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Derek Cutsinger/3 min read

Coordinating Mechanical Systems in BIM: Rerouting Piping for Clashes

Clash Resolution Workflow

1

Run Clash Detection

Identify pipe-to-duct, pipe-to-structure conflicts.

2

Categorize

Critical (blocks construction), moderate (resolvable), minor (cosmetic).

3

Reroute or Adjust

Most common fix for plumbing — reroute around HVAC.

4

Re-Run Clash Check

Confirm resolution didn't create new conflicts.

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This tutorial walks through coordinating mechanical systems in bim: rerouting piping for clashes, covering essential tools and techniques for your projects.

In the last video, we completed our sprinklers and Piping Plan. Everything is fully connected and our system is good to go. However, usually on a large BIM project such as this, there's going to be some coordination.

So what we're going to do is take a look at a portion of a mechanical system and see if we have to reroute some of our piping. So let's go to Insert and find Link Revit and go to where your Downloads folder is, your BIM324 file downloads, and find the Link Revit file. And let's look for the VDCI MEP Mechanical Coordination.

And let's have the positioning set to Internal Origin-to-Internal Origin. Go ahead and click Open. Now in this case, it's updating to the current version.

So just let it do its thing. Okay, we're getting this note, it's set to Overlay; nested links may not appear. Let's see what happens.

Let's go ahead and hit Close. Okay, so we do see it there. Now if you do run into a problem with visibility, you can go to Manage > Manage Links.

And here's the link that we brought in. And the reference type, you can change from Overlay to Attachment. In either case, I'm able to see the model.

Now if we zoom in, I am on the Level Two Piping Plan. If we look here, it looks like our main is in a good spot. We are away from this ductwork here.

We should be okay there. However, it does look like this large duct—if we zoom in—we might be having some clashes in this area.

So let's take a section view and take a look at what's going on. I'm going to grab this one and I will pull it to about right here and go to View. And if I zoom in, we can see the elevation of these branch lines is running through this ductwork.

Here's our two-and-a-half-inch main. We definitely can't be doing this. So usually ductwork stays where it is, and piping has to route around it.

There's a little bit of give and take. But since we have some room up above the ceiling here, I think we can easily adjust what's going on. So let's go back to our Level Two Piping Plan and let's take a look at our main.

This piece right here—we're running through the ductwork. Let's take our other section looking in the other direction. I'll take this guy.

Let me flip it. I'm going to extend it a little larger. Okay.

And pull it down to that right here. Let's take a look. Yeah.

We have some opening here, but we should be careful because there might be some lights in the way as well that might affect our branch lines. So right now we are set to 10 feet 6 inches. Why don't we set this to 9 feet 8 inches. And it might take a while. Okay.

We are still above the ceiling. We definitely don't want to be at or below. Let's extend this out a little bit.

Okay. So far it looks good. Let's go to our Level Two Piping Plan.

Now, unfortunately, by doing that, we set our entire run of main to 9 feet 8 inches, which we don't want because we were at 10 feet 6 inches. So here's what we're going to do instead. Let's undo all of that. Keep going.

Okay. Now we're back at 10 feet 6 inches.