Change Orders Without the Chaos
See exactly which parts of the model are affected by a change order and track the impact on schedule and cost.
The Problem
Change orders arrive as emails or PDFs with no link to the 3D model. Figuring out their impact means manually finding the affected elements, checking the schedule for tasks that will be impacted, and re-estimating costs. The process is slow, error-prone, and often results in missed impacts that cause delays and cost overruns.
What happens today: receive a change order as an email with an attached drawing, open the drawing, try to figure out which elements changed, open the building model, manually find the corresponding elements, check the schedule to see which tasks are affected, re-estimate the cost, write up the impact assessment, and email it back. The process takes 2 to 4 hours per change order and repeats for every change.
- 1
Create the change order
Create a change order in ApexBIM and link it to the specific model elements that are affected. The elements are highlighted in the viewer, so there is no ambiguity about what changed.
- 2
Assess schedule impact
ApexBIM shows which schedule tasks are linked to the affected elements. See at a glance whether the change will delay the project finish date and by how much.
- 3
Assess cost impact
The quantity takeoff for the affected elements is recalculated automatically. See the cost difference — added materials, removed materials, changed labor — right away.
- 4
Track to completion
The change order is tracked from "submitted" to "approved" to "implemented." When the design change is made in the model, ApexBIM confirms that the affected elements have been updated and closes the loop.
The Outcome
Change order impact assessment that used to take 4 hours now takes about 30 minutes. Every change is linked to the 3D model, so there is no ambiguity about what is affected. Schedule and cost impacts are calculated automatically — no more missed knock-on effects.
Results
Features Used
ApexBIM capabilities that power this workflow.
Related use cases
Who this helps
This use case is relevant to the following roles:
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