Revit Design Adventures: Six Sheets in Six Days, Day 3 (20)

A3 is the current view we're looking at. For phasing this is a 'Phase 1, Show Complete' plan. The skylights and overhang are the actual model objects, not just lines. In other words, if anything changes with the roof or skylights the plan will reflect those changes in real time. It's important to work with this philosophy as much as possible. The structural symbols denoting the roof joists and lintels are just text and lines. They are grouped and named accordingly so I can reproduce them. This kind of thing is better served with either a tag or a family but I just didn't do it this time (shame on me). I'll do better next time, I promise.


There are a couple of reasons why I like the next sheet, A4-Sections, which you will find out tomorrow. Also, I plan on discussing the time (billing) it took to do this small job.


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Revit Design Adventures: Six Sheets in Six Days, Day 2 (19)

Here we are on day 2 (business days, that is). This A2 sheet is showing the existing and demolished plans. As discussed throughout the series, if the Phasing was properly set up and maintained the construction documents were easy to do. Drag and drop the views, easy as that. The view on the left is displaying the Phase as 'Existing' and the Phase Filter as 'Show All'. The plan on the right has the phase set to 'Phase 1'and the Phase Filter is 'Show All'. The next sheet, A3, shows the proposed floor plan and structure.


Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: Six Sheets in Six Days (18)
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Revit Design Adventures: Six Sheets in Six Days (18)

Day 1: Cover Sheet


As you can see, I made a very simple titleblock for this project. Also Included are a rendered image and a sheet list. Remember to leave room for it to grow as you add sheets. Next, we'll take a look at the floor plan which contains the existing and proposed layouts. 

Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: Order Out of Project Browser Chaos (17)

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Wall Height Display and View Range

Notice the lineweights of the walls. The 2'-0" high one is in projection, the other two are being cut. This is referred to as 'low walls' behaviour. Any walls under 6'-0" display as shown. Harlan Brumm of the Revit Clinic blog and Autodesk support leader posted a good explanation of this here.

Revit Design Adventures: Order Out of Project Browser Chaos (17)

The image above shows the Project Browser from the kitchen renovation project.

The Revit Project Browser fills up with views very fast. The shear number of views can get overwhelming. Always name views as you make them. This is especially true of elevation and 3D views. 3D views are always the most popular because they are so descriptive. But if they are called something like 'Copy of 3D view 120' you will end up getting frustrated trying to find out what that view shows. This may even cause others to make lots of duplicate views.

Many firms make a Project Parameter (could be called Working or Sheet) that they apply to views. This text parameter is applied to views. It's purpose is to define whether a view is intended for 'working' or for 'sheet'. Using the Browser Organization tool under the Views tab, User Interface allows you to sort by the 'Working or Sheet' project parameter. 

Over the next six days we will be looking at all six of the sheets in the project. We will discuss mistakes made, lessons learned and big ideas for future projects.

Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: The Construction Document Set (16)

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Point Cloud to BIM Workflow | Point Cloud Tools

Point Cloud to BIM Workflow Point Cloud Tools

Now that Revit imports Pointclouds I was interested in the basic workflow and found this post.

Revit 2012 What's New Highlights

This release is a nice upgrade from 2011. It focuses three areas; large team workflow, construction team integration and graphic display. These are what stand out for me...

Citrix Ready Version
We've been waiting for this one for a long time. Work on your Revit project from anywhere.


Worksharing
Now Worksets can be assigned colours. There is also a better worksharing monitor including some chat functions.


3D View Lock
Simple, long standing request.

Parts
The ability to break walls, floors and roofs into parts (but still connected to the host). Can be used for shop drawings, precast construction etc.


Material
Now we can save and share material configuration.

Graphic Display
This is a nice one. Mix and match Realistic, Hidden Lines, Ambient Occlusion, Shade.

Improved dwg export quality
Not exciting but needed.

Import Point Clouds
I can think of two large local jobs right now that could benefit from this.


Conceptual Analysis
This may just bring analysis into the mainstream.

For an in depth look at all of the new features check out this post from David Light's Revit blog.

