Case Stavanger Hospital – Essential Principles for Quality Assurance and Collaboration in BIM Projects

Tune in to our monthly webinar series Customer Insights to hear how our customers use Solibri to find solutions to problems or challenges, improve quality, and increase efficiency. Learn best practices and get ideas from other users. 

Webinar content:

• Introduction to Stavanger Hospital project.
• Checking and quality assurance and a demo with Eirik Soland Thu.
• Autorun with Morten Lekven.
• BCF Live connector and a demo with Henrik Thingbø.
• Q&A: Going through audience questions.

Case Stavanger Hospital – Essential Principles for Quality Assurance and Collaboration in BIM Projects.

In this webinar, our great presenters introduce us to the new Stavanger Hospital project. Eirik Soland Thu goes through the basic principles of how COWI uses Solibri to perform clash detection, and other checks. He also discusses how they narrow down the results to specific areas and disciplines.
In the second part of this webinar, Morten Lekven talks about Autorun, and its usage to ensure that all project members are working on updated files and updated checking results. 
Henrik Thingbø discusses the BCF Live connector during the third part of this webinar. He presents us with the method of developing BCF Live Connector with Solibri, which enables a highly efficient workflow for communication in BIM projects.

Henrik Thingbø is an essential member of the team consisting of digital collaboration coordinators for the new Stavanger Hospital project. He is responsible for BIM-workflow between engineers, production managers, and the client regarding BIM-software in production. He is also responsible for the planning and integration to facility management systems, project management systems, documentation, and testing.

Eirik Soland Thu has a Master in Energy and environmental engineering from NTNU. He is responsible for the setup in Solibri and has a special interest in BIM and how to adapt COWI's quality assurance system and the way they collaborate to a new era in BIM projects

Morten Lekven is the BIM-Manager mechanical and piping in COWI Norway. He is also a part of the BIM team in the new Stavanger Hospital project and in the design team.

Our presenters shared some useful links during the webinar:
You can view some examples of xml files here.
You can also find a video showing Solibri Autorun in more detail here.
The construction monitoring software used and recommended in this project is Imerso.

Further Questions and Answers

How do you handle the discontinuity in HVAC tech that continues from one building to another?

Morten Lekven: We have the general rule that goes clockwise so that any technical culverts and bridges between buildings 11 and 21 are owned/included in the 11-model, between 21 and 71 is owned/included in the 21-model, and so on. So, for example, for ventilation, it is more practical if those areas are handled by the building that owns that area, but we can handle discrepancies if necessary. In those cases, copy/pasting between models is needed when doing flow calculations.

What Software are you using to model and calculate the different MEP trades, and are there any problems with the import/exports of IFC models?

Morten Lekven: We use Revit with MagiCAD to model all of the MEP trades. The calculation is done chiefly using MagiCAD, with some calculations done using IDA ICE, some using excel, and some airflow velocities in some rooms, considering chilly drafts, were even calculated using some CFD software from Autodesk. Importing external IFC models in Solibri has mostly been easy. Still, in Revit, it is pretty challenging when working on the boundary between inside and outside disciplines, as the outside water and sewerage usually use different software, such as Novapoint. When it comes to the export of IFC models, we’ve faced some challenges regarding size and automation, but besides that, it has been okay.

How will the model be used in the maintenance phase? What software will be used in maintenance? How is the maintenance data gathered and transferred into the maintenance system?

Softwares for handling models are in rapid change and since our project is not delivered to the “customer”/Maintenance group until 2024, this is not yet landed. This can also change during the lifetime of the building.
Therefore, we have -since the beginning of the project- had a focus on making everything generalized and compatible with open sources. All documentation has been collected into “Pims365” where it is connected to a TFM-code (Norwegian standard for building and system classification), in which all objects are marked within the model. This way we have a structured collection of information and documentation, as well as a connection to the model. 
Metadata from the model are also imported to “Pims365”. From “Pims365” we can export the information/Documentation to any format, we can make changes and adaptions to it before we transfer, etc., so it is adaptable to any program capable of receiving the data.