Electrifying BIM with Revit

Dat Lien
Axoscape

Description
Electrical subs can now enter the realm of Building Information Modeling (BIM) with tools
available in Revit software as part of Building Design Suite or the Autodesk collection. We will
use the Texas Children's Hospital project as the backdrop of this interactive course aimed at
getting electrical subs up to speed with BIM tools, and attendees will realize the benefits of
using BIM on this 500,000 square-foot project. Find out what it takes to get a project of this size
coordinated with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing in the narrowest of plenum spaces. This
session features Revit and Fabrication CADmep.

Your AU Expert
After traveling all over the globe for renowned architectural firms such as Gensler, PGAL, and
Morris Architects; and after managing a team of experts at Total CAD Systems, an Autodesk
reseller, helping thousands realize the potential of technology as it applies to building design &
construction, Dat Lien now adds entrepreneurship to his repertoire with the formation of
Axoscape, a BIM consulting and Building Information Modeling company dedicated to hiring and
training local grads. With over a decade of architectural experience, Dat combines leveraged
technology with the AEC business so clients can stay competitive while maintaining flexibility.
When he's not helping AEC firms with BIM services, he's busy with organizations such as the
Houston Area Revit Users Group / BIM Peer Group, AGC, ABC, the AIA, A Child's Hope and his
alma matter, Texas A&M University. Utilizing his education, experience, and eagerness to help,
Dat enjoys sharing ideas with others everywhere he goes.

Page 1
Introduction
When it comes to the importance of getting it right, nothing matches this need more than a hospital. Axoscape was
fortunate enough to have worked with Midwest Electric of Houston, TX on this awe-inspiring project encompassing
approximately 398,000 sf in just the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient facilities not to mention a central plant, parking
garage and medical office building. Here’s what was involved:
● an outpatient facility with a total of 74 exam rooms
● 30 acute care beds,
● a surgical unit with 4 operating rooms,
● an emergency center with 24 patient rooms,
● 5 radiology rooms,
● a helipad, and
● 1,000 free parking spaces.

BIM’s Role
From the beginning, this project implored BIM as the standard documentation procedure starting
with the architect (FKP) followed by the engineers, then by the GC and the subs. The
architectural and structural models laid the groundwork used by subs to start modeling their
components. Not without issues however, as it was quickly realized the origin point was going to
be an issue. What followed was over 18 months of hard core, on-site pre-construction
coordination that involved every trade, long hours and much heated debate. When it was all
said and done however, it was a project to be proud of and a huge learning event that inspired
today’s lesson on Electrifying BIM with Revit, Navisworks and MEP fabrication parts.

Page 2
Getting Setup
Fabrication Parts - fabrication configurations
The course will cover some Fabrication Parts for use inside Revit. Use the following guide to
download sample fabrication configurations for use with the MEP features of Revit.

The sample fabrication configurations contain generic US Imperial and UK Metric content.
Download the Imperial and Metric sample configurations

1. Click the file names: ​www.autodesk.com/revit-2017-mep-fab-sample-content-imperial

and ​www.autodesk.com/revit-2017-mep-fab-sample-content-metric​.
2. Open the files.
3. The files are installed to:
● C:/Users/Public/Documents/Autodesk/Fabrication <release>/Revit MEP
Imperial Content/Vx.xx
● C:/Users/Public/Documents/Autodesk/Fabrication <release>/Revit MEP
Metric Content/Vx.xx
Fabrication Parts - Specifying Fabrication Settings
Use the Fabrication Settings dialog to specify a fabrication configuration and load fabrication
services into the model, and to specify connection indicators for the Route and Fill tool.

Before you can place fabrication parts in a Revit MEP model, you must specify a fabrication
configuration for the model. The configuration must reside on your network or on a local drive.
Each Revit MEP model may use only one configuration at a time.

The fabrication configuration contains fabrication content and associated product data to
support coordinated modeling and detailing for fabrication and construction.

The sample fabrication configurations contain generic US Imperial and UK Metric content. You
can access the sample fabrication configurations from
www.autodesk.com/revit-2016-mep-fabrication-sample-content-imperial​ and
www.autodesk.com/revit-2016-mep-fabrication-sample-content-metric​.

Configurations managed with the current version of the Autodesk Fabrication products
(CADmep, ESTmep, and CAMduct) will also be listed for use within Revit.

