What exactly determines the success of each construction project? Certainly, projects aren’t declared a success simply because they’ve hit the finish line. Each milestone or phase-from design to plan to build-requires many data handover cycles, increasing opportunities for rework. Staying on budget and on time while producing quality work is of utmost importance to all builders — but not all projects are created equally. At the end of the day, all construction firms want to stay in business, and preferably thriving over just surviving. 

For example, if each clash costs $3,500 per instance (PWC, 2018), it’s difficult for estimators and project managers to ensure each project is profitable during the planning phases of a project. Whether VDC managers rework designs with architects to ensure the client’s vision is constructible, or project managers collaborate with superintendents to ensure the most up-to-date documents are available to manage field teams and the quality of their construction, there is risk of losing profit margins.

The MacLeamy curve highlights that the further along a construction project is, the more difficult and costly changes become. It’s truly during the planning stage of any project where builders have the opportunity to reduce rework and avoid lost costs.

Introducing Autodesk BIM Collaborate and Autodesk Takeoff

Connecting preconstruction teams involves integrating workflows and project data. This enables teams to recover margins when rework is reduced and improve the quality of construction models — all before breaking ground. But to enable connected teams to stay within budget and on time, general contractors and trades need efficient, accurate, and collaborative ways to coordinate models and produce accurate estimates with robust quantification tools. 

We’re thrilled to officially roll out two products that will help construction professionals do just that. 

First is Autodesk Takeoff, our brand new 2D and 3D quantification solution that enables estimators to quickly produce accurate quantities for improved estimating and competitive bidding.

Then we have Autodesk BIM Collaborate, a cloud-based solution that combines design collaboration and coordination in a single solution. VDC managers and other BIM experts can align and execute on design intent and constructibility — with model reviews and markups, automatic clash detection, integrated issue management, and design change analysis. 

Both products are part of the Autodesk Construction Cloud unified platform, built on a common data environment (CDE) that helps teams coordinate from design to plan to build while staying connected to the same construction documents. 

Let’s take a closer look at why we’ve built these products and how connected preconstruction workflows can help you achieve better outcomes in your projects.

One Platform. One Single Source of Truth.

Construction projects require multiple stakeholders to work together in order to achieve a winning outcome. It’s practically a team sport, and members need to be on the same page when analyzing data and making decisions.

This can be a tall order, especially when you have dozens of construction companies working off the same project files.
 

To truly function as a unit, construction teams need a CDE — i.e., a unified architecture — that allows stakeholders to access the same data and information. A CDE provides a single source of truth that users can rely on, and team members can reduce costly errors knowing that they are working from the right information at the right time. Autodesk Construction Cloud’s CDE empowers teams to remain on the same page when planning and forecasting a project. 

In Autodesk Takeoff and BIM Collaborate, drawings, models, and documents are stored and collected in one system — Autodesk Docs —  which means you can manage everything from a single platform and manage how the rest of the project team access the information.

Enhancing Collaboration Upfront

Autodesk Takeoff and BIM Collaborate were designed to not only enhance how teams stay connected during the planning phase of construction, but also to facilitate how construction teams can reap the benefits of these collaborations. We know that by helping professionals work better together during preconstruction, teams can significantly minimize rework on the jobsite — a major expense that cost the construction industry $65 million or 5% of total spend in 2018. 

Here are some of the ways that our new products can reduce overall rework.

Collaboration with Autodesk Takeoff

Autodesk Takeoff breaks down data silos between estimators, improving collaboration by facilitating access to relevant documents, drawings, and models to assigned team members. Estimators can access drawing and model-based quantification workflows on a centralized platform and quickly identify the latest versions, improving the quality of takeoffs and overall project transparency. 

Because Autodesk Takeoff leverages Autodesk Construction Cloud’s CDE, estimators and project managers can confidently know they are working with the most up-to-date information. 

Interested in learning more about Autodesk Takeoff? Register for our webinar.

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Collaboration with Autodesk BIM Collaborate

For the first time, we’re combining design collaboration and coordination capabilities into a single solution with Autodesk BIM Collaborate. Once VDC managers perform clashes and identify issues in the Model Coordination module, they can easily review the status of model changes made by architects and designers in the Design Collaboration tool. This is especially helpful for self-performing GCs and bid-build projects. Empowering VDC managers to have visibility into the design review process ensures models are truly constructible, sooner. 

Together, these products can help ensure that projects stay on track. They improve collaboration and ultimately reduce unnecessary errors, delays, and costs.

Interested in learning more about Autodesk BIM Collaborate? Register for our webinar.

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Learn more at www.construction.autodesk.com