Archibus, a SpaceIQ product, understands the need for healthcare organizations to track, manage, and report on specific attributes, such as occupancy types, life-safety, room pressure, etc. as part of regulatory compliance. Archibus Healthcare enhances our tried-and-true workplace management applications with critical features designed specifically for hospitals, clinics, and outpatient centers, which help ensure:
• Assets are accessible and the location meets organizational and regulatory requirements
• Spaces are compliant and deficiencies are resolved making hospital staff more productive and keeping patients as safe as possible
• Life safety building features (LSBF), such as fire barriers, escape exits and critical assets are easily tracked and managed
• Operations are optimized and stakeholders receive reports that are most important to them
• Building, floor, and room information, such as occupancy types, life-safety, room pressure, etc., is personalized to meet your needs
For more details on these new features, review these resources:
With Revit 2023, we’re pleased to provide capabilities that span all aspects of the workflow for electrical and mechanical design; from early conceptual design and analysis, to the creation and documentation of design deliverables, along with improvements to support detailed design for construction.
These improvements address a number of strategic areas, including using analysis as the basis of design, and using models as deliverables for construction. They also address quality-of-life issues for BIM practitioners, several of which were top vote-getters on on the Revit Idea Station.
Let’s get into it.
NEW ANALYTICAL WORKFLOW FOR ELECTRICAL PRELIMINARY DESIGN
We are pleased to deliver a new early stage design workflow for electrical engineers and designers. Similar in concept to the Systems Analysis Framework provided for mechanical engineers in the 2020.1 release, new functionality equips electrical engineers to define early stage design information pertinent to power distribution within Revit.
Unlike traditional workflows that have engineers managing information in different places — preliminary one-lines, spreadsheets, DWGs, and often PDFs — this new workflow provides a way for Revit to manage the key electrical loads and distribution information, without having to physically model any part of it. We heard from designers that the requirements for distribution systems are defined and iterated long before it is necessary or even desirable to create a physical model. As such, it is now possible to conceptually define and connect loads and distribution system elements before commencing model creation.
This new workflow provides a BIM centric way to commence electrical power distribution design workflows, with a vision towards connecting those workflows to downstream workflows in the future.
MAJOR PAIN POINT RESOLVED FOR MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL DESIGNERS
One of the long standing big pain points with connected MEP networks is that they were never designed with phasing in mind. Over the years, this has resulted in two main problems that arise when an element is demolished, and resulted in one of the top MEP specific ideas on the Revit Idea Station. This release solves those two key problems, which are: elements losing their system association, and elements no longer connected to adjacent elements.
Historically, once an element (e.g., duct or pipe elements) is demolished, it no longer ‘remembers’ what system it was part of. As a result, various workarounds existed to be able to define views that show the appropriate demolished system elements (e.g., piping views for hydronic, plumbing, fire protection, medical gas, etc.) in appropriate demolition views. This has been resolved in this release. When an element is demolished, it still maintains relationship to the system, thus property values such as System Name, System Classification, and System Abbreviation persist.
Additionally, when elements are demolished (whether design duct/pipe, conduit, cable tray, or fabrication elements), they maintain their connectivity to adjacent elements, thereby support typical modification behaviors.
Note: this does NOT solve the larger problem of having independently computable states of mechanical or electrical system networks.
ENERGY ANALYTICAL MODEL IMPROVEMENTS
As the need to measure and reduce Building Energy Use and Carbon Emissions only grows and while Next Gen Insight is still in development we made a number of foundational improvements to Revit’s Energy Analytical Model. These will benefit Insight (for early stage / big picture energy analysis), Systems Analysis (for more detailed sizing and simulation) and gbXML export for 3rd party analysis tool.
While the main focus of these improvements relate to Accuracy, Precision and Performance, we started this by essentially refactoring key components originally written many years ago. This not only provides a better basis for making even more improvements in the future, it provides improved Revit processing speed up to 3X faster and now eliminates memory limitations for very large models in Revit 2023.
Beyond this, knowing the single biggest source of accuracy and precision issues with the Energy Analytics Model (EAM) come from the handling of curtain walls, the robustness and efficiency of this has now been greatly improved. For example, previously individual curtain panels would result in separate analytical surfaces, even when they had the same thermal properties. Now these are rationalized into a single analytical surface and this greatly reduces processing time in both Insight and Systems Analysis. There are also many other conditions/combinations of curtain panels and other elements that now resolve better.
Finally, and specifically for Systems Analysis because it uses EnergyPlus via OpenStudio measures, we’ve addressed a long list of small issues that together were pulling run success rate down to around 70% but is now close to 100%. This is based on our analytics and testing and we say close to 100% just because geometry never ceases to surprise and we’re not wanting to be complacent.
