Connecting Solibri and Archicad: streamline your BIM workflow

The third session in the cycle of webinars launching Archicad 23, devoted entirely to the direct connection between Archicad and Solibri Model Checker. The session follows a complete coordination workflow divided into six stages: model preparation, export, import, model federation, rule checking and management of the issues detected. With the direct connection installed, the export and import stages are resolved in a single synchronisation step, without generating intermediate IFC files. On a four-storey corporate building, the presenter synchronises the architectural model with Solibri, shows what information travels alongside the geometry — IFC classification, location, quantities and properties of each element — and works through the two-way connection in both directions: selecting a balustrade or a floor slab in Archicad and seeing it highlighted in Solibri, and bringing into Archicad the selection made in Solibri. He then federates the architectural model with a structural model imported via IFC, runs three rule sets on the federated model and analyses the results by severity. The central example is the rule on clear space in front of windows, which detects a light fitting in the opening swing of a window and a clash between windows and the stair route. The session shows how to accept an issue that is not one, how to correct in Archicad what falls within the architect's remit, how to synchronise again and why rules that have already been run cease to be regarded as current after a change to the model. It closes by documenting the issue that the architectural team cannot resolve: a markup and annotation on the model, a slide associated with the rule, an exported checking report, and export in BCF to open it in Archicad with the Markup tool and reply to the rest of the team. Session recorded in July 2019. The product appears under the name it had at the time, Solibri Model Checker.