Introduction

This example will show how easy it is to create a scope of work for finishing contractors,  including itemized lists of materials and quantities. This example is for the gypsum subcontractor.

BIMSearch makes preparing scopes of work instant, highlighting all the required work visually on the model with accurate quantities listed according to type. This means that estimates can be more accurate and potential areas of difficulty can be identified, reducing the chances of costly misunderstandings. 

Run a search with the default “Walls” template

The first step to identifying all the gypsum work in a BIM model is to run the search template for walls

Search within results

The search will yield a report with all the walls in the model, organized according to base constraint and type name. To refine the results just to gypsum, search within the report for gypsum. In our model this is the type name containing “DRW” (drywall).

Save as selection set

With all the gypsum wall elements highlighted, they can be saved as a selection set to be easily accessed later. Simply click the “Save as selection set” button, create a folder, assign a color, name and description, and all the information about the project’s gypsum walls is saved for future use (see step 6).

Isolate each level and save as a separate selection set

In order to make the scope of work more visual and have the data more accessible, the gypsum walls on each level can be saved as a separate selection set. As the walls template is organized first according to “Base Constraint”, all the types of gypsum wall on each level are shown together. This makes it easy to select all the gypsum walls on the ground floor, for example, and save them as a selection set.

Comparing selection sets

Once all the levels have been saved as separate selection sets, they can be opened at the same time, providing a highly visual summary of all the gypsum walls in the project, organized by level. The instant widget in the top left of the viewer provides an overview of the quantity data. Clicking the “selection details” button will open a pop-up that provides the details for each selection set.

Export to Excel

Each selection set can be exported to Excel, where the quantity data will appear in the Excel sheet, alongside a photo of the selected elements. Simply click the button “report for selection” and the Excel document will download.

The possibilities

The versatility of BIMSearch means that the scope of work can include any and all the data needed for any given project. This example shows the scope of work for gypsum walls organized according to level, but it is just as easy to organize by other parameters, such as type of gypsum wall (simply modify the search template to organize by “type name” first).

This process of searching, selecting, comparing and exporting to Excel makes generating scopes of work easy.

Next steps

Once the scope of work is set up, the saved selection sets can be used to track the contractor’s progress and manage the invoices. To learn how to do this, see the posts: 

Use case: Managing invoices

Use case: Tracking site progress

Learn more

Search your model

Saving selection sets

Saving selection sets 2

Comparing selection sets

Export to Excel