Connecting Assemble, Navisworks, and BIM 360 to Deliver Integrated Construction Project Review Workflows

The construction process tends to operate in a fragmented way, with a high level of disconnection between project phases and uncertainty throughout the project. This often leaves project teams with a limited ability to accurately predict project outcomes – which ultimately raises the risk level of a project. We think there's a better way to deliver construction project reviews.

The preconstruction phase of a project, which includes project review workflows that span bidding, estimating, multi-discipline coordination and scheduling, is the most opportune time to remove variables that cause risk. It’s the time for the proverbial “measure twice, cut once” mentality.

“We plan and replan, and replan our projects before we’re ever out building them. We look at virtual engineering and construction as a chance to build a job as many times as we want before we get on-site.”

Steve Eikanger, GE Johnson

Navisworks, Assemble, and BIM 360 – Building Together

There are a host of software tools that support better planning, including some of Autodesk’s most popular applications -- Navisworks for project review workflows, Assemble for model data management and BIM 360 for project management and collaboration.

While these tools are extremely beneficial in digitizing workflows and raising the value of model-based design and construction, their value in terms ofmitigating risk and helping to ensure more predictable outcomes increases exponentially when they are used together. With integrated workflows, the risks of information handover including file compatibility, loss of detail, and errors and omissions caused by manual processes are reduced.

Integrating and automating workflows allows data to flow seamlessly between project phases and connects the design to build processes. It’s one of the core pillars of our construction platform vision of “digitize, integrate and predict”.

To support this vision of integrated construction workflows, we’re excited to announce two new integrations: the ability to publish Navisworks models into Assemble in the cloud; and new connections between Assemble and BIM 360.

_{Integrating and automating workflows allows data to flow seamlessly between project phases and connects the design to build processes}

Improved Project Outcomes

Navisworks continues to be a critical tool for construction project review, helping architects, engineers and contractors holistically review integrated models and project data with stakeholders during preconstruction to enhance constructability and improve project quality. And Assemble raises the value of models during preconstruction by extracting meta-data, and connect teams to make better decisions, earlier in construction.

Now, with new Navisworks publishing capabilities for Assemble, project teams can access an increasing number of file types (including IFC and SmartPlan 3D files) when using Assemble for preconstruction and construction workflows.

_{With new Navisworks publishing capabilities, project teams can access IFC files when using Assemble for preconstruction and construction workflows.}

With this added file support, teams can bring coordinated models from Navisworks to Assemble – in the cloud – to quickly and easily condition the model data to be used in estimating, scheduling or other downstream workflows. This integrated workflow gives preconstruction teams instant access to complete project inventory to organize project data, and helps estimating teams work faster, with greater accuracy. Together, Navisworks and Assemble help teams bid more jobs and win more work using model-based quantity takeoff.

As the project moves towards construction workflows, this model-based data remains available to help manage scheduling, sequencing and trade coordination. And the data is all accessible onsite through the Assemble mobile app. With access to the coordinated model, teams can leverage aggregated quantities by trade for construction workflows including Work in Place (WIP), lookaheads, status tracking and inventory management.

Building from a single source of truth

We’re also adding new integrations between Assemble and BIM 360 to provide access to project information and enabling more communication and collaboration between project teams. Two new integrations will be made available soon for beta testing by customers using BIM 360 and Assemble:

• Specifications and other project documents stored in BIM 360 will be available for viewing in Assemble models

• Issue creation will be added to Assemble, and tracked and managed via BIM 360 issue management workflows, providing a way to identify and resolve preconstruction issues in a faster, more traceable way

_{Integrations between Assemble and BIM 360 enable more communication and collaboration between project teams}

These new integrations will allow project teams to benefit from a holistic view of the project right from Assemble, fostering collaboration on the model and supporting documents anywhere and anytime. And, it helps to ensure that everyone is working off the most current information by transferring information from one project phase to the next across a common data platform – creating a single source of truth.

These integrations will be available in the coming months. For more information and to be notified when it is available, subscribe to the BIM 360 Release Notes and view Assemble webinars.

Want to know more about the power of BIM 360 + Assemble + Navisworks?

Watch the webinar: