MSF9972

Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar

Detailing.
Grant Doherty
Martin/Martin Inc.

Shane Ewing
Martin/Martin Inc.

Learning Objectives
 Discover best practices for getting started with rebar detailing with Revit
 Discover various limitations and advantages to Revit reinforcement tools
 Learn schedule, integration, and coordination benefits
 Learn various schedule and cost implications

Description
In this class, we will cover the use of Autodesk Revit Structure software as a platform for an innovative
approach to reinforcing steel detailing, where the detailing is performed parametrically in the same BIM
model as the design team. Utilizing Revit along with the design team allows for superior coordination
with structure and other trades and results in an accurate model that can be used in the field by the
contractor. We will show examples of Revit’s standard reinforcement tools and touch on some best
practices, work-arounds, shortcuts, limitations, and advantages of utilizing Revit as well as detailing
during the design phase.

Your AU Experts
Grant Doherty received his bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Wyoming and
currently is a project manager at Martin/Martin. In the past Grant has regularly attended Autodesk
University, was the Building Information Modeling (BIM) manager at the University of Wyoming and at
Martin/Martin, and ran for United States Congress (in his spare time).
Shane Ewing, PE DBIA is a Principal with Martin/Martin and leads the Construction Engineering Services
team, which focuses on the structural engineering and fabrication detailing needs of contractors. Shane
has more than 23 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry.
 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

Discovering the best practices for getting started with rebar detailing with Revit
Cover, Cover, Cover
For most rebar detailing, setting your cover requirements should be one of the very first steps. There
are three primary ways to adjust the cover for an element.

First, is by adjusting the cover in elements properties

This is typically the quickest way to modify cover setting of an element. However, it does not give much
freedom as most (if not all) elements only give 3 faces to specify. For example: Inside Face, Exterior
Face, and Other Face for a wall. This allows you to define the two primary faces but then forces the
remaining faces to be defined the same (top, bottom, left side, right side).

If cover has been defined differently for one "other" face than the rest, the properties will show this as
"None." This also happens when an element has merged with another element such as a column
merging with a wall or a beam merging with a slab.

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Second is by specifying the cover of an element in the "Edit Rebar Cover" tool.

This option really only works well with elements that have a consistent cover on all sides, such as a
column or elevated slab.

The third primary way of specifying the cover is by picking faces in the "Edit Rebar Cover" tool.

This gives great flexibility to specify the cover of each face. This then allows you to have a different
cover for all 6 main faces of an element. To use this or the element cover tool, first select the
element/face you would like to manipulate then use the Cover Settings drop down to change its cover.

To personalize your cover settings you can either access it through the ellipsis on the "Edit Rebar Cover"
options bar or use the Rebar Cover Settings under the Reinforcement drop down.

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

A few last things to note, regarding rebar cover is that you will be unable to host rebar in an element
such as a wall that is 6" thick that has a 3" cover set to each face. To Revit, this leaves no space for
rebar. This is one of the reasons that cover should be one of the first things you look at when modeling
rebar in an element. Much about how rebar acts and reacts to model changes is based primarily on how
the bars interact with the cover.

Assemblies
Overview:
Assemblies were first introduced in Revit 2012. Since then Autodesk has made many improvements to
assemblies, making them much more flexible and user friendly.

Groups vs Assemblies:
Groups and assemblies have many similarities, but with regards to rebar there are a few key differences.
The first being that groups constrain rebar significantly. Rebar in groups does not really interact with
hosted elements the way free bars do and does not have to comply with set cover requirements the way
assembled rebar does. If the model is changed, generally, the bars in a group will stay put and not
change with any model changes. With assemblies, if the host element changes, the bars in the assembly
will adapt just as they do outside of the assembly. (This functionality depends greatly on the correct use
of cover). The bars are also required to adhere to set rebar settings of host elements. Though groups
had their place with rebar, I would generally advise to use assemblies over groups.

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

Assembly Views:
There are two primary assembly view types: the detail views (plan, sections, etc.) and schedules. The
views in the assemblies work just like those outside assemblies when you consider that they are
primarily detail views including the plan cut. So when adjusting a plan the typical plan information Top,
Cut Depth, View Depth, and Bottom are not available. The other noteworthy nuance with assembly
views is that they will only show elements in the assembly, which means a host element needs to be
included in the assembly to show more than just bars floating in space. This creates difficulties when
working in the CDs model when doing shop drawings. Also, annotation elements such as grids and
levels are not included in assembly views and are not allowed in assemblies. (Below shows an example
of an assembly view where the host element is included in the assembly and one where it is not)

Assembly Schedules:
Currently with Revit 2016, the stance I have towards assembly schedules is not to use them. The
primary advantage to an assembly schedule is that it is pre-filtered based on the assembly so that only
elements inside the assembly are included. However, to accomplish this in a normal schedule all one
has to do is filter based on Assembly Type and then they have full schedule functionality.

