2009-07-10

Revit Standards - Getting Started Guides

As I may have mentioned, our parent organization began a mandate a couple of years ago to utilize BIM on larger projects, but, the ramp up to all BIM on all projects is coming up with the next calendar year.

While our parent organization doesn't specify a particular format, I've chosen the Revit family of products for my campus and am in the midst of writing our facility's BIM/Revit standard now.

I thought that I'd share some documents that I've downloaded to get myself started:
NBIMS - National BIM Standard from the BuildingSmart Alliance
USACE - US Army Corps of Engineers BIM Roadmap (and Bentley requirements)
GSA - US General Services Administration
a model content matrix
data exchange standards (IFC) - FIM on IFC benefits, IFC & XML, CADalyst on GSA
Autodesk whitepapers\ Revit whitepapers
McGrawHill SmartMarket report on BIM 2008 and 2009 Business Value of BIM
and am ordering some AIA documents (B101, A295, E202, Add 200.2 C106, E201, ConDoc200.2, ConDoc301).
ASHRAE - Introduction to BIM

But, of course, most of that is very general and very overwhelming. So, in addition, I've been looking specifically for information on Revit Standards. HOK posted their AutoCAD/ADT/Revit standards a couple of years ago, but, I think they were just starting the Revit portion at that point so it might be quite a bit out of date.

The next step has been talking to some of our local contractors about what they're using as guidelines in-house so far. As with my CAD Standards, I want to be specific enough to get reproducible and reusable documents, but, I don't wish to greatly interfere with established workflows. BIM is a very different animal than CAD, trying to standardize it is much more about outlining the design process, rather than outlining the state of the deliverable. They've been very generous with their responses so far, and I appreciate the feedback. But, it looks like most of them are not using a set of 'BIM Standards' or 'Revit Standards' so far, they're trying to keep things out of the box as they ramp up, and just try to control information with a good and consistent folder structure. While I plan on taking everything I hear into consideration, I won't be copying anything word for word, primarily just finding inspiration about what is important and what is not.

I'm going to continue to ask around, and I'd certainly appreciate links or emails with any resources anyone can offer. Either from firms with a Revit Standard or established guidelines, or introductions to other building operators who are investigating or adopting BIM. (I'd also appreciate any pointers to anyone who has used Revit with Archibus, so far all I can find is one little 'whitepaper' that says it's possible, but, haven't found anyone who has actually tried and succeeded yet).

On a related note, I liked this article on the VICO site about the single-model misconception, revealing one GSA projects has over 200 models.

Oh, and while not really about standards, here is a link to a CADalyst interview I did with Clyne Curtis of BYU about the status of their Revit adoption.

And of course, don't forget the dicussion areas for BIM Managers:
AUGI BIM Management Forum
BIMManager Google Group