Revit OpEd: RTC USA 2011 Registration is Open

Revit OpEd: RTC USA 2011 Registration is Open

Go to this if you can! Unfortunately because of a scheduling conflict I won't be able to make it this year. I am already planning for next!

Revit Design Adventures: The Construction Document Set (16)

Putting a construction document set together is not a one-time thing that you leave to the very end. Of course Revit manages a lot of this for but you it's an ongoing job. You can do a few things along the way to make the job easier at the end. In manual and AutoCAD drafting it's not uncommon to pick your scale, sheet size and titleblock first. This should also be done fairly early in the Revit workflow. Of course, you will not know all of the sheets and details that you will need but at least you have a good idea of your goals. If you 'Activate View' you can work right on the sheet. This is a good technique for sheets with multiple views because you can see an immediate impact with nearby views.

Views do not have borders. They have a Crop Region which doesn't print by default. Also, the Crop Region is always inside the datums. You will have to use Detail Lines on sheets to create the border. I decided not to make borders around my views in this project.

My second image above shows some highlighted break lines. These are an imported family. You can find these under Detail Components-Div01-General in the Default Imperial Library.

Creating a Sheet List schedule and placing it on your cover sheet is a big time saver. Remember to leave enough room for it to grow as you add sheets. There wasn't much risk of that with this small six-sheet set!

The Revit Project Browser fills up with views very fast. The shear number of views can get overwhelming. In the next post we'll discuss some good ways to keep the chaos at bay.

Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: Detailing in Revit (15)

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Revit Design Adventures: Detailing in Revit (15)

Back in 2006 I wrote a post on the subject of detailing in Revit and surprisingly most of it still holds true. Let's apply the methodology to the detail that we produced for this project.

There are some who claim Revit doesn't do detailing well. They are wrong in two areas:
1. Revit doesn't 'do' details, a person does. It seems obvious enough but just because you have the ability to cut sections through components doesn't mean that section will know the specific conditions that you need to communicate...
2. Revit does have a robust set of detailing tools that enable you to draw excellent details.

You need to ask the following question before you start detailing:
1. Should I model this in 3D, 2D or both?
These questions help you answer this:
a. Will this condition be visible from any other views?
b. Is this a generic detail that is used over different projects, or is it specific to this one only?
c. How far are we into the design, will this part of the building change drastically?
A good example is a door section.
Will you see the structural lintel and flashing from other views? No, draw it in 2D on top of the section/callout view.
What about the connection to the wall, insulation, frame extrusion shapes etc? Again, no. Draw it in 2D over top of the section/callout view.
Will I see the masonry lintel from another view? Yes. Model the lintel in the door family in 3D so it shows correctly in sections and elevations.
In the image above I have highlighted where I have used 2D detailing tools like 'Detail Components' or 'Filled Regions'.
If the door manufacturer has sent their own pre-engineered detail in AutoCAD just link (always link if possible) that file into a Drafting View and link it to a callout. Why 'reinvent the wheel'?!
I'm getting less and less comfortable with either linking or importing CAD. If time permits it's better to import the CAD into a blank Revit file, explode it, clean it, purge and then import that drafting view into your model.
Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: Phasing and Demolition Plans (14)
Next Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: The Construction Document Set (16)

Revit Design Adventures: Phasing and Demolition Plans (14)

 
The final renderings of the third iteration helped the client to decide on what will be their ultimate direction. Which brings us to the forth iteration which will be more of a focus on construction documents, including details.

You should know that introducing Phases into a project is adding a level of complexity. It's not just a matter of putting some lines on a 'demo' layer. The process of using phases in Revit will force you to think very specifically about the demolition and construction process. Phases need to be setup and maintained right from the beginning of a project and throughout. By default everything is put onto the 'New' Construction' phase which we will discuss later.
In the case of our kitchen project there are only about ten things that need to be demolished. We started by identifying how many phases there would be and roughly what would be on them. You will need to go into the 'Manage-Phases' dialog box. Never use the 'New Construction' phase as this name creates all sorts of confusing scenarios if more Phases need to be added (think New, Newer, Newest...). You can simply combine the New Construction phase with another that you create. I propose simply naming them Phase 1,2,3 etc.
Now for the views. This is where you will spend most of your time with Phases. You will need to Duplicate (with Detailing) most of your main views and change the View Properties, Phase and Phase Filter to show the desired effect. Remember to name them with the Phase indicated. Having sheets set up early with the 'Phase views' on them can help streamline the process.

