Understanding the Solibri workflow - SOLIBRI Tutorial

- [Instructor] We're starting a new chapter now where we're going to look at getting you started with Solibri Office. But more importantly, we need you to understand the Solibri workflow before we start. Now, the slide on the screen looks complicated. It's not complicated at all. It's just simply my way of visualizing the Solibri workflow. So how does the Solibri workflow actually work? Well, we have the architect, the structural engineer, and the MEP engineer, and they generate the architectural model, the structural model and the MEP model. So all these teams are collaborating on the project, producing models for their design using their own BIM tools. Each team then exports their models into individual IFC files, those Industry Foundation Classes files that I mentioned previously. And that is the open file format that all BIM-compliant tools use to export and import information that is in the BIM workflow. In many countries, IFC is the standard file sharing format on public projects by law. When using IFC files in Solibri, it doesn't really matter what software the design team is using to produce these models, as they can also be saved out as Solibri SMC files for all Solibri users too. So that's the blue box in the middle of the slide at the top saying, see the architectural model, the structural model, the MEP model, can all be brought out as IFC and then saved as SMC in Solibri Office. Once checking is done, the IFC file can then be exported back out from Solibri correctly, making sure that all relevant information is available to all the stakeholders, especially using Solibri Office, because it's there, it's the conduit for all the information. When we open these IFC files though, Solibri will run an automated analysis process, that's the big blue box on the right of the slide. And what's happening there is you visualize all of the models together. You check for integrity and quality, your space program, your rooms and areas, your building codesh, your best practices and your quantity takeoff. And all of that information is then sent back via Solibri Office to discuss potential design issues, and thus the process begins again. Communication is made via various files. So there's what they call a BIM collaboration file, that's the BCF file in the communication box, and what happens there is they can be shared with the Solibri files in Solibri Office, or the viewing software can be used which is known as Solibri Anywhere, and that's the one that is purely viewing software. You can't make any changes to the model, but you can view it and see any potential design issues. So that loop begins and the communication information then goes back to the architectural model, structural model, MEP model, and thus the workflow starts again. And then once you've done that automated analysis process X number of times, you've then got that reliable information there that can come out and go out to the construction site. Now, the best bit about Solibri is that potential issues can be communicated back to all stakeholders using that BCF file. But what happens as well is with that loop, with that workflow, the design team can then address any issues, make modifications and export those new IFC files. They're then refreshed in Solibri and the automated analysis process starts again. And it just goes round, and round, and round in circles, and it can be repeated many, many times until the design is concluded. And then when there's no major issues left to be resolved, you can be sure that the information passed to the construction site is reliable and precise. That's that reliable information box right at the bottom of the workflow in the slide. So I hope that kind of clarifies the loop that you're going to go through each time when you're using Solibri Office. You're basically taking the models and going through that automated analysis process, to at the end of the workflow, generate that reliable information that goes out to the guys on-site who are building your project for you.