What’s in a Room?

Ceilidh Higgins

Interior Designer | BIM Specialist | Blogger |

GreenStar Professional | Looking for opportunities

rooms

Furniture

Floors

Walls

Finishes

Ceilings

Casework

Doors

Plumbing

Equipment

a room object itself is a container for data –both physical and information based

revit rooms

room data sheets

room data sheets document what SHOULD be in a room, not what is modelled

currently�

word file, excel file or access database

revit model objects revit model data

then there are 2D elements

is that a floor? an area? or a colour fill?and can you tell the difference anyway?

is it broken?

what about�

excel file revit model data

bi directional link

then if we could�

revit model objectsrevit model data

compare

use excel to enter data

or a schedule

or a plan

compare proposed to actual

proposed number of double power outlets (data only)

actual count of double power outlets in the model

calculation of difference between proposed and actual

tools

Revit – schedules, graphic filters, room colour schemes, annotations

Microsoft Excel for spreadsheets –intermediate level of use

RTV Shared Parameter Manager to manage project parameters – just $135 USD

Ideate BIMLink for bi-directional link between excel and revit - $850 approx

what else?• room data sheet - or

something else?

• what is modelled? what

is data? what is 2d?

• is it worth it?

schedule non-object data

physical properties of modelled objects data only

information from room parameters

create visual data plans

different colours indicate different PROPOSED acoustic zones

where are we

going?

how will the data be used?

text, integer, length, yes/no, material? what parameter type will be used?

for each parameter consider what type of parameter is required based upon what you want to record/check or measure and the output plans or schedules you need

Note Blocks (attached to nothing)ImagesRooms

Attached to RoomsSymbols & AnnotationsGeneric Model Objects

Attached to 2D ObjectsFamilies with 2D

lines

Families including doors, furniture, casework,

equipment

Attached to 3D ObjectsDetail ComponentsWalls, Floors, Ceilings

Information2D Objects3D Objects

what is a model made up of?

what is important?

think about how and when you gather information as well as how you use it

simple parameter type tips

integers are good for comparing quantities of like items

yes/no and text parameters with limited number of descriptions are great for visual plans

finishes

modelling finishes?

keynotes & scheduling ensure consistency

adding colour and actual material patterns can give you a quick visual design check

finish plans – why use a colour fill? with a material its there in 3D

what about walls?

All options are

work arounds

Paintbucket

Room object

Additional wall

Part of wall

Other options?line based family attached to wall with filters used to identify different materials

no material parameters?

in the room object all the floor, wall, ceiling and finish parameters are text (so is casework), why?

2 reasons1. timing - remember the room data

sheet is the brief an actual material has not yet been selected

2. good BIM - the room object is not a physical object to which materials can be applied

furniture

revit outputs

component libraries

what room data?this example of FFE is more common in lab projects –each item is listed individually with dimensions and other details – every cell would be a parameter

this example is less detailed for each piece of equipment and relies on lists and text based entries

integer parameters for quantities –separate from text descriptions will allow for excel spreadsheet check

yes/no parameter to identify if there are standard workstations in a room

text based list for joinery (casework) means this will be a manual check

chairs are separated into different kinds, a yes/no parameter in each chair family will be required to identify which kind of chair it is

client supplied equipment with separate parameters for each dimension – the same data could be used in a type catalogue to build families

for a lab project each service might need to be a separate parameter

again why?1. timing - remember the room data

sheet is the brief, detailed types of furniture are not yet selected

2. consider each type/item of FFE individually and think how your projects can use the data collected

3. and still no materials – again timing and good BIM

lets get started

the revit template

create your room data parameters in your revittemplate file (you can also load into an existing project too)

other template tips – set up views for multiple levels and also set up your standard schedules

creating parameters

parameter Names should include “Proposed” or “Briefed” so as to avoid confusion with modelled elements

bind parameters�

parameter binding loads the shared parameters into the project file

in the order you want them

parameters will be in the order they are bound, or if multiple parameters are bound at once, in alphabetical order

check everything�

I missed the CEH here

the parameter cannot be reloaded into the same project with a different name – you have to create a new parameter with a new GUID and then delete the old parameter

before loading!

the ‘new’ casework parameter will come in after all the other parameters nowD

learn from my lesson – I wasted a lot of time not checking parameter names & types before loading them all into the template

create the BIMlink

select create new link

you then have to set the order up again in BIMlink, as this will control the order you see them in excel

select parameters

select export to export the revitdata to an excel file – at this point all we are doing is exporting the parameters not actual information

export link

room data file

we now have a blank room data file – there was just one room in the revit template –this is its GUID

tip – you have to open the excel file inside of excel not double click.

testing

BIMlink allows you to create new rooms within excel, just add NEW to the GUID field

formatting tips

quickly change row height and set all cells to wrap text to make editing easierFreeze room names/numbers to aid navigation

one issue is that you can’t tell from excel what the parameter type is –maybe consider your naming?but go ahead and fill out a row of data

parameter types

import BIMlink

select import, then the excel file and the workbook.

