When a structural engineer, like me, hears or reads the word “analysis” then you will get full attention. That happened when I was discussing some architectural topics with my colleague Colin McCrone. He got my full attention, like a hypnotized patient to his shrink, when he gave me an example of “Line Of Sight Analysis”. Hah, “analysis”, that’s the magic word!.....
Showing posts with label Revit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revit. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Repost: Line Of Sight Analysis with Revit and Dynamo
When a structural engineer, like me, hears or reads the word “analysis” then you will get full attention. That happened when I was discussing some architectural topics with my colleague Colin McCrone. He got my full attention, like a hypnotized patient to his shrink, when he gave me an example of “Line Of Sight Analysis”. Hah, “analysis”, that’s the magic word!.....
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Innovative Technology Solution for Leveraging BIM
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Repost: Clearance Height on Stairs – Watch your head!
Posted on
In this post I will explain you how to create your own Dynamo script for the “Clearance Height Check” of your stairs in a Autodesk Revit project. The Dynamo script (which can be downloaded at the bottom of this post) works on a selected stair and will verify the “Clearance Height” or “Headroom” between the tread top surfaces and the objects above. The results will then be displayed as colored lines......
RTC Europe 2016 - Register Now
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Assemble & iSqFt Webinar: Driving 3D Bid Management - June 28
|
This email was sent to patrick.davis@davisconsultingllc.net. If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may unsubscribe at any time.
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Text Element Error Message
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Text Element Error Message: I created a drafting view and placed a single text element. I type a simple sentence and then clicked the new Close button on the ribbon. I ...
Revit OpEd: Revit Safe Mode - Wish Fulfilled
Revit OpEd: Revit Safe Mode - Wish Fulfilled: The other day I wrote about David's idea for a Revit Safe mode and Robert Manna responded in a serious way. He and the gang at Stantec...
Friday, June 17, 2016
Assemble Systems - Revit Model Compare
Assemble Systems provides an easy to use mechanism to compare two versions of a Revit model for differences between the two. Assemble will then graphical represent those difference in a color coded 3D view and a model inventory view (Figure 1). This model inventory view gives you an excel spreadsheet like structure that allows you to filter, group and sort data in the model comparisons.
Assemble's compare functionality is available when two or more versions of the model have been published to Assemble. When Assemble performs the comparisons, the latest version of the model that has been published to Assemble is considered the primary model. The previous version is considered the secondary model. Assemble then compare the model elements of the primary model to the secondary model.
When there is a model change between, Assemble looks at the quantity for the element in the source model and the quantity for the element in the secondary model and presents the variance in the model (Figure 2). The 3D model (Figure 1) uses a color coded Legend (Figure 3) to mark model elements that have changed.
Assemble does this comparison by comparing the Revit element IDs between two versions of the model. It will then report in a spreadsheet like view and graphical view items that have been Added, Removed, Type change, Quantity change and Type and Quantity change. Other systems like Revit, Navisworks, Tekla BIMSight can perform similar functions, but Assemble does it very quickly and the user does not need to be a BIM Authoring application user.
Figure 1 - Visual Variance View |
Assemble's compare functionality is available when two or more versions of the model have been published to Assemble. When Assemble performs the comparisons, the latest version of the model that has been published to Assemble is considered the primary model. The previous version is considered the secondary model. Assemble then compare the model elements of the primary model to the secondary model.
When there is a model change between, Assemble looks at the quantity for the element in the source model and the quantity for the element in the secondary model and presents the variance in the model (Figure 2). The 3D model (Figure 1) uses a color coded Legend (Figure 3) to mark model elements that have changed.
Figure 2 - Compare Function |
Figure 3 - Variance Legend |
Assemble does this comparison by comparing the Revit element IDs between two versions of the model. It will then report in a spreadsheet like view and graphical view items that have been Added, Removed, Type change, Quantity change and Type and Quantity change. Other systems like Revit, Navisworks, Tekla BIMSight can perform similar functions, but Assemble does it very quickly and the user does not need to be a BIM Authoring application user.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Upgrading Text Warning
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Upgrading Text Warning: In my earlier review of the text editor I included this warning: When you upgrade from older projects you're going to have to deal w...
