A little bit of Clarity

I know I had said I'd get into collaboration, and I just may, but I think I am getting a little ahead of myself. So I will introduce a little bit of clarity into the picture with regards to Revit.

See There are 3 'flavors' of Revit, currently; Revit Architecture (which I use almost exclusively, being in the arch field), as well as Revit Structure and Revit MEP. MEP means Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing. What usually takes place is that the Architect will model the actual building, and distribute his model, which is pretty much a designing model. This is imported by Structural into a separate model and the structural elements are added in. Then, the architectural portion gets turned off, leaving a purely structural version of the model. The same thing is done with MEP, Mechanical and electrical import the design model, place their ducts conduits, switched all of that good stuff and then basically turn off the design model. Now we have 3 models all based off of the same design. When the collaborative meeting comes together, all 3 models are linked together, and a conflict check is initiated. Any places where elements have conflict (i.e. a duct bisecting a beam or whatever), the conflict is highlighted and noted, and then the various edisciplines can take appropriate measures to rectify the conflict.

Another cool thing about Revit is that any manner of parameters can be added to each element. So for example, you could put data for unit cost into each door, hardware listing etc, and then generate a schedule that would show this information. So a per square foot price for a particular type of wall can be added as a parameter of that wall, and a scedule can be generated that will show not only material takeoff for the materials, quantitatively, but also a cost estimate can be generated off of the same schedule, simply by adding that information into each element. Using these tools, the design team can keep up to speed with expected construction costs. They say knowledge is power. Using Revit to control multiple aspects of a project keeps the design team informed and updated. The feedback is instantaneous and as long as its correct in the model, the data is likewise accurate. This gives the design and construction team the power to bring in projects on time and within budget.