Autodesk Revit is a great tool for
design and coordination on BIM projects, but it needs a little
creative thought to be realistic. The stock joins, tees and elbows,
are fine for layout and design, and work well for pressure lines.
They even do okay for producing line drawings. But when it comes to
coordination in tight spaces every plumber knows there is a big
difference in the space a tee takes out and the space a combination
requires. And if you want to take full advantage of BIM in your
take-offs and material schedules you need the right fittings in your
model.
Charlotte Pipe andFoundry has great
resources for your needs. They provide Revit families for every
fitting they produce – cast iron and PVC. Plug these families into
your models before you start designing and it's a lot easier to
produce a solid, realistic model you can use in coordination and
material take-offs. It doesn't take a lot of work, only a little
advance planning. Trust me. It's a lot easier to plug in the right
fitting from the start than to go back and edit a model that has
nighties and tees where there should be sweeps and combinations.
The process is simple. Charlotte Pipe'swebsite has walk-throughs. You should start by downloading the Revit
families, then load them into Revit. I keep a separate folder to make
the official families easy to access. You also need to add the .csv
files to your look-up tables
so Revit can find the info it needs for sizing the fittings. Once you
have the fittings you need loaded open the settings and edit how
revit makes connections. The default will be set to standard elbows
and tees – change that to the quarter bends and sanitary tees you
downloaded if you are modeling vents or sweeps and combinations if
you're working on drainage.
If you are concentrating on modeling
one system at a time it works great! Intersect two pipes and revit
sticks in a cast iron or PVC sweep or combination to make the
connection. Done. If you go vertical and want a san. tee instead of a
combo it's simple to change the fitting for that one placement with a
couple of mouse clicks. When you change over to vent piping, just go
back into the settings and change the sweeps and combos to quarter
bends and san.tees and all your connections will use those fittings.
With a little advance planning and proper settings all your fittings
will be true representations of what will be installed in the field.
Once you have your model built using
the correct fittings, coordination is much more useful. That standard
elbow may look just fine turning out of the wall an inch below that
duct, but the radius of a quarter bend is going to cut into the
ceiling grid. Better to know that now than when someone tries to
install it in the field and a vent or a duct has to be re-routed. You
can also build a fitting schedule and revit will tell you how many
san. tees and combinations you'll need to purchase instead of telling
you to buy a bunch of standard tees!
Revit is all about the settings. Take
the time to get everything set up before you start modeling –
proper fittings and settings – and you'll love the results. Revit
can be a great tool for coordination and material takeoffs if you use
the right fittings in the right places. And don't neglect the
settings! You have abundant control of revit's default behaviors, use
it. Going back to change tees to combos later is a monumental waste
of time. Do it right the first time.
One final note: You can create your own
default settings and import them into each new project. That will
save you tons of time up front when you start a new project. If you
are a plumbing designer you are going to want all your fittings and
basic settings available on everything you do, so take the time and
make a settings file.
