Such challenges again open the door for BIM design-review and collaboration tools, says Jogan. "They enable architects and their consultants to focus on the work-the design and coordination of a building-instead of focusing on issues about the use of specific authoring tools and limitations with interoperability," he explains. "In this way, the potential to collaborate with different engineers, contractors, and subcontractors via a model-based process does not get derailed by limitations of various authoring tools to interoperate with each other. BIM is about enabling a model-based process."

Furthermore, Jogan adds, the collaboration tools are easier to use than BIM authoring tools, opening the doors to more use across the building teams. And the original design information is protected, says Lowe, even as it is accessible through the design review.

All this functionality and explicit information translates into reduced risk. "When this is combined with a workflow process that coordinates and documents directly from the model, there is inherent and immediate coordination between systems within the design documentation," Jogan observes. "The risk of delivering a design intent that has unaddressed coordination issues between building systems is greatly reduced."

Healthcare Project Benefits

In certain markets driven by complexity and liability, BIM has been more quickly adopted. One of those markets is healthcare. "I don't know how you'd design and build a medical facility today without using BIM," said Douglas Fitzpatrick, P.E., LEED® AP, managing member of Fitzpatrick Engineering Group at a national roundtable on BIM. "The need for collaboration among the disciplines is tremendous."

The use of collaborative BIM signals better outcomes, say experienced project teams. "In the health industry most of the problems occur in MEP construction coordination, and about 45 percent to 55 percent of the total costs of hospital construction projects are in the MEP systems," says Boryslawski. "Having a fully design-coordinated BIM for MEP will reduce most of the risks associated with healthcare industry projects."

NavisWorks is the world leading provider of Design Review software (JetStream) for real-time navigation, collaboration, presentation and communication of 3D and 4D models, whether on the desktop or over the web and regardless of size or file format. This allows the entire project team, from owner through designer and scheduler to all look at the same information, in a very user-friendly graphic environment. navisworks.com