Modeling Tips for Assemble Systems Users - Revit Assemble Codes

When we think of modeling tips, most people will probably think about geometry. While that is very important, we often ignore the "I" in BIM. The information or data component of a project is often overlooked but can be extremely valuable when leveraged.

One of the reasons I use Assemble Systems is because it allows non-BIM authors a means to access and consume the data within the model. Some of us might think that Revit and Navisworks are easy to use tools, but for a lot of people, they are very difficult. Potentially there is a lot of value in those models, if you can't access it though, then what's the benefit. Even more intriguing is how Assemble allows the non-BIM user to manipulate data within the model. But this article isn't a sales pitch for Assemble or my consulting services, its about suggestions/tips for modeling for Assemble. In this case, what to do about Assembly Code values.

As with my previous post, this isn't limited to users who are working exclusively with Assemble. Many of these suggestions/tips are just good practice or will allow you to leverage your work for other use cases.

Assembly Codes

Standards for classifying building elements have been around for sometime. There are a number of different classification systems around, including Unifomat, MasterFormat, Uniclass along with several others. Out-of-the-box, Revit uses Uniformat and it stores the classification code in the Assembly Code parameter and the classification description in the Assemble Description.

Assembly Code Use Cases

Use cases for Assembly Codes is an interesting topic. For a designer, I think the low hanging fruit is assisting (no easy button solution) with specification generation from the model. Tools like eSpec will use the Assembly Code values, so accurate assignments are critical. I have also seen a couple firms that use Assembly Codes to help organize/classify clash reports. If you are a contractor and pulling quantities from the model, you might be using Assembly Codes as your cost code in addition to or in place of extracting by Revit category. Regardless of the use case, accurate Assembly Code values are critical.

Assembly Code Assignments

Classifying elements in Revit is not a overwhelming task. People are generating specifications for projects everyday and assigning an Assembly Code value can be part of that process. However, when it comes to Assembly Code values, I suggest erroring on the side of caution.

Assembly Codes can be very useful, but a bad assignment can be worse than no assignment. If you are a designer, think of an Assembly Code like a Room Number. If you don't know the scheme that you will use to number rooms, better to wait before you starting numbering them, so you don't have to re-number later on. Same goes with Assembly Codes and lets take a door for example. In Uniformat there are in the neighborhood of 20+ different classification codes for doors. Uniclass 2015 has well over 30 different classifications.  If you are unsure of the classification to use, then you could be providing a wrong value that could impact nothing to, specification generation or estimating/quantity survey estimates.

What can be annoying and time consuming is the time it takes to add or change an Assembly Code value in Revit. It's even more complicated if you are not using Uniformat and want to use another classification systems like Uniclass or Masterformat. If you are using Assemble or a team member is using Assemble, then making those Assembly Code changes can be very quick and easy and can even be performed by a non-Revit user. Whether you are modifying an existing value or switching from one classification system to another, it can be done at the element level, Type level or Revit Category level.

If you are not using Assemble, other options are to just make changes in Revit or use a Revit to Excel to Revit tool that will allow you to utilize a much more efficient data entry process.

If it is one of my projects and we are using Assemble, then my preference is not to manage Assembly Codes in Revit. I prefer to do this in Assemble. The time, effort and accessibility to perform these tasks is much simpler in Assemble. To load a new structure (Masterformat, Uniclass, etc) is very simple.

1.   Use Manage Assembly Codes to upload your own custom assembly code file with codes, costs, and level of development (LOD) specific to your project.

2.   Import your custom assembly code Excel file or .txt file into Assemble.

• Click the Import button on the Manage Assembly Codes window.
• From the Import Assembly Codes window, click the Choose File button and select your file from its saved location. 
• Requirements for successful importing 
• If importing a text file (ie- UniformatClassifications.txt from Revit), the values must be separated by tabs instead of spaces.
• Regardless of whether an Excel or txt file are used for importing, the document must contain entries for the Code, Description and Level fields in the same order as that found in the sample docs.

3.   Export an assembly code template file or download the assembly code file currently in use for the project. The downloaded files can be used to help you create your own custom file or to use from one project to the next. A text file (.txt) can be downloaded, as well, to import into Revit.

