When to use: Setting up a multi-discipline linked-model BIM project — choosing which discipline models exist, defining the shared level structure every discipline references, and generating a consistent file naming convention before any modeling begins.
A multi-discipline BIM project doesn't start with one model — it starts with a linked-model structure, where each discipline builds and owns its own file, linked into every other discipline as a read-only reference. This tool plans that structure: which discipline models exist, the shared level set every discipline references, generated file names per a consistent naming convention, and the resulting federated link map.
Every discipline model in a linked-model project has to share one common coordinate system and set of levels/grids established at project setup. Get the shared coordinates wrong at this stage and every discipline's model will be misaligned relative to the others for the rest of the project — a mistake that is expensive to correct once modeling is underway across multiple teams.
A consistent naming scheme — project number, discipline code, model type — is what makes later clash coordination and sheet production actually navigable once a project has multiple linked models and dozens of views and sheets. Locking this in before modeling starts avoids renaming files (and updating every link reference) mid-project.
Separate discipline models, linked together, let each team work independently without file-locking conflicts, while still coordinating against the other disciplines' current geometry through the link. It also isolates each discipline's worksets, view templates, and family libraries from the others.
Schedules, coordination checks, and view templates that reference a level by name will fail or produce incorrect results if that level doesn't exist identically (name and elevation) in every linked model. Establishing the shared level set before modeling begins prevents this class of error entirely.
Worksets divide each discipline's own model into manageable, separately-loadable pieces for team collaboration — for example, splitting a large architectural model into shell, interiors, and site worksets so team members can work simultaneously without contention.
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