How to design a two-room apartment and manage its technical aspects

The integrated system of online applications to manage the design of a two-room apartment while optimising your time, the quality of your work and facilitating collaboration with team mates and companies

Are you dealing with having to to design a two-room apartment? Are you looking for a simplified way to collaborate on the project with your colleagues?

In this article I will provide you with some useful information on how to manage the design of a two-room apartment, using a free online platform that simplifies all your activities.

To support your project, we suggest you to have a look at the below insights:

• a focus article regarding the architectural design of a two-room apartment;
• the 3D model of a two-room apartment project to use as a guide;
• an online collaboration platform to use for free and to facilitate collaboration with your colleagues.

Two-room apartment design | Render produced with Edificius

Collaborative working for the design of a two-room apartment

Designing a two-room apartment is certainly a multidisciplinary process involving the collaboration of several professionals: the structural engineer, the plant designer and the architectural designer.

Communication is at the core of collaboration and can be facilitated by IT systems that ensure data exchange and maximum accessibility of information and documents to all professionals in the team.

There are online platforms that streamline these processes of collaboration, communication and coordination, make it easier to identify interferences between different models (e.g. plant and structural) and control all the choices to be made.

Let’s have a look at what the characteristics of these platforms are and why they optimise collaborative work.

The architectural project

If you need to design a two-bedroom apartment, we also recommend you to read the in-depth focus article

which sets out the general criteria to be followed, the regulations in force and provides you with layouts, tips and architectural solutions that are very useful for your work.

Download the project in open IFC format.

Two-room apartment design

The structural and plant design

Once the architectural project has been drawn up, the structural and plant engineering project need to be also prepared. Structural and plant designers start off their project part from the architectural model to prepare in order to position or improve (in the case of renovation) structural elements and plant systems.

It is therefore an essential part of the process to exchange work files, drawings and technical information.

This is the phase in which it becomes necessary to use a cloud platform, applications for exchanging files and organising work, tools for checking and validating the models and the choices made.

With usBIM you can access a series of integrated applications that optimize all the operations of collaborative work.

For example, you can work online and in real time on the same document, exchange information using the integrated chat (usBIM.chat), organise video conferences with usBIM.meet, view, share and manage 3D models with any device (PC, tablet, smartphone) from anywhere and even if they are created with software for which you do not have a licence.

All these functions can definitely help you to save time and improve the outcome of your project.

How to access usBIM, the online application system for collaboration work

To access usBIM and use all the applications of the integrated system, you simply need:

• a pc, tablet or a smartphone;
• a connection to Internet.

At this point, click here to log in to usBIM and insert your ACCA account credentials (email and password).

If you don’t have an account yet, here’s how to create it:

• go to the  MyACCA webpage;
• insert the required data to register;
• insert your email and password.

How to manage the a two-room apartment design project with usBIM

Let’s suppose that you have completed the architectural design of the two-room apartment and need to share the model to the engineer who is in charge of the air conditioning design.

After logging in, create a folder on the usBIM cloud and upload the project file with a simple drag&drop. To create a new folder go to the My documents section (top left) then click on the New foldericon (bottom right).

To share the file with your colleague, click on the three dots next to the file you have uploaded and select Forward.

How to forward a file with usBIM

Your colleague will receive a simple message in the usBIM chat service (usBIM.chat) with the link to the file you have shared and will be able to view all the shared material directly online, wherever he is, even with his smartphone, without having to download files and applications and even if he does not have the same software which you used to generate the project files.

For example, you can view a 3D file created with Edificius on your smartphone, even if you don’t have an Edificius license.

Then you can organise an online briefing using the integrated video conferencing and online meeting functions of usBIM.meet. To take part to the meeting you just need a device (PC, smartphone or tablet) connected to the internet and equipped with a webcam and microphone.

usBIM.meet: the online videoconfering application

In order to check for possible interferences between architectural and plant models, the integrated usBIM system has specific functions to federate models (usBIM.federation) and to detect possible interferences (usBIM.clash). In fact, the overlapping of 3D models can lead to errors in assessment that are missed when working separately (and even remotely) on the same project.

This step is fundamental to avoid inconveniences during the execution of the project.

Once the modelling is complete, you can also work together on the bill of quantities directly online, using PriMus online:  work in real time on the same document shared in usBIM, viewing the changes made by each person. Receive immediate notifications of each intervention and its update of items, measurements and amounts and with a simple click on the notification access the point of the document on which the colleague is working and if necessary open a chat to dialogue and collaborate in an even more direct way.

Download the free file example of a two-room apartment

We provide you below with a 3D model of a two-room apartment that you could use as a reference for your project.

Render of a two-room apartment produced with Edificius

To download the free example file, log on to usBIM and access the 3D model of the two-room apartment project in open IFC format that you can open with any BIM authoring tool.

You are now ready to take advantage of the integrated usBIM system.