What Is BIM Coordination?

BIM coordination is the process of combining architectural, structural, and MEPF models into a single federated environment, testing them against each other, and resolving conflicts before they reach fabrication or field installation. It's a project management process built around a 3D model, not just a modeling exercise.

A typical coordination workflow moves through defined stages: collecting models from each trade, federating them into a shared environment, running clash detection, classifying issues by trade and severity, assigning them to a responsible party, reviewing the significant ones in a coordination meeting, updating models with the agreed resolution, and verifying the fix with another clash run before the coordinated set is released for construction.

Coordination meetings are where the process earns its value. Software finds the conflicts; the meeting is where architects, engineers, contractors, and trade partners agree on who moves, how much, and by when — decisions that require judgment about cost, schedule, and design intent that a clash report alone can't make.

For general contractors and construction managers, a well-run coordination process is one of the most effective tools for reducing RFIs and field change orders on a multi-trade project, because it forces conflicts into the open while they're still cheap to fix.