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Enabling Worksharing
Revit OpEd: Revit 2017 - Enabling Worksharing: The process for enabling worksets has changed with this release because Collaboration for Revit (C4R) has been incorporated into Revit dire...
Thursday, June 9, 2016
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
With a new Assembly Code structure imported into Assemble, making new Assembly Code assignments in very quick. The process is to:
- 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.
- 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.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Evacuation Path Analysis with Dynamo and Revit
Report from BIM Toolbox
A detailed explanation and full script and dataset can be found on this link.
Dieter Vermeulen
04/22/2016
Evacuation Path Analysis with Dynamo and Revit
More and more we face challenges to find new ways to perform custom architectural analysis. In this post I want to share with you a short and simple (for once) Dynamo script that can be used to analyze the evacuation paths in your building design in Revit. The script (that you can download at the bottom of this post) will calculate the accumulated distance from several points to a selected emergency exit and display the results in a selected Revit view.A detailed explanation and full script and dataset can be found on this link.
Dieter Vermeulen
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Model Checking - What Tools Do You Use?
Working on updating my Modeling checking presentation for RTC EU. There are a lot of good model checking tools on the market including but not limited to:
- Autodesk Revit Model Review
- Autodesk Model Checker for Revit
- BIMAssure
- Assemble Systems Insight
- Solibri
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Revit OpEd: Space Naming Utility for Revit 2017
Revit OpEd: Space Naming Utility for Revit 2017: Hi Autodesk Revit Team! It's me Mr. OpEd again. Imagine me with a pointy stick , I'm poking you in the eye...metaphorically...with ...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Model Review - What's in the Model
During a visit with a client this morning, I was reminded on a common task we perform to review models. One of the first things I like to do when reviewing models is see how the Revit sheets were put together. Is the geometry from model elements, Revit's 2D elements or CAD.
Our process is very simple. We simply compare the original sheets provided by the designer to sheets we create out of Revit after we get rid of any linked CAD files, CAD imports and Revit's 2D linework. We then use the power of Bluebeam to compare the two sets of PDFs. Bluebeam will highlight the differences between the two sets of PDF's.
Why is the beneficial? It really depends on how you intend to use the model.
I have seen a lot of "BIM jobs" that have sheets that have been exported out of Revit and "embellished" in AutoCAD. The embellishments are very interesting as this can be anything from adding new callouts to altering the geometry. Using this PDF compare method will quickly allow you to see what is from the model and what is from elsewhere.
This process can be done very quickly. In 15 minutes you can determine how deep you need to dive into your Revit model review.
Our process is very simple. We simply compare the original sheets provided by the designer to sheets we create out of Revit after we get rid of any linked CAD files, CAD imports and Revit's 2D linework. We then use the power of Bluebeam to compare the two sets of PDFs. Bluebeam will highlight the differences between the two sets of PDF's.
Why is the beneficial? It really depends on how you intend to use the model.
I have seen a lot of "BIM jobs" that have sheets that have been exported out of Revit and "embellished" in AutoCAD. The embellishments are very interesting as this can be anything from adding new callouts to altering the geometry. Using this PDF compare method will quickly allow you to see what is from the model and what is from elsewhere.
This process can be done very quickly. In 15 minutes you can determine how deep you need to dive into your Revit model review.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Modeling Tips for Assemble Projects
One of the questions I am often asked by Assemble users is for any modeling tips or model setup tasks that should be completed or considered. There are a number of things that can and should be considered when setting up your projects BIM Plan.
Here are a few tips to consider when planning to incorporate Assemble into your BIM project processes, but this are also applicable for any BIM project.
Here are a few tips to consider when planning to incorporate Assemble into your BIM project processes, but this are also applicable for any BIM project.
Ensure level integrity
Filtering a model in Assemble by level is an easy way to iterate through a building to verify design completion, decisions, and quantities. Level filtering also allows you to target an individual floor of the building and view only that floor’s data and quantities. One of the keys to level integrity is having the top constraint set to the level above and not to span multiple levels with a single object. While it is common to have some items, such as elevator shafts, columns, exterior skin, span the entire height of the building, you lose the ability to work the objects on any level other than the one assigned.
Designers will have very good reasons for not wanting to split elements by level, especially early in the design process. This can have an impact on production time and potential impact the look of certain views associated with their construction documents.