4.  Export for Autodesk Revit will provide a UniformatClassifications.txt file that can be imported into Revit using the Assembly Code tool located on the Settings panel under the Manage tab. Performing this function will allow you to modify the assembly codes and descriptions for objects in Revit to reflect your custom coding scheme.

5.  Export Assembly Codes and Unit Costs to Microsoft Excel will provide an Assembly Codes and Unit Costs.xlsx file for Microsoft Excel. Use this file to customize the assembly code, assembly description, category, default unit of measure property, unit cost, and required LOD.

6.  Download an assembly code template for Microsoft Excel. This .xlsx file contains 4 sheets. The first sheet explains how to use the document. The three additional sheets provide examples of Uniformat codes, MasterFormat codes, and OmniClass codes. Use any of the assembly code sheets as a starting point to customize your assembly codes. Once you've customized your own assembly code file, delete the extra sheets before importing into Assemble. This approach reduces the opportunity for formatting errors and allows for the use of text-based categories instead of the numerical Revit references.

There are two methods for including quantity and cost info in the Assembly Code Tree. Either the Uniformatclassification.txt file from Revit can be augmented or a properly formatted Excel spreadsheet can be imported with the required information. Regardless of the selected method, each document will need to order its information according to the following column headers:

• Code: This is the actual assembly code value itself.
• Description: This is the short description that is married to the assembly code.
• Level: This is a numerical value that identifies which branch level (ie- “how far down”) the code can be found within the code tree.
• Category (Optional): This is a numerical value in the Revit file but can be a text value in the Excel document. It identifies the category that a specific item is related to. For example: “Walls” or “-2000011”.
• Quantity (Optional): This is a user provided value that specifies which unit of measure should be associated with the specific code and unit cost value. For example: “Volume” or “Count”. 
• Unit Cost (Optional): This is the per-unit cost value that is associated with the specific assembly code. Note: If the tree file contains Unit Cost information but no Quantity value is included next to each cost, the Automated Estimation feature will not assign the costs to the model information.
• Required LOD (Optional): This is a user provided value that specifies what the required level of development is for each assembly code and description.

SPECIAL NOTE: To utilize Assemble's custom fields "Weight by Length" and "Weight by Volume" the assembly code file quantity should be listed as WeightbyLength and WeightbyVolume (no spaces).

With a new Assembly Code structure imported into Assemble, making new Assembly Code assignments in very quick. The process is to:

1. Select the elements in either the 3D View or the Model Inventory view. You can select a single or multiple elements, single or multiple Types or single or multiple Categories or a combination of any of those.
2. In the Properties menu, under Model Properties, Type tab, click in the Assembly Code field. This will open up the Select am Assembly Code dialog.

In the Select an Assembly Code dialog, you can search and select your appropriate code and assign that to the model element.

Once you complete your data conditioning by updating the Assembly codes, with Assemble you can then push this information back to the Revit model.

As I mentioned, you can perform these tasks in Revit, Assemble just makes the process easier, especially for those who do not know how to use REvit or use it well.





 

Autodesk Revit Model Review - Workset Checking

If you have read any of my previous posts about Model Checking, then you are probably aware of how much I like Autodesk Revit Model Review. It’s free and it is fairly easy to use. When it comes to model checking, free and easy to use are important options.

At Davis Consulting, when we are tasked by a client to check models (cost is typically $400-1200 depending on complexity of model and standards to follow) we need to perform some kind of check on the worksets. There are numerous ways to do this, but we like to use automation as much as possible to reduce the time and the cost of the checking process. Unfortunately, workset checking  with Autodesk Revit Model Review has some issues and is one area where Autodesk Revit Model Review needs to be improved upon.

In the example I am going to show, we are going to check a model to make sure that all Interior Doors are in the Interiors workset. The shortcoming with Autodesk Revit Model Review is that we can’t just create a check that queries all the interior doors and makes sure they are on the worksheet called Interiors. The reason, Autodesk Revit Model Review doesn’t check for the worksheet name, it looks for a Revit internal value. We can query this value using the Pick Test tool found under Help >  Pick Test

Figure 1 - Accessing Pick Test

When we pick on a element, in the class of Figure 2 a door, Autodesk Revit Model Review will open up the the Element Property List. This list exposes various parameter data. In this example, we want to look Worksheet data. The Text Value for the element we have selected is Interiors. However, if we want to search for the Interiors workset, we must search for the value 555, which is Revit’s internal value for the Interiors workset. Just note, that if you create a workset named Interiors in your project file, the internal value probably will not be 555. I don’t know how the internal value is created, but it appears to be random. This means if you want to run this check on multiple files, you would have to create different check files (.bcf) for each file, since the internal values for the worksets will be different.

