DroneDeploy’s BIM Compare feature brings more 3D insights into how a project is tracking vs. design. Now all stakeholders can easily compare actual site conditions from any 360 Walkthrough with the BIM model within DroneDeploy. Reach out to your customer success manager if you’re interested in this feature.
Need help aligning your BIM Model? See our Help Page here.
Note:
First, ensure your project’s BIM model has been uploaded and aligned. If no model has been added, follow the steps in BIM Upload section. If your model has not been aligned, contact your Project coordinator or Organization Admin.Availability:
Included for Projects Enterprise and Projects. Available as an add-on for Advanced, Teams, and Enterprise customers with Walkthrough - reach out to your account manager if interested!
Using BIM Compare
Note: Currently, you must wait for your model to fully load before alignment with the walkthrough ‘kicks in’. We are working on reducing/eliminating this wait time. You can check the loading progress via the green bar in the lower left corner of the BIM viewer.
- After your project’s BIM has been uploaded, open BIM compare from within any walkthrough
- Use the lock button to link/unlink the walkthrough and model panning
- Navigate as normal through your walkthrough, and note your model position will update to match for comparison.
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Use the Forge Viewer navigation controls in order to manipulate the model when in First Person mode - the default, and suggested way to view BIM next to Walkthroughs
- Use the Forge Viewer Model Browser and Properties controls in order view model metadata, or adjust viewer settings
- Use the Forge Viewer View cube in order to manipulate the model when not in First Person mode
BIM Upload
Note:
- Only Project Admins or Coordinators can upload or delete BIM models to DroneDeploy projects
- Only one BIM model may be uploaded per project. Delete the existing model before uploading a new version
- BIM cannot be viewed alone - a walkthrough must be present in the project to open BIM Compare
- If more than a couple hours has passed since you uploaded your file and it is still not visible when opening BIM Compare from a Walkthrough, please retry the upload - sometimes Autodesk’s processing can time out for large files, and success occurs upon a simple retry. Please reach out to support@dronedeploy.com if the retry still does not yield a visible model after the wait period and we can help resolve the issue.
- Open project explore page and select ‘Add’ from Layers section in sidebar (Note: BIM can’t be uploaded directly from a Level currently)
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Select a Navisworks file from your local drive to begin upload.
A) BIM Processing and translation make take up to an hour - (you will receive a failure email if something goes wrong). You may use DroneDeploy as normal during this time, or close the browser
B) You can only upload one model to a project at a time, and must delete it before uploading a new model - after upload/while a model is processing, the upload tab will be greyed out. - After upload/model translation, the model details, including file name and date of upload, can be viewed in Project Settings
- In case of mistake, or user desire to upload a more recent model version, BIM can be deleted from Project settings using the ‘trash can’ icon
- After a BIM model has been added to the project, it can be viewed from any walkthrough via the ‘BIM Compare’ button