There are two primary issues with assembly schedules currently.

The first is that they are set to some default on what is populated when a schedule is made. Each time
an assembly schedule is made, it defaults to a few particular values. In a project that may have 100s of
assemblies, this means all of the fields needed for rebar assemblies have to be manually changed for all
100 assemblies.

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

The second issue with the assembly schedules is more for rebar than other elements. The assembly
schedule is really a multi-category schedule and because of this there are a few fields that are not
available in them. For rebar, two of these are Shape (the parameter for the CRSI shape) and quantity
(the parameter indicating how many bars are in a set of rebar). For rebar these two parameters are
essential, so this alone really makes assembly schedules not viable for rebar, even if someone was
willing to manually make all 100 schedules.

Path and Area Reinforcement

In the past (prior to Revit 2013), path and area reinforcement was really only useful for CDs for
documentation. It was not very useful for Shop and Fabrication since it was not able to be scheduled.
Though in 2015 we are still not able to schedule area and path reinforcement, Autodesk has taken it
beyond that by allowing these tools to host 3D Rebar. The first thing to know about this function is that
it is an option in the Reinforcement Setting. However, this option is selected the first time area/path
reinforcement and able to be changed until all the area and path reinforcement are removed from the
project.

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

The Area and Path Reinforcement settings in this dialogue allow you to change naming conventions for
tags. I.e. the ability to tag a bottom bar as BOT, Bottom, B, etc.

Creating area and path reinforcement is fairly straight forward. Especially since 2013 with the ability for
path and area reinforcement to host 3D reinforcement (which makes it schedulable) area and path
reinforcement is now an extremely quick and effective way to model mass rebar in elements such as
wall and slabs. To start, select the type you would like to utilize. (Either area or path).

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

Next, you will need to select a host element. Currently, only slabs, walls, and slab foundations are able
to host area and path reinforcement. Though this should cover the majority of mat type reinforcement,
wall foundations and isolated foundations are two types of concrete elements that won’t work.

After selecting a host for the reinforcement, Revit will open a sketch editor and require you to sketch
either a path or area for the reinforcement. When sketching for area, there is no need to have an inner
sketch to form openings as long as openings have been modeled, though it is allowed to have loops
within other loops.

One glitch that has been reported to Autodesk is openings in walls that cut through reveals and/or
sweeps are not always recognized by area reinforcements. So in some cases, the reinforcement will
ignore the openings and will run through. This issue is most common when dealing with precast panels
that have reveal chamfers built into the wall type.

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 Autodesk® Revit® Structure and the Future of Rebar Detailing.

To modify the information about the area/path reinforcement, utilize the properties when the
area/path is selected. Path allows only a single layer, single direction of rebar. Area reinforcement
allows a set of rebar in each direction on each face of a selected element. The two mats of
reinforcement can be controlled independently of each other. When sketching the area reinforcement,
it is important to note which direction is the major direction. Currently, the two mats that form area
reinforcement are required to have the same major direction.

This means that it is not currently possible to have a set of East-West bars both run as top steel and
North-South bars run as bottom steel in a slab by using Area Reinforcement. This may not be all that
common but does happen. (See image below)

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One other drawback is the inability to give a maximum bar length and splice length requirements,
making them a little more advantageous for CDs where laps are typically covered by notes and not
required to be modeled accurately as with fabrication drawings. However, the ability to adaptively
change when openings are changed, moved, or deleted makes it much quicker than manually detailing
bar around every opening.

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One final note for area and path reinforcement is that copying area and path reinforcement can be
difficult, especially when copying to different hosts, as it not always able to recognize the new host.

Navisworks
Since Navisworks 2013, there are now four options to bring in Revit models. The first three are all
directly through Navisworks. Navisworks view will import the first view in Revit that contains the word
Navis. The First 3D View brings in the first 3D View from the Revit file, although it is unclear what is
meant by first since the Revit browser can be set up to alter what 3D view shows first. The final way
directly in Navis is Entire Project. The fourth way is exporting views directly from Revit.

In recent versions of Navisworks and Revit, rebar now comes in as a solid, as opposed to a line
representation. This greatly decreases the effort to import reinforcement in to Navisworks and also
allow users to leverage the live linking functionality between Revit and Navisworks.

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Utilizing Navisworks with reinforcement is a powerful tool to can quickly check a model check and
makes it easier to identify areas of incorrect or atypical reinforcement. The use of search sets for this
process is strongly recommended.

Template Schedules
As with any schedule in Revit, there really is not currently a way to create a full template. The Schedule
view template only applies to Appearances. This is helpful, but has limited value when you need 100+
rebar schedules.

