Introduction

In recent years, precision has become not just a preference but a mandatory requirement in engineering and construction projects. While dealing with enormous projects, the construction industry deals with advanced technology to meet the client's needs. To ensure the desired outcomes, it is necessary to integrate construction designs with multiple disciplines like mechanical, electrical, interior, landscape architecture, thermal, and more.

These trades work separately within their native design tools as per their regulatory rules and standards, which will not synchronize all the time and may raise issues with coordination. While combining with the structural model, these interdisciplinary designs would not fit well and cause overlaps. These overlaps are considered as clashes. Clashes are difficult to find out manually, and delivering the project design without resolving the clashes causes a significant impact on the project and leads to huge losses and troubles during the construction phase.

Hence, it is crucial to detect these clashes in the pre-construction or during the design phase. To do this, you will need to have a detailed understanding of clashes, procedures to identify and ways to deal with them. This comprehensive guide will provide a detailed overview of clashes and outline best practices for identifying, managing, and preventing them.

What is Clash Detection?

Clash Detection is the process of identifying conflicts when different project systems, elements, and components in a building design overlap with other systems or fail to fit within a designated space and resolving them to avoid discrepancies.

Clash detection is a part of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) process and takes place during the design phases in order to avoid costly errors during construction. These clashes arise when different design trades combine their design with the actual structure, which could be spatial or functional.

Importance of Clash Detection in Construction and Design Projects:

In modern construction projects, clash detection is an important element. It provides a proactive approach to stakeholders in identifying potential issues and helps in resolving on-hand by reducing costly delays and rework.

With clash detection, issues like interference of structural beams with pipes, collision of electrical motors with walls, and many more can be resolved seamlessly. Paying less attention to clash detection will lead to huge losses and rework. Also, this takes more time to proceed and makes your project lag behind the estimated duration.

Its significance extends beyond merely identifying problems in a building’s design; it offers a comprehensive solution that enhances the entire workflow, from planning to execution.

Types of Clashes

While coordinating with different project teams on their designs, you’ll find various clashes. Here is the detailed breakdown of the clashes that occur in the construction design sector,

1. Hard Clashes:

Hard Clashes are physical ones that directly overlap between different building elements. These clashes are straightforward, like occupying two or more elements in the same place

Hard clashes occur when designers do not fully account for the 3D spatial constraints of the building. Also, when there is improper coordination between various designers while making the designs.

These clashes need to be resolved on time, before the construction starts, or else it will result in costly reworks. Also, there is a chance of construction hazards after construction without resolving them.

2. Soft Clashes:

Soft clashes focus on proximity issues, not element overlaps. These clashes affect the proper functionality and safe maintenance, like ensuring clearance and gaps. They are less obvious than hard clashes as they do not directly impact like a physical collision or element interference.

These clashes occur when there is less priority given to the operational aspects, like gaps for service access, vent space, and clearance. If designers lack a proper understanding of other system designs, for example, electrical designers being unaware of plumbing layouts, it can lead to conflicts between different design elements, such as electrical wires interfering with plumbing pipes.

3. Workflow Clashes:

Workflow clashes are not related to any physical or design clashes. They are related to the regular operations and construction activities. These clashes arise due to conflicts with workflows, materials, tasks, labourers, methods, and more. They are not predicted and resolved from the project designs; instead, they occur at the time of implementation and while performing tasks.

Workflow clashes occur due to improper coordination between different teams while scheduling tasks. Preparation of activities without knowing the dependencies is also a potential cause. Due to workflow clashes, equipment and material will be put to idle and result in misaligned workflows and wasted resources.

BIM in Clash Detection:

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a virtual depiction of a building’s structural, physical, and functional characteristics. BIM is a comprehensive tool for managing a project's design, from project initiation to completion and after maintenance. It enhances coordination among different projects’ stakeholders, like architects, designers, contractors, and other third-party stakeholders who contribute from various locations, providing a 3D model of the structure, displaying all the potential conflicts of interest, and aiding in resolving those issues at hand.

Furthermore, BIM enables more precise scheduling and resource management by offering a clear picture of the project's advancement, thereby helping to avoid delays. Utilizing automated clash detection tools in BIM reduces human mistakes and enhances the overall efficiency of the design and construction process.

How is Clash Detection Facilitated by BIM?

With BIM technology, you can combine all the project designs and create a federated model, containing a 3D representation of the whole building, its structures, design elements, and systems. Designs from different trades are tested against each other in order to check if the coordination exists properly. Also, while testing these models, you can find any hard and soft clashes between the models.

BIM tools operate with cloud technology, helping your teams work with the latest models, mitigating the issue of compatibility and coordination. Teams can coordinate easily and work together on the models. This helps to convey the issues and clashes on time to the respective designer seamlessly and resolve them effectively.

BIM also enables teams to utilize data-driven methods, where the software can automatically identify possible clashes between systems and enhance accuracy and minimize the risk of errors.