Figure 2 - Element Property List

For our workset check, we are going to create a new Parameter Requirements check, Check > Add > Standards > Parameter Requirements.

The second step is to create a Filter, to filter the objects that we want to examine. In this example, I want to look at Interior Doors. Now, there are several different ways we could approach this. Maybe your door family naming convention indicates interior usage, or an assembly code value could be specified that we could use to filter, etc. How I like to filter for this scenario is using the Function type parameter. This unfortunately, is another one of those situations where we can’t check the value that is exposed to the user in the Properties Palette, we have to check Revit’s internal value.

In Figure 3, I used the Pick Test tool and selected a door to validate the value of the Function type parameter. For an Interior value I need to use the internal value 0 in my check definition.

Figure 3

So for my filter, I am going to filter so that I am only checking Category = Doors and the Parameter.Function = 0 and remember 0 = Interior.

Figure 4

The third step is to define the Details of what we want to check, in this example, that Interior Doors are on the Interiors (555) workset. There are a couple ways that you can populate this dialog. you can do it manually by entering the values as shown below or you can use the Pick Element And Choose Parameter… option. This as the name suggests allows you to pick an element and then select the parameter that you want to use.

Figure 5

You then need to save the file and then make sure to edit your profile (Profile > Edit) to add the check file so that you can run the check file. If you just want to download the .BCF file, it can be found here: http://davisconsultingservicesllc.com/Downloads.html. You will still need to edit your Autodesk Revit Model Review profile to include the check file in your profile so that you can execute it.
When you run the check, the results will appear similar to below.

Figure 6

Model Checking - How I use Assemble System's Insight

Before I get started, I want to point out that everything I am about to show can be done in Revit. You can make the same views and schedules I am going to show in Assemble System’s Insight in Revit. Ideally that is where the work should be done. But not every member of the project team may have access to Revit or even know how to use Revit. So having someone with limited experience play in the model can be a little scary. I like using Assemble for these types of tasks because the software is very easy to use and it allows project stakeholders that might not be proficient in Revit the ability to consume BIM data, as they need it.

If you are not familiar with Assemble, it is a cloud base data management tool that runs thru a browser. The tool basically allows you very easy access to model data and geometry without having to open Revit. You can also edit property data in Assemble and push the changes back to Revit. So when I am using the Assemble for Model Checking, the focus is on the data (parameters) checks not the geometry checks. If I want to look at focus on geometry, then I use Navisworks or Solibri.
One of the first couple example checks I like to do is look at:

• Wall Functions
• Curtain Walls/Storefront & Windows
• Fire Rated Elements
• Change Management

The first example I am going to show is how to look at the Wall’s Type Property Function. The screenshot below shows an example model and the image can be broken up into three sections from left to right.

The Left section is the Visibility Settings or the Filter that is used to create the view. This is somewhat similar to using Revit’s Visibility Graphics dialog to control what is being displayed in the view. In the case of Assemble, we are filtering by the Revit Category and by Properties.

The Middle Section is the model viewer.

The Right section is the Properties palette. All the parameters (including shared) from Revit are visible in Assemble and organized by Instance and Type via the tabs at the top.



The view that I created above was setup to show me All Walls with a Function of Foundation but exclude anything that has a Type Name of Massing. As you can see, we have some walls shown in the view that are not Foundation walls. I can either send a screen shot of this to the designer, refer them to the view (Assemble license allows for unlimited users per project card) or I can change the Function parameter value from Foundation to Exterior in Assemble and since the data back to Revit.

