Solutions · General contractors
The clashes that are not in your clash model
Duct against steel gets resolved weeks before anyone is on a lift. Low voltage arrives last, as a symbol on a drawing rather than geometry — so its conflicts are found under an open ceiling, at trim-out, when they cost days instead of a revision.
What you run today
A clash model, an RFI log, and a closeout scramble
Each one works. The gaps between them are where the low-voltage trade lands.
BIM / clash detection
resolving duct, steel, sprinkler and conduit
The seam
low voltage is usually a symbol on a drawing, not geometry — so it is not in the clash model at the resolution that would catch it
Coordination drawings and RFIs
the paper trail between trades
The seam
the low-voltage design often arrives after the ceiling is planned, so the RFI is written about a conflict already built
The closeout scramble
as-builts and sign-offs at substantial completion
The seam
they arrive late and wrong from the sub, on your critical path, against your retainage
The clashes BIM does not model
Low-voltage conflicts, computed from geometry
When cameras, access points, speakers, panels and cable routes are placed against the same building model, the interactions between them can be evaluated before anyone is on a lift. Separation and congestion are the familiar ones. The expensive ones are quieter: drive harmonics coupling into a wireless design, and power-cable proximity putting hum into an audio run.
- Spatial conflict detection — low-voltage separation from power, conduit congestion, forbidden adjacency (NEC 300.3, NEC 800.133, TIA-568)
- Electrical-to-RF interference — variable-frequency-drive harmonics, conducted EMI, power/RF cable proximity (IEEE C62.45, ITU-R SM.1541)
- Electrical-to-audio interference — ground loops and 60 Hz hum coupling from power-cable proximity
- Position-specific: evaluated against real device positions, closet locations and cable routes rather than zone averages
Conflict classes
- Separation
- low voltage against power
- Congestion
- pathway fill and adjacency
- EMI → RF
- drive harmonics, conducted
- EMI → audio
- ground loops, 60 Hz hum
Sequence
Scrub the install phase by phase
The 4D build timeline renders entities as installed, ghosted ahead of their phase, or hidden, with per-phase tints — so the sequence can be reviewed rather than described. Stated plainly: it requires the project to carry a phase plan. It will show you a sequence; it will not author one.
- Entities render as installed, ghosted ahead of their phase, or hidden
- Per-phase tints across the model
- Requires a phase plan on the project — this is a viewer, not a scheduler
Timeline states
- Installed
- complete at this phase
- Ghosted
- ahead of its phase
- Hidden
- not yet in scope
- Needs
- a phase plan on the project
Closeout
The package that is on your critical path
The as-built end is built. Documents export as PDF, PNG and DXF — rack elevations, schedules, camera install-verification photo pairs — and there is an interactive standalone HTML as-built: a single self-contained offline file, which is a more useful artefact to hand an owner than a folder nobody opens.
- Full as-built document package (PDF/PNG/DXF) including rack elevations and schedules
- Interactive standalone HTML as-built — one self-contained offline file
- Closeout binder and report builder across multiple templates and formats
- Camera install-verification photo pairs, generated from the same model as the design
What leaves the job
- Drawings
- PDF · PNG · DXF
- As-built
- offline HTML, self-contained
- Binder
- closeout report templates
- Photos
- install-verification pairs
Named standards, and one stated gap
Every claim on this page maps to a shipped capability. The conflict report that would be issued to a sub is not one of them — see the questions below.
- NEC 300.3
- separation and pathway rules
- with NEC 800.133 and TIA-568
- IEEE C62.45
- electrical coupling into RF and audio
- with ITU-R SM.1541
- Positions
- real device and route geometry
- not zone averages
- DXF
- as-builts that leave the platform
- plus PDF, PNG and offline HTML
General contractor questions
Is this a replacement for BIM clash detection?
No, and it should not be read as one. Clash detection resolves the major trades against structure, and it does that well. This covers the trades that usually are not in the clash model at a useful resolution — cameras, access points, speakers, readers, and the cable and conduit feeding them — plus the interference between them that geometry alone does not catch.
Do we get a conflict report we can issue to a subcontractor?
Not today, and it is the thing most worth knowing before you evaluate this. Detected conflicts carry a severity that lowers the design objective and generates remediation actions — so they change the design. The enumerated list of interactions, naming which systems, which zone, what severity and why, is a pre-release commitment rather than a shipped screen. If a coordination document to issue is the thing you need, it is not here yet.
Does it schedule the low-voltage work?
No. The 4D timeline scrubs an install phase by phase, with entities rendered as installed, ghosted or hidden — but it requires the project to carry a phase plan. It is a way to review a sequence, not a scheduler that produces one.
We do not design the low-voltage scope. Why would we use this?
Most general contractors would not design it — the sub does. The value is upstream of that: if the design exists as real positions and real routes before rough-in, its conflicts are findable on a drawing instead of from a lift. Whether that is worth anything to you depends entirely on how early your low-voltage sub is willing to design.
Find the conflict on a drawing, not from a lift
Bring a floor plan you are coordinating now and see what the model catches.