The Clash Detection Process

The clash detection process involves several key steps, including integrating all relevant models into a unified Federated BIM model. Here is the breakdown of steps involved in the clash detection process:

1. Creation of Project Designs:

The first step is the development of various CAD models from different project teams. These designs should include a detailed three-dimensional representation of all the components, systems, and structures, with their technical properties, attributes, and other related information.

2. Federated Model Creation:

Using BIM technology, create a federated model by unifying all the designs from different teams. Create coordination sets using two different models to check if they fit well. Integrating all the models with the central or base structure will provide you with a detailed view of how well the building design is drafted as per the plan.

3. Custom Clash Detection Test Creation:

Select a robust clash detection tool and customize the clash test. Customization involves setting rules by deciding whether it is hard or soft clashes, setting viewpoints, and tolerance values. An advanced and comprehensive clash detection tool like Enginero provides cutting-edge features like clash grouping and ignoring clashes.

4. Clash Detection and Analysis:

Run the clash test as per the rules defined earlier within the clash detection tool. After the clash detection process, the tool displays the detected clashes in the federated model or between the different models in coordination sets. Analyse those clashes, whether they are soft or hard clashes, if they are actually a clash or a fixture between the systems, or if there are any clashes to omit.

5. Clash Review:

Once the clashes have been analysed, make sure every project team is aware of them. During the review process, it is better to conduct an overall project coordination meeting to find out the issues. Prioritize the clashes and the order in which the clashes must be resolved. Communicate them to the respective team and strategies to resolve them. Ensure to document all the methods to resolve the clashes.

6. Clash Resolution:

Once the detected clashes are sent to the respective teams, the designers work on them as per the clash resolution method defined in the review stage. At this stage, designers need to work with other project teams to ensure that the modifications don’t affect or create new conflicts.

Upon resolution, ensure that the design gets updated and inform the project coordinator/manager after every change and track the changes promptly.

7. Re-Evaluation of Clashes:

After resolving the clashes, integrate the updated model with other designs and the base structure. Check if the model fits well and re-run the clash test again with the same rules as applied earlier, and ensure that no new conflicts are raised. Once the model is free from clashes, it is now ready for further construction stages like planning, estimation, or build.

Meanwhile, document all changes and track clashes along with their resolution strategies for future reference.

Benefits of Clash Detection:

Clash detection offers significant benefits in construction and design by identifying and resolving conflicts between different building systems before actual construction begins. This proactive approach minimizes costly on-site changes, reduces project delays, and enhances coordination among teams. Let’s have a look at some of the ways to know why it is mandated in the design and construction industry.

a) Improved Design Accuracy:

With Clash Detection, you can improve the overall quality of the system and its accuracy. Automated clash testing identifies inconsistencies such as overlaps and interferences that are too difficult to detect manually using 2D drawings.

Structures built after performing clash detection tests provide error-free designs, precise outcomes, and the most reliable project outcomes.

b) Cost Savings:

One of the most significant benefits of clash detection is cost savings. Detecting clashes and conflicts in advance will eliminate reworks and minimize material wastage. Identifying and fixing conflicts in the design stage is significantly cheaper than tackling them in construction, where modifications might necessitate labour, material replacement, or equipment delays. Also, it assists in preventing contractual conflicts and penalties that could emerge from delays or failure to adhere to design specifications

c) Enhanced Collaboration:

Construction projects involve various stakeholders such as architects, engineers, contractors, and subcontractors. Clash detection promotes a collaborative working environment through a common digital model where all stakeholders can see and analyse the same information. It promotes early and ongoing coordination between disciplines, allowing teams to detect and solve problems together. This collaborative working environment enhances communication, minimizes misunderstandings, and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the project objectives and design intent.

d) Efficient Project Timelines:

Clash tests play a crucial role in maintaining efficiency and boosting timelines. When conflicts are detected and resolved up front, before physical construction starts, construction teams can move forward with more confidence and fewer interruptions. This results in smoother project delivery, efficient scheduling, and fewer surprise on-site delays. Ultimately, resolving conflicts in the virtual model eliminates the need for reactive problem-solving during construction, keeping the project on or ahead of schedule.

Best Practices for Effective Clash Detection

To ensure clash detection delivers the most value throughout a project, it’s essential to follow a set of best practices that enhance its accuracy, efficiency, and collaborative potential.

1. Regular Updates and Reviews:

Clash detection is not a one-time task, but an ongoing effort during the life of the project. As the project progresses and design changes are made, the BIM model must be updated to reflect any of these changes to design, materials, or means of construction.

This way, any new clashes will be detected as they arise. In addition, the BIM model should be reviewed from time to time with both the design and construction teams to revisit potential issues that might not have gotten attention early on.

Continuing to update and review the model is also a great way to update schedules and budgets by getting ahead of issues in the design stage and possibly preventing expensive rework later.

2. Clear Communication Among Stakeholders:

To make clash detection process enhanced, there must be effective collaboration between various project teams, such as engineers, architects, MEP designers, contractors, and many more. Transparency is essential to ensure everyone is involved in the project and understands the issues related to clashes and resolves them as prioritized.

