CU1703

CASE study
Assured quality
Solibri gives Multiplex Construction Europe quality assurance, enabling them to validate the
robustness of design and constructability
Multiplex Construction Europe
Limited are a leading global
contractor with a Head Office
in London and bases in Europe,
Canada, the Middle East, Australia and
India. Established in 1962, the
company has a strong reputation for
the delivery of highly complex projects,
which include some of the tallest
residential and commercial towers in
London and the largest hospital
complex in the UK.
With high profile clients it was
imperative that the company took
steps to improve the way it designed,
delivered and managed its projects. To
this end it implemented the rule-based
model checker, Solibri, to validate its
designs. Nick Leach, Head of BIM at
Multiplex, first encountered Solibri
whilst working for a previous employer
at Helsinki over 5 years ago.
Having been developed some years
previously, it is fundamentally used as
the software of choice across the
Nordic countries. The software is now
used at Multiplex for clash detection,
model validation, change control,
reporting and information take-off,
including COBie.
SOLIBRI UPDATE
When Solibri won an Editors' Choice
Award at the Construction Computing
in 2013 it was described as an
"Application waiting for a problem." In
fact it was not until BIM reared its head
that the real capabilities of the software
became apparent, and it is now being
used by many contractors in the
construction industry.
Besides having to cope with the
wholesale adoption of BIM Level 2,
conforming to the Government
Mandate, there have been a lot of
changes at Solibri over the last year or
two. After being acquired by
Nemetschek at the end of 2015 and
added to their ever increasing list of
impressive brands there had been an
investment in the UK presence with a
physical office established, a change
in management and additional team
members added.
Solibri actually started life 17 years
ago, having been developed as a
quantity take off and cost estimation
tool. To provide an accurate estimation
of building quantities you need an
accurate model, and Solibri very
quickly understood that there were
many problems with the quality of the
models being produced. There was
nothing available on the market to
perform a preliminary check before the
estimation could take place, so Solibri
set out to fill the gap in the market
itself with Solibri Model Checker.
Taking an OpenBIM approach to their
development using the industry
standard IFC (Industry Foundation
Class) format meant that Solibri could
help raise quality and have a positive
impact on every project. As the
industry understanding of BIM
requirements, Government mandates
and a general drive for improved
geometric and data quality grows,
Solibri has come into its own.
Nowadays Solibri is providing a Quality
Assurance and Quality Control process
to thousands of models on a daily
basis around the globe.
Clash detection has been around for
many years and is something that
Solibri Model Checker does very well,
but that is only around 5% of the
capabilities of the software, the real
power lie in the rules provided and the
ability for users to write their own
logical rules.
Solibri has also recently added some
complimentary offerings to aid and
improve BIM workflows and processes.
Solibri Model Viewer Pro adds a low
cost version of the popular free Viewer
with added functionality to connect to
BCF (BIM Collaboration Format)
Management tools, giving it the ability
to participate in advanced BIM
workflows, manage reported issues
with improved tools and a few other
benefits. AutoRun enables users to
automate many of the basic checks
and facilitate BCF report generation,
run on a regular basis on multiple
models. Solibri can now also provide
optional private cloud functionality for
managing and sharing customised
rulesets, classifications and information
reports in a secure environment
throughout an organisation.
THE VALUE OF SOLIBRI
"The real value of Solibri," said Nick, "Is
the ability to allow us to check a model
based on custom rules. The software
enables us to go much further than
basic clash detection though - from
something simple like clash analysis
against door swings, to clearance void
allowances where we have exposed
MEP services."
"'Solibri allows us to check both the
geometry and the data within models,"
he added, "meaning that our project's
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March/April 2017