review errors and changes

the BIMlinkdialogue lists all new and modified data and all identifies errors

and allows you to save an issues report as an excel file

error and change report

we now know when (and probably who?) changed the room data sheet –this is a benefit over using excel on its own

import complete

room data has now been imported into room parameters

opps this was a qty

these nils should be NO

4 of 5 errors easily identified

incorrect parameter type –

parameter will now have to be

deleted, remade and will be out of

order

fixing errors

fixing errors

having fixed the error in the revitparameters we also need to load the new parameter into the BIMlink

and the data file

overwrite the previous room data file

using find and replace

another benefit of excel – find and replace NIL with NO

be careful not to replace any text in this row

repeat until you get zero warnings (took me 2 goes)

import back to revit

save link

if you save the link definition you will be able to import the BIMlink into other files and not have to go through picking the parameter order again (at least in BIMlink –sorry still required to load parameters into Revit)

linked workbooks

BIMLink exported data file preformated worksheets

set up the excel data sheet

this is a preformatedtemplate that you can use on every project with links back to your data file

just make sure to save it in the same folder as the file “Room Data File” and never change the name of “Room Data File”

maintain the links

some odditiesyes/no parameters will show TRUE/FALSE, if this really bugs you run a find and replace on the data file before issuing to client

I put NO into any field that would otherwise be empty – so it doesn’t show zero and its clear its deliberately NO

copy worksheet

fix linksrun find and replace on each sheet to fix the formula – replace $2 with $3 means it will read the next row down from the data file

fix sheet names

it really would be better if the sheet names matched the room numbers (or names if you like), to do this we need to create a macro

the visual basic editor

View ->Code

here is your code

select cell to reference

I picked B7 – room number – use find and replace on your code

run the macro

interesting�

error dialogue -room 10.10 is considered the same as room 10.1 – this potentially highlights a problem with our room numbering scheme that could occur with other database software

revise room numbering

close the room data sheet and update the room data file

tip – you need to always have the room data file open to update the room data sheet

when you reopen the data sheet you might get an error like this

enable macros

go to tools->options

change security settings

re run the macro

you may need to close and reopen the data sheet file

worksheets have been renamed

formatting tips

select all worksheet tabs at once

all cells can be formatted as ‘general’ (room number had 2 digits after the decimal)

change the header

select all sheets except the first one, link them back to the first one – then you only update once

enter more data

record the room GUID before you paste

your template is ready

tidy up the template by deleting the rooms in a schedule view

test your template

create a new project based on the template and import the BIMlink data file

your data file had GUID numbers in it, if there are no rooms yet in the project you need all NEW in the data file

fix the error

and reimport in BIMlink and your rooms now exist in the project

but don’t import twice!

rooms ready for placing

make sure your users know to select the rooms to place, not to always make new rooms

complete with data

using the data

here is one i prepared earlier

this revit file is basically complete for construction but the only room objects are inside the core

open BIMLink, load the link file and then load the rooms

load the room data

place the rooms

create a colour scheme

edit the colour scheme

duplicate and modify an existing colour scheme – pick a yes/no parameter

proposed av layout

proposed room acoustics

or a text parameter with limited different entries

add room tags

room tag using data from the AV list parameter combined with colour scheme based on the yes/no AV parameter

proposed DGPOs

this plan would be useful at an early stage, to agree numbers with client or to brief engineer. this model is further developed and has actual DGPOs already shown – we can see there are errors. ideally we want to compare the actual and the existing.

room tag using data from the double GPO quantity parameter

useful tip

as you can’t use the default count parameter in formulas it can be useful to give all families another counting parameter

create a schedule

power outlets are electrical fixtures select parameters available from electrical fixtures and from rooms

schedule settings

schedule output

all electrical families are scheduledDand you can’t filter a schedule by family name

what can we filter?

needs to be a shared parameter - using shared parameters allows you to use data for more uses

if you can’t find one - create a new shared parameter

filter the schedule

hide the filter & family type

calculated values are not taken into account in formula for calculated parameter

calculate the difference

a yes/no parameter Count_Item_CEH = Room: GPO_Double_Qty_Proposed_CEH does not work either –Revit is always comparing the individual “Count_Item_CEH”parameter in the calculation –NOT the calculated total we see in the schedule.

yes/no difference?

export the schedule

calculate in excel

add conditional formatting

difference greater than 0 between actual and proposed

add totals

in the real world?

benefits1. quicker data entry2. create visual plans3. data comparisons 4. review and save errors and changes 5. discovers data code errors

20 hourstime taken

to setup

and test

templates

Questions?

check out my blog at

themidnightlunch.com

Colours by Shershe (recoloured) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/shershe/3361427968/sizes/o/in/photostream/

The weakest link by Darwin Bell (clipped) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/465459020/sizes/l/

Tools by zzpza - http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzpza/3269784239/sizes/o/

The Thinker by 4johny5 (clipped) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnny4ever5/3226486640/sizes/l/

London Bridge Tunnel by Martino’s Doodles -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinosdoodles/2501720296/http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinosdoodles/250172

0296/

Level of Detail – Thanks to PracticalBIM http://practicalbim.blogspot.com.au/

Floor Walking by Amodiovalerio Verde - http://www.flickr.com/photos/amodiovalerioverde/41523777/sizes/o/

Alarm clock by kobiz7 (clipped) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/27369469@N08/2661018158/sizes/l/

Chairs - http://www.flickr.com/photos/masochismtango/283536089/sizes/o/

Creating the Future for Libraries blank book by Shifted Librarian -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/3360687295

Bryant Park, Late April 2009 by Ed Yourdon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3475417696/sizes/l/

Data slide by Bionic teaching (colours modified) -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bionicteaching/2920562020/sizes/o

Information by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/6950477589/sizes/h/in/photostream/

Just Full Of Ideas by Cayusa - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/981372736/

Time jumper by h.koppdelaney - http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/6171907581/sizes/l/

Component Libraries by Daniel Moodie

Finishes screen shots by Ceilidh Higgins at GHD

All other screen shots prepared for this presentation by Ceilidh Higgins

image credits