Solibri Journal 2020

SOLIBRI JOURNAL #8

EXCELLENCE

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NATION BUILDING Solibri and Building Code Checking

LITHUANIA Policing BIM

HEAR IT FROM OUR HEROES Customer Insights webinars

S H A P I N G Q UA L I T Y

Building top-notch solutions takes teamwork.

Here the Solibri team takes part in a hands-on session working with clay during one of many off-site recreational days.

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INDEX

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44

Interview with Ville Kyytsönen

Customer Insights – Learning from others’ experiences

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40

The Renewal of London’s sewage system powered by Open BIM

Green Gold: The tale of Wood City

D E V E LO P I N G Q UA L I T Y

S U C C ES S STO R I ES

Interview with Ville Kyytsönen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How we help governments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Improved collaboration and 400.000 in cost savings . . . . 20 The Renewal of London’s sewage system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The power of customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Making the digital manufacturing process concrete . . . . . . . 32 Construction’s digital manufacturing revolution . . . . . . . . . 34

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INDEX

10

36

How we help governments

A high quality tool for true quality control

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52

The Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf project wins International Award for Best Design

Aligned processes produce better data

C R E D I TS

A high quality tool for true quality control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Green Gold: The tale of Wood City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Customer Insights – Learning from others’ experiences . . 44 Aligned processes produce better data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Editors letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Contact & credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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Developing Quality Dive into the world of Solibri and get to know our people, what we dream of and how we work

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GUIDING CUSTOMERS

TO BIM SUCCESS

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INTERVIEW WITH VILLE KYYTSÖNEN

Solibri is a trailblazer in the automated checking of building information models and it has been a leader in this field for many years. I had the pleasure of discussing with CEO Ville Kyytsönen how the company is expanding its offering and future-proofing its customers’ success.

“W

hen I learned that Solibri was looking for a new CEO, I had an extremely positive impression of the company and I still have,” stated Kyytsönen. “Solibri has always been a trailblazer with its leading and quite unique product.”

Kyytsönen’s career has been in BIM development. His work on the development of Tekla BIMsight and Trimble Connect gave him the experience necessary for taking on the CEO position at Solibri almost two years ago. Kyytsönen also knows the realities of the construction industry, which has a pressing need to improve its productivity but is still a slow mover in adopting digitalization.

Under Kyytsönen’s leadership, Solibri has renewed and expanded its offering, creating software that enables customers to collaborate efficiently and gain new value from using BIM in their processes.

“Even though BIM is on its way to becoming mainstream in most AEC firms in

developed countries, how it’s used is still tied to the past. For many, BIM is a tool for generating drawings or displaying 3D views of a design,” as Kyytsönen noted.

Most often, the full capabilities of BIM as a tool for managing information are not used.

The creators of a BIM model regularly don’t add the data that the next team in the project chain could use. Hence, there’s a lot of rework and guesswork in construction. Furthermore, clients are not aware of the real potential of BIM, so they buy drawings instead of valuable information. Thus, the business case for BIM is often, at best, tenuous.

The poor quality of the information in models is most evident in BIM-based building permitting. Building authorities receive models that are missing essential information that would have allowed automated model checking.

For example, designers may not have included accessibility or fire safety information in a machine-readable form. Such omissions are understandable if the designer’s commission does not cover that work.

VILLE KYYTSÖNEN

Ville is the CEO of Solibri.

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As more people are getting involved in digital construction processes, BIM experts and heavy users have become a small minority in the workflow. Making BIM easier and automating it for the majority is critical for reaping the full benefits of model-based construction. Being able to automate processes is a key success factor, as is the delivery of information in a format that best serves the user.

Solibri aims to make the transition to model-based construction as smooth as possible. It allows clients to check automatically that what they are getting from designers is what they paid for. Similarly, designers can use the tool to self-audit their models. For many, the valuable output of BIM is not the graphics and the 3D but the information. Using BIM through Excel is answer to many real-life challenges in construction.

Integrated project delivery (IPD) and project alliancing are gaining popularity as

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they solve many of the problems inherent in traditional construction, which separate more than unite project participants. When the whole project consortium is working toward a common goal and the risks and rewards are shared, then the benefits of integrated BIM are self-evident.

Being able to combine models via IPD and inspecting them in Solibri saves time and helps to eliminate costly errors. It also allows findings to be recorded, so that the best solutions are passed on to the next project. Kyytsönen calls Solibri a “neutral party” in the process.

S O L I B R I ’S R E N E W E D O F F E R I N G

Solibri’s user base is about 50-50 designers and construction companies. The biggest customers are international contractors. The top 1% are heavy users with a desktop license, doing rule-based assessments. A larger group are companies that want to standardize their

IN ACTION

Solibri CEO Ville Kyytsönen challenges you to imagine your own caption to what’s happening in the photograph.

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 9

INTERVIEW WITH VILLE KYYTSÖNEN

BIM environment and pass all their models through Solibri. They use Solibri as an interface to the models.

Meeting the needs of the latter user group is one of the reasons why Solibri reorganized its offering last year. Solibri Site allows them to view various models and search for information without mastering the rule-based functions.

Solibri Office, on the other hand, is a model checker with the full functionality.

Solibri Anywhere is a basic tool that everyone should have. It’s a model viewer that can now manage combined models. Many customers have all three products for various purposes and use cases.

S O L I B R I A DA P TS TO I TS C U STO M E RS ’ N E E D S

Instead of buying licenses, customers now have a subscription option. This allows them to pay flexibly for the tool when they need it. Optimizing a license by combining subscriptions and floating licenses is also possible.

“Solibri has, perhaps, been profiled as a high-end product, in terms of costs,” Kyytsönen admitted, “but if you consider the new product family and the overall cost, especially being able to use Anywhere as part of the overall solution, they are comparable to any other BIM product out there.”

The change that makes Solibri even more versatile is the introduction of Rule API. A small, but growing group of customers are organizations that have established their own BIM requirements. With the API, they can now develop proprietary rules that check whether a model complies with their requirements.

This also opens business opportunities for professional rule-developers to offer services to the growing userbase.

C O N T I N UA L D E V E LO P M E N T

Developing new features, fixing bugs, and optimizing performance in addition to keeping up with the evolution of open standards, like IFC and BCF, means that Solibri is continuously developing and improving. Instead of an annual release, big bang, Solibri releases updates continuously.

Managing the continuously expanding model files requires both powerful hardware and capable software. Ensuring that the software performs well is a key issue for Solibri. The

company tracks usage data to understand how its customers are using its products and how the products are performing. This gives invaluable insights for product development, as does the feedback from Solibri Society, a community of advanced users.

“Modern BIM products can, in fact, already do what’s needed fairly well. However, we know we can further improve our products to make them easier to use and implement,” stated Kyytsönen. “As a software company, we naturally want to enhance our products, but our bedrock is solid.”

A T R A N S F O R M AT I O N I N T H E M A K I N G

Every BIM product in the market does visualization and can display model data. What makes Solibri different is its ability to check a model using parameterized rules that dig deep into a model’s data structure. That and the accumulated knowledge of the industry form the bedrock that new technical solutions are built on.

Customers have shown interest in mobile BIM apps, and there are already several in the market. Solibri is still considering whether there is value in providing its own mobile solution. In contrast, a more substantial change, the move to cloud apps, is under way.

“Today, 99% of our business is in desktop apps. However, we know that our customers are excited about moving into the cloud, which will change both our technology and our business logic,” Kyytsönen pointed out. “We’re definitely in a transition.”

AARNI HEISKANEN

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I L L U S T R AT O R O U T I K A I N N I E M I

HOW WE HELP GOVERNMENTS

HOW WE HELP GOVERNMENTS

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Building authorities around the world are looking for ways to transform the permitting process, to use building information models (BIMs) instead of 2D drawings. I sat down with Wafa Alsakini to discuss how Solibri is making that possible, and what new opportunities Solibri is offering to its customers across the globe.

Building information modeling is essential for process automation in the construction industry. The quality of the models varies, however. That’s a massive challenge to automation, which depends on the standardized representation of data.