Before you can use a fabrication configuration in Revit MEP, you must use one of the Autodesk
Fabrication products to set a GUID for the database if it has not already been set. For more
information, see ​Setting a GUID for a Database​ in the Fabrication product Help.

With the fabrication configuration specified, you can then load the fabrication services you will
use in the current Revit MEP model.

Page 3
Note:​ If you are using a workshared environment and changes need to be made to the
fabrication configuration, all users working in the model should synchronize with the central and
then close the model. The person responsible for making changes to the fabrication
configuration must reload the configuration before adding or removing any services.

1. To open the Fabrication Settings dialog, click Systems tab Fabrication panel .
2. Tip:​ If the MEP Fabrication Parts palette is visible, you can also click the Settings
button to open the dialog.
3. In the Fabrication Settings dialog, select a fabrication configuration from the drop-list
of available configurations. A list of Unloaded services for the selected configuration is
shown on the left.
4. To update the services used in the current model with modifications made to the
configuration in one of the Autodesk Fabrication products (CADmep, ESTmep, and
CAMduct), click Reload Configuration.
5. To add a service into the current Revit MEP model, select a service from the list of
Unloaded services on the left and click Add. The service is added to the list of Loaded
services on the right.
6. To remove a service from the model, select a service on the right and click Remove.
7. Note:​ If a Revit MEP model contains parts from a fabrication service, you cannot
remove the service from the model.
8. When the required services have been loaded, click OK. The MEP Fabrication Parts
palette is populated with the services and associated fabrication parts. You can place
fabrication parts in the drawing area.
9. To change the colors for the connection arrows used with the Route and Fill tool, open
the Fabrication Settings dialog and click the Connection Indicators tab. The Plan
setting controls the color of the arrow that displays in plan view. The Towards and
Away settings control the colors of the arrows that display in a 3D view.

Origin point

When we start projects where pre-construction coordination is required, the GC usually issues a
BIM or VDC execution plan. This plan outlines important information about the project, the
participants, meeting information (Whether in-person or online) and goes into details about the
level of development (LOD) of the objects for each discipline along with upload schedules, file
formats and file repository/exchange information and most importantly, origin point.

One of the most critical factors at the beginning of a project deals with making sure your files
line-up with other models. Nothing is more wasteful and frustrating than to upload your file
before a meeting just to learn that it's in the wrong place. In addition to the correct x&y
coordinates, you have to make sure the elevation is correct, especially when multiple
floors/levels or underground are/is involved. True north rotation can be another factor to take
into consideration. When the project consists of multiple buildings, the effects of incorrect

Page 4
alignment can be compounded if not done correctly from the get-go. Here's how to ensure
things get lined up from the beginning.

Origin to origin vs shared coordinates

When working in Revit and linking other Revit files, you have several choices to pick from:
● Origin to origin
● By shared coordinates
● Center to center
Choosing origin to origin should be the first thing you try as this usually yields the best results
when shared coordinates are not being used (hopefully indicated in the BIM execution plan).
Origin to Origin also pins down the linked file so that it isn't easily moved by accident.
Center to center is a helpful option if you know you will be moving the link to another location as
this could save an extra step of having to “un-pin” the file.
Shared coordinates is a bit trickier as it involves aligning your file with a predetermined
coordinate system. You can only link using shared coordinates if both files understand what this
coordinate system is. Here's a brief process of how this works (see references for entire AU
courses devoted to making sense of Revit’s coordinate system):
1. In a new file, draw a brief outline of your layout aligned to something that you know
would be in the main model file (I.e. Column grids) and save and c ​ lose​ it.
2. Open the main model (usually architectural or structural file) and access a plan view
where the orientation is set to true north or set it yourself and link in your file using
‘center to center’ as the initial method.
3. Move / rotate your file to the correct x,y,z location and proper orientation (rotation).
4. Next, ​publish​ the coordinate system from this main file to your linked file.
5. Finally, save and close the main file answering yes to save linked files (at this point,
Revit actually writes information to your linked file which is why it's important to have that
file closed before this step)
6. Now always use “shared coordinates” when linking or exporting to/from this file.

Testing the coordinate system

Nothing can be more discouraging than doing a bunch of work, thinking you have the
coordinates correct and having to move your entire model around when it doesn't line up in
Navisworks or BIM 360 glue.
Here's how to test your alignment when working with Navisworks:
1. Export your model from a 3D view and choose the option to export to dwg using ‘shared
coordinates’ or ‘origin to origin’ depending on your method.
2. Open Navisworks and import the main model along with your file (and any other files you
can get ahold of) and see if things line up.
3. If things don't line up, go back and double check your export settings as it may revert
back to default settings upon closing the dialog box. If this still doesn't work, verify if
main models need to be exported a special way.
If using BIM 360 glue, simply upload your model to see if it lines up with other models in glue.

