Optimal workflow
Navisworks, with its embedded Clash Detective tool, can help you find issues faster. Connected to BIMcollab it becomes part of an equally powerful Issue management ecosystem. Let us guide you through the process step by step and demonstrate this workflow.
The traditional workflow for Navisworks users revolves around creating Saved Viewpoints to communicate issues. These Saved Viewpoints can be created manually or by using the Clash Detective. Once created they can be shared throughout the Autodesk BIM ecosystem.
This workflow does have a number of limitations:
Saved Viewpoints can only be communicated within the Autodesk ecosystem not to other (openBIM) software.
Clashes can only be managed from within the Clash Detective in Navisworks.
Any status change to a clash in the Clash Detective is not synchronized with a Saved Viewpoint.
A new Saved Viewpoint must be created. The clash’s history becomes divided over the various Saved Viewpoints.
Manually created Saved Viewpoints cannot be managed through the Clash Detective.
To address these limitations, the Navisworks BCF Manager connected to BIMcollab can be used to extend the ecosystem and provide more robust issue management.
In the BCF Manager workflow:
All issues are fully managed through BIMcollab linked to many BIM tools.
Both Saved Viewpoints and Clashes can be transformed into issues and then managed in BIMcollab with all issue-management features.
Any status changes in the Clash Detective (like resolved clashes) can be synchronized to BIMcollab allowing the clash to be managed via a single issue.
Issues can be communicated throughout the entire BIMcollab ecosystem making your workflow fully openBIM.
Transfer and create issues using BCF Manager for Navisworks
When working with Navisworks you have different options for creating issues:
By importing clashes from the Clash Detective
By importing saved viewpoints to create issues
Manually create issues
But which is best? We will guide you through the pro’s and cons of the three options.
Importing clashes from the Clash Detective
This method is most effective for clashes found by the Clash Detective in Navisworks. They should be imported directly from the results of the Clash Detective into the BCF Manager.
Once the clashes have been imported in the BCF Manager, you can use BIMcollab to further communicate about the issues.
The benefits for this workflow are:
The clashing elements and the information of the clash is saved in the issue
The issue in the BCF manager retains a link to the corresponding original result in the Clash Detective
The issue can be updated to reflect changes in the status and assignment of the corresponding clash when a clash test is rerun
To know how to import issues as clashes, consult the article How to transfer Clash test results from the Clash Detective to BIMcollab.
Importing issues from Saved Viewpoints
Problems found manually during a visual inspection of the model can be documented as Saved Viewpoints in Navisworks, and then imported directly in the BCF Manager.
Once the viewpoints have been imported, you can use BIMcollab to manage and communicate about your issues, and the saved viewpoints are no longer necessary.
This method is most beneficial for viewpoints that are already present in the Navisworks file, before setting up a connection to BIMcollab.
For new problems that are found, we recommend to create the issues directly in the BCF manager, as described below.
For more information, see also How to transfer Saved Viewpoints to BIMcollab.
Creating new issues manually in BCF Manager
For issues to be created manually during visual inspections of your models, the easiest will be to create new issues directly in the BCF Manager via the "+" button.
For more information on how to create and edit issues in the BCF Manager in Navisworks, see also Create and edit issues in Navisworks.