Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2016. Krygiel Eddy

the project begins to take a more established form and you complete conceptual design, you’ll need an architect role to step into the project. As in a typical project, you’ll have to mold the form into a building by applying materials, applying wall types, and validating spatial requirements and the owner’s program.

      During schematic design, you’ll need to include the role of the drafter to begin laying out sheets and creating views. These sheets and views don’t have to be for a construction document set as of yet, but you’ll need to establish views for any schematic design submittals. If these views are set up properly, they can be reused later for design development and construction document submittals as the model continues to gain a greater level of detail.

      You should avoid adding staff to your project during the construction documentation phase. In a BIM/Revit workflow, this can sometimes cause more problems than it solves and slow down the team rather than get work done faster.

      Another proven technique of managing larger Revit projects is to assign work according to elements of the building rather than by drawing a series. For example, one person would be responsible for building enclosures and another for structure, interior partitions, furniture, vertical circulation, and so on. This strategy encourages each team member to develop their portion of the design more collaboratively because the modeling for each component must be coordinated with the surrounding systems.

      Even though your team won’t be assigned work through a series of sheets, each person should be tasked with overseeing each sheet series. The annotation related to each building system is the responsibility of the respectively assigned team member, but someone else will be responsible for reviewing each series of sheets to ensure that they are appropriately maintained for presentation or distribution. On smaller projects, the project architect would likely be the person supervising the entire sheet set.

      This dual responsibility is an important aspect of team management that will keep your BIM projects on track. Spending the majority of time working in the model and thus neglecting the preparation of properly annotated sheet views becomes very alluring.

ADDING TEAM MEMBERS TO FIGHT FIRES

      In many projects, there might come a time when the schedule gets tight and project management wants to add more staff to meet a specific deadline. When in a 2D CAD environment, new team members would be added to help meet a deadline and would have the burden of trying to learn the architecture of the building, the thoughts behind its design, and how its various systems interact. In a Revit project, they have that same obligation, but they have the additional task of learning how the model has been configured. The model will have constraints set against various elements (such as locking a corridor width) and various digital construction issues (such as how floors and walls might be tied together, what the various family names are, or workset organization). New team members require additional time to “ramp up.”

      Regardless of planning, deadlines still escape the best of architects and project managers. It’s a good idea to know when and how you can “staff up” to be sure to meet those deadlines. Keeping in mind that your team members new to the project have to learn about both the design and the model, here are some task ideas to both help production and make sure they don’t accidentally break anything:

      Content Creation You will find that you will be making model families or detail components until the end of the project. This will help get the new team members engaged in a specific part of the project and also isolate them enough until they learn a bit more about how the model has been configured.

      The Drafting Role Even if this isn’t their ultimate role, having new team members help create views and lay out sheets will get them familiar with the architecture while still allowing the team to keep progressing on the document set.

      Working on Detailing Every project can always use someone who knows how to put a building together. If you have someone new to the project and possibly even new to Revit software, let that individual embellish some of the views already created and laid out on sheets with 2D components, linework, and annotations.

      The Bottom Line

      Understand a BIM workflow. Understand how projects are completed in BIM and how the use of Revit software on a project can change how information within a project is created.

      Master It Explain one of the primary differences between a more traditional 2D CAD-based workflow and producing documents using Revit.

      Leverage BIM processes. Understanding the level of risk your firm is willing to take in new technologies will help you establish goals for your future use of BIM.

      Master It Using the three areas of firm integration (visualization, analysis, and strategy), define how those areas overlap for your firm or project.

      Focus your investment in BIM. Since using Revit software is a change in workflow, it is also important to understand the change in staffing and who is needed to perform what roles on a project.

      Master It What are the three primary roles in a Revit project, and what are the responsibilities of those roles?

      Chapter 2

      Applying the Principles of the User Interface and Project Organization

      After more than a decade in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, Autodesk^® Revit^® software continues to be unique in its combination of powerful features and ease of use. Revit may not be the absolute best tool to design and document every imaginable building type, but its features and functions make the vast majority of production tasks much more efficient and accurate.

      Revit is a completely bidirectional, multiuser working environment, so if you compare its functionality to other 2D computer-aided drafting (CAD) or 3D BIM tools, stop now. Instead of layers and vectors, you will be using terms such as projects, components, and parameters along with tools like Wall, Door, and Floor. The concepts and terminology should seem familiar if you have experience in the building industry; however, it can be a daunting task to learn a completely new software application. This chapter provides an overview of the Revit user interface (UI) as well as the key aspects of data organization within a project.

      In this chapter, you’ll learn to:

      ● Understand the user interface

      ● Understand project organization

      Understanding the User Interface

       The UI is based on the Windows ribbon framework that is also found in software applications such as Microsoft Office. Within Revit, you will find many commands and tools that use similar dialog boxes and workflows. For example, you won’t find disparate dialog boxes for door properties versus window properties. Persistence of tool location is another key to increased usability. Even though tools remain contextually exposed or hidden, the majority of them can be found in the same place relative to the overall UI.

      You have the ability to access all three disciplines of the Revit software suite – Architecture, Structure, and MEP – provided you have licenses to use each. This functionality is addressed in the “Getting to Know the Ribbon” section of this chapter.

Figure 2.1 shows the Autodesk^® Revit^® Architecture 2016 UI. To illustrate some different project views, we’ve tiled four view types: plan, elevation, 3D, and sheet. In the following sections of this chapter, we will review the major components of the UI.

Figure 2.1 The Revit Architecture 2016 UI

Accessing and Using the Application Menu

      Click the big R in the upper-left corner of the UI to open the Application menu and then access commonly used commands such as New, Open, Save, Print, and so on. You can also export your project to a number of 2D and 3D formats from this menu. This menu is also where