The next view I like to make is looking at Curtain Walls/Storefront and Windows. As we all know, a Curtain Wall and a Window are two different components. Scheduled, manufactured, priced, etc differently. For many users though, it is a lot easier to create a custom Window using a Curtain Wall than creating a new or editing an existing Window Family. This is a great example of how someone that may not be proficient with Revit can review the model and look for issues, like when Curtain Walls are used for Windows. If an estimator sees this and they are using Revit to extract quantities, they at least know there is a deficiency in the model and can take that into account.



The next example is reviewing Fire Rated elements. With Assemble, because we are looking at parameter data, we have a lot of flexibility as to what we are going to display. In the example below though, I simply created a new showing the components that have an applied Fire Rating. In this example, I just looking at the Architecture model, but I could do this across all disciplines as needed. In reviewing the model, I can see that the overwhelming majority of my doors to not have a Fire Rating assigned. As in the previous example, if I am a PM or a Senior Project Architect or Engineer that has limited Revit experience, I can change the Fire Rating assignments in Assemble and then push that data back to Revit.



The last example I want to discuss in this post if Change Management and I am using this term very, very loosely. One of the powerful features of Assemble is the ability to quickly see what has changed in the model from one version to another using Assemble’s Show Changes tool. Whenever a model is published to Assemble, that model is stored in a separate database from other versions of the same model. So Assemble is able to compare the Revit Element ID’s from one version to another very quickly. Items that have been Added, Removed, Type Change or a Quantity Change are displayed graphically as well as in a spreadsheet like view. Unfortunately, the one thing that the Show Changes tool does not do is show if a element has moved. So if a door moved within a wall, that will not show.



Another great feature of this Show Changes functionality for the non-Revit user is the ability to see how the model is changing. I hear it a lot from more seasoned staff who are not Revit users who are managing Revit users and not knowing how long it is going to take for a task to be complete or having the ability to check work without having someone print a set of PDFs. With Assemble, it is very quick and easy to see what changes have been made.

As I mentioned at the start of the post, everything I have shown can be done in Revit. If you can’t use or access Revit though, then you can’t utilize the data in the model. I use Assemble because its a data management platform for model data that can be used by just about anyone.

Full Disclosure - In addition to my BIM/VDC Consulting, I work for Assemble Systems as their Customer Success Manager. I was introduced to Assemble while working for a design firm and I quickly realized the strengths as a data management tool as well as giving the non-refit user access to the model and model data. The product learning curve is extremely shallow and very functional.

Customizing the CADD Microsystems Revit Model Checker - Duplicate Elements

Customizing the Revit Model Checker from CADD Microsystems can be a fairly easy process, once you find the software you need and understand the basic structure of the tool.

To start customizing, the first thing that you need to do is download the Model Checker Configurator for Revit. Use this link to access the site. Once installed, an application separate from Revit is installed and it can be found in the Autodesk folder for your Windows applications.

Figure 1 - Model Checker Application Icon

Launching the Model Checker loads the dialog found in Figure 2. The dialog is broken up into three main sections:

• Section A allows you to Open, Create and Save configurations, as well as preview and export new configuration files for use with the Model Checker.
• Section B is where we create the rule checks.
• Section C tells you where the current configuration file is being saved.

Figure 2 - Autodesk Model Checker Configurator

Section B is where you will be spending the majority of your time and efforts. In our first example, we are going to define a simple check that looks for Duplicate elements in the model. While this is a simple check, it is important because it can result in inaccurate schedule information.

To create this rule, the first step is to open the Model Checker Configurator for Revit and to beginning defining the checks. The second step is to start defining the structure of the configuration file.

1. Click on the New button to start defining a new Model Checker Configuration.
2. Under General Settings and under Structure, click Add Heading.
3. Edit the Heading Title and Description. Name the Heading to reflect the theme of the checks you will be defining.

Figure 3 - Adding a Heading

The next step is define sections for our checks. For example, we may want to define specific rules that check parameter data and other rules to perform checks on geometry, etc. Using sections, we can organize our checks into groups.

1. Click the Add Section button under Structure.
2. Edit the Section Name and Description.

Figure 4 - Adding a Section

The next step is where we start to define the individual rule. In this example, we are going to look for duplicate elements.