If you are a general contractor, you may want to consider slicing the model after you receive it from the designer and before publishing to Assemble using a tool like DPR model slicer. This will allow to quickly slice the model by level in Revit prior to publishing to Assemble.
Utilize worksets in logical building breakdown
In addition to allowing multiple people to work on a single model, Worksets allow for you to split up the building in logical arrangements. It is often necessary for owners to review the building information categorized in different ways. It may be a hospital divided by departments, a multi-use building separated by retail, residential, and parking, or an office building organized by program areas. By utilizing Worksets when creating the model, you build in a powerful and easy way to group and filter the data within Assemble. With saved views for each Workset, you are able to quickly generate reports that organize the building’s data in the way that makes the most sense to the owner.
It's very important though to meet and discuss potential workset scenarios as soon as possible with the design team members. This will allow them to review any potential issues and make any adjustments before they are too involved with the project and the team is used to working a certain way.
Added parameters
The inclusion of custom type and instance parameters result in limitless ways for which you can group and filter your model. In addition, the extra parameters allow you to increase the possible workflows and extend the life of your model well past the pre-construction and estimating phases. Simply adding “constructed” and “constructed date” parameters allow you to track current state of construction and identify what was built, when, and compare that to the anticipated schedule.
Furthermore, you can use the automatically generated quantities from Assemble in conjunction with the constructed date and verify quantities and progress from sub-contractor pay requests. All of this is possible by adding two custom parameters and publishing to Assemble.
LoD and Elements
It's important to consider what is going to be modeled and in some cases what Revit tool is going to be used to create that element. For example, lets consider Windows, Store Fronts and Curtain Walls. Custom winodws require the creation or editing of Revit families. Mkore often than not, I see projects were the designers have substituted a store front or curtain wall for a window, as it is easier to create a curtain wall or store front that represents a window rather than editing a window family.
This might be acceptable if you are just creating 2D documents and your schedules are not coming from Revit. But if you want to use Revit to get an accurate count of windows, not using the Window object could cause problems.
Another example would be ceilings and floor finishes. It has been awhile, but I sat in a very interesting presentation on how a form was using Ceiling to model floor finishes. For that firm, that approach provided them with the desired results, but this could cause serious issues if the GC or CM wanted to obtain quantity information from the model.
The lesson here is to make sure that you define how elements are to be modeled (what Revit tool) and what LoD they should be modeled at. This doesn't need to be a long drawn out process, but I can't even think how many projects where I have seen columns represented with a short (length) wall.
Model vs 2D Documentation
Depending on where you are in the world, the designers experience using Revit can vary. Have you ever been sent a "model" that was nothing more than a .RVT file with 2D detail lines? It happens. It's always important to understand how the 2D documents relate to the model. After all, most contracts stipulate that the 2D documentation takes precedent over the model. I have found a fairly simple approach to checking this.
When you get a model from the designer, the first thing I do is remove any linked or inserted CAD files from the project so that I am only working with Revit geometry. I then delete all 2D detail and 3D model lines, as I only want to work with elements like doors, columns, ducts, etc.
I then publish the plan, section and elevation sheets from the model. Using Bluebeam, I then compare the original sheet PDFs from the designer to the sheets I published from the purged model. Bluebeam will then show me the variance between the two sets of documents.
If you look at a plan sheet and you see for example that walls are in different locations, then there is a good chance that the plans might have been embellished or edited in AutoCAD rather than Revit. This unfortunately is done a lot because a firm may or may not have sufficient Revit users to perform all the updates and many people find AutoCAD easier to use.
My general rule is that if you are working on a BIM project, Plan, Sections and Elevations should be generated from the model. I also think the majority of schedules should come from Revit, but this isn't always possible to commercially (financially) a viable option.
Filtering a model in Assemble by level is an easy way to iterate through a building to verify design completion, decisions, and quantities. Level filtering also allows you to target an individual floor of the building and view only that floor’s data and quantities. One of the keys to level integrity is having the top constraint set to the level above and not to span multiple levels with a single object. While it is common to have some items, such as elevator shafts, columns, exterior skin, span the entire height of the building, you lose the ability to work the objects on any level other than the one assigned.