Solibri has been a trailblazer in the quality inspection of BIMs for many years. Architects and engineers rely on its model-checking tools for clash detection and information quality audits. Cities and municipalities have also discovered Solibri’s tools for viewing models in the building permit process.

Solibri goes further than simple geometrical assessments of models. It lets the user check the models with rules that comprise both geometric and parametric elements. This makes it unique among the tools available to building authorities.

D E V E LO P I N G E - P E R M I T T I N G F O R G OV E R N M E N TS

Wafa Alsakini, the Business Owner of Building Code Checking Automation, works at Solibri’s

headquarters in Helsinki. She’s a construction manager who specializes in BIM project management. Before joining Solibri in 2012, Alsakini worked as a researcher at Aalto University, where she completed her Ph.D. that same year.

After carrying out face-to-face consulting work with customers for two years, Alsakini started to develop Solibri extensions; software modules for local code-checking purposes. Her team developed extensions for Swedish area calculation and Norwegian government agency Statsbygg’s BIM requirements.

“Because of my background as a construction manager, I’m well into validating building requirements and translating them into rules and specifications for automated code checking,” says Alsakini. “Based on my work, our R&D team can start coding and create new rule templates. I then do parameterization for those rules, create rule sets, and pack the results into extensions.”

Alsakini’s experience on e-permitting, as Solibri calls the BIM permitting process, extends beyond the Nordic countries. She was the project manager of BIM quality inspection

AARNI HEISKANEN

Aarni Heiskanen, Construction Innovation Agent, and Co-founder of a business software company. At present, he runs AE Partners, a communication firm. aec-business.com

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and code checking system development for Dubai and other Middle Eastern clients. In 2016 she became the project manager of e-permitting system development for Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority. After project completion in spring 2019, the local government started the development of the extensive Corenet X system.

A G ROW I N G D E M A N D

Governments around the globe are starting to demand BIM-based processes from the construction industry in public projects.

They want to improve the performance and the results of construction projects through efficient information management with BIM. With the growing complexity of construction, authorities are under pressure to find automated solutions for the permitting process.

“When we started in Singapore in 2016 the project encompassed only 110 building requirements. When Corenet X finishes in 2023, it is going to include almost 3,000 requirements from seven authorities,” says Alsakini. “So, you can see the huge demand, and that’s only one country.”

Consequently, the demand for Solibri’s automated model quality and code checking has gained momentum. This has created a situation where it does not make sense for the company to try to develop everything by itself.

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“Solibri, in essence, is an engine that uses rules to check models,” Alsakini explains. “Solibri was originally the sole creator of these rules. In mid-2018, Solibri opened its borders to other developers who can now use the API to create new rules.”

Solibri has become a platform that provides templates, education, and support to its user community. Customers have, in a sense, become co-developers of the product.

The company continues to create APIs for all its functionalities. Among the latest are the Views API, which allows users to create custom views, and soon, the Information Takeoff API. This makes it possible for the user to extract whatever information is wanted from the models.

S T I C K I N G TO S TA N DA R D S M A K E S AU TO M AT I O N F E AS I B L E

Trying to automate the processing of native models from several design disciplines can be a nightmare for building authorities. That’s why many countries have chosen to require vendor-neutral models in the open Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, which Solibri also uses. Most BIM tools can export IFC files, which makes it a sensible choice as a standard.

But it’s not enough to submit just any IFC models for automated code checking; the representation of information in the models must follow the authorities’ guidelines.

Alsakini admits that making designers change their habits is not easy, but it is necessary if the machine-readability of models is to be achieved. She sees the educating of designers and experts as a necessity, in order to have them create models than can be automatically checked.

AN OFFERING FOR ALL C O N S T RU CT I O N S TA K E H O L D E RS

Solibri offers four core products for various types of uses and users. Solibri Anywhere is a popular free tool for viewing IFC models. It also includes the exporting of BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) files for issue tracking. Anywhere is useful for all the stakeholders of a construction project.

Solibri Office allows the integration of models from various disciplines, and checking them with rules against each other. It’s a perfect tool for BIM coordinators to communicate potential issues with the design team. It can also be used for classifications and information takeoffs.

WAFA ALSAKINI

Business Owner of Building Code Checking Automation, Solibri

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HOW WE HELP GOVERNMENTS

Solibri Enterprise is the Office version for large construction companies and other organizations by providing a flexible licensing alternative.

Solibri Site is meant for non-designers in the field. It produces information takeoffs for construction site managers, for them to compare as-designed with as-built data.

T H E C O D E C H EC K I N G G LO B A L TAS K F O RC E

In addition to those four products, Solibri now has a new unit called Automated Code Compliance Checking, which Alsakini heads worldwide. Its purpose is to provide a host of services for e-permitting projects by a network of partner companies.

When building authorities want to establish a new, BIM-based e-permitting process, they need external help. The new unit can help with many tasks, including project management, integration with legacy systems, and deployment of cloud services.

Solibri can now offer building authorities options that vary from ‘Automated code compliance checking systems’ as extensions running on current Solibri desktop version to the ‘ePermitting System’. The latter is a hybrid model of the current product running in the cloud as a checking system integrated within authorities’ e-Service or permitting platforms.

T H E T R A N S F O R M AT I O N I S A JOINT VENTURE

SOLIBRI AT WORK

Creating models that BIM-savvy building designers and contrac- can be automatically tors worldwide are already using Solibri. The checked company’s extended offering will undoubtedly increase its appeal to building authorities as well. With its services, Solibri helps advance the adoption of BIM in countries and cities that want to move to a model-based design, permitting, and construction process.

“If the government and the industry work together and do their homework, a successful transition to BIM is possible. It does not work if only one is pushing for the change,” Alsakini advises.

For more information about Solibri, visit Solibri.com. Right now, the company is offering a full version of its Office product for a 30-day free trial. If you want to talk to Wafa Alsakini about automated code compliance checking, email her at wafa.alsakini@solibri.com.

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THE BRISBANE’S QUEEN’S WHARF PROJECT WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST DESIGN

THE BRISBANE’S QUEEN’S WHARF PROJECT

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In an outstanding display of IFC collaboration and Open BIM teamwork, PDC (a division of DBM Vircon) has won first prize in the design category at the recent 2019 buildingSMART International Awards. The award recognized PDC’s Digital Engineering team for its pioneering and innovative efforts on the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf project in Brisbane, Australia.

Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane is a world-class integrated resort development that will transform the Central Business District (CBD) and river’s edge. The Destination Brisbane Consortium is delivering the development, which will cover more than 26 hectares across land and water — equivalent to 10% of Brisbane’s CBD. The development encompasses 50 new bars, cafes and restaurants; 2,000 apartments across three residential towers; and more than 1,100 premium hotel rooms operating under four hotel brands, one with a casino.

“We made the decision to utilize BIM for two main reasons,” said Simon Crooks, Project Director, Destination Brisbane Consortium. “In the short term, for design coordination. This is an asset with over 340,000 square meters of built form — and that, from a coordination viewpoint, is critical. In the longer term, we’re talking about maintenance and facilities management of the asset, and we intend to operate for 99 years as per the terms of our lease. Again — BIM is critical to that process for us,” he concluded.

“Iconic projects like Queen’s Wharf are important learning experiences for us software vendors,” said Gergely Kmethy, Director, Customer Support Services at GRAPHISOFT. “The lead architect on this project, Cottee Parker, used ARCHICAD. We also worked with the PDC project team to explore best practices around IFC collaboration, involving software like dRofus for data management and Solibri

for model checking. This experience proves that open BIM works on very large-scale projects as well,” Kmethy added. In addition, Bluebeam Revu is being used for faster, more accurate and thorough Quality Assurance (QA). On a massive and complex project like Queen’s Wharf that has quick turn-around times, Cottee Parker has created a more efficient QA process that minimizes risk, saves time and increases transparency, all using Bluebeam Revu.

The equivalent of 12 football fields of public space has been integrated into the design of the development as well. This public space will help to accommodate the additional 1.39 million visitors expected in Brisbane as a result of the project. Impressively, the development is also sustainable, having earned a 6-star Green Star Communities rating. In delivering the project, 16 different pieces of software were utilized by 39 contributing organizations.

PDC (DBM Vircon) had over 340 models under management, with 215 individual models processed weekly.

