Solibri for BIM Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Articles • Bonnie Wong • 30 January 2023
Solibri is the leading BIM Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) tool for the AEC industry. By thinking clearly about the project needs upfront, a business will be in a better position to perform the required checks throughout the project, ensuring a better result for all project stakeholders involved.
Collaboration tools help to reduce the delta between design and construction by finding common ground in cross-disciplinary workflows, but there will always be changes and adjustments to make, as a project nears the finish line. Even though Visual Quality Control (vQC) using Solibri Anywhere (free version) is a crucial step in every project’s lifecycle, it may not suffice to demonstrate BIM Quality Assurance (QA). Both QA and QC are paramount to an organization’s long-term success, but are they the same?
Differences between QA & QC
- Effective QA is proactive. It aims to prevent defects before they occur (very similar to building the design virtually using BIM before construction starts at site).
- QA activities involve the entire team. Every member of a design team is responsible for QA activities by following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). QC is generally the responsibility of certain personnel within the organization whose duties include following SOPs to test & document their findings for process validation.
- Businesses should “close the loop” on quality management processes by using QC to inform QA. When non-conformances are discovered, it’s important to launch an investigation to determine where the breakdown occurred in QA processes and create stronger standards.
- QC and QA are better together – incorporating both QA and QC for end-to-end quality processes, helps businesses save time, money, and resources.
With the new Solibri Inside subscription, design companies can design and integrate QC checks into the team’s workflow. This revolutionary idea is aimed to make the statement “The best QC process is one that doesn’t have to happen” a reality!
With the new BIM360 integration, Solibri can directly interact with IFC models stored on BIM360. This is aimed at helping design companies use their tool of choice and collaborate using OpenBIM!
To learn more about these two new features of Solibri, register and attend the IFC Collaboration Webinar.