Case study GCC Groupe: Simplebim helps meet BIM management challenges on French aquatic centre project

Simplebim allows GCC to process IFC models from multiple sources, standardising the data and removing unwanted data, whilst fulfilling their contractual obligation to digitise handover documents.

Company overview

Independent French construction company GCC Groupe is made up of 52 organisations operating in France and Switzerland.

With three divisions: Construction, Energy and Property Development, the organisation works across a broad range of domestic and commercial projects.

Sustainability and innovation are at the core of the business. Digitisation of construction processes is key to this.

Challenge

The group’s Technical Engineering Department includes five experienced BIM professionals, responsible for supporting the project teams across the company, as well as developing digital engineering skills within the business.

Working with IFC models from multiple sources, the team has often found significant differences in the quality of these models, as well as the levels of BIM experience amongst stakeholders. Cleaning, standardising and merging the IFCs has proved time-consuming.

In addition, the digitisation of handover documents is increasingly becoming a client requirement. Project teams had previously relied on paper versions of the documents, which were difficult to share and consult. Changes were also hard to track.

An example of this is the GCC’s Bernisette Aquatic Centre swimming pool project in Viroflay.
The team needed a solution to simplify the processing of IFCs and facilitate the digitisation of handover documents required by the client.

Solution

The GCC team discovered that Simplebim would allow them to process the IFC models from multiple sources, standardising the data and removing unwanted data.

This would also allow them to fulfil their contractual obligation to digitise handover documents, establishing IFC models as a ‘gateway’ to the building information.

With support and trainings provided by the French distributor of Simplebim, the CADatWORK Learning, the GCC team was able to implement the digital model data management method.

Benefits

BIM management simplified with Simplebim

Despite the multiple sources and varied quality of the IFCs received by GCC from their stakeholders, the process of importing and editing the models has been made easier and less time-consuming with Simplebim.

The team has been able to check each model and remove unnecessary data to lighten the models.
Simplebim has also allowed them to standardise the data across all the IFCs, opening up new possibilities for using the models.

Moving and merging capabilities

Once the models had been cleaned and standardised, the GCC team was able to edit the positioning of the models so each IFC shared the same coordinates.

This meant they could be merged to create a single, multi-layered IFC model incorporating each discipline in the construction process from steelwork to HVAC. Each discipline could then be filtered according to the user’s needs.

Facilitating digital handover

The merging of IFCs has facilitated the production of digital handover documents, which was a contractual requirement of the Viroflay project.

The cleaning, standardisation, moving and merging of the IFC models enabled the team to create a list of all the elements that make up the traditional handover documents, then generate a classification tree in a spreadsheet. This allowed them to cross-reference the classification tree and the objects from the models.

The idea is to use the model as a directory to find information, no longer in a file tree but by selecting the object or work that interests us in the digital model. So, the model acts as a ‘gateway’ to the handover documents.

Ali Haddar, BIM Service, GCC

Added value of confidence and competitive advantage

Not only has Simplebim saved GCC’s technical engineering team time by allowing the easy manipulation of IFC models, the capabilities of Simplebim have also inspired confidence in the team.

Despite being a small team, working across multiple projects, they know that with Simplebim they will be able to respond to client requests quickly and easily.

We regularly highlight Simplebim’s IFC editing features when responding to calls for tenders. Having the software has allowed us to commit to projects knowing we have the right tool to handle any BIM management challenge.

Thomas Crouan, Head of BIM Service, GCC

***

Does your organisation have the right tool to handle the BIM management challenges arising from disparate IFC models? Speak to our team and we’ll show you how Simplebim can help your organisation rise to those challenges.