Managing Changes and Assuring Model Quality in Archicad

[Emoke Csikos]

During the building design process, changes are constant. A crucial task of lead architects and BIM Managers is to track, manage, and approve all the desired changes and filter unwanted or accidental changes from different people of different disciplines, and various file formats from different platforms. They have to ensure that the model is ready for exchange with the agreed and expected quality.

Some of the most common types of changes in a project are:

• Changes in the architectural model (made by fellow architects, based on the client's requests, proposed or requested by the MEP Engineer, etc.)
• External model changes:
  • Linked architectural models
  • Structural analytical model changes.

Archicad and BIMcloud provide appropriate solutions to tackle the challenges of all the possible scenarios during the entire building design process.

Workflow phase #1 - Be informed of the Changes

First, make sure you are informed of all changes that are relevant to you. Being well informed about relevant changes is essential for all team members. Learn how Archicad helps you with tracking changes from this article: Tracking Changes in Teamwork Projects.

Workflow phase #2 - Check the Changes

Once you got the notifications of the changes relevant for you, you can visualize them and compare them to a previous state of the model. Learn more from this article: Model Comparison, Visualizing Model Changes.

To ensure the model's quality, you need to check it based on rules. Archicad checks the models from three aspects: the quality of the physical model, the quality of the structural analytical model, and checks for collisions. Learn more about Model Check from this article: Model Checking in Archicad.

Workflow phase #3 - Manage the Issues

The changes you do not want to accept can easily be turned into issues and can be assigned to the responsible person for further handling and resolution. Issues can be created based on selected elements and the results of Model Check and Model Compare. Learn more about issue management from these two articles:

• Issue Management in Archicad
• Issue Management in Archicad and Other Applications

Of course, you must go through the steps or phases of the workflow cycle described above many times during the design process.