New CAD on the Block Presented By: Nermin Galal Bahgat Salem By: Elizabeth Bollinger Web Address: - Tools - New CAD on the Block _0418.htm - the magazine of design and building.htm 161 Date: 18 April 2001

The Hillier Group, of Princeton, New Jersey, has a long history with computer- aided design Recently the architecture firm has added to their repertoire a new software product that they believe to be revolutionary in the world of CAD Revit, offers an integrated, digital model of a building that can be used to maintain and operate that building throughout its lifecycle

Why Revit is Different Revit Technology Corporation has revolutionized the way buildings are designed, constructed and operated throughout their lifecycle (the first parametric building modeler) This technology gives building design elements the "intelligence" necessary for them to understand both their own properties and how they should relate to the rest of the design Design elements can be physical components such as walls, windows, or roofs, but they also include plans, elevations, sections, dimensions, and even drawing sheets, schedules, and renderings

A parametric change engine is necessary to provide the context for these components to be assembled into a cohesive design. That change engine must be able to handle the effect of a single change in very large buildings That’s meanRevit stands out as the only AEC software tool that can promulgate a change throughout a 3D model from any view of the building. With more traditional CAD software, you must rework the model to successfully publish any drawing updates With Revit you can make a data change in a schedule or a graphic change in a drawing layout view, and all references to that item are changed everywhere. There is no need to publish a new set of updated files and there is no way to accidentally damage a model with 2D commands

Revit at Work in Practice In the Newark office of Hillier, Howard Davis is project manager for the Commercial Realty & Resources Corporation (CRRC) building, a two-story, 40,000- square-foot (3700-square-meter) office building located in Wall, New Jersey A portion of the floor plan construction drawing of the CRCC building A wire frame view of Hillier's 3D model created for studying the CRCC building's interior office layout A wire frame view of the CRCC exterior

They worked with rendered models to develop ideas for exterior materials A partially rendered model for studying the CRCC building's exterior entrance The CRCC building model partially rendered to study the exterior The project, whose scope consists of designing and documenting both the interior and exterior, is similar to other projects Hillier has done for the same client within six hours they were able to produce floor plans, elevations, and most importantly, several 3D design studies. Therefore the firm was familiar with the systems and materials, which Davis said made this project ideal for a Revit beta test

Recent Developments Revit began volume shipments of Revit's first release in April, 2000 and was well received when exhibiting the product at the American Institute of Architects national convention in 2001 American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of Architects Today Revit is in its third release, with over 500 architecture firms subscribing. In the recently released version 3.0, Revit introduces "worksets," which extend the software's multi-user functionality The latest release of Revit improves the system's support for 2D construction drawings With worksets, multiple users can work on a model simultaneously without problems with version control

Worksets allow team members to work simultaneously on separate sections of a single building model. Team members can view the entire model, but individuals can edit only components within worksets they have "checked out" of the shared model. Changes can be saved on the fly and are available to other team members when the workset is returned to the shared model Revit also introduces in its new release the concept of 4D, or time-related properties. Components can now be associated with construction phases and be related to each other over time intervals The construction and demolition of any component can be recorded in a phase, and multiple generations of phased construction documents can be created from the single parametric model as for existing structures, multiple generations of renovations can be recorded sequentially in one model

The Subscription Model Revit Technology has implemented an Internet and e- commerce-based subscription model that eliminates high initial costs for its clients. The company has also made innovative use of the Internet in marketing, sales, training, and client service Revit is available by subscription on a month-to-month basis with prepayment discounts for longer terms. With quantity discounts available starting with as few as two seats, subscribers have access to all upgrades, instructor-led Internet-based training, customer support, and maintenance, current subscribers can download the product and subsequent releases and upgrades via the Internet

Access a better workflow for common conceptual and schematic tasks. Easily create expressive forms to produce an overall massing study. Then select faces to design walls, roofs, floors, host objects, and curtain systems. You can even use tools to extract important information such as gross area per floor 1. Revit Building Maker favorite Autodesk® Revit® features

See the effects of changing design features as you edit with shadows that adjust in real time as your model changes Explain your design intent better using sectional perspectives, a flexible tool that complements other features in Autodesk® Revit® 7, including hidden- line and shaded views, vectorial shadows, capped section boxes, and silhouette edges 2. Vectorial Shadows 3. Sectional Perspectives

4. Legends 5. Stacked Walls New to Autodesk Revit 7, stacked walls more easily describe cases where wall thickness changes at different building heights. These subwalls can also be scheduled. Create symbol legends without adding elements to a project. Use them to display model and annotation elements. And since legends are fully associative, you can make changes in your design, and the legend’s graphic symbol display always stays coordinated

6. Revit Parametric Components Components 7. Import Improvements– ACIS ACIS Parametric Components can be used to generate the most elaborate assemblies— including intricate iterative, algorithmic, and behavioral characteristics—as well as the most elementary building parts Collaborate better with users of AutoCAD® software and other CAD applications, by importing 3D solid geometry

9. Revit Worksharing Revit Worksharing distributes the power of the parametric building modeling environment across the project team. Worksharing provides a complete range of collaboration modes

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