Checking for Clashes and Resolving Them

The initial situation is that there are sufficient items built in the 3D Model in Marine to necessitate checking whether or not any of them clash and, if so, nominating who is the discipline designer responsible for resolving the clash(es).

Disciplines

The general principle of assigning the responsibility for the resolution of a clash is that it should rest with the discipline associated with one or other of the clashing elements. (Another discipline can be assigned, where appropriate.) If you are using Clash Manager without the VPE Workbench installation (Stand Alone Clash Manager) it is necessary to associate (for example) Marine MMSDISC attribute values with Clash Manager discipline names so that the appropriate disciplines are identified in Clash Manager. This configuration task and the selection of the Marine attribute and the default discipline are carried out at the Clash Manager Configuration Form - Discipline Tab.

• If you use the Clash Check CE option you can also set up a special clash set named ‘Default’ which will be used as a template for all personal clash sets created with the Check CE option.

• Refer to Setting Up Clash Management Options.

Clash Sets

1. Before you can run a clash check you have to specify the items to be included. You do this by creating a Clash Set, which essentially contains two lists of objects. The first list consists of objects that are considered to be obstructions (usually steelwork or structure items). The second consists of objects that might possibly clash with the obstructions. You select the contents of the lists in the Clash Set you wish to run, together with other details such as the co-ordinates of the space occupied by the clash set, at the Clash Manager - Clash Sets Form and at subordinate forms Clash Manager - Clash Set Data, - Add * List Item, - Edit * List Item, - Browse Marine Model and - Evaluate.

2. Refer to Preparing a Clash Run.

Clash Groups

3. There may be several clashes in close proximity to each other between an item and an obstruction. For example, a pipe running approximately parallel with a steelwork item may hit it several times. You should consider how you want to handle this type of event, because to report every clash may provide more detail than is desirable. For example, an engineer may consider these multiple clashes as one big clash and resolve it accordingly. Clash Manager provides a method of combining such clashes into 'Clash Groups', and reporting on these, as well as on the individual clashes. The configuration task for specifying how the Clash Groups are to be organized is carried out at the Clash Manager Configuration Form - Group Tab.

4. Refer to Setting Up Clash Management Options.

Auto-assign Discipline

5. When both elements of a clash belong to the same discipline, members of that discipline are probably responsible for resolving the problem. However, when two disciplines are involved, it is not obvious which one is responsible (that is, which one is the Owner discipline). To avoid unnecessary manual action, Clash Manager provides a method of automatically assigning the owner discipline to a clash. For the Clash Group, the owner discipline can be set to that of the ‘Worst Case’ clash in the group. Setting up the Auto-assignment process and its associated Class, Level/Type and Priority considerations is configuration task performed at the Clash Manager Configuration Form - Assign, Discipline, Class, Level/Type, and Priority Tabs.

6. Refer to Setting Up Clash Management Options.

Auto-accept Clash

7. Certain items may clash by design, for example, cables entering a junction box. Clash Manager will see these as clashes, but the design engineers would not wish to take action and, in other words, would 'Approve' the clashes. For clashes of this kind, Clash Manager provides a method of automatically approving them. The process is based on Rules that, if satisfied, result in the clash being automatically allocated a status, such as Approved. The rules also enable specific comments to be attached to the record of the clash to indicate why it was automatically accepted. The Auto-Acceptance rules and comments are set up as a configuration task at the Clash Manager Configuration Form - Accept, Status and Comments Tabs.

8. Refer to Setting Up Clash Management Options.

Preferences

9. Before you run the clash check, your can specify a number of features that determine how the clash check operates. Also, you can specify the colour-coding of clashing elements in the Clash Reports and in the corresponding Marine display. These actions are carried out at the Clash Manager Options Form - Preferences Tab.

10. Refer to Setting Up Clash Management Options.