BIM Collaboration: Best Practices for Revit, CDE and BIM Coordination

BIM collaborative working enables the different stakeholders involved in a construction project to work with structured, shared, and regularly updated information.

Architects, engineering firms, contractors, BIM Managers, and clients must be able to produce, exchange, review, and coordinate their data throughout the project.

However, using Revit or uploading models to a collaborative platform is not enough to establish a truly collaborative BIM approach. Effective collaboration relies above all on clearly defined processes, a shared organizational framework, and exchange rules adapted to the project.

A well-structured collaborative approach helps reduce information loss, facilitate model coordination, and improve the reliability of BIM data.

What Is BIM Collaborative Working?

BIM collaborative working refers to all the methods that enable project stakeholders to produce, share, review, and coordinate BIM information within an organized environment.

Each stakeholder retains responsibility for their own scope of work, while exchanges follow common rules defined at the beginning of the project.

This organization may define:

• the responsibilities of each stakeholder;

• model production methods;

• naming and classification rules;

• exchange formats and frequencies;

• validation processes;

• version management;

• coordination and clash detection methods;

• document publishing and sharing procedures.

These principles are generally formalized in the project's BIM Execution Plan (BEP) or BIM documentation, depending on the contractual framework.

The CDE at the Heart of BIM Collaboration

The Common Data Environment (CDE) is a central component of BIM collaborative working.

It provides a shared environment in which project information can be centralized, rather than relying on multiple file exchanges via email or different storage platforms.

Depending on the project's organization, the CDE may contain BIM models, drawings, technical documents, comments, approvals, and different versions of project deliverables.

Platforms such as Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) can be used to structure these exchanges and provide better information traceability.

However, the platform itself does not replace the methodology: an effective CDE requires a clear folder structure, appropriate access permissions, and properly defined publishing and approval processes.

Revit and Collaborative Working

Within a Revit environment, multiple users can work on the same model using Revit's worksharing capabilities.

Depending on the project setup, teams may work with central models, worksets, and linked models from different disciplines.

The objective is not simply to allow several people to modify a model simultaneously. Production must also be properly organized to ensure model stability and quality.

This involves defining rules for worksets, Revit links, shared coordinates, synchronization, templates, families, and publishing methods.

BIM Coordination and Clash Management

Collaboration becomes particularly important when several disciplines need to work together.

Architectural, structural, and MEP models can be federated to analyze the interfaces between the different disciplines and packages.

BIM coordination can then identify inconsistencies and clashes before they become issues on site.

However, effective clash detection is not simply about automatically generating hundreds of clashes.

Relevant control rules must be defined, genuinely important clashes must be prioritized, actions must be assigned to the appropriate teams, and their resolution must be tracked through to validation.

The BIM Manager or BIM Coordinator plays an important role in organizing this process.

Best Practices for Effective BIM Collaboration

An effective collaborative approach must remain understandable and applicable to all project teams.

At ERA Consult, we recommend defining working methods from the beginning of the project, centralizing information within a Common Data Environment, and establishing consistent production rules.

Teams should also clearly understand everyone's responsibilities, the approval processes, and the methods used to publish and coordinate models.

Finally, workflows should remain proportionate to the project's actual requirements: an overly complex BIM process can become just as problematic as having no process at all.

What Is the Role of the BIM Manager in Collaborative Working?

The BIM Manager helps define and implement the project's collaborative organization.

Their role may include defining BIM processes, preparing the BIM Execution Plan, configuring the CDE, coordinating different disciplines, and supporting project teams.

The objective is to ensure that the tools, methods, and data enable the various stakeholders to work together efficiently.

Implementing a Collaborative BIM Approach

Every project has its own constraints: team organization, software, BIM maturity, client requirements, and the nature of the expected deliverables.

The collaborative approach should therefore be adapted to the specific context of each project rather than systematically replicating the same workflow from one project to another.

ERA Consult supports architects, engineering firms, contractors, and clients in implementing and optimizing their BIM working methods: BIM Execution Plans, BIM coordination, Revit, Autodesk Construction Cloud, and team support.