Improving Process Automation in BIM

Autodesk University is a unique venue for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry to showcase its innovations and newfangled ideas.

It isn’t always the biggest, splashiest pieces of software that steal the spotlight, though. This year, there were several behind-the-scenes tools that promised change for AEC. One of these tools was the new release of Clarity, the flagship process automation software from IMAGINiT.

Process Automation for AEC

Perhaps when you hear the term “process automation,” you immediately envision robots in a factory. The term can be applied to other industries, though—including AEC.

Various data sheets and analytics provide insights into projects. (Image courtesy of IMAGINiT.)

Software like Clarity is designed to improve workflows involved in a building project by cleaning up and automating repetitive tasks, which frees up team members for other tasks. It acts as a hybrid platform, bridging the gap between legacy systems and the cloud.

It then uses a series of analytics to look into how teams are using building information modeling (BIM) software and to determine whether teams are adhering to a company’s best practices. Traditionally, this would be done by someone who would spend a few hours digging through models—but as IMAGINiT’s Matt Mason quipped at Autodesk University, that is really only so scalable.

After all, Mason explained that this can be a particularly tricky task when rules and best practices are forsaken in the looming approach of a tight deadline. It’s essential for teams and companies to be able to gain insight into where rules are being dropped to address these issues and to develop a more effective workflow.

Improving Analytics for BIM Teams

The big announcement at Autodesk University was the new release, Clarity 2017.1, which features several updates to help BIM teams make their workflows more effective.

Users can schedule tasks for after hours to improve productivity. (Image courtesy of IMAGINiT.)

A new integration with Autodesk Dynamo enables users to translate existing scripts or macros for Dynamo into Clarity tasks, which can then be run in batches or scheduled for particular times.
BIM Analytics promise to help users gain a deeper understanding of model data and can help BIM coordinators and administrators improve the efficiency of the model. These analytics can also be set to show on corporate dashboards.
A new task sequences tool promises to simplify scheduling and reporting by consolidating the timing and grouping of multiple tasks.
An improved integration with A360 Collaboration for Revit means that users can now make use of the Forge platform for models in A360.

For more information, check out the IMAGINiT Technologies website.