AUGIWorld Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 18) REVIT ARCHITECTURE Ride the “A” Train Autodesk’s Revit platform is driving a major change in architectural design Editor’s note: This issue of AUGIWorld coincides with Autodesk University, and we welcome all the participants. AU is an occasion for stimulation, information exchange, and a look forward. Our Revit Architecture column for this issue, rather than providing tips and tricks for hands-on users, will be devoted to encouraging managers and company principals—those who lead or direct investment in tools and training— to take a look at the new workhorse of AEC design—Revit Architecture. –Chris Fox, Revit Architecture Editor Attention, Autodesk® Revit® users: if you are completely satisfied that your company provides its designers and project managers with the hardware, software, systems, and support that you need to perform your design and documentation tasks at top speed and maximum efficiency, you can skip the rest of this article. If not, you might highlight any comments I am about to make that are pertinent to your situation and leave a copy of this article where your company principals can find it. If you are a building design company director whose firm does not currently use or plan to implement a Revit application in your work system soon, the best thing I can tell you is to wise up: the train is leaving the station and you’re not on it. If you do have some investment in Revit, consider expanding your base; leveraging solid assets is good business. All aboard! drafting tables, drawing lines got faster and more complex, but it was still basically 2D drafting. Plans, elevations, and sections were separate, and accurate 3D representation was laborious and difficult. Revit Architecture, by contrast, is all 3D all the time, unless you explicitly tell the program you are going to draft only. You can view walls, doors, and windows in plan, elevation, and section concurrently, and 3D is easy. It’s built-in, geometrically accurate, and global—not only can you spin your model to check sight lines, but you can specify your location from Boston to Brunei to examine solar aspect instantly. Clients and reviewing bodies are starting to put pressure on design firms for 3D building representations as standard inclusions in document sets. Can you provide 3D on-demand in your office? Anticipation trumps reaction—just ask a goalie. As service professionals, 3D information lets designers and clients solve problems earlier and faster. You have to move beyond 2D or you will fall behind the market, and not just the market leaders but the middle of the pack. insulation, and interior finish materials? Do you want to show that same wall as two lines only as well? That’s almost too easy, and it takes no drafting time at all to update the masonry hatch pattern in all plans if the wall moves. Floors, roofs, and ceilings can also be layered according to your definition, which saves drafting time when detailing. You can place joists, rafters, and purlins accurately in 3D according to flexible layout rules, and they will follow wall, floor, and roof pitch changes. Stairs are quick to place, they know their floor-to-floor heights, and sections through them are completely automatic. Did I mention that this cuts down on drafting time? Revit Architecture’s 3D modeling tools are the same whether you shape building masses, keyhole hardware, casework, or equipment. You can import 3D content created outside and work with it. On schedule, under budget Build it, don’t fudge it It’s a 3D world now 18 Designers have drawn lines for thousands of years. When computers replaced Working in 3D can be daunting at first to designers versed in line-based AutoCAD or drafters who have done only detailing previously. But once people grasp the fundamentals of building a model in Revit, they thrive. Productivity and accuracy rise when you don’t have to draw windows separately in plan, elevation, and section. Revit’s building components can be as simple or complex as you desire. Do you want to show a veneer wall in plan or section with exterior masonry, air gap, stud, Revit’s model database consists of categorized objects, so counting them and showing the results in schedules is extremely quick and powerful. You can schedule anything in a Revit file, from walls and windows to drawing sheets and symbols. How about door counts or cutand-fill calculations? You can have those at your fingertips, and they update automatically as the design develops. Revit Architecture’s sheets and views coordinate automatically. Room objects in Revit hold amazing amounts of information—wall, floor, and ceiling finishes are automatically calculated. And with partner versions such as Revit Structure and MEP, you can derive w w w. A U G I . c o m http://www.augi.com
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