BIM Model Assurance and Clash Coordination

The acceptance gate

The delivery workflow turns the requirements and the plan into produced, coordinated and accepted information. Its centre is an acceptance gate: nothing is published until it meets the EIR.

Mobilize: stand up the team, the CDE and the standards.
Produce in Work in Progress: each task team authors its discipline model.
Share and coordinate: federate the models, run clash detection and resolve issues.
Check against the EIR: verify that the deliverable meets the requirements.
Publish and hand over: authorized information is published and the project information model feeds the asset information model.
Reject loop: anything that fails the gate is corrected and resubmitted, not waved through.

ISO 19650-2 defines the information delivery cycle as produce, then review and authorize, through the CDE states, so only accepted information is published. Acceptance should be a recorded result, not a signature on a transmittal.

Coordination is a controlled issue lifecycle

Coordination is not a weekly meeting. Every clash or query is logged, owned, resolved and verified closed, with the record kept as evidence. BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) carries issues between tools without losing the link to the element.

Detect: a clash or query is found in the federated model.
Log in BCF with an identifier, a location and a snapshot.
Assign an owner and a discipline.
Resolve by changing the model or the design.
Verify by re-running the check.
Close and keep the evidence in the CDE.

Set the rules before you run the checks

Test set	Disciplines	Rule to define
Structure vs architecture	S against A	Tolerance, priority, owner, cadence
MEP vs structure	M, E, P against S	Tolerance, priority, owner, cadence
MEP vs MEP	M against E and P	Tolerance, priority, owner, cadence

Define hard, soft and clearance clash rules, classify issues into priority classes so effort goes to what matters, and give every issue exactly one owner.

Requirement checking with IDS

IDS (Information Delivery Specification) makes requirements machine-checkable, so a rule such as a required property being present and valid can be tested automatically against the model instead of by eye.

IFC exchange quality: does the data survive?

A successful IFC export is not proof of quality: geometry can survive while data, classification and relationships are lost. After export, check:

Coordinates and units: the model lands in the right place at the right scale.
Classification: objects carry their classification codes.
Property sets: the required properties are present and populated.
Object types: elements export as real types, not generic proxies.
Relationships and spaces: containment, systems and spaces are intact.
Quantities: model quantities resolve and match the source.

A model QA checklist

Correct naming, revision and suitability.
Shared coordinate origin correct.
Classification applied.
Level of information need met, with no over-modelling.
Clash test run, and resolved or logged in BCF.
Warnings reviewed.
Unused elements purged.
Views and sheets complete.
Data and parameters populated.

Failures are recorded as non-conformance reports with the root cause, the corrective action and the preventive action.

Make quality measurable

KPI	Definition	Source
Clash closure rate	Clashes closed before site divided by total raised	BCF issue register
IDS check pass rate	Elements passing IDS divided by total checked	IDS validation report
IFC exchange retention	Verified properties divided by required properties	Before and after IFC exchange check
Information-need completeness	Elements meeting their LOIN divided by required	Model audit against the LOIN matrix
Approval turnaround	Mean days from Shared to Published	CDE timestamps

Targets are set per project in the EIR. Each KPI should have a named source and a single accountable owner.

ISO 19650 does not prescribe these KPIs: it requires information to meet defined requirements and to be reviewed and accepted. The metrics are a practical measurement framework drawn from DEIM's approved knowledge base.

References

ISO 19650-2: delivery phase, review, authorization and acceptance
buildingSMART BCF (BIM Collaboration Format)
buildingSMART IFC (ISO 16739) and the IFC Validation Service
buildingSMART IDS (Information Delivery Specification)

Drawn from the approved DEIM knowledge base

BIM Model Assurance and Clash Coordination: From Detection to Verified Close-Out