BIM look-ahead plans
BIM look-ahead plan is key in the progress monitoring workflow as an intermediary between the Project Manager and the on-site BIM team. The recommended workflow for progress monitoring begins with generating BIM look-ahead plans for the next period directly from 4D/5D construction simulation. Generated detailed look-ahead plans with planned quantities and costs can be sent to the BIM team on the construction site through the cloud-based BEXEL Viewer.
Look-ahead plans can be generated by subcontractors, activities (types of works), labor, classification structure, project task, or any other breakdown structure and set for daily, weekly, monthly or any other interval as per the project needs.
The generation process of look-ahead plans can be done directly from 4D/5D construction simulation by manually creating selection sets of works planned to be executed or automatically by using the script through API Console.
The first step in the progress monitoring process is to prepare look-ahead plans for a specific construction period and provide them to the on-site BIM team. The animation period can be set to a daily, weekly, monthly, or any custom period using the schedule animation settings. After the animation period is set, usually to the monthly period, the creation of look-ahead plans can start.
Manual creation of look-ahead plans
If the project is already commenced for creating a look-ahead plan for the next period the following steps should be conducted:
Choose the proper Schedule in the Schedule Editor tab → Activate the Schedule Animation tab → Go to Options and set Interval Type (Interval Type could be set to daily, weekly, monthly, or any custom period) → Finish with the settings by clicking OK command.
After the Interval Type is set in Schedule Animation Settings to be exact as reporting period, the Selection command in the upper left corner is used to select the elements planned to be executed in the reporting period.
If the progress monitoring process is commenced, for creating a look-ahead plan for the next month, it is recommended to create a selection set of previously completed works and then set the end date of the next reporting period. After that, the main schedule task in the Schedule Animation tab must be selected and the following steps should be conducted:
Click play and then stop at the end date of the next reporting period or set the end date of the next reporting period in the upper right corner → Click on the main schedule task in the schedule animation window → Click on the Selection command and choose Select Leaf Tasks → Click on the Selection command and choose Select Elements → Choose Completed to select the elements that are complete → Click again on the Selection and choose Add to Selection and after that choose In Progress command to select an element that only should start in this period → Save the current selection of elements as a selection set and name it accordingly.
Created selection sets with all elements planned to be executed in a defined period can be sent to the on-site BIM team using BCF file format.
Automatic creation of look-ahead plans
Instead of manually selecting elements as described in the previous section, a script can be executed using BEXEL Manager API Console. These scripts can be found in BEXEL User Area. With provided description within each script, they can be easily used and adjusted to the specific project needs without any additional programming knowledge.
Using the BEXEL Manager API Console look-ahead plans (selection set of elements that needs to be executed in the specific period) can be generated from the last progress entry date (Status date). Clicking on the Execute command software will generate selection sets with corresponding elements.
Duration and interval counts can be changed with script variations for more customizable look-ahead selection sets.
With additional scripts available within BEXEL User Area, multiple look-ahead selection sets can be created for the entire construction period divided into specific intervals (commonly used daily, weekly and monthly).
Generated selection sets can be found in the selection set tab in the previously defined folder. All created selection sets can be shared using BCF Manager or directly uploaded from BEXEL Manager to the BEXEL Viewer.