Page 5
Cable Trays = Gangs of Conduits during early preconstruction planning
In the beginning, we did what every electrical BIM modeler would do: start drawing conduits. After a few iterations of
moving entire runs (don’t get me wrong, using Revit’s parallel runs tool not only works great but it’s fun to do, only so
many times though) things got old fast. Additionally, some runs may not have an exact number of conduits known
from the start (I.e. Tenant buildout has not been specified) and we need to simply block out the space to prevent
other trades from conflicting with us down the line.

Modeling cable trays

1. Open the view where you want to place the cable tray.

2. Click Systems tab Electrical panel Cable Tray.

3. From the Type Selector, select the cable tray type, with or without fittings.
4. On the ​Options Bar​, specify the width, height, offset, or bend radius.
5. On the ribbon, verify that Tag on Placement is selected to tag the cable tray
automatically. Then specify the following tagging options on the Options Bar:

If you want to... then...

change the orientation of the tag select Horizontal or Vertical.

load additional tags click ​Tags​.

include a leader line between the tag select Leader.

and the cable tray

change the default length of the enter a value in the text box to
leader the right of the Leader check
box.

6. On the ribbon, select ​placement options​.

7. In the drawing area, click to specify the start of the cable tray run, then move
the cursor and click to specify points along the run.

Page 6
A bend is automatically added to the segment as needed.

Note: When you draw cable tray with fittings, connection lines for the fittings are
displayed.

Page 7
8. To draw vertical cable tray, on the ​Options Bar​, specify the offset value, and
continue drawing the run.
9. Note: When drawing cable tray without fittings, if you draw cable tray across
existing cable tray at the same elevation, then either the new cable tray will
be broken (if they are the same size), or the smaller of the two cable tray runs
will be broken.
10. To finish the cable tray run, click Modify.

Page 8
EXAMPLE OF CABLE TRAY USED TO REPRESENT A GANG OF ELECTRICAL CONDUITS.

ACTUAL INSTALLATION OF GANG OF ELECTRICAL CONDUITS.

Page 9
Gangs of Conduits Using “Parallel Conduits”
In the event that larger conduits are used, it’s often preferred to show the actual conduits. Using Revit’s parallel
conduits tool makes this process much more efficient.

Modeling Conduits
1. Open the view where you want to place conduit.

2. Click Systems tab Electrical panel Conduit.

3. From the Type Selector, select the conduit type (with fittings or without) that
you want to place.
4. On the ​Options Bar​ specify the diameter, offset, or bend radius.
5. On the ribbon, verify that Tag on Placement is selected to tag the conduit
automatically. Then specify the following tagging options on the Options Bar:

If you want to... then...

change the orientation of the tag select Horizontal or Vertical.

load additional tags click ​Tags​.

include a leader line between the select Leader.

tag and the conduit

change the default length of the enter a value in the text box to
leader the right of the Leader check
box.

6. On the ribbon, select ​placement options​.

Page 10
7. In the drawing area, click to specify the start of the conduit run, then move the
cursor and click to specify points along the run.

A bend is automatically added to the segment where needed.

When you draw conduit with fittings, connection lines for the fittings are
displayed.

Page 11
8. To draw vertical conduit, specify the start of the conduit run, then on the
Options Bar​, specify the offset value, and continue drawing the conduit run.
9. Rise symbols and drop symbols are inserted as needed.
10. To finish the conduit run, click Modify.
11. Conduit elements display with centerlines in hidden line view.
12. By default, centerlines are turned off in U.S. templates.

Page 12
CONDUITS DRAWN USING “PARALLEL CONDUITS”

ACTUAL INSTALLATION OF “PARALLEL CONDUITS”

Page 13
Advanced Conduit Tips/Tricks
At times, you have to go above and beyond the basics to get that conduit configuration needed. Here’s an example of
what to do in these special cases.

Modeling Advanced Conduits

13. Open t

Page 14
 MSF_FORUM_CAPTION

Documentation
A step often overlooked when it come to Building Information Modeling is how to communicate the information with
field personnel. Enter documentation including tags, schedules and annotations to get your layout to the rest of the
team.

Documentation
14. Open t

Page 15