Of course, the Phasing property of the elements of the model needs to be defined. You do this by editing the 'Phase Created and Phase Demolished' properties.
Next, we want to start the detailing process...

Previous Post in Series: Revit Design Adventures: Pesky Stock Families (13)
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orug: CaGBC Chapter Meeting: Building Information Modeling

orug: CaGBC Chapter Meeting: Building Information Modeling

LAST DAY TO REGISTER!

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Redundancy Department and other BIMmyness...

Just to add my 2 cents to this. I don't mind hearing the term 'BIM models' because I think BIM describes a workflow more than an object. It feels awkward for me to say 'I make BIMs' as opposed to 'I make BIM models'...

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Redundancy Department and other BIMmyness...: "During the BIMForum James Vandezande (ArchTech Blog contributor and Revit Author) tweeted about people saying, 'BIM Model' and joked about ..."

Revit Design Adventures: Pesky Stock Families (13)

We are still on the third iteration and want to produce a rendering showing the bulkhead and potlights. So far, we have completed the bulkhead in a previous post and now we are noticing some issues with the default Revit families...

If Autodesk made the Family it should be perfect, right? If it's 'out of the box' it's perfect, right? Not necessarily. Take a look at the rendering above, notice anything? Yes, the standard, out of the box, Downlight-Recessed Can.rfa light family casts light but is dark at it's source. It's a fairly simple fix. If you open the family file you will notice that there is a light source and a can. Whats missing is a piece of glass which has the 'light bulb on' material attached to it. Light sources shine light only at the base and throughout the lightcone but not at the their source. The 'light bulb on' material gives the illusion of a shining light as illustrated in the other lights in the rendering.

Before...

After...

Some other ones to watch out for...

The system family 'GWB on Mtl Stud' has a ceiling tile material applied to what should be the GWB finish (or paint).

The defaul material for the troffer light has mirrored glass as a material causing it to look very dark.

Hosted families should be avoided when possible. For instance, the 3D Toilet Commercial Wall.rfa hosts to a wall. Seems logical at first but can cause real problems when moving and adjusting layouts or working across linked Revit files.

Our model has been largely conceptual up to now. It's starting to get to that time when the client should make some decisions and we should start making some serious drawings. No matter what they decide we will want to make a demolition plan since there are walls to be removed etc. We have been keeping an eye on our phasing as we have went along, now it's time to put that into practice.

Previous Post in Series: Plywood and Drywall Quantity Take-offs
Next Post in Series: Phasing and Demolition Plans (14)

Arch | Tech: Congrats!! On....something......

Another great article by the ArchTech guys...

Arch Tech: Congrats!! On....something......: "honestly, I think this image says it all. I spent the last two years, almost to the day chasing this dream and I've finally achieved it..."

Do U Revit?: Family Browser

Wow! Great little add-in for Family Management....

Do U Revit?: Family Browser

orug: ORUG Feb10 2011 Notes

orug: ORUG Feb10 2011 Notes

Canadian Consulting Engineer Article

Fixing Interferences with BIM

Building Information Modeling systems pre-empt costly problems arising on the construction site. Here's a clear explanation of what's involved.
Here's the rest of the article I wrote for Canadian Consulting Engineer...
http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000401718

ORUG Meeting Feb.10th: BIM and Fabrication...Special Guests

Here are some teasers from our upcoming meeting...

ORUG Network: ORUG Profile: Fusion Homes

ORUG Network: ORUG Profile: Fusion Homes: "• Fusion Homes is an industry leader and award winning residential homebuilder/land developer located in Guelph, Ontario. • Exceeding indus..."