The Key to Giving 100%

I don't really like to link to others Blogs. But you just can't argue with logic.

Autodesk 2010 Design and Engineering Software Product Line Now Available

YAY!!!

I hope you're on subscription and your copy is in the mail...

Follow the link to the full press release.

Revit Type Catalog Tip

Type Catalogs are a great tool to drive parameters and to keep your project file size under control.

Some families (like structural wide-flange steel) have so many types that it is nice to only bring the types that you need into your project.



To create a Type Catalog, start a new session of Notepad or some other text editor (not Word though, the formatting will cause errors in the Catalog.)

The first line lays out all the parameters you want to control. In this example I only used one parameter, "Type Comments." I like this parameter alot. It's in every family and isn't used by anything else. By default it is blank (more on that in a minute,) but you can use it to tag custom ID information for that object.


The second line begins with the Type Name, then a comma (this is a comma separated value file.) Followed by the values for the parameters you are controlling, again separated by commas. We'll keep it simple here. I do want to mention though that when working with complex Type Catalogs, I like to import them in to Excel. That way they are separated by columns, instead of commas. Just save it out as a .csv, then change the extension to .txt and it will work fine.

The purpose of this post is NOT to go into too much depth about Type Catalogs. There are decent instructions on the basics of Type Catalogs in the Revit Help file and a slightly more in depth treatment in the Autodesk Family creation tutorials.

Name and save this file in the same folder as the family.

When you go to load the family, you get the dialog below. Control or Shift Click to select the types you want to load.

Click OK and you get...

This warning... Hmmmmmmm,

It actually does exist. It's just blank in the family. Since there is no data for the Type Catalog to override, Revit disregards that column of the catalog.

So, open the family. Place a default value in the parameter. It doesn't matter what it is, it will be overwritten by the catalog. Save it. And reload it into the project.

To show what we have, I created a quick tag that reads the Type Comments from the family.

To take on e step forward, create a new type in Family editor and load it into the project without saving or editing the Type Catalog. What value will the Tag show? The default...

In short, if you ever get the "Parameter doesn't exist in the Family" warning, check the family and make sure there is some sort of data in the field. It should work fine after that.

BIMwash, the new snake oil?

I'd like to take a moment and try and define a new term.

BIMwash.

A portmanteau (a word that contains two words and combines their meanings) of BIM (building information modeling) and whitewash ( a thin paint-like coating that washes away slowly in the rain.)



More and more projects are requiring BIM. Sometimes the Design firm is requiring BIM from the GC and subs. Sometimes the Owner is requiring that everyone use Building Information Modeling. This is GREAT! I mean this is what we have been preaching and railing about.

Here's the rub though. BIM has become a BUZZWORD. Not to the extent that "Green" has, but a buzzword still. Now that everyone's talking about this thing called BIM, folks are starting to sit up and take notice. Heck man, there's money to be made here. We can do this BIM thing. We already model in 3D (sorta.) This (insert any BIM authoring software) looks pretty similar. We can't get left behind on this. RFPs (requests for proposals) are coming in asking for BIM. Let's go!

So XYZ Design (or Engineering, Builders, etc etc.) gets a couple seats of software, spend some time learning how to use it, and get it set up so they can plot documents to their standards. Yahoooo, we're on the BIM-train. Let everyone know, WE DO BIM!

Whoa, hold the phone, Buster. What do you mean you "Do BIM?"

Ummm, we use "Brand A" Software and... produce a BIM.

What's your deliverable?

Duh, the industry standard 2D CD's. You can't get away from that. Oh, and we can show you exactly what your building looks like with renderings and walk-throughs.

So, since Contractors, Subs, Design firms, even Owners all have their own ideas of what is BIM, are they wrong?

Yeah, I think they are.

I'm not going to rant and rave about what is and isn't BIM. Just Google it, there is plenty of discussion. What I will say is, there are plenty of firms out there that have jumped "on board" and are "Doing the BIM."

Educate yourselves. Have a serious discussion at your firm. What is BIM to you?

Everyone wants to get something different out of this. The Designer wants to validate design and communicate design intent in a new and easy to understand way. The Contractor wants to query the model and take off accurate Quantity of Materials and investigate "Buildability," dealing with interferences early in the process. And the Owner wants a BIM that they can use throughout the lifecycle of the building. Let the world know what you do or exactly what you want. Define it internally before you put it out before the public.

If you are about to issue a RFP that requires BIM, do yourself a favor and SPELL IT OUT. Define exactly what you are looking for. That way you have a better chance of getting what you want. And please, if all you want is rendering and walkthroughs, say that. Don't even use the term BIM.

If you are a Design, Engineering, or Construction firm, know what your strong points are. Know what you can and cannot deliver. Don't oversell your abilities. It will only come back to bite you.

And if you're just using the term because "everyone is doing it," STOP.

Don't be a BIMwasher... it's all likely to wash away in the rain...

Open Source Building Information Model (BIM) Server (Round 2)

David Harrison linked to a post on his site that gives a far more in-depth discription of what a BIM Server is and how it could effect the industry. It can be found here.

I figured I would bring this to the front page.

Thanks Dave.

Open Source Building Information Model (BIM) Server

An interesting idea. I have to admit I found the site a little lacking in useful information. But then again, I have to plead complete ingnorance when it comes to servers.

Check it out here.

The power of Revit Subcategories

In my last post, I spoke about the importance of placing the symbolic line work of Pipe Fitting famlies on the correct subcategory (or in that case, that it was on the actual Family Category "Pipe Fitting.")




One of the ways to get the most control over the visibility of objects in Revit is to use various combinations of Graphic Overrides, View Templates and Filters that select objects by their "Family Category."

