Category: Revit

Thinking outside the box is always been a key in the Improvement and development of been processes and tools. For example, today in Vancouver BC, I was part of a joint health and safety committee meeting. This meeting  was convened to review workplace safety requirements from WorkSafeBC. One of the tools WorkSafeBC has created to simplify this is a website that helps you report incidences and track assessments, along with a risk matrix. When I saw the actual risk assessment tool that they use I realized it would be perfect for model assessment.

Every office has a slightly different system to help them model in Revit, but most of these systems do not help teams manage risk. A poorly modeled project can cost both the designer and your client money, and any systems you use needs to mitigate this risk.

The WorkSafeBC tool kit for a safe environment is a great starting point for a system that includes risk assessments in Revit models.

• Modeling can cost a lot of money
• If a project is incorrectly modeled it must be fixed, which will cost more money.
• Mistakes in models and drawings can cause problems on site that result in unsatisfactory compromises.
• Modeling errors can also provide misinformation to contractors and subconsultants.
• Modeling omissions could cause a contract requirement to be unmet.
• Poor modeling hampers lifecycle management, and project analysis.

A risk assessment audit of your model should help prevent all these issues. This assessment should include:

• Review the detail level of model: Is it appropriate for the project? Does it meet the required Goals set out in the BIM Execution Plan?
• Are there 2D families or an abundance of detail lines and filled regions?
• Is the information in the model useful for the BIM Goals set out at the beginning of the project.
• Review of legal and contract document information. Start with the basics: is the legal address and client information correct?
• Do the families function correctly for Energy analysis, clash detection, scheduling, and tagging.
• Can the model flow from phase to phase without a large amount of re-work or even a rebuild?

This list can be expanded and customized for each project as each project would need specific risk assessments according to the contract.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. This kind of cross-pollination of ideas will make BIM systems more robust and useful: it doesn’t matter if your ideas come from a government website or a presentation on the Transtheoretical Model of Change.

“One who takes the road less traveled earns the rewards most missed.” – Matshona Dhilwayo

I usually reserve Monday’s for my Model Coordination task.  I believe the Model Coordination time is very important for projects to be successful and the BIM workflow.  This task needs to be completed while no one is in the model, and usually ends with a shake of the head and a ton of follow up training.  I can usually get my list complete within an hour for most projects.

Here’s the simple list of what I do on a weekly, and monthly basis.

• Manage Links (checking for lost links or links from users’ desktops)
• Check the Project Browser for ??? and organization according to standards
• Check the number of groups and verify that no groups are just 1 instance.
• Review the families loaded in the project, looking for families with the .00x.rfa extention, or family1.rfa
• Check Filter and View Template naming conventions
• 3D Inspection for workset organization
• Check that the Levels and Grids are pinned.
• Compact the model
• Once a month I Audit, rebuild, and compact of the model.
• Once a month I purge the model – (Do Not Purge All, remove unused Groups, CAD files, Missed named families and images.

During my process I make a list of items that need to be re-trained or trained.  These items become my Revit Coordination training sessions.

Each project has an Excel spread sheet saved in the BIM Docs folder; the Model Coordinator then fills it out weekly.  If the model coordinator is not me I just check the document to verify it’s getting done and look see if there is any glaring issues.