Building Information Management (BIM) Tools

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From the course by Columbia University

Construction Scheduling

594 ratings

Columbia University

Construction Scheduling

594 ratings

Course 2 of 4 in the Specialization Construction Management

Learners will discover the key project scheduling techniques and procedures including; how to create a network diagram, how to define the importance of the critical path in a project network, and defining project activities float. Also covered are the fundamentals of Bar Charts, Precedence Diagrams, Activity on Arrow, PERT, Range Estimating, and linear project operations and the line of balance.

From the lesson

Technology Applications for Scheduling

Dareen Salama, of the STV Group, discusses the technology applications used for scheduling. Dareen provides an overview of the applications used for scheduling development, schedule analysis, sharing and collaboration and visualization.

Schedule Analysis and Applications9:51

Schedule Application: Custom Tools10:12

Building Information Management (BIM) Tools14:23

Integration of the Model and Schedule Tools9:15

Meet the Instructors

Ibrahim Odeh, Ph.D., MBA
Instructor, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University
Director of Research and Founder, Global Leaders in Construction Management

Now that we spoke about schedule analysis,

schedule development, how do we develop a schedule?

How do we do that in P6?

How do we do that in Microsoft Project?

Now what if I'm in the situation now that I have the schedule and

I have a model but I really want to put both together?

I really want to look at them all in the same environment.

I really want to look at the sequencing of work.

And sometimes people are even asking the question of

what is it that I need to see in terms of the model?

What do I need to see in terms of the schedule and the model together, and

how can I use the schedule and the model together in the first place.

If I have a BIM model, and I have a schedule,

what do I do with both of them together.

So, we spoke about BIM before, so

now we're only focused on that 4D aspect, on linking that schedule with the model.

So that 4D aspect really covers multiple aspects.

It covers linking the model to a CPM schedule.

And there are tools that really follow different methodologies for scheduling,

like line of balance and location-based scheduling, but

there is still some level of CPM involved there, but

the idea is you have a schedule, and you need to link that to the model.

So that's one thing.

That's 4D development.

The other thing is you want to visualize the schedule.

You simply just want to see the sequencing of work for

the project growing within that, the building growing within that animation.

The other thing is you want to see the sequencing of work.

You really want to visualize the sequencing of work.

You don't just want to look at the Gantt chart or

bar chart or critical path method diagram.

Other aspects are tracking the production, tracking the work,

tracking whether the work is completed or not, identifying project status.

We won't talk much about that today because that starts linking as well with

cost it's not just looking at schedule alone.

But I'm really going to focus on how do you link the model to the schedule?

How do you visualize it and and create an animation?

And how do you look at that sequencing of work?

So in order to develop a 4D model a lot of people come and say, well hey I have 2D

drawings, please put it together with a schedule and show me an animation.

Doesn't really quite work that way.

So, what you really need in order to create that 4D model is first,

I need a schedule.

I'm not going to be able to create a 4D animation without the schedule.

So, first you get that schedule.

That schedule doesn't have to be absolutely complete.

Every software works differently but

if I think about some of the software that we're using, you need a list of activities

and you need dates for when these activities are to be completed.

This is your bare bone basics of

creating some kind of link between a model and a timeline.

So the dates give you that timeline of when these

objects are supposed to appear or disappear.

And activities gives you an idea of tying that

line item with objects that are in the model.

The other thing is that software could be anything really,

I mean everything today can be exported into Excel.

As long as it can be exported into Excel you can link it to the model, so

there's no challenge there.

But, if you're working on a large project and you want to establish some kind of

work flow that works so that you don't have to duplicate your work every month.

Then you need some kind of scheduling database.

And in that case, working with Microsoft Project or

Primavera P6, mostly Primavera P6 will be extremely beneficial for you.

The other thing that you clearly need is the BIM Model.

So I'm not going to create a schedule and a 4D visualization without the BIM model.

So, you need a BIM Model and you need a schedule, so there's that starting point.

And then, in order to do them, you need that software.

You need some kind of 4D BIM platform, you need some kind of

platform that absorbs that BIM model from wherever it was created and you need

that software to also absorb that schedule in whatever format that you created.

Now some of the software that you're going to hear that's being

used out there Autodesk Navisworks.

That allows you to link the model and the schedule together.

Synchro, which also allows you to develop the schedule, if you are using Synchro

as a scheduling tool, and allows you to link that schedule to the model.

Vico, which also allows you to work in that unified platform, and

it works with a location based scheduling, and line of balance.

Which is an edge that they have over other platforms.

And there are many other platforms out there,

those are the ones that I'm personally familiar with.

There's other ones that are in

other regions of the world that are also widely used.

RIB iTWO ice is one of them.

So there's many other platforms, but

those are the most commonly used ones that I know of.

So one thing about developing the schedule, developing the 4D model,

the 4D schedule is that you need some kind of mechanism to look at the model, right.

So you need some kind of mechanism to say that this object is tied to this data and

it has an Activity ID.

That is one approach, that is one approach to keep it consistent is

to embed these Activity IDs in the Revit model in the first place.

Now this is a snap shot of Revit and

this is just one element that's one of the walls.

So that wall has an Activity ID of this much.

A1015.2.

Great, so

that means that if each object in the Revit model always has this Activity ID,

then I can automatically link it to a matching Activity ID within the schedule.

And I'll show you that in a second.

Now, if you're going to use that further,

now having these dates is either it's a choice whether you have it or not.

It's not really required.

