Due to start construction on site in approx. 4 weeks. We have the designers BIM models, we have the construction program which will be updated on a fortnightly basis, and we have now convinced the Project Manager to wire them both together to create a 4D model which will be taken through construction.
Although I have quite a bit of experience using Synchro during pre construction/bid stage I still haven't had the opportunity carry one through construction. The Client and PM are keen to utilise it mainly to monitor/report progress and have available during the monthly project meetings to give increased visibility of where things are up to and the look-ahead.
Sooooo, my question is..... What do i need to know? How detailed should I be making this being the first go? should it include the trade, equipment etc? or should we be grabbing the low hanging fruit and only reporting the big ticket items such as foundations, walls, steel frame etc? How easy or hard is it to show planned vs actual? should I be sat in the progress meeting diving the model or convince the planner to use the Synchro open viewer and drive it himself?
Appreciate this just seems like barrage of questions but just wondered if anyone has ever gone into the realms of producing a 4D implementation/execution plan or something similar?
Any help is appreciated.
Hey Stephen,
Those are good questions, and obviously it’s always great to have as much detail as possible and getting team buy-in, but the answers will really depend on factors such as the qty of resources for producing the 4d, size and complexity of the project, quality of 3D models and consistency of updates, project duration, culture and resistance of the team... The technical part of doing plan vs actual in synchro isn’t hard, but can be made hard in some cases, like when the plan changes a lot compared to the baseline, or when there are multiple versions of the program (for client, team and contractors). I‘d say that when in we’re in the tender stage we can get away with some stuff that in the delivery just won’t work, so there are a number of additional challenges. Good luck!