Just like sheets are extracted from Revit models when uploaded into BIM 360 Plans, so “3D View Models” are extracted from Revit files when they are uploaded into a BIM 360 Coordination space.

Once I understood the ease with which one can have access to virtually automatic clash detection on the Autodesk BIM 360 platform, I was immediately interested in how this may be achieved in a real production environment.

I loved the Autodesk University class that I found:

I was even more interested after finding the anztechteam blog below.

Stephan Gumpert explains it perfectly in this image below. He describes how the BIM 360 Design files allow one to reference the files in the BIM 360 Projects Shared folder to create “live coordination/clash detection”. I took the liberty of changing out the Plans folder for the Project Folder as the Revit API changed in 2021.

Please note that since Revit 2021 one may now have the Coordination folder in the BIM 360 Project Files:

While it is possible to upload carefully constructed discipline models to extract 3D views from for clash detection, it is sometimes more appropriate for a container file to be used for this purpose. That way, a person that knows exactly what they want can set up the views for the clash detection.

Currently, one is limited to 20 coordination spaces, so if one were to give individual disciplines the ability to create their own coordination spaces, then there could only be 20 independent clash spaces. However, if the 3D views are intelligently constructed, then on can just as well use BIM 360 Coordination Views to indicate the relevant clashes per discipline.

If you need help adopting Revit or BIM 360 Coordination in your company, please contact Micrographics so we may be of assistance.