To get past this, it is recommended to create template schedules that users then utilize to duplicate for
new schedules. This way the schedules start off with the information needed and then can be quickly
modified to filter the correct reinforcement. This is a quick and easy way to standardize your process of
creating multiple schedules that may only vary by the filter.

Discovering various limitations and advantages to Revit reinforcement tools

Limitations
 It can be extremely slow and tedious to detail all the rebar manually when compared to the
extensions and other software platforms such as Tekla. However, the flexibility to model odd
geometries is beneficial. There are three primary steps in the process of creating reinforcement
fabrication and placement drawings. First, is the review of the construction documents to
become familiar with and understand the reinforcing requirements of the project. With an
integrated project, this also involves working closely with the designers to extract this
information. Second, is rebar modeling. Lastly is detailing of the modeled rebar, which consist
of creating schedules for fabrication and drawings for placement. For the most part, Revit has
little disadvantage over any other methods when it comes to the first and last portion, so the
difference is really on the modeling side. There are areas in detailing of rebar that could use
improvement to help efficiency.
 Another limitation is related to memory. If every element is detailed fully with the correct
reinforcement, the files can become slow and difficult to maintain. Currently, we feel that any
project that has rebar being detailed in it requires at least 12gb RAM.
 Lastly, and probably the biggest drawback is the inability to nest rebar in families. This may not
seem critical, but having the ability to nest rebar into beams, columns, drilled piers, caps, and
spread footings would really change the game when it comes to rebar in Revit.

Advantages
 Modeling rebar in Revit provides a great sense of how things can be put together. As said
earlier, the process of modeling rebar in Revit requires a great deal of thought regarding
construction and process. When a program just throws rebar in for the detail the ability to see
conflicts and other constructability issues can be easily missed.

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 3D rebar also allows coordination with lift drawing models and other models for coordination.
Coordinating lift drawings and embed plate drawings can become a much smoother process
with rebar is modeled using a tool such as Revit.

 When the process of detailing rebar is coordinated correctly, construction schedules can be
greatly reduced.

Learning schedule, integration, and coordination benefits

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Schedule Benefits
Though there are many advantages to having the structural design team perform the reinforcement
detailing, none are as quantifiable and impactful as the schedule benefits for the entire team and
project. This process allows detailing to happen earlier during the design and construction phase and
can help shorten the overall project schedule as shown below. The time savings realized by utilizing this
detailing process can provide additional time for the design team which can result in better quality and
coordinated documents.

The Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center at the University of Wyoming is a good example of value
delivered, not only in terms of schedule but money as well. A major requirement of the winning design
and construction team was that the center would be open for the start of the following football season.

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This requirement was not just the Owner’s but was a stipulation of the primary private donor funding
the project. For this project, the structural foundation package was due March 21st, rebar shop
drawings were then issued March 27th, concrete began later in April, and steel erection started July 15th.

“When we started to plan out the construction schedule for the project, we realized
right away that we could not use the conventional method of procuring the concrete
reinforcement. Normally we would have waited until the design was complete, put the
job out to bid (2 weeks), sign someone up( 1 week), get shop drawings( 2 weeks),
internal review and submission of shop drawings (1 week), get approval( 1-2 weeks),
then put the rebar into fabrication and delivery( 3 weeks). That process turns into about
an 8-10 weeks process. Our challenge was that we needed to start concrete installation
4 weeks after the first documents were produced for the project. In order to
accomplish this, we needed to pair up the rebar detailer with the structural engineer to
work together to produce shop drawings concurrently. This process was implemented
and worked very smooth. We were able to have rebar on site and being installed 3
weeks after the structural concrete design was complete.”
Preston Nelson – PM – Haselden Construction

As seen above, the schedule advantages to EOR detailing is unrivaled and can be a tremendous benefit
for a project, especially when owners want their buildings to be completed much more quickly than ever
before. A typical estimate is that this integrated and fast tracked process can save four to six weeks on
the schedule up front – often the most critical part of the schedule. This compressed schedule allows
foundations to start earlier and vertical construction to begin earlier as well.

The University of Colorado Folsom Stadium Expansion project is another great example of the integrated
detailing process. It was clear when design started at the beginning of March, that in order to have the
new seating additions ready for opening day, business as usual would not be sufficient. To help address
this, Design-Builder M.A. Mortenson engaged the M/M Construction Engineering Services team to help
the team meet the schedule. Detailing started May 12th and drilled piers were approved and released
for fabrication May 16th. In the end, though teams were working up to the very last minute, the new
seating structures were open for the home opener September 13th.

From an Owner’s perspective, the acceleration in schedule improves “speed to market”. For an Owner,
this typically means incoming revenue sooner.

From a General Contractor’s perspective, the acceleration in schedule helps with sometimes unrealistic
Owner demands, the ability to be more aggressive in project pursuits, and decreased time on site and
general conditions.

