At the beginning of a project, especially in cross-functional teams with a large number of technical specialists of varying qualifications, certain issues often arise:
- Technical – where to start the project modeling and how to distribute roles among engineers;
- Financial – how to speed up an already complex process, increase productivity, and reduce company costs on the project.
This is especially relevant for high-rise buildings, industrial facilities, and large-scale areas where many engineers work simultaneously.
Let’s break it all down! To optimize work, it’s important to apply a few effective tricks:
1. Clear Scope for Each Participant
Usually, when a project has one Senior BIM Engineer, he or she defines the part of the model to be done by the BIM Engineer and Junior BIM Engineer. In a BIM project, it is often enough to create an issue and assign it to the responsible person.
In large projects, I highly recommend adding to the issue the information the Senior BIM Engineer received from the client or BIM Manager, such as special code requirements (like Fire Rated corridors) or client-specific design wishes. This information will then be visible in systems like Newforma Connect.
Typically, areas are distributed so that the Junior BIM Engineer works on simpler zones with repetitive designs, where no calculations are required and standard examples from the booklet can be used. The BIM Engineer handles areas that require calculations and need Design Specific solutions — especially in technically dense areas.
The Senior BIM Engineer spends minimal time on design, focusing more on managing the process and reviewing the final model. He or she supports particularly complex decisions and generates ideas for the BIM Engineer to implement.
2. Booklet with Design Core
When any project begins, it often feels overwhelming due to the lack of standardization needed to define which solutions will be Design Core and which will be Design Specific.
For an experienced engineer, after initial project analysis, it’s usually easy to identify repeating zones or solutions that can be applied to 80% of the design. Therefore, I suggest that, even before the whole team starts working, the Senior BIM Engineer performs an initial analysis and prepares a booklet with Design Core accessible to all.
This booklet can be updated during the project, especially for long-term ones, where it’s hard to plan for everything at the start. Still, having such a base at the beginning greatly helps the rest of the engineers speed up the process and create issues for modelers.
The booklet can be created in PowerPoint as an editable document, so all participants can update it after review by the Senior BIM Engineer. Alternatively, use Microsoft Excel with links to folders in Autodesk Construction Cloud.
3. Same Search Sets
Modern construction includes a variety of materials — concrete, bricks, metals, glass panels, composite shells, façades of various shapes and sizes. A very useful tool here is the Find Items function in Navisworks.
With same search sets for the whole project, it’s possible to highlight types of building materials, pipes, ventilation systems, types of insulation, different electrical cable types, and equipment variations — even elements like suspended ceilings and raised floors.
This helps the team of engineers and modelers make the BIM project more understandable for all users. It’s also useful to use the Sets panel and Hide Unselected function in the Selection Tree for solution checking.
For example, if you select a ventilation system in the Sets panel and apply Hide Unselected, then make visible the file with connection supports in the Selection Tree, you’ll see the entire ventilation system with all its mountings. This allows for accurate verification: whether nodes are correctly modeled, if distances are kept, and if there are unnecessary structures.
4. Team Communication to Develop Detailed General Rules
Now imagine you’re on a really large project, and modelers constantly ask the same questions — or the Senior BIM Modeler leaves the project. Answering these repeated but important questions takes up a huge amount of time.
That’s why creating General Rules in the right direction is crucial. Yes, we usually already have a basic rules list developed in advance, but during the project, they need to be updated and harmonized.
As the BIM project progresses, BIM Engineers realize that additional information should be added to the General Rules and send it to the Senior BIM Engineer, who updates the document.
At the same time, similar questions from modelers appear repeatedly, and their answers should also be documented in the General Rules.
All four tools for managing large projects can also be applied to medium-scale ones — after conducting proper analysis and identifying project-specific features, a task for the Senior BIM Engineer.
✅ These Tools Help Solve the Following Tasks:
- Save time: Time-saving through clear team interactions, clear scope information, shared General Rules, Search Sets, and Design Core materials.
- Easy onboarding: At any stage, it’s possible to replace team members — Senior or Junior BIM Engineers — or add new modelers without slowing down the project.
- Better teamwork: When everyone knows what and how to do their part, teamwork becomes seamless, and there’s time to innovate and simplify processes.
- Increase the capacity: Faster decision-making and optimized processes boost overall productivity. Each person performs according to their competence, which allows the team to adapt quickly without productivity loss.
- Save costs: All of the above results in lower costs per project participant by utilizing each person’s strengths, avoiding overload, and keeping BIM Engineers and Junior BIM Engineers focused on tasks appropriate for their level.
Written by a BIM project expert specializing in complex cross-functional teams and large-scale modeling workflows.
