How to Use Tech to Keep Construction Clash-free

Construction professionals are leveraging technology to make clash detection work smarter, not harder. With cloud-based platforms and sophisticated software, they are not only spotting clashes —they're averting and resolving them before they happen. 

In this preventive, proactive environment, construction leaders will soon allow AI to craft solutions without human intervention, for higher orders of risk mitigation and operational efficiencies.

Charting a Clash-free Course

In traditional clash detection, general contractors and subcontractors convene to compare drawings. When the 11-inch plenum can’t accommodate a 12-inch vent, they make changes.

Person-to-person dialog remains essential to clash detection, but the traditional process consumes time and can miss key details. Every time an undetected clash appears or reiterates on paper, it creeps closer to forcing rework on the jobsite. 

A growing body of technology tools is now detecting and resolving more clashes during preconstruction. Beyond simple identification, they include coordination-issues tools for building information modeling (BIM) platforms that drive resolution by incorporating the full project team, connecting with requests for information (RFIs) and change events, assigning responsibility and integrating with 3D modeling software. 

As conflicts and coordination issues are resolved virtually, they integrate seamlessly into ongoing designs, for efficient adaptations, fewer reworks, and heightened safety. 

Blending Tech and People: 3 Steps for Success

Technology for clash detection has not entirely removed humans from the equation — yet. Until that day, three steps help support an effective human-technology hybrid strategy that brings digital advantages to clash detection.

1. Lean on technology first.

   Utilize technology to search for low-hanging fruit, such as that oversized vent. The software will save time by detecting the obvious clashes, teeing them up for timely resolution. 

2. Follow up with human expertise.

   Assign human eyes and expertise to comb through the plans, especially if the technology delivers suspiciously few clashes. With their experience and instincts, the pros can discern the subtler clashes that technology can miss.

3. Rethink existing clash-detection roles.

   Keep rethinking old roles in clash detection. MEP tradespeople will continue detecting and resolving their own clashes as they materialize, but the power of AI to spot potential clashes is generating decision points earlier in preconstruction. At those junctures, engineers and architects have a responsibility to watch for clashes and contribute to solutions. 

Key Construction Clash Detection Tools & Techniques

A range of tools and practices can help facilitate and maximize technology-enabled clash detection.

Common Data Environment (CDE)

CDEs create central, organized repositories for information retrieval, reporting and data-driven analytics. CDE platforms encode entries and direct them to the correct documents and files. 

Using CDEs as their common ground, general contractors, project managers and specialty contractors can communicate over a single source of truth, confident that each piece of data informing their drawings and decisions is accurate and the latest entered. 

Importantly, CDE enables the “federated model” that transforms scattered data points from varied stakeholders and file formats — all those .vdc, .pdf, and .jpeg extensions — into uniform entries for comprehensive BIM results. 

Selective Tech Access

Multiple players need access to project-related data and 3D renderings. Stakeholders start with the general contractor and can include project managers, specialty contractors and superintendents. 

However, every participant doesn’t necessarily need to see the full range of data compiled in the system. Sensitive material such as finances and personally identifiable information should be shielded from all but need-to-see eyes. 

Typically, the general contractor and any IT administrators on the project establish permissions for those who can gain access to which information.

Historical Data

There’s no substitute for experience, especially as specialized structures such as healthcare facilities and data centers increasingly dominate the construction docket. Contractors steeped in hospital construction, for instance, can contribute to preconstruction by ensuring that medical gas lines meet required specs. 

Now, technology is incorporating that level of historical data into preconstruction, for application to drawings as they develop.  For streamlined compliance, software could someday apply local standards and regulations to projects, detecting conflicts between plans and government mandates.

AI for Scheduling

AI is developing the know-how to spot potential scheduling and timeline conflicts. It might alert users to a narrow window between the underground plumbing installation scheduled for a certain day but followed quickly — too quickly, perhaps — by the concrete pour. 

AI could also overlay scheduling with weather reports, to ask if the scheduler wants to delay an installation when a storm is imminent. 

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Where Real and Virtual Worlds Meet

Virtual models and digital twins are merging with augmented reality for new levels of precision on job walks. It’s like getting as-builts in real time, as users with virtual reality tools consider how in-place structural elements will react with those that are pending, including MEP installations.

Plus, increasingly sophisticated 3D jobsite scans are capturing existing conditions, detecting potential clashes, and inputting real-time changes into BIM models — all for the trades to see before they arrive onsite. Laser scanning technology, when incorporated into coordination issues software, can alert users to tolerances that do not conform to BIM models, generating notes on issues requiring follow-up. 

Looking Ahead for Clash Detection

In short, technology for clash detection is entering every phase of construction, driving deeper understanding of existing and upcoming conditions and constraints.

Rework will be honed to minimums, and job progress will accelerate as people more efficiently utilize their skills to create the highest-quality, most cost-efficient structures possible.

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