Integration Benefits
Another benefit from the engineer-of-record performing rebar detailing is the enhanced integration
during design/detailing. In a typical scenario, the rebar detailing is separated from the design. Design
intent is left up to interpretation and there is not typically direct communication between the detailers
and designers. In this process the detailer either has to make an educated assumption on intent or issue
a request for information to get further clarification. This disconnected process can result in
misinterpretation of the design intent and/or conservative assumptions to address uncertainties. An

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integrated design and detailing team avoids the pitfalls of the fragmented process. RFI’s are virtually
eliminated and an opportunity for innovation and cost reduction is created.

Beyond this, the detailers are able to learn from and lean on the expertise of the engineers designing
the project to fully understand the intent and ways to improve detailing to help reduce cost, but also the
designers are able to learn from and lean on the detailers to help them better understand cost impacts
as well as constructability issues. By both sides leaning on the other in their respective expertise the
result is a better overall end product that can be optimized based on both design and construction
constraints. The integrated team provides the engineering expertise and insight from the design team
and the eye for constructability and cost impacts from the detailers.

This process is a natural for design-build projects. Martin/Martin uses lean principles and a pull-
planning methodology to work from required rebar delivery dates to determine submittal dates and
when prerequisite information is required from the Design-Build team.

Lastly, having the design and detailing team integrated allows for much quicker response time when it
comes to changes. When changes or field issues arise, the integrated team can coordinate and respond
far more quickly than a third party detailer. With this method, these solutions are not tied to scheduled
releases of drawings.

“On this (University of Colorado Systems Biotech) fast-track project the reinforcing
detail modification have at times preceded the updates to the Construction Documents!
The entire process has allowed the project to avoid delays.”
Jason Crookshank - JE Dunn Construction

None of the benefits described above could be accomplished by a third party detailer.

Coordination Benefits
Coordination can be key to a successful project and this is no different with the reinforcement and
concreate portions of a project. Increasingly, it is becoming standard practice for models to be shared
and relied on for at least coordination if not construction.

Having BIM rebar allows the entire team to visualize and coordinate other trades, such as the lift
drawings, embed plates, pre-cast inserts, and other items cast into the concrete with the reinforcement.
As with other coordination efforts, this helps reduce issues that can later come up in the field and can be
very costly.

On the Platte Valley Medical Center Expansion in Brighton, Colorado, our team was tasked with not only
the reinforcement detailing but also the concrete lift drawings. Steel fabricator Puma Steel out of
Cheyenne, Wyoming detailed the structural steel and was able to share their model of the embed plates
and anchor bolts that we were able to utilize in our lift drawings. This allowed for a better integration
between embed plates, reinforcement, and the lift drawings on the project. We were also able to tailor
the drawings to the construction sequence of the project, which was an aid in managing the process of
ordering reinforcement and placing concrete.

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“We were able to further utilize the detailing model for structural coordination in
Navisworks, clash detection formwork system elements with structural embeds and
resolving conflicts and confirming alignments of structural steel.
Gregg Behmer – VDC Manager – GH Phipps

Learning various schedule and cost implications

Schedule Implications
As discussed above, there are numerous benefits to having the design team also detail the
reinforcement on a project. Further, this effort takes place in the same Revit model used for
Construction Documents. There are, however, schedule implications to be considered.

When detailing is performed by a third party detailer, that effort typically starts after the design is
complete. With integrated detailing, design may not be complete and many questions must be
answered at the same time that the design team is finishing construction documents. Information from
the contractor is also required, like pour breaks, construction sequence, and rebar placer and fabricator
preferences. It can be difficult to extract all of this information at this critical time, but is vital for the
process to succeed.

An obvious risk to detailing early in the design phase and at an accelerated pace is the potential for re-
work and mistakes. Our experience with this process has trained us to ask certain questions and request
information that is necessary, but re-work is inevitable.

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Cost Implications

By using knowledgeable engineers and technicians to detail reinforcing steel and by having access to the
designers, Martin/Martin is able to make judgments regarding splice locations, bar size and
configuration, and placement that can result in significant cost savings. It is difficult to measure this, as
rebar only gets detailed once, but internal studies show that we can save 5% and sometimes up to 10%
in rebar tonnage in this way.

An example of a project detailed by a third party detailer and also by Martin/Martin:

Third Party Detailer

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Martin/Martin modified splice locations and save almost 4% in materials and placing

Using more highly qualified engineers and technicians to perform rebar detailing is inherently more
expensive than most third party detailers. Modeling all of the rebar may also take more time,
depending on the project. This results in fees that are typically higher than those offered by the
fabricator’s detailers. The payback for this premium typically comes during construction. Projects
detailed by Martin/Martin have almost no RFI’s and the thorough, high quality drawings provide clear
direction to the rebar installers. This is even more difficult to measure, but our long time clients
recognize the value and request this service whenever possible.

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