If you have ever ran Navisworks clash detection, you know that most of the time there are too many clashes to count. When you run a test and detect over 10,000 clashes, you may be ready to wave the white flag before even trying to resolve those clashes.

You begin to work your way through these clashes one-by-one, no matter how long it takes, however, you start to notice that several of these clashes are the same clash. This is a problem within Navisworks. For example, if a piece of air duct is going through a wall, Navisworks will see the front and back side of the wall as two different clashes, even though it is a single clash. In this scenario, grouping clashes will come in handy, making the list of clashes more manageable.

Clash Solution: Grouping

Figure 1

Figure 2

In Figure 1 and Figure 2 above, we see it is the same duct causing the clash, however, Navisworks has classified these as two separate clashes. To solve this problem, we can group these clashes as one, reducing our overall number of clashes and simplifying our list. To do this, select all related clashes (clash1 and clash2), then, next to the “New Group” button, select “Group Selected Clashes.” This places the two clashes into a group and reduces our overall number of clashes by one.

Conclusion

This is a quick way to reduce your overall number of clashes to a manageable size. With a better understanding of where clashes are for one single run of duct or pipe, you can now fix this issue with ease. 

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This blog is written by MEP Technical Specialist Zach Barker. If you have any questions or need help with your Navisworks needs, please email us at whyATG@atgusa.com.