A Tool for Automatically Tracking Object Changes in BIM to Assist Construction Managers in Coordinating and Managing Trades

As Building Information Modeling (BIM) becomes more popular in the construction industry, one of its most useful benefits to construction managers is the assistance it provides them in coordinating different building trades during preconstruction. Tools such as Autodesk’s Navisworks for conflict detection have been instrumental to improving the speed, efficiency and accuracy of the coordination process. However, even with these tools, construction managers are faced with a daunting task of managing multiple versions of different trades’ models and communicating changes downstream to those responsible for modeling. This paper proposes the development of a tool to evaluate the productivity of model updates made by different trades for different projects. The tool automatically generates a report for 3D object changes between different model versions. Through case study analysis, the tool was validated for the Mechanical Duct trade of a sample building project. Preliminary results indicate that it may aid construction managers in assessing the modeling productivity of different trades and making predictions regarding the estimated duration of the coordination phase of a project.