“Queen’s Wharf is a flagship project for PDC, pulling together a team of highly skilled digital engineers to deliver a complex project with multiple interfaces, stages, programs, software and teams,” said Alastair Brook, Director, Digital Engineering, DBM Vircon. “This allowed PDC to develop an integrated model that is already being tested in operations, some four years before delivery.”

AU S T R A L I A

Population: 25 million Density: 3.3/km2

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The Queen’s Wharf project has been a unique opportunity for the Nemetschek family to work together for the benefit of the customer, PDC.

PDC

B U I L D I N GS M A RT

PDC (a division of DBM Vircon), a premier construction modeling and detailing company, delivers high-profile projects with state-ofthe-art technology, uncompromising detail and nano precision. As the virtual construction company of DBM Global, DBM Vircon leverages its deep expertise, far-reaching experience and innovative platform of technologies, to give transparency to critical path activities enabling project stakeholders to make better-informed decisions during the design, pre-construction planning and execution phases of even the most complex construction projects. With operations in eight countries spanning four continents and a team of 850+, we are uniquely positioned to manage large-scale and labor-intensive projects.

DBM Vircon is an amalgamation of BDS Vircon, Candraft and PDC, three companies each with long histories and deep expertise in 3D Modeling, Detailing and Digital Engineering with extensive experience across a broad spectrum of projects, including airports, arenas and event centers, bridges, commercial buildings, government facilities, high-rises; hospitals and clinics; hotels and casinos; industrial and mining facilities; stadiums; universities, and more.

buildingSMART is the worldwide industry body driving the digital transformation of the built asset industry. buildingSMART is committed to delivering improvement by the creation and adoption of open, international standards and solutions for infrastructure and buildings. buildingSMART is the community for visionaries working to transform the design, construction, operation and maintenance of built assets. buildingSMART is an open, neutral and international not-for-profit organization.

DBMVIRCON.COM

BUILDINGSMART.ORG

B LU E B E A M , I N C.

Trusted by over 1.6 million individuals in more than 130 countries, Bluebeam’s smart, intuitive markup and collaboration solutions advance the way technical professionals work, manage and collaborate on projects digitally. Founded in Pasadena, CA, Bluebeam has grown to include additional US offices in California, Illinois, Texas and New Hampshire, as well as offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Bluebeam is part of the Nemetschek Group. Download a 30-day trial of Bluebeam Revu on our website.

BLUEBEAM.COM

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THE BRISBANE’S QUEEN’S WHARF PROJECT

D RO F U S

dRofus is a unique planning, data management, and BIM collaboration tool. dRofus provides all stakeholders with comprehensive workflow support and access to building information throughout the building lifecycle. Plan, manage and maintain data for departments, rooms, room templates, finishes, items, systems, and components – all in a single cloud-based platform. dRofus is a SQL server database that will provide state of the art performance and speed regardless of project size, type or complexity.

For a detailed description about key features and modules visit the dRofus website.

DROFUS.NO

SOLIBRI

Solibri is a BIM quality assurance software solution that analyzes Building Information Models and architectural and engineering designs for integrity, quality and physical safety.

In addition, Solibri includes functionality for

information take-out, analyzing and extracting the information available in BIM models.

Solibri targets zero design errors, producing cost savings in construction projects, and in more effective modeling and quality assurance.

SOLIBRI.COM

GRAPHISOFT

GRAPHISOFT® ignited the BIM revolution in 1984 with ARCHICAD®, the industry-first BIM software for architecture. GRAPHISOFT continues to lead the industry with innovative solutions such as its revolutionary BIMcloud®, the world’s first real-time BIM collaboration environment; and BIMx®, the world’s leading mobile app for lightweight access to BIM for non-professionals. GRAPHISOFT is part of the Nemetschek Group.

GRAPHISOFT.COM

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Success stories Helping our customers in their daily work. Discover what our customers say and think about the BIM revolution.

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IMPROVED COLLABORATION AND 400.000 IN COST SAVINGS Copenhagen Airport has around 100 projects every year to accommodate the needs of increasing number of passengers. With the help of BIM and Solibri, the quality of the projects has improved – in addition to achieving generous cost savings.

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he sounds of trolley bags’ wheels rolling against the floor, announcements on departing flights and lively chatting echo in the terminal as people are walking towards gates to catch their flight. Some are lingering in the stores looking at gifts to take home, while others sit in cafes enjoying a cup of coffee, relaxing before embarking their journey from Denmark. This is everyday life at the airport of Copenhagen.

The number of passengers traveling through Copenhagen Airport is increasing.

Currently it serves around 30 Million people yearly. It is the biggest airport in the Nordic countries in Europe, located very close to the center of the country’s capital.

“Our strategy is to have one airport that has all the terminals and piers under one roof. We are increasing the capacity of the existing buildings and areas to accommodate the rise in the number of passengers and improve the passenger experience. Due to this, we have around 100 different projects every year,” explains Michael Ørsted, the Head of Department Technical Knowledge at Copenhagen Airport.

T U R N I N G Q UA L I T Y AS S U R A N C E STA N DA R D S I N TO R U L E S

Michael and his team are handling all data and BIM models, offering a link between asset management, operations and ongoing projects at the airport. One challenge Michael and his team have faced together with the Asset Managers in the projects is ensuring the quality especially, as they have been getting a lot of 2D drawings. It is harder to see the big picture and how different designs are linked without using 3D models.

“We are trying to offer a better tool for our Asset Managers to ensure better quality, for all the building projects we have here at Copenhagen Airport. We were used to using Solibri in our projects for clash detection and consistency checks, so it was a natural choice for us to start using it more. Now we are automating

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quality checks in Solibri by creating the Asset Managers’ quality assurance standards into rules and use them to check all the models,” Michael elaborates.

“We are handing out these rulesets through our website to all the participants in the projects.

It allows our Asset Managers to demand that these rules are being used by all the stakeholders.

This means that the errors should be found by the construction and engineering teams at an early stage, instead of the Asset Managers discovering them later. This has also improved collaboration between all the different teams and given us a way to make sure every demand from the operations is considered early on.”

“Our Asset Managers wouldn’t have been able to find this problem without Solibri.”

F I N D I N G I S S U E S E A R LY L E A D S TO S I G N I F I CA N T C O S T SAV I N GS

Michael is already seeing some concrete benefits of using Solibri in their projects.

“There was a baggage handling project where we needed to make sure that large equipment could fit into a technical room and elevator system. When we did the checking in this project, we could see that the access to the technical room was okay, the access to the elevator was also okay, but on the way from the elevator to the technical room, we noticed that the path was actually too narrow in one corner. Our Asset Managers wouldn’t have been able to find this

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problem without Solibri. It would have cost us a lot of money to fix that afterwards, if we hadn’t found it so early in the engineering stage.”

“Another example is a project where we found that one of the accessible toilets was not the right size. By using Solibri we then noticed that actually every accessible toilet had the same problem, not just that one instance which the Asset Manager could find from the 2D drawings.”

“Our engineering team has calculated that we have saved more than 400.000 euros in this project, by finding issues that we wouldn’t have recognized before. The external contractors are motivated to use the system, because after all they want to hand over projects that are compliant with our needs and have the discussions about whether or not to take actions on findings that they have.”

O P E N RU L E S E TS F O R D E N M A R K’S W H O L E C O N S T RU CT I O N I N D U S T RY

Besides his work at Copenhagen Airport, Michael also strives to develop the whole industry in Denmark by acting as the chairman of the Digitalization group within the Danish Building Owners’ organization.

“We share our Solibri knowledge to other building owners. We have just recently started collaboration with some of the largest building owners here in Denmark in order to convert some of our national building requirements into rulesets. The idea is to have an open system that is free in Denmark, where we could hand out these rules to every project to make sure that our building regulations are met. We are seeking external funding for this initiative to be able to work more on it, and to have the majority of our national regulations as rulesets in the future.

It means that every project in Denmark would have assurance that as a minimum, our building regulations are met on all the projects.”

