Category Archives: BIM/Revit

Component Lifecycle

Posted on September 14, 2012 by nmcclure

Component content management is an ongoing challenge, and it is important that teams understand the desired lifecycle flow.  Infographics help A LOT: I’ve been using SmartDraw to create these workflow diagrams, and I’m loving the program: easy, flexible, and lots … Continue reading →

Posted in BIM/Revit | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Defining the Workflow

Posted on September 11, 2012 by nmcclure

We designers are visually oriented folk. Defining a workflow that teams will understand (and therefore more likely follow) has been most successful if accompanied by one of these: Each item is expanded on in documentation I’m adding to a client’s … Continue reading →

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Streamlined Elevators

Posted on August 30, 2012 by nmcclure

Each project has to qualify their elevator spec, which typically means a customized family per project.  I’ve created a prototype lightweight (2.5D) family that can be adjusted per specified unit, with dims ‘locked down’ to prevent modifying away from the … Continue reading →

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Reviewing Model Groups

Posted on August 27, 2012 by nmcclure

The majority of current projects I’m consulting to are multi-family housing, or patient care.  Both utilize model groups extensively to efficiently duplicate and update the repetitive room/unit layouts across multiple levels.  While good for repetition and update management, groups can … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, BIM/Revit | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Resolving “Not Placed” Rooms

Posted on August 14, 2012 by nmcclure

Today’s tip is on eliminating the pesky “not placed” rooms that crop up in schedules: How it happens: Rooms get created to label spaces in early design iterations, then are deleted as the design evolves. While the element is now … Continue reading →

Posted in BIM/Revit | Tagged | 4 Comments

Process, Product AND Lifecycle Use

Posted on May 8, 2012 by nmcclure

There is a lot of debate over the acronym of BIM. I like the ‘brief primer’ from EcoDomus: BIM is an acronym for a few things: 1) Building Information Modeling (virtual design process), 2) Building Information Model (a set of … Continue reading →

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3D or not 3D – that is the question

Posted on April 23, 2012 by nmcclure

First off – not EVERYTHING in a virtual 3D model needs to be in 3D. This is an important concept to emphasize, as the first impulse of a team is that everything will be 3D, and that can be overwhelming  … Continue reading →

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Putting the I in IPD

Posted on February 8, 2012 by nmcclure

More and more, subconsultants are being provided a Building Information Model rather than traditional 2D backgrounds, and are being asked to return a 3D deliverable in kind.  And with that, comes questions: Q:  Do I have to use Revit, too? … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, BIM/Revit | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Customizing PAT files

Posted on December 13, 2011 by nmcclure

Most architectural firms are using Revit heavily for the visualization benefits, and as such want to get as close to reality representing key materials as possible. While some requests just don’t weigh out in the ‘pros/cons’ analysis (modeling battens on … Continue reading →

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Is ‘the cloud’ still a dream?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by nmcclure

Technically speaking, no.  ‘Working in the cloud’ is already a reality – look at your cloud-hosted email services and customer management tools – a tremendous amount of daily data exchange is already up there.   But should your team’s design data … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, BIM/Revit | Tagged , | 2 Comments