Model Phasing: Time Travel without the Danger of Butterfly Wings

 Almost every story involving the idea of time travel includes the concept that events or lives will be altered by the occurrences being changed from how they originally happened.  Travelling back in time brings the risk of exposing an event that could alter the path that originally happened.  Going into the Future could reveal the long-term effects of one seemingly meaningless event, such as a butterfly flapping its wings[1].  Many times, the main character travels to the past to try and change one event that only opens a Pandora’s Box of cascading effects.  In Terminator 2: Judgment Day[2], the characters knew there would be a catastrophic event that was going to happen and their goal was to try and stop it.  The hope of changing the future was shattered by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines[3], when the events that were to happen on Judgment Day became inevitable and were destined to eventually happen no matter what was done to try and stop it.  Passing through time in Revit can be done without fear of having any drastic effects in the timeline of that model.  In fact, it can be more damaging to try and represent Phasing without using Phases.

A lot of work in AutoCAD is based around manual selection of layers and other characteristics of lines that were needed to visually represent the scope of work in a view.  To go from an Existing view to a New Construction view may have meant copying all the work and changing the lines according to line type assignments.  One advantage in Revit is to assign when every model element is created and demolished as it is modeled.  When model elements are properly assigned to when they exist, the Existing view can be changed to a New Construction view simply by changing the Phase assignment for that view.  That advantage is lost when users cannot relax control of the line weight assignments and continue to manually control the line properties.  The adverse result is manually changing the properties of the model elements in order to alter the depiction of what phase that view is presenting.

With Revit, it is important to develop the model, not the view.  When developing the model, create content according to the properties of the model.  As the properties are altered by view, the model content will update respectively.  Don’t develop views in order to get the sheets to look right.  Manually altering properties with the view aesthetic as the primary focus will be detrimental to the overall development of the model.  If there are concerns with getting the sheets to look right, the first attempt should be to experiment with the view settings in general.  Manual drafting in views may seem like a short-term solution, but it will add time to the scope of a project.

When using multiple phases in a project, there is a tendency to lose where elements have been placed.  When looking for the missing model element, be sure to check what phase(s) the model element exists in and what phase the current view is assigned to.  It is possible that that element is not visible because it hasn’t happened yet, or already has been demolished in the timeline of the model.  If the view is set in the future and the element has already been demolished, then that element will never show, despite any changes to Visibility Graphics, because that element no longer exists.  If the view is set early in the project and the element is to be created later, then that element will never show, despite any changes to Visibility Graphics, because that element does not yet exist.

Travelling through the time of a project can be done quickly and easily without any need for a certain velocity timed exactly to a lightning strike.  You don’t need a phone booth.  You don’t need a space ship or black hole.  You don’t need a watch.  You won’t find random zoo animals running through the streets.  You don’t even need some mysterious gate to pass through that spits you out in another time and place.  You can even keep your clothes on.  It’s as easy as changing the view phase assignment.  No, really.  You see the model as it exists in the point in time you are in and you can go back and forth through time and not have any impact on the events that have taken place or will take place.  That has to bring a small amount of comfort.  If you do decide to change when an element is created or destroyed, then it will automatically be updated in corresponding views based on the properties of that element relative to the phase assignment of the view.  That is only if you have let go and allowed the model to manage the element properties.

-Craig

www.ModelingDynamics.net

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

[2]Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) James Cameron

[3]Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Jonathon Mostow

Library Models: Storing and Accessing Developed Content

Efficient use of Project Modeling in Revit heavily relies are a strong foundation of standards and content.  There isn't much that can be done out of the box with Revit.  It can take several months to a year of content development in order to get all the components developed and working right.  By that time, there may have been improvements in the equipment selections by the manufacturers, thereby making some of that content outdated.  Some design firms may be moving to very simplistic representations of equipment; whether that Revit Family is a cube or a generic presentation of the model element.  The problem there is in the 3D representation of an element intended to represent the spatial requirements of actual equipment selections.

The manufacturer may provide the family, but then it probably doesn't function with a Company standard other than to give the 3D geometry.  A company can choose to organize all its content internally to where the files work beautifully together, but are worthless when using any externally sourced material.  That can lead to an isolation effect where content updates are difficult to maintain.  You’d think that relying on externally sourced content would mean giving up any hope of achieving model elements that can communicate throughout a model.  To do so would mean there has to be some form of universal standard that is not meant to represent any one firm, manufacturer or method of modeling.  The MASTER SHARED PARAMETER LIBRARY and LABELING CONVENTION are designed to do just that.  Providing a broad standard where internal content can work side-by-side with externally sourced content.