RIINA KEURULAINEN

MIC H A E L ØRST E D

Michael Ørsted has been working at Copenhagen Airport for 12 years, and is the overall responsible for GIS, BIM and data to support building projects and daily maintenance. Michael Ørsted is the chairman of the Digitalization group within the Danish Building Owners’ organization.

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THE RENEWAL OF LONDON’S SEWAGE SYSTEM POWERED BY OPEN BIM

A L B E R T E M B A N K M E N T – A R T I S T I M P R E S S I O N . © T I D E W AY

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he Thames Tideway Tunnel project is a significant undertaking that will tackle the problem of sewage overflows and expand the capacity of the London sewage network to meet European environmental standards.

Evolve Consultancy works as a technology and information advisor in the project, and for them, Solibri has had a key role in assuring the quality of the project’s model data.

When you close your eyes and think of London, one of the things you might imagine is the river Thames that flows through the city.

Underneath the city lies a sewerage network, a system designed in the Victorian Era. Even though the sewer structure is still in good condition, despite its age, it has a shortcoming – it can’t handle today’s population. Due to the increase of people, it spills millions of tonnes of sewage into the tidal section of the Thames every year, polluting the river.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel project was established to solve the pollution problem.

Preparatory work on the project began in 2015 and is due to be completed in 2024, consisting the design and construction of a large tunnel below the river. In practice, this means 24

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KIRTLING STREET – CONCRETE SEGMENTS E N T E R I N G F R O M T H E S H A F T 2 . © T I D E W AY

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construction sites handled by three Main Works Contractors, all of which are Joint Ventures.

AWA R D W I N N I N G C O L L A B O R AT I O N O F S O L I B R I A N D E VO LV E C O N S U LTA N CY O N T H E M A J O R I N F R AST RU CT U R E P RO J E CT

Tideway is the company delivering the Thames Tideway Tunnel. Evolve Consultancy is one of the UK’s premier BIM and design technology consultancies. They were brought in to help advise in understanding the scope of technology and how it can make all the disparate parts of the project work together. Nigel Davies, the Founding Director of Evolve Consultancy, shares how they have been involved in the project.

“We’ve been working on the project for about six years now. We have been involved in the specification of the information requirements, and the process we’re now going through is looking at the information we’re going to receive from the Main Works Contractors, and how to validate and check that it is what it is intended to be. It’s a significant undertaking!”

Solibri, Evolve Consultancy and Tideway were awarded in November 2019 at “The

Hammers” Construction Computing Awards for BIM Project of the Year. The award is in recognition of the successful implementation of IFC on a major infrastructure project.

O P E N B I M A P P ROAC H TO S U P P O RT O P E N A N D F L E X I B L E I N F O R M AT I O N F LOW

From the start Tideway had decided on an Open BIM strategy. No matter what the information delivered in the project is going to be used for at the end, the key thing is that it’s as open and as flexible as possible. Another decision made from the start was not to dictate certain types of software.

“We specified the open BIM approach, because we wanted to let the delivery teams to pick and use the best software for what they need it to be. What we have done instead is to look at the process of validating information when it comes in from a number of different sources. As we don’t know what software are going to be used, we have specified a complete series of open standards. We are aiming at consistent delivery through the open BIM solutions. The information can be delivered in their native file formats, but also IFC and

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COBie, or even 3D PDFs for those people who don’t have that level of technology to review the data”, Nigel explains.

“If we went back to the old CAD days, then no matter what people were using, we would have looked at DWG as the format for interchange of information. But we have moved beyond that now. What we’ve really tried to do is to avoid proprietary solutions. Being, for one, the length of the project – five years ago, we wouldn’t be crystal ball gazing to see what’s available in the future, what people would be using, so we tried to minimize that down to a lowest common denominator, and that happens to be what we’re now terming in the industry: Open BIM.” “How the information has got to us isn’t so important – what is important is specifying the structure and the consistency of that data, and in this project, it is through the open BIM solutions. IFC is the key carrier for that information, not just in terms of format, but in terms of structure of the data. With that we can look at the asset information requirements at far later down the line, and we can always map things from a consistent delivery that we’re receiving to a consistent output that the end user, Thames Water, will require.”

S O L I B R I AS T H E C E N T R A L S O LU T I O N F O R C H EC K I N G T H E M O D E L I N F O R M AT I O N Q UA L I T Y

“We started using Solibri a number of years ago for validating models. We had been advised to take a look at it and when we started using it, it was one of those lightbulb moments of: ‘why haven’t we been using this before? This is exactly what we need!’ Now it is invaluable to all the projects that we work with,” says Nigel.

“Solibri has been one of the fundamentals that we’ve built on right at the start of the Tideway project. As we decided to go down the IFC route, we needed something that can handle the data and validate what we receive. There’s an awful lot of data on the project – there will be literally thousands of models issued, all containing data that we need to validate.”

“Part of the process of defining these standards has been the validation we require from the Main Works Contractors as they issue the information. We have come up with about two hundred separate checks on every piece of information that comes in. Without auto-

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mation that would be a very manual process taking ten times longer than the project has still got left to run. So, for us, Solibri is the key: We’re bringing models in, running through the validation process to make sure we’ve got all the information we need and that it is used correctly. Without Solibri, I’d be here 24 hours a day for the next ten years trying to check anything. So, it’s been invaluable to us.”

Evolve Consultancy is encouraging a collaborative feedback loop with the Main Works Contractors. They have worked together in a series of workshops to look at the IFC data together, checking the information and demonstrating how the quality is improved.

“We’re not there to validate the data and point fingers, we’re there to validate and identify where, if the information was to be delivered to the client, it wouldn’t be accepted – and more importantly, how to actually address that and make sure the information is acceptable when it comes in. Without looking at this quality improvement, we’d be faced with the typical, traditional way of pointing the blame finger and trying to work out who did what wrong. But now we are focusing on making sure everyone does the right thing instead.”

Nigel Davies recommends Solibri to anyone who has anything to do with information exchange on a project.

“Anybody who needs to understand the value contained within a model, Solibri is invaluable for them. It can look at the geometry, it can look at the basic things like clash detection, but to be honest, so can other things. But I think the benefit to Solibri is when you take the information model and you look at it as a whole; not just graphically, but also in terms of the information that’s contained within that.

How do you extract value from that model? If you’re looking and answering that question, in any respect to do with any part of design or construction delivery, Solibri is something you should be looking at. Without a doubt, if you can logically put down the questions you’re asking, Solibri will be able to deliver it for you.”

RIINA KEURULAINEN

N IGE L DAV IES

Nigel has 20 years’ extensive experience within the AEC industry. He has unique insight and first-hand understanding of cutting-edge design and construction data production and exchange practices.

Nigel has worked full-time for a number of world-renowned practices such as Buro Happold and Ramboll Whitbybird, and as a consultant has provided pivotal services to high-profile clients including Feilden Clegg Bradley, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Oce and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

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THE POWER OF CUSTOMIZATION Buildpoint implemented a companyspecific role for JM Suomi Oy in Solibri software. Utilization of roles and preset configurations enhance the checking and coordination of building information models.

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JM Suomi Oy is part of the Swedish JM AB Group, one of the leading housing construction and residential area development companies in the Nordic countries. The main focus of their operations is in new housing development in the Helsinki metropolitan area and other large growth centers in Finland. JM Suomi currently employs 114 people.

Project Manager Niina Raistakka was the Design Manager in the early stages of the Solibri project. She was responsible for the project steering and design guidance.

“In 2018, a decision was made in the Swedish Group to use BIM in all projects. At that time, we started our first pilot project in Espoo – a city in Finland – where we aimed to increase our experience of modelling and further develop it.

I have a background in design, and I had prior experience on information modelling too, so it was natural for me to take the responsibility of our BIM development along with my other work”, Raistakka tells.

Solibri software is used for analyzing the accuracy, quality and security of building

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information models. Solibri Office checks the information model and highlights any errors and defects in the designs. The software ensures that the model complies with building regulations and the company’s own quality systems.

“I had used Solibri before, so it was easy to get started. But I noticed at the beginning that we were lacking proper tools. I also joined the Solibri training again, because there were so many new features in the program. There I learned how we could utilize Solibri even more by using roles, classifications and information takeoffs. At that point we started the cooperation with Buildpoint. I noticed that my time and skills were limited, so it seemed more efficient to outsource”.

