When you’re up against a deadline, it’s inevitable that shortcuts need to be taken. There’s just too much pressure to deliver and not enough time to do things the right way. This still happens everyday, especially for small projects with short deadlines and revisions that require a fast turn around.
This typically happens with firms that tend to be new to Revit and don’t have a proper resource library to pull from, nor have an avid BIM person to create something on the spot. Then if this firm is required to coordinate their Revit model with other firms, the project suffers because that new firm isn’t modeling in Revit correctly. This is the CAD equivalent of putting lines on the wrong layer such that another firm cannot easily separate the lines from others. Honestly, medium and large firms across the board are at fault too but we have all the time to talk about that later.
A recent example was when an architect, pressed for time, redrew the entire bathroom layout in detail lines and filled regions. Everything from interior design to light fixtures to MEP. This mean that the linework could not be separated into each disciplines to be shown in the relevant backgrounds. The MEP team was forced to separate the linework by copying the relevant linework into their own model just to make it work. The problem with this is that now the elements are owned by the MEP firm, in their model, and any future changes, which inevitably there will be, will have to be copied over from the architect’s model again unless they redraw the layout using proper Revit elements.
What adds to the frustration is when the PMs don’t understand what’s required to properly coordinate in Revit and are unable to communicate these needs across both parties. All they see are dates, and deliverables, and nothing in between. The worst is when there is no empathy with how difficult it is to understand what is really going on in the architect’s model and what they are trying to achieve, for example a wall intended to be full height shows in plan but doesn’t show in RCP because the lines weren’t carried over, thus it was easy to miss that the area was intended to be enclosed and required additional lighting.
Then comes the question, is it worth discussing this with the architect for such a small deadline? Or do we forget about it because we don’t want to stir the pot that’s already spinning out of control for such short deadlines. But what did we do in the CAD days? Weren’t firms fed up with lines being drawn on the wrong layers and that’s the reason why a national CAD standard was made? Where is that national standard for Revit today? In practice, it seems like it’s no where to be found.
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