So, what kinds of model content are being referred to here? Revit Families, Live Schedules and Tags by Category that extract information from the Model Elements.  What’s a ‘Live’ Schedule?  That is a term for a Schedule in Revit that is populated by Model Elements in the Project Model that is performance data driven by conditions in the systems of that model.  The Revit Families built around the Master Library are developed to work in conjunction with the Live Schedules to drive the data and information throughout the model.  The Tags by Category Annotations are designed to extract that information based on what is tagged and provide it in plan views for ease of documentation.  Properly formatted Tag Families require very little custom formatting.

Revit Families can be preloaded in a Template or organized in the Library Folder.  It is easy to know where one is saved, if you are the user that saved it.  Finding a family, and not being the person who developed it can be the true test of folder organization.  Another hindrance to using File Folders for families is not having a good thumbnail preview of the family.  If you don’t know the name of the file, it can be hard to find the right one without opening up multiple families.  

Having a visual method of searching for content, organized in groups by category also helps locate the desired content.  A Library Model is a Revit Project File set up for Worksharing, that contains all of the company and department content loaded into it and is visually searchable.  Instances of model elements are placed in Views and Details can be organized in Drafting Views.  Model Elements and Schedules can be tested in the Library Model for function and standard aesthetics.  To get a family from the Library Model into a Project model, either 'Edit Family' and 'Load Into Project' or simply use the Operating System Clipboard (Ctrl C, Ctrl V).  Drafting Views and Schedules can be transferred using 'Insert View From File'.  More efficiently, Sheets can be developed with common content for quicker and clean transfer of content.  Pulling Sheets using 'Insert View From File' will carry across all Drafting Views and Schedules assigned to the sheet.

To keep the Project Template file size down, most content that is exclusive to one discipline or not used every project can be organized in the Library Models and transferred as needed.  Utilizing a Library Model will also provide a means for many personnel to provide content into the model for Standards development and control of those Standards.  Apologies for not having many photos or screenshots.  Please accept this cute baby bunny rabbit instead.

-Craig

www.ModelingDynamics.net

Schedule Maps: A Journey through a Live Schedule

There once was a time when it was necessary to open up a folded piece of paper that explained what the roads were in a town and even across the entire United States.  This item, commonly referred to as a map, would require some level of user understanding.  Once the correct position and required direction were understood, the next step was determining how to get to the desired destination.  With modern technology, you can be told exactly where you are, which direction you are headed and even the best route to get to your destination pending options such as avoiding tolls or highways.  You don't normally ask anyone for directions to where they are anymore, just the address.

A Live Schedule is a term used to distinguish a Revit Schedule that is referencing live data from model elements in a project model.  When it comes to developing a Live Schedule Standard, it is critical for colleagues to understand what the Fields are for a particular Live Schedule and a basis for how it is formatted.  The term, Schedule Map, is used to describe a line sheet that documents what Shared Parameters are used in populating the Fields as well as some of the Basic Properties such as how it may be Sorted or Filtered.  This allows the user to see the destination and find a way to get there.

It helps to have one, or a few people, involved in developing the standards for the Live Schedules, but it is even more important that those few people are not required every time a schedule needs to be added to a project model.  The Schedule Maps are meant to be documentation to provide guidance for any member of the team to see how the Live Schedule is formatted.  That should save time in a project by allowing the editing of the family, when needed, to be done without constantly checking if it will work in the schedule.

This sample Schedule Map reveals how a Live Exhaust Fan Schedule is developed.  The top is a rough visualization of the field headings and which ones are grouped together.  The Schedule Fields provide the list of Parameters needed for the schedule, including optional or hidden fields.  The Blue Parameters are from the MASTER SHARED PARAMETER LIBRARY and are known Shared Parameters from the Autodesk Shared Parameter Library.  Those parameters in Blue should be found in the most common Manufacturer provided families, allowing for the Schedule to be populated in those fields without any modification.  The Purple Parameters are from the Master Shared Parameter Library that are loaded as Project Parameters for this particular model, but are not necessarily needed to be Project Parameters.  These are commonly used Fields that don't normally exist in Manufacturer families.  Finally, this Live Schedule is filtered by Mechanical Equipment where 100Type contains EF and is sorted by 100Mark in ascending order.  

This Exhaust Fan Schedule Map is not meant to be identical across multiple companies and doesn't need to be.  The most important aspect of the Schedule Map is the list of Blue Parameters, that are known Shared Parameters in use by most of the Major Manufacturers.  As long as the Shared Parameters are there, the aesthetics can be altered by company and not affect the population of data in the Live Schedule.

-Craig

www.ModelingDynamics.net

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