Introducing Revit Architecture 2009

BIM for Beginners

Greg Demchak, Tatjana Dzambazova, Eddy Krygiel

• Publisher: Sybex
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780470260982
• eBook ISBN: 9780470595978
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

You don't have to be a high-tech wizard to understand the Revit software using Introducing Revit Architecture 2009: BIM for Beginners, the perfect guide for architects of any generation. Start with an overview of BIM concepts before tackling the Revit interface, then move on to use Revit's suite of editing tools. Learn how to use Revit with other applications, document the model for construction, integrate annotations into the model, utilize worksets, and collaborate in a team environment from straightforward explanations, real-world examples, and practical tutorials.

For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.

CHAPTER 1

Understanding BIM

A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable
means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.

—LOUIS KAHN

Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging approach to the design, analysis, and documentation of buildings. At its core, BIM is about the management of information throughout the entire lifecycle of a design process, from early conceptual design through construction administration, and even into facilities management. By information we mean all the inputs that go into a building design: the number of windows, the cost of materials, the size of heating and cooling equipment, the total energy footprint of the building, and so on. This information is captured in a digital model that can then be presented as coordinated documents, be shared across disciplines, and serve as a centralized design management tool. With a tool like Revit, you will reap the benefits of fully coordinated documents, but this represents just the tip of the BIM iceberg.

In this chapter, we’ll present the basics of BIM and summarize how BIM differs from traditional 2D drafting-based methodologies. We will explain the key characteristics of Revit and how Revit is truly designed to deliver the benefits of building information modeling.

Topics we’ll cover include:

• A brief history of architectural documentation

• Advantages of a BIM approach

• How BIM is different from CAD

• Why Revit?

• Revit concepts

• Types of elements in Revit

• Tips for getting started in Revit

A Brief History of Architectural Documentation

The production of design documents has traditionally been an exercise in making drawings to represent a building. These drawings become instruction document sets: an annotated booklet that describes how the building is to be built. The plan, section, and elevation—all skillfully drafted, line by line, drawing by drawing. Whether physical or digital, these traditional drawing sets are composed of graphics where each line is part of a larger abstraction meant to convey design intent so that a building can eventually be constructed. When Filippo Brunelleschi drew the plans for Santa Maria del Fiore (Figure 1.1) in Renaissance Italy, the drawings represented ideas of what the building would look like. They were simplified representations of a completed project, used to convey ideas to the patron. In those days, the architect also played the role of builder, so there was no risk of losing information between the documentation of the building and the actual building of it. This was the age of the master builder, where architect and builder shared the same responsibility and roles. Even so, Brunelleschi still needed to communicate his vision to his patrons and his workers, and he not only produced beautiful drawings but also built elaborate scale models so that others could easily visualize the project.

Figure 1.1

Santa Maria del Fiore; image courtesy of Laura Lesniewski

As buildings became increasingly complex, specialization in the design and construction process emerged. In turn, this led to the need for more elaborate forms of information exchange. One person was no longer responsible for both the design and construction phases, so it became necessary for designers to convey design intent with richer amounts of information and instructions.

Jump ahead in time to the twentieth century. The use of steel had been fully embraced, thus allowing buildings to reach higher than ever before; the age of the skyscraper and modern construction was in full force. The Power and Light Building (Figure 1.2) was erected in Kansas City, Missouri, in only 19 months. An Art Deco testament to the boldness of the times, the building was built without the use of modern earthmoving machinery or other heavy equipment. The drawing set for a building of this size in the 1930s would have been about 35 pages long. The Power and Light Building was more complex than its predecessors but far simpler than today’s large commercial projects. There were no data or telecom systems, no air conditioning other than operable windows, and no security systems other than locks on the doors.

Figure 1.2

Power and Light Building, Kansas City, MO

Fast-forward to late twentieth century buildings. Buildings are more complex than ever before. Documentation sets span all disciplines and are hundreds of pages long. The number of people who will touch a set of drawings—to produce them, evaluate them, or use them to build the building—has become huge. Integrated building systems continue to expand with the growth of technology. Today, we have more security, electrical, data, telecom, HVAC, and energy requirements than ever before (see Figure 1.3). The quality and quantity of information that goes into a documentation set can no longer be thought of as abstract approximations—the cost of error is far too high, and fully coordinated drawings are expected. The use of computer-based technology has replaced pen and paper, yet documents are still largely generated in 2D. Drawing and editing lines has become faster and more efficient, but in the end, they are still collections of manually created, nonintelligent lines and text.