ELEVATION ANNOTATION IMPROVEMENTS
Two other highly rated MEP Idea Station items are related to improving the ability to annotate elevations of MEP segments. The improvement addresses both design and detailed fabrication elements, for mechanical, as well as electrical. Previously, the elevation of an element such as pipe or conduit was always reported relative to its reference level. This improvement provides the flexibility to define tags to annotate relative to the level, the project base point, or survey point. We also improved the available built-in parameters for annotating straight segment components of MEP systems to provide a lot more flexibility. These improvements address these Idea Station items:
“Currently with fabrication pipe in Revit you are unable to set the Spot/Invert Elevation tagged parameters to go off of a different value than level. For example, when doing underground pipe it often needs to be based off of sea level (project base point), not offset from level. I.E: we want to see 347′ – 6″ not -2′ – 1″.”
“Currently when using any of the elevation parameters they tag only one end of the pipe. For level runs this is not an issue, but it is not possible to get the top and bottom elevations of a sloped run.”
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS FOR MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL DESIGN FIRMS
We also added categories for Plumbing Equipment and Mechanical Control Devices (for things like thermostats), to make it easier to define views that contain the expected elements.
Additionally, in family editor, it is now possible to re-host a connector, allowing you to move it within family editor without having to redefine it.
Another request we implemented is adding a parameter for the circuit number for the Electrical Equipment category, so it can be included on tags, schedules, and view filters, just like all other electrical devices and mechanical equipment.
Lastly, we improved the way that annotation symbols nested in family with the ‘maintain annotation orientation’ option properly maintain orientation in certain cases. There were cases where symbols that are directional in nature (e.g., an exit sign with directional arrow) could show inconsistently between plan and ceiling views, and we also addressed the issue where a family rotated on the surface of a wall (e.g., rotating a duplex receptacle from vertical to horizontal) could result in unexpected annotation orientation.
Top Left and right: New categories for Mechanical Control Devices and Plumbing Equipment are in Revit 2023 Bottom Left: Nested annotation symbols within families maintain proper orientation in advisable cases
An improvement to manufacturing workflows is that we addressed consistency problems related to how holes for damper blades develop in duct fittings. Prior to this improvement, proper support for holes is somewhat inconsistent across patterns, and the behavior could be a bit unpredictable. In some cases, holes are not developing even if configured to do so, and in other cases, holes are developing at incorrect locations, resulting in a lot of manual 2D modification of duct developments, disrupting manufacturing operations.
Addressing this cuts out manual intervention in the process, thereby streamlining design to manufacturing and assembly workflows.
Building on the foundation of Revit 2022.1, Revit 2023 adds enhancements for the creation and editing of detailed mechanical models, making it easier to accurately create a model that is ready for installation, and in particular, making it easier to deal with the complexities of sloped piping systems.
In 2022.1 the improvements were:
Ensuring that routing rolled fittings (elbows and tees) maintain perpendicular orientation, and don’t become slightly askew.
Providing the ability to easily connect between two elements at an arbitrary slope, or place a vertical riser (similar options existed for some time already with the design LOD elements).
Improvements to maintaining sloped piping layouts – eliminating cases of undesirable shifting of elements in other parts of the network.
In 2023, additional enhancements improve the editability of fabrication elements, applying similar capabilities that historically only existed on design elements. These are:
Added end of element elevation controls to straight fabrication segments, making it easier to adjust the top and bottom elevation of a elements in canvas
Flip controls on in-line fittings such as wyes and valves, to easily adjust their orientation when necessary.
PLATFORM IMPROVEMENTS
There are a wide variety of improvements to the Revit platform that provide a benefit to MEP users. One of our favorites is the new ability to displace elements in 2D views, which addresses this long standing Idea Station item:
“We need the ability to offset annotation symbols in families to prevent overlapping symbols in our documentation. Maybe the annotation could attach to a widget (similar to the room calculation point) that allowed dynamic movement of the annotation in the project.” – Jerry
Additionally, improvements enable tagging of displaced elements which addresses this idea station item:
“I want to draw attention to the fact that several versions of Autodesk Revit tool we have “Displace Elements”. This tool would be very useful for engineers to create isometric views of piping systems, cable trays, air ducts, etc., but we cannot tag displaced elements!” – R_Mitin
Be sure to check out all the Design Productivity and Documentation Efficiency improvements in Revit 2023.
[Authored by: Ian Molloy, Martin Schmid, Brandon White]
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a collaborative project management process that is used to manage the design, construction, and process of real estate, infrastructure, and facilities assets. At its core is the inclusion of all (as many as possible) of the project’s stakeholders, including facility professionals.
More specifically, from a lifecycle management perspective, the process allows for a facilities and operation viewpoint to be considered throughout the building design and construction periods. The process also provides an opportunity to transfer quality data – through the model’s database – that is generated at different building lifecycle phases to anintegrated workplace management system (IWMS). In turn, the IWMS enables facilities professionals to hit the ground running once the building is commissioned and occupied.
