Interdisciplinary Clash Playbook: Real-World Revit Coordination Tactics that Cut RFIs

If there’s one thing that can turn a smooth project into a headache, it’s the dreaded RFI avalanche. Most design teams know the feeling; a coordination review starts with good intentions, and by the time the Navisworks model finishes loading, 4,000 clashes are staring back at them. Half of them are false positives, a quarter are unassigned, and the rest no one remembers modeling in the first place.

The truth is, clashes aren’t the real problem. The lack of a systematic coordination process is.

This is where the best AEC teams separate themselves, not by having fewer clashes, but by handling them with precision, rhythm, and teamwork. At Uppteam, we’ve helped project teams fine-tune their Revit coordination workflows to the point where the RFI count drops, not by luck, but by design. Here’s how that looks in practice.

The Coordination Reality Check

Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth: clash detection is often treated as an event rather than a process.

Someone runs a model through Navisworks once the design is “mostly done,” generates a 300-page clash report, and then the team spends the next coordination call scrolling through screenshots, arguing over whose model is “right.”

Sound familiar?

The goal isn’t to find clashes, it’s to prevent them from piling up in the first place. And that takes a different mindset.

The Real Revit Clash Detection Process

A good Revit coordination cycle is less about the software, more about the structure behind it. In Uppteam’s experience, the projects that consistently avoid last-minute chaos share three things in common:

1. Short, Predictable Coordination Sprints

Instead of waiting for the “big review,” smart teams run clash checks every one or two weeks, short, predictable bursts. Each sprint concludes with a coordination meeting where conflicts are identified, assigned, and tracked as action items.

It’s a bit like Agile for BIM, smaller loops, faster feedback, fewer surprises.

2. Role-Based Accountability

RFIs multiply when no one knows who owns a clash. The best teams make it explicit. Structural owns beams and embeds. MEP owns routing and clearance. The BIM Coordinator doesn’t “fix” the problem; they facilitate it getting fixed.

Every clash gets an owner, a category (critical, moderate, or minor), and a due date. Simple, but powerful.

3. Filtered, Not Flooded, Reports

A 4,000-clash report doesn’t make you more thorough; it makes you blind.

The trick is triage. Filter out false positives (such as insulation overlaps). Group by system or zone. And focus on what affects constructability or design intent. Uppteam designers often deliver filtered reports that fit on a single page, highlighting only the 10% of clashes that truly matter.

From Chaos to Cadence

Here’s how a typical coordination sprint looks when run efficiently:

• Day 1: Each discipline runs a quick Revit interference check internally. Obvious errors, ducts through beams, pipes misaligned with risers, get fixed immediately.
• Day 2: The BIM Coordinator federates the latest models, runs a clash detection, and filters out the noise.
• Day 3: The coordination meeting happens. Short, focused, and time-boxed. Teams review only high-priority issues. Decisions are logged directly into the issue tracker or BCF file.
• Day 4–7: Teams resolve their assigned issues, update model versions, and verify the fix in the next sprint.

This weekly rhythm transforms coordination from a marathon into a sustainable relay race. Everyone knows their lane, and progress is visible.

The Tactics That Move the Needle

You can read a dozen BIM standards and still miss what really cuts RFIs. It’s the small operational habits that add up:

• Name your models correctly. A transparent file structure prevents version mix-ups that trigger phantom clashes.
• Stick to one coordinate system. Misaligned models are the root cause of half the “clashes” that aren’t real.
• Run discipline-level checks. Don’t wait for a federated model to catch what could’ve been fixed in your own Revit file.
• Assign due dates. A clash without a timeline is just a note in the void.
• Close the loop. Verify fixes, don’t just mark them “resolved.”

When teams apply these consistently, the RFI count doesn’t just drop; it stays low.

Coordination Isn’t a Tool, It’s a Culture

Revit, Navisworks, Solibri, they’re just the instruments. The coordination magic happens in how teams use them.

A design team that collaborates in two-week sprints, communicates through structured clash reports, and maintains clear ownership rarely finds itself writing long RFI explanations later. Coordination shifts from being about firefighting to being about flow.

At Uppteam, that’s precisely the framework we help our clients build. Our designers don’t just model; they run coordination like an operating system. They triage, assign, and follow through on tasks. And when you look at the RFI logs at the end of construction, the difference is measurable.

Wrapping Up

The best Revit coordination process doesn’t aim to eliminate every clash; it seeks to control the chaos. Think of this playbook as a rhythm, not a rulebook. Start small: one sprint, one filtered clash list, one discipline lead assigned to each issue. The rest will follow naturally. Fewer RFIs aren’t the result of better software. They’re the byproduct of better collaboration, and that’s precisely what Uppteam helps design teams achieve.