With multiple team members working on multiple pieces of your BIM content, things can start to feel a little out of control. You can have the same piece of content floating around as different pieces of content, almost like it exists in a Marvel multiverse. There’s no trackable history of content and revisions made, poor or unapproved content is uploaded into libraries, and team members are wasting time uploading content that’s already there. All of this can waste time and money.
In this article, we offer some suggestions on how to reduce the Revit chaos.
Make it Easy for Team Members to Find Content
If it is difficult for your team members to find a piece of content, then they may assume it’s not in the library and will upload a new version. Not only does that waste time, but it also leads to multiple pieces of the same content floating around in your library. Team members are then confused as to which version is the accurate version.
You can minimize this by simplifying your folder and subfolder structure. However, that still leads to a lot of hunting on the part of your team. An even better option is to use a BIM content management system, ideally, one that allows you to search and filter content by criteria such as type name, parameter value, tags, library, etc.
Track Revisions to BIM Content
A clear revision history of your BIM content can save your team the hassle of going back and forth to determine whether they have the latest update and why certain revisions were made to that piece of content. A revision history is also useful for BIM managers because they can clearly see what updates have occurred in the past (and why) and determine what still needs to be updated.
Simply put: a revision history for your BIM content gets your entire team on the same page.
Control Who Can Modify Libraries
You can also create content clutter if everyone can modify, add, and remove content from your libraries.
To help keep your BIM content manageable, we recommend that you appoint specific library admins. These admins have control over modifications made to your content and libraries. Although standard users may suggest what to add, revise, or remove, the decision to do so is ultimately up to the admins. This helps keep your libraries from spinning out of control.
Create a Streamlined Process for Approving Content
When there isn’t a solid process in place for approving BIM, then poor, unapproved content gets loaded into libraries. On the other hand, having a clear system for approving and vetting uploaded content can save your team members a lot of confusion.
Those uploading content should be able to easily add files and provide notes to the team so that all understand what changes have been made and why.
Make It Easy for Team Members to Submit Content Requests
Another way to cause content chaos is by lacking a clear system for submitting content requests. Team members and BIM managers waste time and resources going back and forth to collect information on the requested content.
To simplify this process, implement a system in which team members can easily request content and even include additional information, such as design details and notes for BIM managers. This helps to clearly indicate to team members if a request is approved, denied, or being worked on.
Protect Your Content
You can also lose control of your content if it isn’t protected. For example, if you’ve purchased a particular Revit family, you don’t want to distribute that to another firm for uses outside of your project because that may violate the terms of your purchase.
To protect your data, ensure that you store content in a system that guarantees the security of your data. You also want to use a system that shares easily with other firms, while still giving you control over user permissions. Save Time Finding BIM Content Using These Saved Search Ideas – UNIFI (unifilabs.com)
Conclusion
It probably feels a little daunting trying to hold all your BIM content together and keep it under control (my mind instantly goes to the image of Spiderman holding together a train using only his webs):
But it doesn’t have to be that hard. UNIFI software makes it easy for users to find content, track revisions, manage users, upload content, submit and approve content requests, protect content, and more.
Many of these tasks can be done in a matter of minutes (or even seconds).
Are you ready to save your BIM content multiverse? Click here to get started.