Figure 1.3

Layers of design

The year 1998—dawn of the Internet boom. Technology companies are flourishing, and start-ups are a dime a dozen. In the suburbs of Boston, a new approach to architectural documentation is about to be launched. The premise is simple: model the building once, and let architects view, edit, and annotate the model from any point of view, at any time. A change to the model from any view simultaneously updates all other views. Drawings cease to be separate, uncoordinated collections of lines and become by-products of a model-based design approach. Revit is born, and with it the foundation for a new approach to how buildings are designed, evaluated, represented, and documented (see Figure 1.4). In 2002, Revit Technology is acquired by Autodesk and continues to be developed. Welcome to the world of building information modeling.

Figure 1.4

The founders and some original members of Revit technology, having a tug-of-war at a release party, circa 2000

Advantages of a BIM Approach

The ultimate benefits of BIM are still emerging in the market and will radically change the way buildings are designed and built. A shift in process and expectation is happening in the construction market, and architects are stepping up to the challenge. The focus is shifting from traditional 2D abstractions to on-demand simulations of building performance, usage, and cost. This is no longer a futuristic fantasy but a practical reality. In the age of information-rich digital models, we can now have all disciplines involved with a project sharing a single database. Architecture, structure, mechanical, infrastructure, and construction are tied together and able to coordinate in ways never before possible. Models can now be sent directly to fabrication machines, bypassing the need for traditional shop drawings. Energy analysis can be done at the outset of design, and construction costs are becoming more and more predictable. These are just a few of the exciting opportunities that a BIM approach offers.

BIM has shifted how designers and contractors look at the entire building process, from preliminary design through construction documentation, into actual construction, and even into postconstruction building management. With BIM, a parametric 3D model is used to generate traditional building abstractions such as plans, sections, elevations, details, and schedules. Drawings produced using BIM are not just discrete collections of manually coordinated lines but interactive representations of a model.

Working in a model-based framework guarantees that a change in one view will propagate to all other views of the model. As you shift elements in plan, they change in elevation and section. If you remove a door from your model, it simultaneously gets removed from all views, and your door schedule is updated. This enhanced document delivery system allows unprecedented control over the quality and coordination of the document set.

With the advent of BIM, designers and builders have a better way to create, control, and display information. Some of the advantages that first-time users can expect to realize are as follows:

• Three-dimensional design visualization improves understanding of the building and its spaces and gives you the ability to show a variety of design options to both the team and the client.

• Integrated design documents minimize errors in documentation cross-referencing and keynoting, allowing clearer, more precise documents.

• Interference checking permits you to immediately see conflicts between architectural, structural, and mechanical elements in 3D and to avoid costly errors on site.

• Automated, always up-to-date schedules of building components (like door and room-area schedules) are data-driven and can drive data and improve the visibility of costs and quantities.

• Material quantity take-offs allow better predictability and planning.

• Sustainable strategies are easier to explore, enabling you to design better buildings and make a better world.

How BIM Is Different from CAD

The key difference between BIM and computer-aided design (CAD) is that a traditional CAD system uses many separate (usually 2D) documents to explain a building. These documents are created separately and have little to no intelligent connection between them. A wall in a plan view is represented with two parallel lines, with no understanding that those lines represent the same wall in a section. The possibility of uncoordinated data is very high. BIM takes the opposite approach: it assembles all information into one location and cross-links that data among associated objects. (See Figures 1.5 and 1.6.)

By and large, CAD is strictly a 2D technology with a specific need to output a collection of lines and text on a page. These lines have no inherent meaning, whether inside the computer or on the printed sheet. CAD drafting has its efficiencies and advantages over pen and paper, but it is really just a simulation of the act of drafting. This form of drawing is how architects and other designers have worked for the last couple of hundred years. Historically, the designer drew a set of plans and then used those plans to manually derive sections, elevations, and details. During the development of a project, if any of those items changed, the designer had to modify each of the other drawings that were affected to take the change int...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• Table of Figures
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1 - Understanding BIM
• CHAPTER 2 - Getting Acquainted with the Revit Interface and File Types
• CHAPTER 3 - Views
• CHAPTER 4 - Modeling Basics
• CHAPTER 5 - Modifying Elements
• CHAPTER 6 - Extended Modeling
• CHAPTER 7 - Working with Other Applications
• CHAPTER 8 - Preparing Documents for Clients
• CHAPTER 9 - Sheets
• CHAPTER 10 - Annotations
• CHAPTER 11 - Construction Documentation
• CHAPTER 12 - Printing
• CHAPTER 13 - Advanced Topics
• CHAPTER 14 - Tips and Troubleshooting
• Index
• GALLERY