Buildpoint implemented a role to be used in design control. The role contains various predefined settings that make it easier and more role-based to use the software. The role was created based on JM Suomi’s own site and resources.

“The role created in Solibri is more suitable for our model checking. In addition, we got

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“The software ensures that the model complies with building regulations and the company’s own quality systems.”

some predefined classifications that help in information takeoff and calculating quantities.

Also the project management team was given training on Solibri”, says Raistakka.

According to Niina Raistakka, the cooperation with Buildpoint worked smoothly. As JM Suomi’s team didn’t have to spend time in creating the role themselves, they were able to get more out of the software right from the start.

“The new role was introduced really fast into the software, which enabled us to start testing it. We had some problems with saving the configuration, but Simo Tarpila from Buildpoint helped us to solve it. At that point we did spend some time on the phone, but the cooperation was easy”.

JM Suomi currently utilizes Solibri in all its projects.

“At the beginning of the year, Roope Syvälahti joined our team as the BIM Manager.

He will develop the information modelling further. We will see together with the Swedish organization that modelling can be used both in design management and in production. At

the moment, Solibri is the most suitable tool for quality assurance and combining the design models”, Raistakka says.

SANNA RUOHO MARKETING COORDINATOR BUILDPOINT

BUILDPOINT

Quality construction is the result of a years-long cooperation between many professionals. Buildpoint’s selection includes software and related, client-specific training and support services for every phase of building construction. Buildpoint’s expert staff assist in choosing and implementing software, training, and also offer personal support for the software users.

Buildpoint is Solibri’s certified training partner in Finland. buildpoint.fi

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The UK’s Explore Industrial Park, conceived and owned by Laing O’Rourke, is the most automated concrete products facility in Europe. For Laing O’Rourke, the Solibri software has been crucial for checking the quality of incoming data, and an essential tool for streamlining the design and ensuring everything works before it takes a physical form.

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M A K I N G T H E D I G I TA L M A N U FA C T U R I N G P R O C E S S C O N C R E T E

C O N ST RU CT I O N ’S D I G I TA L M A N U FACT U R I N G R E VO LU T I O N — I N T R O D U C I N G E X P LO R E I N D U ST R I A L PA R K

For centuries, the way we construct our world has remained largely unchanged. But now, particularly because of new technologies, we are witnessing the rise of automation, increasing productivity on production lines, while digital design information is helping to streamline processes and increase accuracy.

To ensure the accuracy of their digital information, the team use Solibri Office to validate its contents.

“You’re able to streamline the design in the best way possible and ensure that everything works before it’s tangible in any way, shape or form. So, for us, it’s very key that we get the models and all our theoretical understanding of the entire structure spot on before it gets near the floor or sites.” Rehan Aneksha, the Design Team Leader at Laing O’Rourke, explains.

“We are trying to be the best we can be by looking at industries that are fundamentally ahead of the game in the way they produce things.”

The shift into “offsite manufacturing” can be clearly witnessed at the UK’s Explore Industrial Park, which is concceived and owned

by Laing O’Rourke – a global general contractor.

Explore has manufactured concrete elements for some of the UK’s most impressive projects, including London’s Leadenhall skyscraper and Terminal 2 at Heathrow.

For the major projects at Explore, such as Manchester Airport’s Transformation Programme and Liverpool’s new specialist cancer hospital, it is critical that the digital data is accurate. Errors in production can slow the overall progress of projects, affect other activities out on the construction site and mess up the factory’s work schedule, costing time and money.

T H E I M P O RTA N C E O F D I G I TA L DATA A N D H OW I T ’S E N S U R E D W I T H SOLIBRI

When a project lands at Explore, Laing O’Rourke considers if there are elements that can be fabricated off-site. The process of Laing O’Rourke’s concrete manufacturing is highly automated, all the way from the distribution of concrete across the factory, the pouring of that concrete and the process of curing it.

“Having a safe system that is able to carry out these checks for us eliminates the possibility of human error and uncertainty, giving us a much better outcome in the way that the product is built. Information not being right has impacts to every single facet of the system. If you think about not just the safety and economy of the whole thing, it’s the environmental impact as well.”

With the help of Solibri’s software, the teams can seamlessly engage with and see the data, throughout the designers to those working in the field. Run on digital data, Laing O’Rourke’s use of Solibri during design, manufacture and final assembly is key to ensuring that the process runs smoothly, underpinning the success of countless projects.

“We look at ourselves as any other factory.

We are trying to be the best we can be by looking at industries that are fundamentally ahead of the game in the way they produce things. So, we’re not trying to just be the best construction concrete facility we can be, we’re actually trying to be the best manufacturing company we can be.”

RIINA KEURULAINEN

RIINA KEURULAINEN

Product Marketing Manager at Solibri

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Introducing

“CONSTRUCTION’S DIGITAL MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION” A film produced by B1M, featuring the story of Laing O’Rourke and how they use Solibri to ensure the quality of their concrete manufacturing process.

THE B1M

The B1M is the world’s most subscribed-to video channel for construction. theb1m.com

VIEW THE FILM

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A HIGHQUALITY TOOL FOR TRUE QUALITY CONTROL

A H I G H Q UA L I T Y TO O L FO R T R U E Q UA L I T Y C O N T RO L

“R

eliable software is the tool that helps achieving company’s goals” claims Lukas Rimkus, BIM manager in Lithuanian construction company UAB Merko statyba.

He shares his experience on how BIM together with Solibri helps to ensure quality, reduce operational risks, save resources and prevent errors, which is crucial for projects like Kaunas Police Headquarters in Lithuania.

UAB Merko statyba represent Merko Ehitus group in Lithuania. Depending on customers’ needs, the company performs both smaller construction work and also handles larger-scale, complex and innovative projects, ranging from

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buildings to infrastructure facilities, energy installations and road construction. The Merko Ehitus group includes construction and real estate development companies in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway that offer comprehensive solutions, focusing on prime contracting and project management. Merko Ehitus is one of the leading residential construction companies in the Baltic states.

For the Merko Group, BIM is one of the key quality management tools for construction projects, which reduces operational risks and saves resources. The money invested and the time spent at the beginning pays off over the life cycle of the building. “These advantages

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still have to be constantly emphasized to other construction project participants, designers, investors and clients,” underlines Lukas.

The main company targets are related to BIM - quality management of construction projects, cooperation with other project parties and streamlining activities in BIM environment. Integration of BIM is constantly changing process, it challenges other day-to-day activities for innovation: communication, collaboration, coordination.

One of the Merko statyba current projects is Kaunas Police Headquarters, where the team is using Solibri. The concept of the Kaunas Police Headquarters building focuses on a compact and rational structure to create an aesthetically pleasing environment of social responsibility for both the staff and visitors.

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To accomplish these goals, the building was designed with two internal and external atria, which provide natural daylight to the compact structure and complement the qualitative parameters of the interior. The designed buildings have an A++ energy efficiency rating where almost all the energy required for the operation of the building will come from renewable energy sources and it will be one of the first such buildings in Lithuania.

The design solutions of the Kaunas Police Headquarters building complex provide for significant changes in the undeveloped premises – construction of a new administrative object, which will stand out with its original architectural design and artistic solutions.

It is a public-private partnership project where the design and construction will take 3

L I T H UA N I A

Population: 2.8 million Density: 43/km2

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A H I G H Q UA L I T Y TO O L FO R T R U E Q UA L I T Y C O N T RO L

QUALITY BUILD

The Kaunas Police Headquarters in Lithuania

years and the operation of the building- another 12 years. All these aspects emphasize the importance of project quality management, where BIM and Solibri plays a crucial part.

Lukas Rimkus, BIM manager at Merko Statyba, tells us, that Solibri has been used since the beginning of the project: to coordinate the work of the designers, share the data with construction team and will be used to maintain the building. “There is no need for other software to perform daily tasks any more. Even e-mail remains secondary, as all communication with the team can be done successfully with the Solibri Communication function.”

