analysis, as they make it possible to merge all disciplines in an integrated virtual environment. The high level of detail and visualization provided by a BIM model leads to better collaboration between those involved throughout the design, hence resulting in a significant reduction of potential errors during the construction phase. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the practical capabilities of the BIM concept in the conflict analysis between building services, namely, the water supply and drainage systems design, and the architectural and structural design. As such, it was case study the development of an architectural, structural and building service (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP)) BIM models and their subsequent conciliation and clash detection. In this work, commercial software such as Revit 2014, Tekla BIMsight and Navisworks Manage were used, the latter two providing features for automatic collision detection. This work contributes to demonstrate the advantages of BIM in the conciliation and coordination between different specialties, as well as the benefits of its application in conflict analysis in an engineering design.