Minimising and Managing Design Clashes with Autodesk Revit

Architecture, Engineering and Construction projects in 2026 are becoming increasingly mandated to adhere to BIM standards, to ensure that digital project information consistency, quality, interoperability and collaboration between multiple disciplines.

However, many designers still struggle with misaligned project files, often caused by over-reliance on traditional drafting methods, poor coordination and communication, siloed workflows and lack of a suitable Common Data Environment (CDE). Add that to the general time constraints that are ever-present in AEC industries, and it can be a concoction for disaster once site construction begins.

Failure to identify clashes early in the design process can lead to costly delays and rework, with one study citing $280bn of costs caused by poor project data in construction globally, and erroneous or incorrect project data being the primary cause of this from a survey of 599 construction industry leaders (source: PlanGrid “Construction Disconnected” Report, 2018). Respondents were also shown to lose 35% of working hours spent on non-optimal activities, including 4.7 hours a week on conflict resolution and 3.9 hours a week on dealing with mistakes and rework. Utilising BIM and clash detection can lead to savings of between 7 and 12% in project duration (source: NIBS, NSDrafter, 2025).

Coordinating architectural, structural and MEP models in Autodesk Revit from an early design stage, utilising linking using Shared Coordinates, creates one “federated model”. In this model, each discipline’s design can be visualised together for validation purposes, whilst still maintaining ownership of the content within (the information is not merged). Any changes to an individual model are represented in the federated model when a new version is shared, and then consumed, by the other disciplines.

Multi-disciplinary projects also benefit from the ability to “Monitor” specific Model “Families” (components and other objects within a Revit model) from a design from a linked file, to be notified if the linked discipline’s file changes. These can include annotational Families (Building Levels and Gridlines) and physical elements such as Walls and MEP Families, coordinating disciplines can stay aligned and ensure that they are notified as soon as any changes are made to these key categories which could affect their individual designs.

At all stages of a design project, detecting clashes is of vital importance to keep disciplines aligned. Within Revit, built-in functionality utilising Interference Check allows users to select specific Model Categories within the design to clash against each other. A report of clashes is generated, and clashes can be viewed quickly and easily by selecting each individual clash instance in the model. This allows them to be resolved without having to spend time and effort identifying clash locations.

Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) brings this functionality and more to other stakeholders, beyond the design teams, providing the perfect construction management platform for design coordination and aggregation using Autodesk Revit. Designers can choose which views, sheets and associated documentation to publish to the cloud for wider stakeholders to see. This could be made up of multiple views which are specified for the purposes of clash detection. When these multiple-discipline, multiple view files are uploaded to ACC Model Coordination, a clash matrix is generated automatically, showing which files require the most urgent attention.

As BIM mandates continue to mature in 2026, effective coordination is no longer a competitive advantage—it is a baseline requirement for successful AEC delivery. The challenges of misaligned models, fragmented workflows and late-stage clash discovery remain significant, but they are also entirely avoidable. By adopting disciplined BIM practices, federating models correctly in Revit, and leveraging in-built coordination tools, teams can surface issues early—when they are fastest and cheapest to resolve.