He continues: “The simple user interface, fast operation of the software and great functionality allow an increasing number of my colleagues to master Solibri and adapt it

to everyday activities. Before using Solibri, in order to achieve a similar result, it took at least several different software to review models, combine models, detect clashes and extract quantities. Each additional software required time and effort to complete the tasks successfully. That’s why there was a need to have a simple but functional tool that could be used by all team members.”

Lukas tells, that one of his favourite features of Solibri is the synchronization of presentations on the server: “I believe that this saves a lot of time for the whole team and ensures efficient task management which is necessary to achieve the set goals and have quality results. In the future, I also plan to use as many verification rules as possible for better quality and more efficient work.”

“A quality project is a well-managed project. In order to achieve the best result, you need to manage everything: designers, contractors, documentation, information, time, money. New advanced methods change old processes and technologies to make it possible to minimize risks and manage data through lifecycle of construction projects and be one step ahead. Reliable software is the tool,” Lukas Rimkus concludes.

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LAIMA NATKEVI ČIU TĖ MARKETING MANAGER INTELLIGENT BIM SOLUTIONS, UAB

LUKAS RIMKUS

BIM manager UAB Merko statyba

GREEN GOLD: THE TALE OF WOOD CITY

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G R E E N G O L D : T H E TA L E O F W O O D C I T Y G F O R S U C E S S

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“The feeling that wood offers is both calming and connecting with nature.”

AARO MARTIKAINEN, LEAD ARCHITECT

‘G

reen Gold’ is often used in Finland to describe the abundance of one natural resource – that being wood. Finland, like its Nordic partners has access to a huge forestry resource and it has shaped some of the country’s biggest businesses for many years. With the current climate discussions and leaps in modern technology, the concept of wood construction has once again become a focus of activity. To explore this development, I spoke with Aaro Martikainen, a lead architect from Anttinen Oiva architects in Helsinki, Finland. Aaro has been engaged both as architectural designer and BIM Manager on ‘Wood City’ – a large construction development in central Helsinki, one that not surprisingly, is based on wood being the central material in its delivery. I spoke with him to hear how Solibri has been used in this project in conjunction with materials being provided by Stora Enso.

Aaro dispels the myths around what a modern architect is. In his 15-year career, he has done a range of large-scale projects. He found himself taking the challenge of Wood

City because of his love for both wood as a material and his confidence in using the latest construction software to help deliver a modernist design with a very traditional twist.

Previously, Aaro has been an entrepreneur and consultant, helping other architectural offices enter the digital world. He loved playing with computers as a kid and so perhaps this is no coincidence.

“I’ve always had a love for wood. As a boy, I was always playing, crafting and making objects from wood in our family summer house. It was actually a material I was most confident with when beginning my career. The feeling that wood offers is both calming and connecting with nature. There have been studies on how wood is being used in schools to offer a calming effect for its students. You combine that with the sustainability angle and you have a real interesting proposition for the future of construction”. Explains Aaro.

Wood City is currently under construction.

The site comprises of 2 apartment buildings, an office building and parking facility. In time there is a plan for a new hotel to join the site. It

RUSSELL ANDERSON

Editor in Chief

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is the biggest wood construction site in Finland.

“Sweden is ahead of us in using wood in modern construction. Other European countries are also following the trend. I’m interested to see how it will take shape here. The combination of local trends, regulation and design heritage means we will have a unique mix. This has been a hugely complex project. Probably the most to date in my career. The mix of new technologies and materials have had a huge influence on me.

I probably won’t even realize it until much later in my work” said Aaro.

I asked Aaro to tell us how the team used Solibri in the build. “As this was such a demanding project, we needed to be sure that all the models were correct, federated and updated. We had cutting machines offsite and they needed ready checked BIM files to work. We designed in both Grasshopper and ARCHICAD. The architectural IFC file was then taken from ARCHICAD and all the co-ordination done in

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Solibri. It would have been virtually impossible to visualize issues without Solibri. We held weekly meetings where Solibri was the tool of choice for the coordination discussions. I even found Solibri screengrabs being used in WhatsApp when we were really busy. I was actually surprised how comprehensive a tool Solibri proved to be in this project. We worked very smoothly with Tietoa, the BIM coordination group to maintain good IFC files and a steady flow of quality models. They also extensively used Solibri with customized rulesets. I joked at the time, if a picture says a thousand words, then a BIM file says a thousand pictures”. Laughed Aaro.

Focusing on wood as a material, I asked Aaro to tell us what part of the build he was most proud of. “I’m really proud of the wooden undulating ceiling in the lobby area. It looks so simple and beautiful in wood but underneath it lies the intelligence you would expect in a

WOOD CITY

Wood City is the latest and largest concentrated wood development project within Finland. It will host numerous buildings for both living and working.

G T R AE IENNI NGGO LF D O :R TSHUEC TA E SLSE O F W O O D C I T Y G F O R S U C E S S

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modern theater. There were plenty of technical installations to do within the wood surrounds and I really look forward to seeing it used in reality. It transforms the space to a range of uses, all much more than a normal lobby entrance. It just simply works, looks stunning and makes a great impression”.

Wood City opens for business in late December 2020, when the gaming giant Supercell moves in. Aaro is brimming with ideas on what’s next for him. “I will always be an architect. It’s my first love and being able to combine technology, new thinking and materials keeps me energized and focused. I have only recently realized how being an architect is really about being a complex problem solver. That kind of thinking is now being recognized and be offered to other industries to learn from. Every day I use my imagination to create environments that really change human interaction. With all these new technologies coming online, we’re

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moving into the diffusion stage where we can work say 100 times faster than even five years ago. It used to be that one site team did all the building work as construction projects were simpler. Now we’re seeing a whole new value chain from city planning to the end user. Each build has many more specialists delivering specific elements within the workflow. The glue that holds these teams together is BIM. And the BIM file needs to be correct or else the whole thing goes off the rails”.

It really does seem that Wood City is a perfect Nordic story. Wood, design, technology and commitment combined to create something that is both ecologically sustainable and memorable. I wonder what Aaro will build in summer house after this project. I’m sure it will be made of wood, that’s for sure.

RUSSELL ANDERSON

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CUSTOMER INSIGHTS – LEARNING FROM OTHERS’ EXPERIENCES Last December, we started a new webinar series called Customer Insights. The idea of the webinars is to share the experiences from our customers, how they use Solibri to find solutions to problems or challenges, improve quality, and increase efficiency. We wanted to offer a way for people to learn best practices and get ideas directly from other users. Here’s what we have learned so far.

J O I N O U R W E B I N A RS AT S O L I B R I .C O M /C U S TO M E RS TO V I E W CAS E S , V I D E O S A N D S TAY I N T H E K N OW

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Viewing information in the different disciplines in the model to help seeing e.g. what the correct installation order is. Utilizing classifications with information takeoffs to help with site logistics and planning.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Bonava Utilizing Solibri On-Site Sampo Oksama shares experiences, use cases and needs Bonava have recognized in their construction sites in Finland.

Bonava is a leading residential development company in Northern Europe. Our speaker, Sampo Oksama from Bonava Finland, has over 10 years of experience from Building Information Modeling (BIM). His ambition is to challenge and revolutionize the construction industry with the help of BIM and digitalization.

“We did a pilot project on how BIM could be used more widely on-site. We gave a new tool – Solibri Site – for the site personnel for not only viewing the model, but also doing information takeoffs. BIM model is great for understanding what should be built. During the pilot we gained information on which on-site roles used the model: Site Engineers, Site Managers and Site Foremen all did. In my experience, the skills on-site for using this kind of tools has increased.

BIM models are used for communication every day – between site personnel and subcontractors. The people working at the

construction are typically from different countries but understanding the BIM model does not require speaking the same language, so it helps communicating, for example, what should be done today. Our next steps are to continue and expand using the tool.”

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Basic functionality of the COBie extension in Solibri and how to use it for structuring the data.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Study Tideway – BIM Project of the Year 2019 Nigel Davies from Evolve Consultancy presents case Tideway, a major infrastructure project, and what choosing an Open BIM strategy has meant.

The 2019 Construction Computing Awards chose it as the ‘BIM Project of the Year’.

Evolve is one of the UK’s premier BIM and design technology consultancies. Evolve Consultancy’s Director Nigel Davies has 20 years’ extensive experience within the AEC industry. He has unique insight and first-hand understanding of cutting-edge design and construction data production and exchange practices.

