Transcript Case Study – Municipal Water Tank

TM
Get the data out of your BIM
…and do a better job
Martin Taurer
Livingroomcraftz
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
How it started…
For a while we have been working with AGABau – Bmstr. Anton Gasteiger in
Tyrol… an early Austrian Revit adopter and a truly ingenious
engineer/developer/contractor in one person
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
How it started…
Compared to his hardware setup the Star Track command stand looks like
kid’s stuff (yes – that is 6 large panels he is watching…)
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
The project…
Anton had this structural job with a larger local construction company. He uses
Revit Structure with Dlubal as an analysis engine – he also consults with
Dlubal for their Revit Structure connection…
So – since we needed to model the job in Revit anyway he managed to sell
quantities to his customer…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Scope…
Anton very quickly made it perfectly clear what we need to deliver
Amount of concrete, broken down by concrete quality – so think about all the
different concrete mixtures in foundation, walls, floor slabs, etc…
Number of openings (regardless of window or door)
Number of sheer connectors on adjacent floor-plates and length of ISOinsulated rebar at exposed cantilevering slabs
And – the icing on the cake – area of concrete formwork – naturally…
These data are the key data for a mid-European construction company to
calculate internal cost
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
The challenge…
Amount of concrete – piece a cake you will say, just getting the materials right
and making a material schedule… OK – we had multiple linked files, but
theoretically this should have worked out…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
The challenge…
At this point I need to mention that Anton has this pocket calculator he uses to
check – everything – remember – he is builder as well, so every Euro wasted
by mistake is a Euro out of his pocket…
And I got that skype call in the morning that things did just not add up…
We investigated where the problem was…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
The mess…
It did not take us too ling to find the issue – it turned out that Revit has the nasty
habit of reporting zero volume in material schedules whenever you
geometry join 2 elements with different materials.
Tip – this is actually extremely dangerous and I strongly suggest that we should
approach Autodesk on this issue – BTW, reconfirmed in 2011 as well…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Resolving…
We went back into the model – or – to be correct – into the 6 linked models.
We did set up schedules for material: Volume to track every element that
reported zero Volume on it’s material.
Then we needed to find it in the model, check it it was joined or aligned to
top/bottom and un-join/break the alignment.
Then again we needed to fix the geometry of the columns and beams in
question that we had previously joined/aligned top/bottom
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Damage control…
Luckily – thanks to that darn calculator of Anton and a good portion of
paranoia on both sides – we could find the error before data went to the
customer.
Again “Mr. Vladimir” did proof right…
“Verttrauen ist gut – Kontrolle ist besser”
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Further down the job…
In order to actually get all the required quantities we started to construct
custom content – structural components that would also include formwork,
etc…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Further down the job…
Every quantity that needed to be scheduled was actually modeled……
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Further down the job…
A number of schedules was created…… 160 in total…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Further down the job…
and placed on sheets alongside the model to visualize quantities…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Multi-unit residential complex - Tirol
Lesson learned…
Sanity check – look at the data you produce and do not rely blindly on what
the system throws at you.
Specifically, when you are doing material schedules in Revit, counter check
with element schedules as well. In most cases both schedule types will
report area and volume – if you apply clever filtering you can compare the
results (if only on paper and PDF – Autodesk take note here..)
If something flags an alert – investigate.
It takes a large effort to win the trust of your customer and just a second to loose it….
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Scenario…
As before – Anton aus Tirol…
But this time the job was not only to get base quantities…
We needed to get all the quantities broken down according to Standard
Leistungsverzeichniß Österreich – basically a classification format used in
Austria with a twist – more about that later…
And we needed to give graphic and calculation proof of the values…
For MEP stuff as well
And the form of the building was all but rectangular and flat… remember,
water tank at a steep mountain site…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step one – base quantities…
First step was to get the base quantities for the cost estimate for the
construction company…
We applies the same formula we used with the previous case study, only that
we omitted the pitfalls we learned there…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step one – base quantities…
Formwork area was a challenge since the
geometry of the structure was challenging.
Paining surfaces with a material was one way,
but it would ruin the material schedules of
the concrete.
We ended up building the formwork in Revit…
At the end of the day we had the data in
place
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step one – base quantities…
Including the crane – which we snitched off from Sketchup…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step two – actual mass calculation…
It very soon became clear that Revit quantities
would not fit the classification scheme…
There was no good way in scheduling to
discriminate between straight and curved walls
for example – but they do have a different
classification code and price…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step two – actual mass calculation…
Resolution was found in applying shared parameters to classify elements by LV
code…
But that just was not good enough to provide proof of quantity…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step three – providing proof…
Then Jochen – From toolbox for Revit – stepped in…
Some (and actually quite a lot) of lines of code on the API later we had a way
to export and re-topologize geometry in Revit broken down by
classification code.
And gat it back into a quantities model that we used for generating the
proof…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step three – providing proof…
As soon as we had all these (in-place) models we had to unroll them
depending on their calculation method – volumes for foundations, areas
for walls and formwork…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Step three – providing proof…
And then reassemble all that into a single proof of quantity Revit model…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Where we are with this right now…
The job is done – but we explicitly took it as a test-bed for larger stuff to come.
Admittedly, many steps in this job were done manually, unrolling geometry
e.g. was Rhino taken back into Revit, proof of quantities was a lot of fancy
Revit families and tireless moving tags around so that they would look like a
schedule…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Lesson learned…
Revit schedules in most cases do not fit desired quantity classification
standards
An intermediate layer to manipulate BIM geometry based quantities to
quantities as broken down by classification standard is needed.
Tools for that are out there, such as iTwo and VICO, they do get very close…
Our resolution is the Geometry Explorer – a proprietary beta plug-in (yes – we
are going to sell this very soon – look at the bim-managenent.com website)
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Lesson learned…
The Geometry Explorer will allow to semi-automatically extract Revit geometry
based on classification codes and build mass schedules in it’s own
database
It more importantly will also allow to interact and correct where it’s rules-based
assumption could be insufficient…
It is running in beta now…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Where it lead to…
A partnership and b.i.m.m – GmbH – a company formed as a collaborative
effort of AGABau, Toolbox4Revit and Livingroomcrafts…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Summing up…
One phrase during this project made the challenge very clear: for the required
area of moisture barrier, Anton described it to me as:
“Take the building, turn it upside down, dip it into liquid chocolate 1.5 meters
deep, calculate the area of the chocolate used and unroll it to proof it…
that is what we need”
Then we started digging and coding…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
We did model
excavated earth
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…and rock
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…as well as backfill
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…drainage
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…amount of gravel
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…and sure – stair formwork…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Case Study – Municipal Water Tank - Tirol
Sample pages…
…concrete formwork – my
personal favorite…
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Revit Geometry Explorer
b.i.m.m Management…
Our collaboration with Agabau and Planworks led to a new company…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Revit Geometry Explorer
b.i.m.m Management…
We will be releasing a series of Tools and Revit plug-ins in the near future… watch
out for it at www.bim-management.com
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Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
Exporting from Revit…
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Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
Interactive geometry selection…
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Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
Calculation proof…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
Calculation proof…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
Including Subpolygons…
Revit Technology Conference 2010
Revit Geometry Explorer
Geometry Explorer in action…
soon to be available form b.i.m.m - Gmbh…
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Questions
Martin Taurer
Revit Technology Conference 2010