In 2009, many of us in the industry began learning that we can utilize Revit for a better Engineering product. However, this was certainly not the case at the outset! At first, we encountered more obstacles in using Revit than benefits; modeling increased time on projects due to inexperience and underdeveloped software, over/ under modeling of projects was a common issue and an unknown at the time, and troubleshooting and problem solving took time to research due to solutions not yet available.
None of this mattered. Our clients wanted their projects done in Revit and some had even gone ‘cold turkey’ to this new way of working. Even though it seemed like a long time already since we had made the commitment to enter our ‘BIM Journey’, I am thankful that RDK decided to go ahead and implement Revit to meet the evolving needs for clients now working with BIM. As with any major change, this migration didn’t come without hard work.
Over the past four years we began to solve each of the Revit hurdles one by one. With each new year RDK set a budget to rollout each improved version of Revit. We also allowed a separate budget to improve the graphical display of our plans, the intelligence of our content, and the automation of our procedures to help reduce time spent on projects. Through the gaining of experience since the initial implementation, troubleshooting and problem solving is now a method of communicating the solution rather than searching for it. The communication of each model’s Level of Development (LOD) has been handled through the use of the AIA E202 document which has helped eliminate any over/under modeling.
The combination of training, experience, and enhanced content and company tools has consistently reduced modeling times with each passing year. Even our Project Managers, who initially perceived the process to be much more time-consuming, were soon experiencing lower RFI’s and change orders due to increased accuracy and enhanced coordination. Early on, designers who felt as though they were taking too much time on design soon realized that they were actually saving time as a result of having the equipment and panel board schedules automatically populated and that they were always consistent to the content.
Our industry has not yet embraced a robust standard for shared parameters that would allow data from different manufacturer families to be used in the same schedule without requiring time spent by each Engineering firm. We are working directly with manufacturers to help bridge this gap and take a proactive approach to correcting this void. The current method of creating riser diagrams in Revit is nothing more than a graphical representation of the modeled content. I see this becoming a more automated and efficient process in the near future. Steps towards automating specifications into the project based on the content used in the model are already available and will continue to improve with more time. These are just a few areas that we will see improvements and changes in the years to come.
That being said, we are still at the beginning of a new era, which most of us have realized is inevitable for the building industry. As an industry we have taken the first steps towards a more efficient platform than we have ever imagined and we have many more steps to climb. As challenging as it is for some, it is equally as exciting.
Time will continue to unfold the story of Revit. What improvements will the next version bring? What amazing Add-In will someone develop to improve our designs and documents? What formula will we develop next to automate a designers calculations? I, for one, am looking forward to whatever story will continue to be told in the history of Revit and I look forward to our continued journey of implementing and embracing the tool within our industry.
Daniel Villeneuve is a Design Technology Manager at RDK Engineers.