Sharing updates on a regular basis with the help of collaboration platforms or project management tools will aid you in keeping stakeholders aligned. By bringing in all stakeholders early in the clash detection, you can ensure that various ideas are taken into account and any potential issues are collectively addressed. This also helps in making quicker decisions when clashes are identified and resolving conflicts effectively.

3. Use of Advanced Software Tools:

The precision and efficiency of the clash detection process are heavily influenced by the software tools used. Learning from the best technology on clash detection, we can identify potential conflicts more accurately and more quickly. The latest software tools can help us identify not only major clashes and failures, but smaller, less visible ones that will cost much more later in the life cycle process.

The best software tools will provide the ability to have real-time clash detection, automatic reporting, and 3D visualization, which differs drastically from searching for clashing conditions through drawing and mandated record-keeping. Using the best available clash detection software will allow everyone to be totally aligned with the project to avoid costly delays and built-in errors.

Elevate Your Clash Detection with Enginero:

Enginero, a robust platform that takes your design collaboration and clash detection to the next level, a software platform designed to streamline the clash detection process with unmatched precision and efficiency.

Enginero stands out in the construction and design sectors by offering an intuitive and user-friendly platform that empowers teams to detect, resolve, and manage clashes seamlessly across complex construction projects.

1. Simplified Design Coordination:

Enginero takes the complexity out of design coordination by offering a platform that seamlessly integrates and manages diverse design files from various teams. Whether you are dealing with structural systems, intricate MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) designs, or architectural elements, Enginero ensures all your models come together under one roof. By offering bi-directional integration with all major CAD and BIM software, Enginero uses customized plugins to unify your designs, making it easier for different project teams to collaborate effectively.

2.Advanced Issue and RFI Management:

Effective communication is key in any construction project, and Enginero enhances this through advanced issue and RFI (Request for Information) management. With Enginero, project teams can quickly identify and communicate issues, streamlining the exchange of vital information. This fast and accurate information flow ensures that no issue is overlooked and that teams can address challenges in real time, preventing delays and costly mistakes.

3. IntelliClash for Advanced Clash Detection:

At the heart of Enginero's powerful capabilities lies IntelliClash, an advanced clash detection engine. IntelliClash doesn’t just identify hard clashes but also detects soft clashes, giving teams a complete view of potential design conflicts. By setting custom tolerances for clash detection, Enginero ensures that only the relevant issues are flagged, providing a more refined and accurate clash detection process. The tool also visualizes these clashes in the context of your coordinated models, helping project teams quickly understand the nature of each issue.

4. Real-Time Clash Resolution with Auto-Grouping:

One of the standout features of Enginero is its ability to provide auto-grouping of clashes. After detecting conflicts, Enginero automatically groups them by categories, making it easier for the project teams to focus on related issues. This advanced grouping simplifies communication, enabling stakeholders to address multiple related clashes in one go. By visualizing the clashes and enabling direct communication between teams, Enginero facilitates swift, real-time resolution, keeping the project moving forward without unnecessary delays.

5. Customized Dashboards and Reports:

Enginero offers customized dashboards that provide real-time project insights, helping you stay on top of clash detection and resolution progress. The platform’s detailed analysis features enable project managers and stakeholders to assess clash patterns, identify areas of concern, and prioritize issues accordingly. Enginero also allows you to generate tailored reports that are essential for project coordination meetings, helping all team members make informed decisions based on accurate, up-to-date data.

Implementing Enginero in your construction and design projects equips you with a comprehensive array of tools for improving coordination, communication, and delivering insights for executing your project on time and budget.

Empower your team to identify and address clashes more quickly, reduce expensive rework, and improve collaboration across all parties with Enginero.

Conclusion:

Wrapping up, precision is critical in today's engineering and construction environment, and the need for technological advancement to meet project scopes can create even more complexity for teams as they try to deliver on a multidisciplinary design. Trade teams (like architects, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, etc.) work exclusively in their design tools, leading to potential disconnect points during the design process. When these designs are combined with structural models, this can create clashes—instances where systems overlap and conflict with one another—and these defects can create significant problems if the designs have yet to be considered and resolved.

Clash detection is the ability to analyse building design and find areas of conflict to comprehensively evaluate a design's performance through the consideration of overlapping systems that don't fit in the allocated spaces, so that several unique aspects of collisions can be identified. This vital stage takes place during the design phase of the process, specifically within Building Information Modeling (BIM), and can avoid costly mistakes while constructing buildings to keep optimum efficiency.

The impact of Clash Detection today cannot be overstated on any construction project. It's proactive for owners and stakeholders to identify clashes in the early stages of design so that conflicts can be avoided, leading to potential rework and delays. By identifying conflicts such as plumbing pipes and structural beams, or electrical fixtures interfering with walls, Clash Detection helps coordinate project workflows while remaining on schedule.