Coordination Within Architectural, Structural And Mep. Why Is It Important?

By Author: Kimberly Smith
Total Articles: 69
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Need of Coordination:
Coordination between the engineers and architects with different disciplines plays vital role in execution of projects. BIM projects are mostly done on revit which and in this software one can easily create models with different domain then get into process of coordination easily. The initial step for getting in coordination process is to create separate 3D models for the particular domain for e.g. architects and their team creates architectural model, structural models are created with the help of structural engineers and modelers and MEP engineers contribute towards MEP models individually. After the creation of models individually there comes the need of coordination of models with a common reference point. After creation of the separate models with different domains, next step is to coordinate all the models into a single model by selection of common coordinates. Few benefits of coordination process are clash detections, error free models, saving of cost and time during actual construction. Coordination can be easily carried out using smart coordination tools and commands available in Revit software ...
... which are as follows:

Central File Links:
The very first step which contributes towards coordination process is to link the models created with different disciplines to central server file and therefore all the engineers and architects from different domain can come together and work on a commom platform. This simply means merging all the models with different models into a common coordinated model. Revit provides a special feature as in this model more than one person can work on a single file which is not possible with traditional files created in AutoCAD. In this way we can create a common central server file in which all can work together.

Monitoring control tools:
The next step after proper linking of the models is the proper monitoring of changes taking place in the particular domain if changes are made in any of the services. This tool is used if there are changes in any one of the services and thus simultaneously changes in other services should be taken care by the project team. In short it means engineers and architects should effectively monitor the changes taking place if there is change in any one of the discipline.

Final Coordination:
This is the final step of the overall coordination process which includes final interference checks done individually by engineers, architects and structural engineers and the members before final execution of the project.