Monday, August 3, 2009

My plan is TYP...but these are just TIPS...for Revit MEP 2010

For those of you that have to use Revit MEP, but have been using AutoCAD forever, and like how it works...

- Revit likes hosted families, but putting them into a group and copying them around a building can produce some rather interesting results. One workaround (from Emy in our Columbus office) is to create your common layouts in a few rooms (say you have 4 typical dorm rooms, which all have the same layout). You can either use non-hosted families (but then lose the coordination value of having hosted items move when the architect changes the plan - which we all know never happens), or you can place a connector to represent the objects in the room. Revit MEP has all kinds of connectors for HVAC, electrical and plumbing. You'll lose the benefit of being coordinated, but if the architect and/or owner isn't looking for the RVT file, you can still create an object that can have load assigned to it, and assign these items to systems.

- Another tip for 2010 is to make sure everything in the project is assigned to some form of a system - whether you're routing connecting geometry through it or not. Not everything needs to be routed from an automatic layout, either. Jonathan from the Indy office noted that the piping layout behaves better when fewer devices are connected in a system - so rather than connecting everything at the beginning, go ahead and work out one side of a chase, rather than expecting Revit to properly connected when both sides are part of an original systems. With back-to-back fixtures, the program behaves much better when you route one side, then use the grips to convert a tee to a cross - adding the pipe to the fixtures on the other side after the fact. You can always come back and add fixtures to a system later, but don't leave them unassigned.

- And another one for piping - when working with sloped pipe, work in a section view - draw to a point in plan, then switch in section to show the sloped pipe. This works especially well in tight areas. Jonathan came up with a very simple exercise in this year's book for adding the P-trap to a plumbing fixture - do it all in a section, then copy it around as needed.

- Working sections also is the way to top or bottom justify duct - I've been through the new justification tool, and gotten some pretty wild layouts. Draw the duct by centerline, then add a section view. Pick the duct run using the tab key, and then re-justify it in the section view -it works really well this way.

More to come, stay tuned....

thanks - David B.

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