If your Navisworks clash report is 300 items long and growing, and the mechanical and electrical subcontractors are still calling each other on site to figure out who moves their pipe, the problem is not Navisworks. The problem is that running clash detection is not the same as coordinating a project.
The two are frequently confused. The result is a process that produces reports nobody acts on, meetings where trades talk past each other, and conflicts that get resolved in the field by whoever is working that day — which is the most expensive and least controlled way to resolve them.
What Clash Detection Actually Does
Clash detection identifies geometric intersections between elements in a federated model. It tells you that a duct and a pipe occupy the same space. It does not tell you which trade moves, where they move it, how that affects the adjacent structure, or what sequence the resolution needs to happen in to support the construction schedule.
That determination requires human judgment, coordination authority, and a process for tracking resolution to the field. Clash detection produces the input list. Coordination produces the answers.
The Most Common Process Failures
Clashes Are Not Prioritized by Construction Sequence
A 300-item clash report sorted alphabetically by trade is not useful. The clashes that matter are the ones in the areas where work is starting in the next four weeks. Prioritizing by construction zone and sequence is what separates a coordination process that supports the schedule from one that runs parallel to it.
No Single Point of Coordination Authority
When a clash is identified, someone needs to make a decision. If there is no BIM coordinator with authority to direct the resolution — if every conflict becomes a committee discussion — the process slows to the point where it no longer leads the construction sequence.
Resolutions Are Not Verified Against Updated Models
A clash marked resolved in the log should mean the model has been updated to reflect the resolution, and that update has been re-federated and re-checked. If resolutions are tracked only in a spreadsheet without model verification, you have no way to know whether the field direction is actually conflict-free.
What a Working BIM Coordination Process Looks Like
Effective coordination has four components: a federated model that is updated on a defined schedule, a clash log organized by construction zone and priority, weekly coordination meetings with decision authority present, and a verification step that confirms every resolution is reflected in the model before field direction is issued. The process leads the construction schedule by at least two to four weeks. If it is not leading the schedule, it is not coordinating the project.