Designers will have very good reasons for not wanting to split elements by level, especially early in the design process. This can have an impact on production time and potential impact the look of certain views associated with their construction documents.
If you are a general contractor, you may want to consider slicing the model after you receive it from the designer and before publishing to Assemble using a tool like DPR model slicer. This will allow to quickly slice the model by level in Revit prior to publishing to Assemble.
Utilize worksets in logical building breakdown
In addition to allowing multiple people to work on a single model, Worksets allow for you to split up the building in logical arrangements. It is often necessary for owners to review the building information categorized in different ways. It may be a hospital divided by departments, a multi-use building separated by retail, residential, and parking, or an office building organized by program areas. By utilizing Worksets when creating the model, you build in a powerful and easy way to group and filter the data within Assemble. With saved views for each Workset, you are able to quickly generate reports that organize the building’s data in the way that makes the most sense to the owner.
It's very important though to meet and discuss potential workset scenarios as soon as possible with the design team members. This will allow them to review any potential issues and make any adjustments before they are too involved with the project and the team is used to working a certain way.
Added parameters
The inclusion of custom type and instance parameters result in limitless ways for which you can group and filter your model. In addition, the extra parameters allow you to increase the possible workflows and extend the life of your model well past the pre-construction and estimating phases. Simply adding “constructed” and “constructed date” parameters allow you to track current state of construction and identify what was built, when, and compare that to the anticipated schedule.
Furthermore, you can use the automatically generated quantities from Assemble in conjunction with the constructed date and verify quantities and progress from sub-contractor pay requests. All of this is possible by adding two custom parameters and publishing to Assemble.
LoD and Elements
It's important to consider what is going to be modeled and in some cases what Revit tool is going to be used to create that element. For example, lets consider Windows, Store Fronts and Curtain Walls. Custom winodws require the creation or editing of Revit families. Mkore often than not, I see projects were the designers have substituted a store front or curtain wall for a window, as it is easier to create a curtain wall or store front that represents a window rather than editing a window family.
This might be acceptable if you are just creating 2D documents and your schedules are not coming from Revit. But if you want to use Revit to get an accurate count of windows, not using the Window object could cause problems.
Another example would be ceilings and floor finishes. It has been awhile, but I sat in a very interesting presentation on how a form was using Ceiling to model floor finishes. For that firm, that approach provided them with the desired results, but this could cause serious issues if the GC or CM wanted to obtain quantity information from the model.
The lesson here is to make sure that you define how elements are to be modeled (what Revit tool) and what LoD they should be modeled at. This doesn't need to be a long drawn out process, but I can't even think how many projects where I have seen columns represented with a short (length) wall.
Model vs 2D Documentation
Depending on where you are in the world, the designers experience using Revit can vary. Have you ever been sent a "model" that was nothing more than a .RVT file with 2D detail lines? It happens. It's always important to understand how the 2D documents relate to the model. After all, most contracts stipulate that the 2D documentation takes precedent over the model. I have found a fairly simple approach to checking this.
When you get a model from the designer, the first thing I do is remove any linked or inserted CAD files from the project so that I am only working with Revit geometry. I then delete all 2D detail and 3D model lines, as I only want to work with elements like doors, columns, ducts, etc.
I then publish the plan, section and elevation sheets from the model. Using Bluebeam, I then compare the original sheet PDFs from the designer to the sheets I published from the purged model. Bluebeam will then show me the variance between the two sets of documents.
If you look at a plan sheet and you see for example that walls are in different locations, then there is a good chance that the plans might have been embellished or edited in AutoCAD rather than Revit. This unfortunately is done a lot because a firm may or may not have sufficient Revit users to perform all the updates and many people find AutoCAD easier to use.
My general rule is that if you are working on a BIM project, Plan, Sections and Elevations should be generated from the model. I also think the majority of schedules should come from Revit, but this isn't always possible to commercially (financially) a viable option.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Is anyone using Deep Space for analytics? https://www.deepspacesync.com/
-
When exporting data from Revit to Navisworks, sometimes parameter data may not appear. For example, Figure 1 shows a pipe create in Revit al...
-
In my last Model Checking post, I covered using the CADD Microsystems Revit Model Checker to search for duplicate elements. Autodesk has th...