Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit

Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers

Session 8

Even Better Together:

Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers, Seattle, WA

Class Description
This roundtable discussion is for Revit Structure and Architecture users to share their Revitrelated perspectives with their colleagues and with professionals of the other field. Attendees can share their lessons learned on Revit modeling, document creation, and communication across disciplines. Participants will leave the session with knowledge about improving the workflow to serve the entire design team outside their own field.

About the Speaker:

Irina Wong is an expat architect who is now the BIM Coordinator at Degenkolb Engineers, a structural engineering firm with six offices in Washington, Oregon, and California. Her roles include coordinating Revit projects across disciplines, managing the firms BIM practice, maintaining responsibility for company-wide best practices, providing technical support, and leading the development of the firms future BIM direction. In her career, she focuses on open communication and maintaining simplicity. In short, she plans models, she builds models, fixes models, and, more often than she will care to admit, crashes models.

Page 1 of 6

Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers

PREFACE
This handout captures some of my oft-experienced lessons learned and techniques for collaboration between architects and structural engineers in Revit. It is only meant as an introduction a jumping-off point, if you will for our discussion. This list is by no means comprehensive and it may not be true to your experience. I welcome your thoughts, lessons learned, and especially your contrasting perspectives during our roundtable today.

STARTING WELL THE BIM PROJECT KICK-OFF MEETING

Who?
1. A facilitator must be established to lead the meeting. 2. Attendees should be project managers and model managers from each discipline. 3. Who should answer design questions and who should answer the BIM questions?

Why?
1. Manage expectations and set goals. 2. Prevent sudden surprises. 3. Set timeline for workflow. a. BIM projects require more collaboration, especially across the fourth dimension time.

What?
1. Articulate the BIM usages and expectations a. Usages i. Design documentation ii. Presentation material iii. As-built 3D model iv. Analysis (structural, energy, etc.) b. Expectations i. AIA E202 BIM Protocol Exhibit can be included in the contract documents. It establishes process for model ownership, conflicts, and model management procedures. The Model Element Table of this document describes who will model what when. ii. Because the AIA E202 document has limitations, a custom in-house Model Element Table may be needed. 1. List more specific element types, more precise terms for display, and more exact descriptions of allowable uses. Page 2 of 6

Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers 2. Establish collaboration procedures. a. Designate the Revit origin, coordinates, elevation datum, north, and sectors. i. These are Revit decisions that have a long-range effect on the model throughout the design process. b. Set the model-sharing timeline. i. How often will the models be shared across disciplines? ii. Tip: stagger the model-sharing. Architects can share on the weeks that the consultants do not. This gives the design team a chance to catch up to progress the design AND coordinate with the models from other disciplines. c. Refrain from throwing the model over the fence. i. Discuss verbal/graphic methods for communicating changes. d. Establish milestone coordination meetings. i. Face-to-face communication is invaluable. 3. Determine post-design process. a. Discuss Revits role in the Construction Administration process. 1. Using the Revit model as part of the CA record requires continuous update of the model. b. Clarify as-built or record drawing requirements. i. An as-built 3D model requires a lot more information and care than an: ii. As-built 2D drawing set.

What is your perspective on coordination techniques and issues?

Page 3 of 6

Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers

USING THE MODEL: THE ARCHITECTS PERSPECTIVE

The Revit Architecture Environment
1. The Architecture interface and tools are similar to those of Revit Structure. a. The Home tab contains basic modeling elements; it does not include any structural model categories. b. In the rare case we need to create structural model elements, we use the Structure tab. 2. Available Model Categories a. Some families (like Walls and Floors) are identically-named in both Revit Architecture and Structure. The difference: structural families are loadbearing and the architectural ones are not. b. Consultants in-place components can cause us confusion. i. Be mindful to assign to the most logical Model Category to the inplace component. ii. In-place components have much fewer available properties than regular Families.

Coordination and Clash Detection

1. Architects coordinate across all disciplines including Structural, MEP and Civil. a. We rely on 3D views, section boxes, and extreme Visibility/Graphics modifications to understand the building systems holistically.

Production
1. We may create presentation materials straight from Revit. a. We cant edit the materials of linked models, so it is helpful for the consultants to use true and specific materials in their model.

2. Construction documents a. In addition to standard 2D drawings we will sometimes to generate 3D views from the model for construction documents. i. 3D views in drawing sets may require extra modeling accuracy because structural elements may be exposed.

For the architects in the room how do you use the model?

Page 4 of 6

Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers

USING THE MODEL: THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS PERSPECTIVE

The Revit Structure Environment
1. Interface a. The Home tab contains common structural tools, among others; the Architect & Site tab has non-load bearing massing, architectural, and site tools. 2. Model Categories a few items of note a. Structural Framing i. When a beam is drawn attached to a column, Revit will gap the face of the beam from column. That gap is controlled by the Start/End Extension value in the element properties. By default, it is . b. No loadbearing Roof option structural engineers must model roofs as Floors. 3. Analytical Model a. It is a simplified 3D representation of the full engineering description of a structural physical model. b. Revit creates it automatically as the physical structural model is built. c. The lines of the Analytical Model can be turned off in Visibility/Graphics i. Analytical Models are controlled within their own V/G tab.

Coordination and Clash Detection

1. Process a. We turn off everything in the architects model but the elements that affect our design. The model categories we generally leave visible are: i. Walls ii. Floors and floor openings iii. Roofs iv. Grids v. Levels b. Then, we take a look at the changes that have been made that affect our design for example, slab edges differences, opening misalignments, and modified bay sizes. 2. Challenges a. Roof Slopes (or anything sloped) i. Sloped framing is an involved task to model regardless. ii. We have not yet discovered an easy way to update sloped framing. iii. When an update is required, the solution remains to re-align each element of framing (or framing system) individually or re-attach each 3D-snapped column individually. b. Copy/Monitor i. Structural engineers may have copy/monitored grids and levels among other things. (First, of course, communicate between the two disciplines which elements will be copy/monitored. ii. When these elements are deleted and re-drawn, the copy/monitored relationship is broken and must be re-established.

For the structural engineers in the room how do you use the model?
Page 5 of 6

Even Better Together: Collaboration Between Structural Engineers and Architects in Revit
Irina Wong, Degenkolb Engineers

MODELING WELL: TIPS FOR THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

Modeling
1. Work frequently in 3D because incorrectly-modeled structural elements may seem correct in orthogonal views. 2. Exposed structural connections may need to be modeled. When structural items are architectural features, we want to see the detailed geometry (copes, plates, etc.) in 3D. 3. Indicate clearances required around structural elements. a. Represent clearances with 3D geometry or Model Lines. 4. Create components in the correct Model Categories.

What tips do you have for the structural engineers in the room?

MODELING WELL: TIPS FOR THE ARCHITECTS

At the start
1. Refer to the decisions made during the BIM Project Kick-off Meeting a. Review the Level of Development/Allowable Uses Matrix. b. Review the established collaboration procedures. c. Model with the agreed origin, coordinates, sectors, and north.

Throughout the design

1. Maintain if possible the same Revit origin, coordinates, sectors and north. 2. Modify instead of deleting and redrawing Copy/Monitored elements. 3. Maintain clean dimensions. Irrational numbers can frustrate the team. Respect the Myth of Precision. 4. Model critical objects (from Level of Development agreement) a. Avoid using 2D annotations for critical objects remember that structural engineers may hide everything but the 3D objects that impact our work. 5. Create components in the correct Model Categories.

What tips do you have for the architects in the room? Open Discussion.

Page 6 of 6