As mentioned before, every object in Revit belongs to a Family Category. Walls, Doors, Lighting Devices and Plumbing Fixtures are all Family Categories. So, if I want a view that displays Walls but hides Windows, I just check Walls and uncheck Windows. Simple enough.





However, what if I want to show Interior Doors but not Exterior Doors? Select an exterior door>right click> select all instances> and hide in view? Sure that would work, but it's time consuming. Especially if you have multiple types of exterior doors. Interior and Exterior Door Worksets? Maybe, but let's stay away from extensive lists of worksets. A filter? Sure, filter by something that all exterior doors have in common and is different from interior doors. Maybe you even have to add a parameter to doors to make it work. This has the advantage of being set as part of a view template and can be quickly applied to multiple views. All of the above are passable ways to turn on and off and change the graphics of different objects in Revit. But what if...


I wanted to control part of an object? Enter... Subcategories. You have probably dealt with them before. Say you want to turn off the elevation swing of doors in Elevation. Just uncheck that subcategory in the Visibility/Graphics Overrides Dialog of that view.








And the great thing about Subcategories is that you can great an infinite number of them, unlike Family Categories (where you're stuck with what Autodesk gives you.)


To apply these subcategories to different parts of your object, in the family editor you simply select the "part"(which can be a number of things, 3D Geometry, Lines, etc.)>open the part's element properties> and assign it to the appropriate subcategory (just use the drop down list.)






Now you have TONS more control over objects in Revit. We recently had a situation where we wanted to create a Plumbing Fixture family that was an in-wall rough-in. By making this a family (instead of just text in the view) we can tag it, and run piping to it. However, most views needed to hide the rough-in, but still show other Plumbing Fixtures. Sure we could have just selected it and hid it in the view, but we often do multiple instances of rough-ins and we wanted complete control of the family visibility in all views.


I'm sure by now you figured out that we created a rough-in subcategory and added the appropriate visibility/graphic overrides settings to our view templates.

Broken Revit MEP pipe fittings

Part of my duties at Erdman is to QC the engineering content that is being created. Some of our content is being created in-house and we are outsourcing quite a bit as well. A number of the pipe fittings that we received from our content vendor arrived in this condition.

When the view’s detail was set above a “Coarse” level, the symbolic line that represents the pipe continues through the fitting. When set to Fine level the fitting displays correctly.

What was causing this strange behavior? Categories (or maybe it’s subcategories.)
Every object in a Revit project belongs to a category. Walls, windows, floors, etc. are all categories. So are pipes, pipe fittings, etc. When you dig a little further, opening the pipe fitting inside the Family Editor, and looking at the object styles available, you will only find one category available. This makes sense, given that each object can only belong to one category. Notice however that there are SUBCATEGORIES under the category of the family. These are very powerful. I’ll write a post about using these later.
So, what does this have to do with our broken pipe fittings? Well, the model lines that display when the view in the project is set to medium or coarse were actually set to be one of the subcategories (Center line) of Pipe Fittings.

Once these were changed to “Pipe Fittings” the fitting behaved correctly.
So far, 6 out of 10 of the fittings we received from our vendor have this condition. With 100’s of families to QC, I am less than pleased.
In short, I recommend, when purchasing content from a 3rd party, make sure they know the product inside and out. These fittings (and other content we received ) were modeled beautifully. However, a 3D object is less than half what we are looking for when it comes to BIM.
I suppose I can forgive the error; there just aren’t that many people with tons of experience with Revit MEP. I just wish we had the staffing necessary to QC the content before so much was created.
Live and learn.
Next time, the power of SUBCATEGORIES…….!

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas everybody.

I'd like to thank everyone for all their support over the past few months as this blog has gotten off the ground. It's been fun and a great learning experience.

My first week at Erdman has given me some insight into the challenges of implementing Revit into a fairly large Design Build/Integrated Project Delivery firm. I'd have to say that they are not few and far between, however, they are definitely on their way. In the upcoming year,I hope to post some of the challenges that we face and the solutions we achieve. But for now, I just need to get home for Christmas through the wind and snow. Not looking forward to that 5 hr drive.

I hope the upcoming New Year treats you all well. Keep the faith. Let's make this a BIM-tastic Year!

Life in a Snow Globe

Well, loyal reader ( I assume there must be one or two) it has been a busy month. As is evidenced my lack of Blogging. I feel like I live in a snow globe that an excited 3yr old has just discovered.

In the first half of the month I was SWAMPED at work. Training for me, me training others, implementing Revit at a couple of clients offices.

The REAL Snowstorm started right before Thanksgiving. In short, the Autodesk Retailer that I was working for had to close it's doors forever due to the current economy. I know... WOW!

Luckily I was offered a job with a progressive Healthcare facility design/build firm. What a blessing. To go from employed, to unemployed, to employed again in the span of a week doesn't happen very often. And to have a career upgrade in the process ... Whoo Hoo!

So, yesterday was my first official day as a Engineering BIM Coordinator for Erdman (formerly Marshall Erdman and Associates.) From their website.

" Erdman (a Cogdell Spencer Company) is a fully integrated, single source provider of planning and programming, architectural design, engineering and construction, and development services. One firm, one vision."

Given that Erdman has recently moved it's corporate office to a new facility... and that they recently merged with another company... you would think that their plate was full. However, they (hmmmmm, we) are aggressively implementing BIM into their integrated process. I am excited to be a part of the process.

So along with the new position comes selling our house (the position is in Madison, WI) and moving the family (wife and 10 month old daughter)...

Ironically, as I sit here snow is falling outside my window. There is about 5 inches of snow on the ground and more seems to be coming. More exciting things to come...