BIM Coordination Checklist: From Clash Detection to Sign-Off

Every BIM coordinator has watched a "coordinated" model blow up in the field because someone skipped a step nobody wrote down. Clash detection isn't just running Navisworks and exporting a report — it's a chain of checks that has to hold together from the first shared coordinate to the final signature before issue-for-construction. Here's the checklist I actually run on multi-discipline Revit projects, discipline by discipline, week by week.

1. Verify Shared Coordinates and Link Setup First

Before any federation happens, confirm every discipline model is sitting in the same coordinate space. This sounds obvious and gets skipped constantly. Open each linked model and check:

• Survey point and project base point match across architecture, structure, and MEP
• Links are set to "Shared Site" or "Origin to Origin" consistently, not a mix of both
• True north matches on every model
• No model has drifted after a re-publish from the central file

This is where I lean on PointX to log and compare coordinate values across models instead of eyeballing X/Y/Z in the Properties panel for every link. Catching a coordinate drift here saves you from chasing "phantom clashes" later that are really just one model sitting three meters off in space.

2. Federate the Models into Navisworks

Once coordinates check out, export NWC files from each discipline (architecture, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection) and append them into a single NWF in Navisworks Manage. A few habits that save time downstream:

• Export NWCs on a fixed schedule (weekly is typical on active projects), not ad hoc
• Name files with discipline, date, and revision so old federations don't get opened by mistake
• Keep the NWF as the live federation file — don't rebuild it from scratch each cycle
• Confirm the same shared coordinate base carried through the NWC export; re-check alignment inside Navisworks before running anything

3. Run Clash Detection by Discipline Pair

Don't run one giant clash test across everything — it buries real problems in noise. Run separate tests by discipline pair, which is how most coordination teams structure it:

• Structure vs. Mechanical (ducts through beams)
• Structure vs. Plumbing/Fire
• Mechanical vs. Electrical vs. Plumbing (MEP-to-MEP congestion in ceiling voids and shafts)
• Architecture vs. MEP (soffits, bulkheads, ceiling clearances)
• MEP vs. Structural penetrations

This is also where hard clashes, clearance (soft) clashes, and workflow (sequencing) clashes get separated. Hard clashes are true geometric overlaps. Clearance clashes flag insufficient maintenance or access space around equipment. Workflow clashes catch sequencing conflicts, like a duct that would need to pass through a beam that's poured before the duct is installed. Setting the right tolerance per test (typically a small clearance value for MEP-to-structure, tighter for MEP-to-MEP) matters more than most teams realize — too loose and you miss real conflicts, too tight and you drown in false positives.

4. Triage and Assign Every Clash

A raw clash report is not a deliverable. Every clash needs to be triaged before it goes anywhere:

• Active — genuine conflict, needs resolution, assign an owner and discipline
• Reviewed/Approved — flagged but acceptable (e.g., temporary construction clash, or below-threshold overlap)
• Duplicate — already tracked under another clash ID
• Closed — resolved and re-verified

Group clashes into "clash groups" for similar recurring issues, like a duct run crossing multiple beams along the same corridor, rather than logging forty individual line items for the same design decision.

5. Track Resolution Back in the Native Models

Clash reports live in Navisworks, but the actual fixes happen back in each discipline's Revit model. This is the step that breaks down most often — someone screenshots a clash, emails it, and three weeks later nobody remembers if it was fixed. I bring clash data back into Revit directly with ClashX, so the MEP or structural modeler sees the clash located precisely against their own model elements instead of interpreting a screenshot and camera angle from Navisworks. It keeps clash IDs consistent between the coordination report and the model comments, which matters when the same clash needs re-checking after a design change.

6. Re-Run and Verify Before Sign-Off

After each resolution cycle, re-federate and re-run clash detection on the affected discipline pairs only — no need to rerun everything if only ductwork changed. Track the trend: total clash count, closed count, and open count by discipline, cycle over cycle. Sign-off happens when:

• All active clashes are closed or formally accepted with a documented reason
• Coordination meeting minutes record who approved each acceptance
• A final federated model and clash report are archived as the coordination record
• Model authors confirm their native Revit files match what was verified in the federated model

Only after that does the model move to issue-for-construction. Skipping the final re-verification step is the single most common cause of clashes that "were fixed" reappearing on site — usually because someone reverted a change or synced an older local file. A disciplined bim clash detection workflow, checked at every handoff between Revit and Navisworks, is what actually prevents that.