Engineering the Future in Autodesk Revit MEP 2011 — A Review | Construction Industry News | Reed Construction Data
As John Stebbins says, it's "C0-Labor-ation." Collaborate, reduce clashes, increase cash, and from your GC, receive no more bashes. It's not about the lines, hatches and dashes. Ok. this poem's over so no more teeth gnashes.
If you haven't had a chance to look at the recently released Autodesk Revit MEP 2011, then it's time to take a look. Without sounding like a cheerleader, this release is a major step in the right direction! Since the release on April 16th, I have had the program open almost every day, and I am currently designing a fire protection system with the Revit MEP 2011 Software. I have been pleased with the quality of the marketed improvements that Autodesk is touting. However, there are also several improvements, which are kind of behind the scenes improvements, which will make a huge difference to the end user. Let me clarify this by saying, there is still room for improvement, but Autodesk knows what needs to be done, and they are listening to the engineering community. The TME philosophy is to use Revit MEP 2011 for what it can currently do, and not really worry about what the software cannot do.
The area of improvement that is getting the most attention in our office involves electrical panel schedules. Panel schedule sizes and customization was one of our biggest complaints. In just two short weeks, those complaints have almost stopped. Being able to edit, manage and customize a template to your company standard is a very nice improvement and is enabling us to do things in the product that we could not do before.
Autodesk
has given us many tools to
customize panel schedules in the
Set Template Options under the
Modify Panel Schedule Template
Tab. With all of these options,
you should be able to build a
panel schedule that is
functional, looks good on paper,
and is easily understandable to
the contractor. Autodesk has
also given us the ability to
assign spares and spaces,
rebalance loads, move circuits
easily, and lock the circuits.
The best improvement of all is
the ability to place the panels
on sheets, for consistency and
size.
On the
Manage tab, Settings panel, you
will find Demand factors in the
MEP Settings drop down. These
demand loads can now be shown on
panel schedules, and they are
user definable. Since almost
every engineer likes to do
things his or her own way, the
customization should allow for
flexibility in electrical
design. Demand factors have been
asked for by our electrical
engineers. Here are the thoughts
of one of TME’s electrical
engineers, John Blissett. ‘This
will enable an electrical
designer to monitor the ‘Total
Demand Load’ on the panels and
switchboards using project
appropriate NEC constraints for
each category of demand. The
result is that ‘Bus Amperage’
for electrical gear can be sized
economically without fear of
under sizing the equipment. As
project changes occur this
‘Total Demand Load’ versus ‘Bus
Amps’ can now be easily tracked
and quality checked, with any
changes in buss amps justified
immediately.’
Another
key improvement is the ability
to manage MEP fixtures that are
typically placed by the
architect. Autodesk has given us
the ability to use MEP fixtures
that are placed in a linked
architectural model. The
fixtures that can be copied and
monitored are the lighting
fixtures, mechanical equipment,
plumbing fixtures, and air
terminals. This process will
allow the MEP engineer to create
a copy of the Architectural
fixture in the MEP Model and
then monitor them for changes.
You can also map these copied
fixtures and change them to the
smart MEP content by using the
Copy/Monitor tool. Additionally,
you can then select the
Coordination Settings tool and
map to whatever type of MEP
fixture you need. This will work
great for scheduling.
How many
times have we forgotten to
coordinate conduit and cable
trays into our design? We now
have the functionality to
coordinate realistic conduit and
cable trays. Autodesk has given
us the option for channel,
ladder, solid bottom, trough and
wire mesh cable trays along with
fittings and connectors.
Junction boxes can also be
placed with the conduit
automatically when assigned in
the type properties, and you can
connect the conduit to a cable
tray. There is also a connect
into face feature for conduit
placement on electrical
equipment like panelboards. The
new electrical content in Revit
MEP 2011 also came with
connectors for the new
improvements. This feature
should be a tremendous help with
coordination issues within our
models.
Another
key improvement for our firm is
the addition of flat oval duct.
Flat oval duct had been an
important part of the design
process at TME, and several of
our engineers just cringed at
the fact that flat oval was not
an original option for Revit
MEP. One of our engineers, who
has been hesitant to use Revit
MEP, commented that he may just
have to finally learn the
program since flat oval ductwork
has been introduced. Having the
proper sizing and fittings
should also help us tighten up
our coordination inside of our
models and buildings.
While the above major
improvements have been heavily
marketed by Autodesk, the
following describes some the
smaller features that have been
added or modified. I feel that
these are also huge positives
for the software to help us do
our day to day work.
Reconcile Hosting under the
Collaborate tools, is a nice
feature for hosting issues and
collaboration with Architectural
models. This will allow you to
see what hosted elements were
orphaned when you inserted a new
architectural model. When you
right click on the Reconcile
hosting dialog box, you are able
to select host, which will then
let you rehost the element.
Visible in view is a nice new feature. This feature will now allow you to select all instances in a view, rather than using a filter or selecting all instances in the project.
The
workset dialog box, being in
view at all times is nice to
have. Even though we could have
it open in our quick access
toolbar, it is helpful to have
the worksets always in view;
especially for a company who
promotes the use of worksets for
design.
The properties dialog box is now
on at all times. At first, I
thought it was annoying, but now
I love having it visible at all
times. I moved the default to my
second monitor, and it works
great for my particular design
style.
Our lead
Revit Plumbing Designer is glad
to see the place valves and/or
fittings in a section/elevation
view. This should help ease some
of the issues of tricky valve
placements, as well as, improve
3D riser schematic detailing.
Tag on placement is another
tool, which if used correctly
could save hours of time. Being
a recovering fire protection
designer, now BIM Development
Coordinator, I would have loved
to have this feature for sizing
and tagging the piping I was
modeling. Now if we could only
tag in 3D!
Last but
not least, the speed of our
models has dramatically
improved. We have seen a
tremendous difference in how our
models are operating. The models
do not seem to have the lag and
are responding to commands
without hesitation, even on
laptops. We converted a 75 mb
MEP file to 2011 in about two
minute and another 100 mb file
in 3 minutes. Autodesk
definitely worked on the speed
and stability for 2011, and it
has shown in our models.
With all of this being said,
there are still some key issues
that need to be addressed.
Piping is a key concern for me
and hopefully that part of the
program can be addressed soon.
Will the release of Revit MEP
2011 make everyone happy with
the software? Probably not! Will
everyone who reads this review
agree with everything that is in
this review? Probably not! But
one thing that we all should
agree on, is Autodesk did take a
huge step in the right direction
with the release of Autodesk
Revit MEP 2011.
Source: Engineering the Future in Autodesk Revit MEP 2011 — A Review | Construction Industry News | Reed Construction Data
