First, what is BIM?
Every building gets built twice. Once in software.
BIM stands for Building Information Modeling. The architect builds the whole building on screen before anyone breaks ground, one real object at a time.
Schedules that come out of a Revit model: sheets, rooms, doors, windows, furniture, room finishes, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures and specialty equipment.
The model knows the building
Every object carries its own data.
A wall in a BIM model knows what it's made of. A door knows its width and fire rating. A room knows its area. Revit, from Autodesk, is the BIM software many studios design in, ours included.
Every drawing and schedule comes out of that one model. Change a door once, and every sheet that shows it updates.
- 1Build the model
- 2Drawings and schedules come out of it
- 3Change it once and every sheet follows
Tap an object. See what the model knows.
DOOR TYPE D2
Bedroom door
Every door of this type shares these values. Change the width once in Revit and every door of type D2 follows.
Example data.
Why it matters
One model, copied for everyone else.
Revit runs on Windows, needs a paid seat and takes training. Most people on a project have none of the three.
- The project manager
Needs the door schedule for the hardware consultant, and the sheet list before an issue.
- Interiors
Needs every room with its name, number, area and finishes.
- The client and consultants
Want to see the building without asking for another export.
So they work from copies, and nobody is sure which one is current.
What we do about it.
Everyone who doesn't use Revit sees what's in the model in a browser, with each element linked to its room. When they change something, it reaches Revit only after a review.
Words you'll hear
The words architects use, in plain language.
- BIM
- BIM is Building Information Modeling: a way of designing a building as real objects, each carrying its own data. The drawings and schedules come out of that model.
- Revit
- Revit is Autodesk's BIM software, used by many architecture studios. It runs on Windows and takes training to use.
- Schedule
- A schedule is a table the model writes about itself: every door with its size and hardware, every room with its area, every sheet in the set. It changes when the model changes.
- Sheet
- A sheet is one page of the drawing set, like A3.0 Elevations. Sheets carry their own data too, such as who drew and who checked them.
- Family and type
- A family is a kind of object, like a casement window. A type is one size or version of it. Every window of a type shares its values.
- Parameter
- A parameter is one piece of data on an object, like a door's width or a room's name. A shared parameter is defined the same way in every project that uses it.
- Model copy
- A model copy is the Revit file as it stood at one moment. Architects send these to consultants. To set up PuraBIM, a studio shares its models with us.
- Publish
- Publish is our word for sending schedules out of Revit as their own tables. Elements link to their rooms, and every schedule links to the project.
Now see a schedule come out of Revit.
Thirty minutes, video or in person. We'll show you a publish, start to finish.