There is often confusion around BIM and Revit, we often hear people saying, ‘This project is being done in BIM' but when we look a little further they often mean ‘This project is being done in Revit.’ The distinction between BIM and Revit is not clear to some.
Revit creates 3D models capable of holding real world information about the model. This information is a requirement for BIM. To produce BIM compliant models from Revit, you must first know what information you are required to deliver with your model.
Once you have this established, you need a strategy in place to populate the information and deliver it in the required format. In Revit, this will involve having Shared Parameters for the relevant information fields. Depending on the format required, the shared parameters may come from the Project Information Manager, or they may be industry standards such as COBie and NBS.
These parameters will need to be added to the Revit project when required or incorporated into your company Revit Project template.
There are also many plug-ins that can help automate this task. Ideate BIM Link, Autodesk COBie Extension, NBS Create, CTC BIM Suite to name but a few. A Dynamo graph could be configured to automate filling in some information directly, or to interface with Excel too.
Once we have an information rich model, we need to think about delivery. What format is required by the client: the native Revit model, an IFC file, an upload to a specific Common Data Environment system that will extract the information? Whichever it is, we need to plan for this and allow time to create the deliverable model.
The live, WIP Revit project will need purging, views and sheets stripped out, design options removed. The appropriate name and revision will need to be applied to the model and then issued out to the appropriate recipients in the agreed format.
In summary, using Revit to create Building Information Models is not difficult but does take planning. We need to be aware of what we’re required to deliver and have a strategy for populating the information. We have to allow for the time required to publish and share the models, this includes checking that the information is correct and approving the deliverables.
