Lyons O’Neill, Civil & Structural Engineers recently used Kubity on a £35M project. It consisted of two large steel frame buildings where the end user clients were aircraft simulator manufacturers. Hear what Technical Director of the London-based firm, Damian O’Neill had to say…
Our brief included the below ground drainage civils package, foundations and superstructure.
A majority of problems contractors always come across are clashes between different consultants’ work, both below ground and in the main superstructure itself. If these are not caught before the project goes to site, these will inevitably cost the contractor a lot of money and may potentially cause a costly delay in the programme.
At Lyons O’Neill, coordination and collaboration is paramount. We believe that there is nothing better than the design team sitting around an electronic model where we can walk and talk the project as a team. We do this sometimes in our office or over a Goto meeting which we host between the relevant consultants.
We started off doing this using Revit itself but found this very slow when working with large models with different consultants’ models linked to it, and also needed someone who could use Revit. Now, we simply export our Revit model through Kubity, direct to the Kubity Go app. This now gives us the ability to walk and talk with the model, rotating and zooming near enough in real time which has enabled us, as a design team, to identify clashes whilst interrogating / co-ordinating the project.
Damian O’Neill, Technical Director at Lyons O’Neill
We are lucky to work with Willmott Dixon Construction, a contractor who’s embracing the use of BIM. Willmott Dixon are now using our Kubity models to explain the project to their sub-contractors and clients as they are comfortable in using the Kubity Go app. They are also using the models on site, with either iPads or mobile phones to visualise what they are about to construct.
Historically, the part of the project that normally throws up problems on site is the below ground coordination between the drainage and the below ground services. Once Lyons O’Neill and the M&E Engineer believe their models to be coordinated to a point in time, we produce a below ground Kubity model. This shows our below ground drainage system, all foundations, ground slabs and below ground services.
A weblink of this Kubity model is emailed to the M&E Engineers for their initial review. We then invite the design team over to walk and talk through the Kubity model to check for any clashes and to discuss with the team if there would be a better design which can marked up over the Kubity model on our Smart screen and shared after with the design team.
View the models in Kubity by clicking on the links:
Coordination model: Below ground services: https://www.kubity.com/p/LBFwN5
Steelwork Connection Detail: Used for AR at meeting: https://www.kubity.com/p/3VgA68
3D model of the steelwork used for checking purposes: https://www.kubity.com/p/zP1W5t
Structural Kubity Model: https://www.kubity.com/p/ArX40S
How did Kubity enhance your project?
The project is around 90% structurally complete now and we have only received a handful of RFIs which were mainly changes that the contractor wanted to make. This is testament to the design team meetings we had using Kubity. This has saved Lyons O’Neill a lot of administration time filling in and responding to RFIs that would have eaten into Lyons O’Neill’s profit.
What did your clients have to say?
Lyons O’Neill introduced us to Kubity last year and it has since been used on all joint projects. We find the software useful in Design Team Meetings, its responsiveness makes coordination very user friendly.
Natasha Baum, Pre-construction Project Manager at Willmott Dixon
Kubity is particularly suited to civil engineering applications as underground services are particularly difficult to visualise even for industry professionals; it helps not only with coordination but also informs logistics and construction programme sequencing.
We have shared Lyons O’Neill’s Kubity models with clients and building users enabling them to visualise what the finished building and spaces would look like. The model communicates the benefits of BIM and coordination during the pre-construction phase to people outside of the construction industry.
Lyons O’Neill embed QR codes onto their 2D drawings which link directly to a Kubity model. This enables us to circulate the model to clients, tenants, supply chain partners and site staff, thereby allowing them to navigate it at their convenience. The VR and AR features further enhances the visualisation experience.
Have you used Kubity in other projects or are you planning to?
Yes, we are trying to roll out the same strategy as noted above to all our projects. We have started a relationship with Kubity where we ask for certain things to be improved as we work more with the software.
How do you believe Kubity adds value to a project?
Being able to easily visualise our projects and share the project with a number of different companies has made co-ordination a lot simpler. We are now putting QR codes on our drawings where we believe being able to view the model of a detail or junction in VR or AR saves the viewer a lot of time and reduces the risk of interpreting the 2D information incorrectly.
LYONS O’NEILL are a structural engineering firm, based in London.
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