Model coordination is the practice of bringing discipline models together so the team can find and resolve spatial, technical, and information conflicts before they become expensive problems. Clash detection is one part of that work, not the whole process.
A clash may be physical, such as a duct crossing a beam. It may be clearance-related, such as equipment that cannot be maintained. It may be rule-based, such as an object missing required information. It may also be a design decision that needs review rather than a hard collision.
Good coordination starts before the clash test. The team needs agreed coordinates, model breakdown, exchange dates, file naming, status rules, discipline responsibilities, and a way to decide what counts as an issue.
Clash detection software can produce thousands of results. The coordinator's job is to filter, group, prioritize, and assign meaningful issues. A raw clash list is not useful if nobody knows which items matter or who should act.
Issue management should record the topic, location, affected elements, responsible party, due date, decision, status, and resolution evidence. BCF can support this because it connects comments and viewpoints to model context.
Coordination meetings should focus on decisions and blockers, not only screenshots. The team should ask whether the issue is real, what option resolves it, who owns the action, and when the corrected information will be shared.
A mature process also checks trends. Repeated clashes may point to unclear responsibilities, late exchanges, wrong model origins, poor modeling rules, or missing design decisions. The best coordination process improves the system, not only individual clashes.
Related: openBIM, IFC, BCF, IDS, and bSDD, BIM Execution Plan, Incident Management and Corrective Actions.