From the course: Revit: Optimize Your BIM Workflow

Using Revit as a primary BIM modeling and drafting tool - Revit Tutorial

From the course: Revit: Optimize Your BIM Workflow

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Using Revit as a primary BIM modeling and drafting tool

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- [Instructor] We're starting a new chapter now in the course and we're going to have a little look at BIM, Building Information Modeling, being used in industry. Now the first thing we're going to look at is how Revit can be used as an effective BIM modeling and drafting tool. So you'll notice I've got Revit up on the screen. It's Revit 2020. And you can see there that we've got a Revit file open which is 1031 SE Madison_Metric_2020.rvt. Now you can download that from the library to follow along with this particular video. I'm not going to be doing much with the Revit project. It's more a demonstration of the information you can find within your Revit model. But, if you want to download it and follow along, that's perfectly fine with me. So, in our Revit project at the moment, I've got the Properties palette open and you can see here that I've got the Project Browser open. And you can see there's lots of information there in the Project Browser and this is where Revit comes to the fore with your BIM workflow because not only have you got a view like the 3D view, which is the default 3D view I hastened to add in the Revit project, but you've also got Structural Plans, Floor Plans, Ceiling Plans, and all of these views are part of your Revit model. So it's very unlike working on a project with, say, AutoCAD, where all you've got most of the time is flat 2D drawings. One of the benefits of Revit is you're working with families and type properties and so on. So, for example, if I zoom in in the 3D view and I select, say, a window, you'll notice that window highlights when I click on it like that, can you see that? It's gone blue. Now, if I look over in the Properties palette, it's telling me that I've got a particular window in there and it's fixed and it's actually showing a 60 inches by 72 inches. Now you'll notice the dimensions are showing in metric millimeters. That's because I've tweaked things slightly, purely to work in a metric environment for other things in other parts of the course. Now the families themselves are still imperial, but I'm not going to go into the Revit model and edit every single family. That would take me a month of Sundays. So the only idea is is that I'm just using the metric dimensions purely because I'm more familiar with them. However, one of the benefits, again, of Revit there in your BIM workflow is that you can work in either imperial or metric and just change the settings in the model to suit. Now, if I hit Escape a couple of times, that will deselect that window family. But what you'll notice when you're working in Revit is, obviously, you're working with families. You're not having to draw lines, arcs, circles, create blocks like you do in AutoCAD. So what I'll do now is I'll just double-click on the wheel to zoom extend again to that 3D view. Now the benefit I have in this Revit model, again, is, if I go to something like level one up here to this tab, you can see now that I've got a plan view of level one. I've got all my structural grids, I've got my dimensions, my room names, I can highlight areas in that plan view in color or in black-and-white, and you can see there that everything is a family. You see the chairs there are coming up as furniture families. Everything is a family. I don't have to worry about drawing those lines, arcs, and circles, which is going to enhance your BIM workflow because you're working with actual objects in the project. You can also specify a section through a wall. So there's a section through a wall there, the East West Wall Section, it shows the grids and it shows the levels. There's the roof level there and that's the little parapet on the roof, for example. Now here's where BIM comes into its own, though. You can generate schedules of anything in your Revit project, so you've got something like a door schedule that is showing where all the doors are, the types of the doors, the height, the thickness, the door material, the finish, the frame type, and so on. All of this information can be sucked out of your Revit model and enhance your BIM workflow because that information can be sent to other collaborators on the project. More importantly, as we work through this course, you'll find out about work sharing in Revit, which means that numerous people on the team can work on same parts of the model at any given time. Also, you'll notice we've got a plan there, so the good thing about Revit is you can create output as well. So you can create those flat 2D drawings if you need to. There will always be a requirement for drawings on any project, even if they're just a point of record for as-builts, for example, once you finish the project. But the benefit is is any view in Revit can be dropped into any sheet like so, so you can see there we're looking at the first floor plan and the sheet is called A2.1. So you can see how Revit can be made a primary BIM modeling and drafting tool in any construction project. And it's all about that BIM workflow and generating the building information modeling that you need for your project to be effective.

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