But we typically add the breakdown of activities or sub activities in NP6 that

could be called sub tasks or steps that are related to that activity.

So the activity could be the wall.

But in order to have multiple tasks that lead up to that activity

being complete you have installing Metal Studs, installing Gypsum Board and so on.

So these are sub activities, 1, 2, and 3.

So, you can also add number of activities, it doesn't have to be one Activity ID.

The other thing is, is that would allow you to track it.

So these dates, are the actual dates.

I'm not going to stress on tracking so much today.

But the idea here is that the Activity ID right here,

is what you will eventually need in order to link it to your schedule.

This is a similar example but within the context of the whole model

where you say that this whole column is connected to this mark.

And this mark is connected to this activity erect steel at section B.

So that way when activity erect steel section BE starts all these objects

start popping up in the model and I'll show how you set that up in the middle.

So, this is the idea, the idea is that you have the model, you have objects and

you start adding information to that model which we call that conditioning process.

The other aspect is you can add other items as well,

it's not just by Activity ID, you can go further and say, no I want it by phases.

So these are, this is everything that's going to be demolished in that zone.

So this is the phase CM demo, so you can add any type of phases

that allow you to break down the work based on your work breakdown structure.

But break it down in the model.

So that model breakdown matches that schedule breakdown.

So in that, this is a snapshot of a Navisworks environment.

So in that Navisworks environment what's possible?

What's possible is that you have a view where you have the model.

And I'll talk about that in a minute.

That model could be coming from design or construction.

And you have a section here that's called the timeliner.

And the timeliner has information that's coming from the contractor's P6 database.

Live integration with your own P6 database, integration with a Microsoft

project, integration with an Excel file, it's really your choice.

So that timeliner has multiple data sources.

In this example, it's a P6 connection, but it could be anything.

The other aspect is that you can start appending any type of models you want.

The models don't have to be coming directly from Revit.

They could be coming from Revit, could be coming from another NavisWorks model.

Could be coming from an IFC file, could be coming from a Sketch-Up file even.

Could be coming, it could be coming from any, almost any 3D platform and

you can find it in a format that you can bring it in into Navisworks and

connect it to your schedule.

So you append your models, you get your data sources identified.

These data sources could be any of the following formats.

So CSV, which could be any Excel file that can be converted to CSV, or

you can get the CSV files from a different platform that you used for scheduling.

Could be a Microsoft project file, different versions of Microsoft project,

or it could be linked- to the p6 web services API.

So that gives you that flexibility.

The other aspect is this timeliner includes, once you've linked that data,

it includes, like you see here, it includes a list of activities.

So I see here it's install one over eight inch aluminum panel on the roof.

Great.

So this is the activity and it also shows you that work break down structure.

It's coming directly from P6 so

architecture work roof is one level of the work break down structure.

And one of over eight inch aluminum panels is one part of that break down structure.

Again, it receives this data from the P6 whether it plan start,

plan end, actual start and actual.

You'll notice that the terminology is different between one platform and

the next and that's why we go through some kind of mapping exercise.

So it's important to understand what data fields are mapped

to these data fields here.

So, for example, I'll say that plan start and plan end here is mapped to the fields

that are equivalent in P6 that are base line start and base line end.

That's as an example.

Every project again can do it differently.

Now, there's different settings, once you have these activities here

then you have different settings that you can identify.

You can say okay for this particular activity I am assigning this set.

And this set, if you notice here it says A11930 it means it's that Activity ID.

So, I created these different sets right here.

So let me go back a bit.

So, I have all this list of sets right here.

Now, these sets if you have this binocular icon right here.

That means it's search, it's a search set.

It's search for all of the objects in the model.

It searches for which one of these has this mark,

or this Activity ID with that same number.

So I can automatically create all these search sets that search the model,

create grouping of objects.

So I have grouping of objects, and

these objects are identified under the group with the name of the Activity ID.

And they are automatically assigned to the activity with that exact same ID.

So that establishes that link.

You'll notice that there's another thing here, that's the task type.

So I don't just assign objects to the activity, but I also identify what type of

assigning do I want when the timeliner gets to the date April 24th.

Do I want the object to appear?

Do I want the object to grow gradually?

Do I want the object to disappear?

Do I want the object to increase in terms of transparency?

All these have to be defined.

So this is first defined as the task type.

So I'll say that it's construct I may have different task types,

such as demolition, such as temporary work so it appears for a while and

then once the activity is completed it disappears, so it may vary.

And then I identify in this configure tab so this timeliner has four tabs.

It has a configure tab and that can configure tab helps me identify,

okay I can create endless number of activity types, but

definitely I don't want to do that.

The minimum possible is better, so that it doesn't confuse the viewer.

So if you have construct here, it says, you can start identifying all these items.

So if it's construct, then at the start I want to show it as 90% transparent.

And then it will start solidifying and start showing more that object.

And I could choose that it grows.

I could choose that it just appears at once, that's totally your choice.

Demolition, same thing.

That starts as 90% transparence, and start disappearing.

Temporary work, and installing maybe this is used for equipment and

not just constructing different elements, but only installing equipment.

There are other settings that you can define, so

you can define appearance definitions so the colors could be different,

it could be you can make it yellow, green, purple.

Any type of color that you wish.

And of course, there are other settings within Navisworks but

this really gives you the basics.

And I highly recommend that you install an education version of Navisworks.

Try it out.

They provide sample models that you can use.

You can download these sample models like I mentioned append the model.

Import a sample schedule and

start connecting objects and attaching them to these different activities

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