But what information is needed to ensure a seamless transition from the design-build phase to operations?
The following guide provides a BIM Execution Plan to define the BIM-related workflows and responsibilities for each project; a Level of Development (LOD) reference standard to provide clarity throughout the construction process; and answers many of the questions you may have when considering deploying and IWMS with BIM.
Download the guide, Best Practices for Using BIM in an IWMS, to explore best practices in data gathering and implementation.
What’s New in Revit 2023? Better performance, more productivity features seeded from your requests, and smarter ways to work with data, both on the desktop and in the cloud.
It’s that time of year again! The Revit Factory is very excited to announce that Revit 2023 is in release and rolling out globally. Look for a notification in your Autodesk Account letting you know 2023 Autodesk products are available, or check with your company’s account administrator.
With this release, we’re excited because Revit is more performant, more intuitive, and more fine-tuned to the way you work. It is Revit continuously validated against your evolving needs, with over 30 feature requests sourced from Revit Ideas. It balances subtle enhancements with major new introductions: upgrades that improve the quality of life today (hello, Swap views on a sheet), alongside future-facing game-changers, like the new granular Data Exchange workflows enabled with Revit 2023 and Autodesk Docs in the AEC Collection. Oh, and did we mention: this Revit really revs, with many performance enhancements aimed at faster computing, especially when working with large models.
There’s a lot to unearth with Revit 2023, so let’s dig in:
Go-to modeling and documentation tools are expanded and fine-tuned
Like last year’s release, 2023 is packed with improvements that target everyday design to documentation workflows. We’re smoothing edges on tools you’re already familiar with, so you see immediate benefits in your work. Filter by sheet in schedules, for one, is a solid addition for ensuring the right data winds up in your documentation sets. And schedules continue to get built out, with conditional formatting added to key schedules for families and types, an enhancement sourced from the Revit community. You’ll also find new features to control the display and tagging of displaced elements, bringing more clarity to complex annotations. View filters, more cuttable categories, and a new Measure in 3D tool are in Revit 2023 and mark the well-rounded advancement of Revit as a professional-grade, design-to-documentation workhorse.
More flexibility and control for structural engineers with revamped analytical modeling
More speed, the versatility you need, and quality control your clients will appreciate drive a shift toward a new analytical modeling workflow for structural engineers. Model in context in 2D and 3D views to define design intent autonomously from the physical model, or start with a parametric, “analysis-first” approach to develop the analytical model from the engineering requirements for buildings, roofing structures, pavilions, stairs, and beyond. With more automation for your steel connection libraries and many improvements for rebar, including adaptive placement and better visualization, Revit 2023 is a more complete toolset for the structural engineer and detailer.
Plan-based load analysis for electrical engineers is a time saver in a project’s early stages
A new electrical analysis workflow introduced in Revit 2023 is designed to use linked DWGs, PDFs, or Revit models as the basis for load takeoffs within Revit. These load takeoffs, along with new capabilities to conceptually define electrical system elements, allow you to determine preliminary building load and load on main equipment components directly within the Revit environment.
Finer data fidelity, from form-making to documentation, with 3D Sketch in Revit and FormIt Pro.
The FormIt Pro to Revit 3D Sketch workflow connects free-hand and computational form-making in FormIt Pro to the brass tacks of design development and documentation in Revit. Save on modeling time and rework and leverage early-stage analysis to assess and seamlessly transition design concepts into design deliverables. Also for early-stage design, Autodesk is looking for your feedback on a new Spacemaker to Revit add-in, now available in beta for European subscribers and with Spacemaker trials.
BIM data unleashed, with Revit 2023 and Autodesk Docs.
New features in Autodesk Docs expose Revit data to new frontiers in collaboration, interoperability, and automation. Revit 2023 showcases new ways to manage and share data, with Data Exchanges in Autodesk Docs. Two workflows debut with Revit 2023: an architecture to fabrication workflow between Revit and Inventor, and coming soon, a Revit to Microsoft Power Automate connection that brings design data to business process automation within the Microsoft ecosystem of applications. These new workflows, along with the introduction of the Revit Parameter Service in technology preview, pave the way to more effective, timely, and secure data management with the AEC Collection.
Check out a fresh look and feel for Generative Design, Dynamo Player, and Dynamo 2.13.
A visual refresh drives consistency across Generative Design and Dynamo Player, intended to make both new and experienced computational designers more successful. Interface modernizations for Generative Design and Dynamo Player include sliders, numeric entry boxes, more in-menu descriptions, and easier to find product help and support. For Dynamo 2.13, updated details abound, including upgrades for Groups, scroll-over actions for Wires, and the ability to pin, watch, and organize nodes and graphs.