Figure 5 - Defining the Element Check Configuration

1. Click the Add Check button under Structure.
2. Change the Title Name to Duplicate Elements.
3. Run Default. If this option is checked, the check will be set to run the first time the configuration is opened.
4. Enter the Description for the Check.
5. Failure Condition: There are two options which I explain below. We are going to using the Report Matching Condition option.
1. Report Matching Condition: When individual model element failures will be reported for all elements matching the filters defined. If no elements match the filters, success will be reported.
2. Report Failure when No Elements are Found: A failure will be reported if no elements are found that match the filters. Success is reported is elements are found that match the filters.
6.  Element Filter: This is the section that defines what we are checking. For our duplicate element checking, we need to define three filters.

Figure 6 - Duplicate View Filters

With these steps complete, you can now save the configuration. The file will be saved as a .XML file. You can now switch over to Revit. To run our new check, you first need to configure the Model Checker to run our configuration check. In Revit:

Figure 7 - Model Checker Pane

1. Navigate to the Addin's tab and click the Configure button in the Model Checker pane (Figure 7).

2. In the Model Checker | Open Configuration (Figure 8), click on the Open an Existing Configuration File radio button in the lower left-hand corner of the dialog. Then click on the more button to the right to open a dialog to select the example .XML configuration file that we created. When the configuration file is loaded, click the OK button to close the Model Check | Open Configuration dialog. This will open the Model Checker Configuration dialog (Figure 9).

Figure 8 - Model Checker | Open Configuration dialog

3. The Model Checker Configuration dialog (Figure 9) will list all of the rule configurations that are available in the .XML file that we loaded in the previous step. In this dialog, you have the option to turn on and off the rule checks that you do not want to run, by unchecking the checkbox next to the rule. When you are done making any changes, click the Finish button on the toolbar. This will save the file and make the configuration file available to run.

Figure 9 - Model Checker Configuration

4. Navigate to the Addin's tab and click the Run Check button in the Model Checker pane (Figure 10). This will run the configuration file that we have loaded in the previous steps. Clicking the Run Check button will open the Model Checker Processing Options dialog.

Figure 10 - Model Checker Pane

5. The Model Checker Processing Options dialog (Figure 11) provides would will options to select the models (links) loaded into your current project that you want to process and/or to add additional files to process. Clicking the checkbox to the left of the file name enables that model (link) to be processed. Clicking the Run Report button on the toolbar processes (Figure 12) the models (links) selected.

Figure 11 - Model Checker Processing Options dialog

Figure 12 - Model Checking Progress Checking

Once the models have been processed, a report (Figure 13) is generated detailing any of the issues that have been found. The nice thing about the report is that it will provide you with a link that will take you to the model elements in question.

Figure 13 - Model Checker Report

Revit Model Checker - Sample Rule Configurations

As mentioned in the previous post, the Revit Model Checker comes with several per-defined sample check files. In this post, we will walk thru the setup and configuration for the sample check files.

Figure 1 - Revit Model Checker Sample Check Files
 

One installed, the Model Checker panel is added to the Add-Ins Ribbon tab within Revit.

Figure 2 - Model Checker panel in Revit

Included with the Model Checker are four sample rule sets (Figure 1) that provide sample configurations for checking yours models for:

• COBie Compliance
• General BIM Modeling Checks
• Comprehensive and Quick USACE BIM Requirements checks

To load and use one of these sample rules:

1. With a model open within Revit, navigate to the Add-Ins Ribbon tab.
2. Click the Configure button from the Model Checker panel of the Add-Ins Ribbon tab.
3. From the configuration dialog, click Open.
4. Choose Open An Existing Configuration File (Figure 3) from the Open Configuration dialog, and navigate to the one of the sample Model Checker Configurations (.mck) file.
5. Click OK to return to the Revit Model Checker for USACE v4.0 dialoig.

Figure 3 - Revit Model Checker Configuration dialog

Now that we have a sample Model Checker Configuration file loaded, we now have the ability to modify the default settings for our particular project. To configure the Model Checker (assuming the Configuration dialog is open):

1. Choose modules to be run by selecting corresponding check boxes. All available checks are enabled with a check mark by default.
2. Expand individual modules to choose specific checks, and level-of-detail of applicable.
3. Click Save As to generate a new Model Checker Configuration (.mck) file that includes configuration changes for units, enabled and disabled checks, and the level of detail settings associated to select checks.

Figure 4 - Configuring Rules