“Tideway is a large exercise to replace London’s sewers from the Victorian era. There are 24 work sites run by 3 Main Works Contractors. Construction started in 2016, and we are now about halfway through. We were involved already before 2016, looking at how the information should be delivered. We are talking about a huge amount of data, so right from the start we chose an open BIM approach for delivering the information. What is important is the structure of the data, not the tools used.

It is the Main Works Contractors responsibility to validate everything, but we do spot checks on the information. We could not do this without Solibri – there is simply too much information to do it manually. So far, all the issues we have found can be easily resolved.

Clearly, data is useless without validation and verification, and that is where Solibri steps in for us. If there is a clear logic, it is easy to automate it with Solibri.”

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C U STO M E R I N S I G H TS

D E M O H I G H L I G H TS

Running checks in Solibri based on rulesets provided and communicating the issues. Saving Solibri resources and creating your own Solibri role.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Copenhagen Airport Improving Quality and Communication Michael Ørsted and Kenneth Passarge from Copenhagen Airport present how they have been able to improve the quality of projects and communication between different stakeholders, such as the Asset Managers. They also share how they have started to develop common rules with other major building owners in Denmark.

Copenhagen Airport is a building owner and operator in Denmark, and as an airport it is mid-sized with around 30 Million passengers yearly. The airport is open 24 hours a day, so the availability needs to maintain even if there are ongoing construction projects.

Michael Ørsted has been working at Copenhagen Airport for 12 years, and is the overall responsible for GIS, BIM and data to support building projects and daily maintenance. Michael Ørsted is the chairman of the Digitalization group within the Danish Building Owners’ organization.

Kenneth Passarge is responsible for BIM at Copenhagen Airport, and has been working with BIM for more than 10 years. Kenneth is securing that BIM is delivered timely and

correct and is furthermore involved in the project of creating rulesets based on Denmark’s national regulations.

“We saw a lot of errors in our building projects, in many phases of the projects. Also, the communication about the demands was not working well. As the projects are getting more complex, the time consumed for the quality assurance was getting too high. For these reasons, we started a BIM initiative in 2016. We proved in the BIM initiative that we can save more than 4% on the project costs. This gave us a mandate to expand the usage of it.

We have aimed to translate our demands in HVAC, electrical, fire etc. into rules. We give everyone access to the rules. In our first project, our calculated savings were four times the investment. Our stakeholders have said the errors are reduced before the construction starts. The next step is to work with other Danish building owners to create a national rule system.”

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S U C C ES S STO R I ES

D E M O H I G H L I G H TS

Using classifications to visualize installation schedule or to classify the model to different zones.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Byggnadsekonomi I Didn’t See That Coming – BIM for Increased Productivity on Site Johan Appelqvist and Jaakko Riekki from Byggnadsekonomi share some insight on how Solibri can be used for scheduling purposes and increased productivity on site.

Byggnadsekonomi is an award-winning total BIM consulting company in the Nordics.

Johan Appelqvist is a professional scheduler and the CEO of Byggnadsekonomi. With more than 15 years of experience in BIM for production management, he is one of the pioneers in virtual construction and 5D solutions. At Byggnadsekonomi he has created unique and groundbreaking processes for BIM management.

Jaakko Riekki is BIM Specialist at Byggnadsekonomi. For the last 5 years he has been working onsite, implementing BIM based scheduling and Lean managing methods on major commercial projects in Helsinki region.

“We use Solibri full time – Office for quality checking and assurance, Site for quantity surveying, and Anywhere for communication with customers. We have about 30-40 active projects at the same time. We use visual way of planning together with the contractors. In

addition, we use a more mathematical way in for example resource-based planning. This way we look for the most optimal way to build.

For this to work, we need to work with quality assurance. When you truly manage the development of your BIM model, you will have full traceability. To get quality assurance done, there are a lot of things you can do with Solibri: for example standard quality checking such as find missing elements, you can coordinate different models such as architectural vs structural, and make sure the model information is according to requirements. Solibri’s information takeoffs form a very good basis for schedule planning and optimization.”

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D E M O H I G H L I G H TS

Preparing carbon data in Excel and importing to Solibri. Utilizing classifications and information takeoff to visualize the numerical data in the model.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Sweco Communicating Sustainability Aspects Using Value-driven Visualizations in Solibri David Jirout shows how you can utilize cost and emission factors for coloring the model as a 3D heatmap to understand what parts of the design need to be revised from the sustainability perspective.

Sweco is Europe’s leading architecture and engineering consultancy, with projects in 70 countries annually throughout the world. David Jirout, Sustainability Coordinator for Sweco’s IT Consultants in Sweden, has his background in system development, BIM coordination and GIS. Merging his IT skills with knowledge gained in Sustainable Development program at Uppsala University, David’s job is about showing how IT and digitalization can be used to deliver measurable and tangible climate and general sustainability value in AEC projects.

“For me, Solibri has always been the first choice BIM tool that I have worked with as a BIM coordinator. But once we started to use it for visualizing carbon and cost at Sweco, it gained a new value. We have developed a service called BIM vision; its purpose is to help interpret carbon numbers. The idea basically

is to simplify working with environmental questions. We connect carbon calculations with objects in Solibri. The model’s colors help you understand the carbon footprint – or costs – of your design.

Here’s an important message: if you are working in a big organization, it is very important that you have one really good integrated BIM manual that you distribute to all the projects, and that all the projects work with metadata in a similar way. Then you can create an extension for your organization that will work on some template, generic environmental data. Thus, no matter what IFC you open, you get all this carbon visualization work done with one click. Then we get insights, and upon insights we can act.”

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D E M O H I G H L I G H TS

Setting rules and utilizing information takeoffs to validate BIM requirements and help in construction planning.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Skanska Achieving BIM Requirements Joel Öman tells how to set BIM requirements, how models can be checked so that requirements can be achieved, and also how quantity take-offs and orders can be made directly from the model in Solibri.

Skanska is one of the world’s leading construction and project development companies, focused on selected home markets in the Nordic region, Europe and USA. Joel Öman works as a Digital Leader at Skanska in Sweden.

He has almost 6 years of experience in BIM and digitalization in the building industry. In his work, Joel concentrates in creating more efficient ways of using software in order to save time and money in projects of all sizes.

“In Skanska, we have created documentation to achieve efficient design and obtain the necessary information in continuous phases of the project. Solibri is used for the validation of our requirements – we built a ruleset in Solibri that looks for the properties that are set in the documentation. We also use the powerful information takeoffs to capture quantities on for example materials we order from our

suppliers. This way everybody from design to production is working on the same model.

We try to make the use of Solibri as versatile as possible. Many people working on-site don’t know how to use 3D models, this is quite new to them. So, we use it to extend knowledge of the project. We have got a lot of positive feedback from the Site Managers on how well built our models are. Our designers also want to produce something that is usable in the end, to feel pride in their work.”

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 1

C U STO M E R I N S I G H TS

D E M O H I G H L I G H TS

What options to consider when exporting IFC files from authoring tools, such as Revit. Checking the IFC model properties in Solibri.

> VIEW THE FULL WEBINAR

Case Modelical Quality Beyond Clash Detection Julio García and Sarai Zaballa from Modelical will be talking about quality assurance in residential projects.

Modelical, based in Madrid, is a modeloriented engineering company focused on project and process optimization for the building industry. Julio García is Modelical’s go-to guy for construction and 4D related matters. A Madrid Tech alumnus, Julio is a chartered quantity surveyor in Spain and has some extensive experience as site-work supervisor. Sarai is Modelical’s leading BIM consultant and Operations Officer. She has several years of experience in project design using BIM solutions and has conducted many Revit implementations and courses.

“Solibri is our preferred tool for coordination. Since Solibri is only using IFC models, it is important to have it clear how to export from Revit, ARCHICAD, Tekla or such. IFC files are very powerful, but only if they are configured and exported them correctly against the goals what you want to achieve. We have developed a tool to batch export IFC’s, because we have

so many models that it would otherwise take too much time.

Solibri is not only clash detection for us.

In Solibri we can go a bit forward, and check information in the models, and check relations between elements in the models, which we cannot do in other tools.”

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S U C C ES S STO R I ES

ALIGNED PROCESSES PRODUCE BETTER DATA As information managers on the WMG Degree Apprenticeship Centre project, Bond Bryan Digital started their task from aligning the detailed requirements set in the project and continued with not only applying but also improving the model checking processes, ensuring a robust model delivery to the client.

A part of the Bond Bryan architectural company, Bond Bryan Digital (BBD) is an award-winning consultancy offering expertise especially in information definition and management throughout building projects. One of Bond Bryan’s latest projects is the WMG Degree Apprenticeship Centre for the University of Warwick in central England, UK, where initially the Bond Bryan architectural team was appointed as architects on the project. The main contractor, Kier, later brought in also Bond Bryan Digital to work as information managers.

BBD Associate Director Rob Jackson describes: “Our general approach on all our projects is to align with open standards and OpenBIM processes. This is because we use a variety of software, so building the information requirements around open standards allows us to build a robust process.” Following standards also allows re-using what has been done before. Jackson continues: “We re-use a

lot of our work that we have created on other projects, so we never start a new project from scratch. We have a library of rules based on open standards, for example, aligned around COBie and layering standards. Then, in addition to those, we configure client or project specific rulesets when needed.”

BBD also puts in effort to help the authors deliver their work in the set requirements, which was an especially natural part of the Apprenticeship Centre project as the architectural team was from Bond Bryan, as well.

“We could just let the authors deliver, check the models and then say they’re not suitable for our use,” Jackson smiles, “but we like to try and support them as much as possible to deliver those models efficiently and effectively.” For this, BBD provides training and creates mapping files for the authoring tools to make it clear what and how needs to be delivered. “So, it’s really a process of engaging the authors in the delivery. So far, it’s gone really well, and we’ve proved that we can deliver in alignment with open standards.”

A L I G N E D P R O C E S S E S P R O D U C E B E T T E R D ATA

Another interesting characteristic of the Apprenticeship Centre project is that the assignment included not only designing and checking the building model but also the landscape model. “It has some interesting features where we have to also look at the modeling aspects and change some of those to deliver the information requirements for the university,” Jackson remarks.

The university also requires the delivery of a native Autodesk Revit model, and as the Bond Bryan architectural team uses Graphisoft ARCHICAD as the delivery tool, BBD took on an additional challenge to transfer the models between ARCHICAD and Revit. “As a digital team, we have a passion for the ability to exchange our models without necessarily having to use a specific tool. We carried out a lot of research on how a model transfers between the two tools to transfer not only the geometry but also the data in a suitable format. And obviously, Solibri plays an important part in that process in assuring that both the geometry and data are robust throughout the transfer,”

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 3

“Solibri plays a huge part in our processes, assuring that we don’t just sit still, but keep improving the quality.”

Jackson mentions. The effort paying off, BBD can already transfer files with minor manual fixing required and continues to work towards a fully automated transfer.

In all projects, BBD applies the model checking process both by stage and by discipline. On the Apprenticeship Centre project, there are 5 different models; the architectural, mechanical and plumbing as one model, electrical, landscaping and the structural model.

“We go through a checking process aligned with the IFC tree, that is, project, site and building; floors, spaces and zones, and types, components and systems. This creates a workflow through the tree,” Jackson describes.

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MODEL VIEW

The federated model and model checking examples on the Apprenticeship Centre project in Solibri.

What follows is checking the attributes, which goes far deeper into the details. “It’s not only about identifying the issues, though,” Jackson points out, “but equally, we try to give the authors enough information about how to fix the issues, as well. For example, if all the doors don’t have door numbers, there’s no point in listing out every door without a number.

Instead, we would simply list out the fact that all the doors are missing the door number and need to be reviewed. In other instances, then, say if one door has a duplicate number, we would obviously list out the specifics of that door.”

In the Apprenticeship Centre project, BBD has been reporting the found issues regularly, asking the authors to clean up as much of the issues found in the data side of the models as possible during each round. “We don’t expect the next iteration to be perfect, but we hope for progression and try ensure that the models are consistently moving towards the end goal,”

says Jackson. As the project has progressed, also the checking gets easier as the models are now down to only a couple of fundamental issues to solve. BBD shares the federated Solibri model file with all the model checking rules run in the file, in the common data environment of the project, making it easy for anyone in the project to view the models in the free viewer version of Solibri.

BBD also uses the Solibri information takeoff for checking the correctness of the data in certain simple schedules. Jackson explains: “You can quite quickly see what the quality of the model is like in information takeoff. For example, if all the descriptions are missing, you can quickly go down them in an information takeoff.” The information takeoff, linked with the model, also provides a quick visual way to identify the issues. In addition, the information takeoffs are linked to COBie spreasheets generated in Solibri according to the British

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S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 5

ROB JAC KS ON

regulation, as well as data classification within the federated model. This creates a very efficient process no matter what location the data is saved in in the original models.

“Solibri is critical to checking the data in our models.”

“Quality assurance is something we’ve done for a number of years. It’s always continued improvement and for us, Solibri plays a huge part in the process,” Jackson continues and emphasizes the importance of the open standards work also in terms of continuous learning. “It’s matured a lot as we’ve gone forward and the more work, we’ve done around quality assurance, the more work

we’ve done that open standards are critical to that process. For those reasons, buying any technology isn’t the answer, even if it’s an important part of it. Implementing quality processes takes learning and commitment and looking at it as an overall project.”

The benefits seen from the model checking work around open standards are clear. “In terms of quality, we have seen better outputs, better quality of delivery, and contractors repeatedly come back to Bond Bryan for quality and delivery of our work, both design and technical delivery, so we have developed a very sound reputation based on that,” Jackson concludes.

HANNA BACKMAN

Rob Jackson is an accomplished information manager and BIM consultant with vast experience in construction and a background in architecture. An advocate of OpenBIM workflows and the use of open standards for years, he actively takes part in various BIM committees and platforms, presents at BIM related events worldwide, and engages in conversation both in social media and in the BIMBlog by Bond Bryan Digital.

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MODEL STAN SOLIBRI QUALITY APPROVED

S O L I B R I J O U R N A L –– 5 7

TO THE DARD More than just a number 7 out of the top 10 Dutch construction companies use Solibri 7 out of 10 top Nordic construction companies use Solibri 7 out of 10 top Finnish construction companies use Solibri A billion global model components checked with Solibri every month 100 % increase in users year on year

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E D I TO RS L E T T E R

RUSSELL ANDERSON

Editor in Chief/Solibri Brand & Marketing Director.

Editor in Chief Russell Anderson reports on the new normal The period of time passing since our last Journal has been almost unrecognizable when compared to previous years. The intention within our Solibri marketing team was to offer fresh insight and inspiration during early 2020.

2019 was a big year for Solibri. We had a new CEO (Ville Kyytsönen) and the introduction of a new product portfolio. We had continued to grow as a team and had seen a much greater adoption of Solibri globally. We had also introduced a range of new webinars – Customer Insights – where we hear from the real Solibri heroes – our customers and how they use our products to great effect. Everything was making sense and then welcome COVID and everything got turned upside down.

As I write this, Europe is slowly starting to open up and we have been able to focus on what we do best – providing great software to innovative customers. This Journal serves as a reminder to us and hopefully a great read for you on how Solibri is being used. That’s why

Ville talks upfront about how building code checking is really changing how governments are tackling construction quality on a massive scale. We’ve also seen our software being shaped and used by customers to build new ecologically friendly projects in wood. These are the kinds of stories that remind us how BIM continues to be needed and a mandated process for all major builds. We’re also very proud that our customers choose Solibri to be part of their toolkit to deliver these buildings of the future.

Our strategic strapline is ‘Creating a digital future of better builds’. Thank you for helping us make that a reality and let’s hope in the near future we’ll be able to share stories and ideas in person once again.

Regards, RUSSELL ANDERSON – Solibri

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C R E D I T S & C O N TA C T S

C R E D I TS

Editor in Chief Russell Anderson Contact marketing@solibri.com Creative Direction Agency Leroy Cover Illustration Outi Kainniemi

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