{"id":246,"date":"2019-05-02T13:50:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T13:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegreenhearth.com\/?p=246"},"modified":"2019-08-02T13:55:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T13:55:21","slug":"bim-panel-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegreenhearth.com\/bim-panel-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"BIM panel follow-up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last fall, I attended\na discussion on BIM with my local IIDA chapter. At my knowledge level, the\ntopic was both rudimentary as well as inspiring (it covered a large ground of\nwhat BIM is). After the event, and after much contemplation of my own experiences\nusing BIM (and, in particular, Revit) I worked with the chapter to develop a\npanel discussion bringing together designers and manufactures to talk about\nthings we need\/want\/hate and the benefits or challenges to using BIM. Here\u2019s my\nrecap and thoughts on the event\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The\n\u201cAnyone can be taught, but few are gifted\u201d lie<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay, not actually a\nflat-out talking point of the night, but still; I\u2019ve actually heard this phrase\nbeing said in some way or another since I was an intern. From the designers\nI\u2019ve heard it from, it was always about how any person could learn how to use\nthe tools to document, but you couldn\u2019t teach a designer \u201cgood\ndesign\u201d. I\u2019ve always hated this mentality because it meant the only way\nfor you to succeed at being a designer<\/em>\nmeant your hard skills could be weak, but if you couldn\u2019t pull a palette\ntogether, you\u2019re better off changing careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m here to tell you\nthat this is not true! I have seen many talented designers \u2013 at all levels \u2013\nwho either don\u2019t get Revit, or, refuse to truly grasp it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s being said, a\ncomment made last night was one of my own indicating to manufactures to\n\u201cdumb down\u201d their models so your \u201caverage designer\u201d could\nwork with it. I hadn\u2019t realized I had completely contradicted myself earlier in\nthe session when I was trying to push the use of Revit for designers. It was\nbrought up that, yes some of these tools within a Revit family could be seen as\n\u201cmore advanced\u201d, but at the same time, were created in a way to\nreduce bloat to a model size (ie. Having a type catalog can be challenging for\na designer to understand why they aren\u2019t seeing the different family types, but\nthat allows the designer to pick and choose the few they need in their model\nrather than the entire set of options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudos to the\nmanufactures that brought this up! As designers, we need to be willing to\ncontinue to learn and grow, no matter how many years of experience we have! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You say\nit\u2019s a Revit file, so why give me something different? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit, this was\none of my \u201cwish list\u201d items I announced towards manufactures. If I am\nable to download a Revit file for your chair family, please, please, please <\/em>build the family in Revit, not another\nprogram \u2013 and don\u2019t assume inserting a 3D CAD into a Revit family will work! I\ncan\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve seen this and it causes messiness in plans\nfrom the polygons in the 3D CAD, and when we are in a crunch for renderings, if\nI can\u2019t change the material, chances are I will find something that will cause\nless of a headache. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an additional note\nhere, I did hear comments about what was in the models from manufacturers. Some\ndesigners indicated that models could show the nuts and bolts (literally) of a\npiece of furniture, when it really wasn\u2019t something we needed. I also shared a\nstory (presented by a good friend of mine) of a furniture family \u2013 pulled off\nof a manufacturer website \u2013 that contained a nested family\u2026 Of a door! These\nsort of Easter eggs<\/em> cause serious bloat\nin our models and lots of frustration. It pretty much sounded like the\nconsensus here was: give us what we need to produce, but leave the nitty-gritty\ndetails at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image\nis everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I may have been the\nbiggest chatter-upper about seamless textures at the event, but I wasn\u2019t the\nonly one to talk about materials within families. Designers on the panel\nunanimously agreed that having a family with all material set to default <\/strong>was fantastic and ideal \u2013 however, we\nall did request a Material Browser library of the manufacturer\u2019s finishes.\nThink about it: if I\u2019m bringing in your family for a lounge chair, I don\u2019t need\nthe legs to be cherry when I know I\u2019ll be using walnut. I don\u2019t want the\ncushion to be a solid red, when I want to propose to the client a green pattern\n(and that\u2019s, of course, once I am willing to show the material. I may only show\nthem white box renderings to focus on the space way<\/em>\nbefore they get bogged down with color).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"-
Three panelists from the designer\u2019s perspective (I\u2019m in the middle).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I will also note that\nin terms of the material library, this is an excellent\n<\/em>opportunity to create seamless textures with appropriate reflection,\nbump, light emittance, etc. Help us make your finishes look like the real thing\nfor our renderings!! Help us, sell your products to our clients! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most of all: we need those images! Don\u2019t assume a library file on its own will work. Revit needs to reference the image, bump map, cut image in order for us to render properly. Manufactures for plastic laminates, glass, and upholstery may be hesitant with this \u2013 but let me tell you it will be a game-changer for us specifying your products!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say all your\ncompany is willing to do is provide the seamless texture. That\u2019s okay. Just\nmake sure as part of the file name, or a text file included in the download,\nyou indicate what the full repeat size of that image is. Are you giving me a\nwall covering that I should repeat 6\u2033 x 6\u2033 or 30.25\u2033 x\n9.28\u2033?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moral of the story:\ngive us your finishes as a material library and keep your families naked! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give me\nwhat I want\u2026 With sprinkles on top! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another comment mention in the panel was the designers\u2019 need to edit \u201clocked\u201d information by the manufacturer. Sometimes, we just don\u2019t like seeing camel case in our schedules (it\u2019s some crazy tradition with construction documents). And, sometimes, your Revit family is so good, but the client chose someone else, but that manufacturer\u2019s family is terrible (or non-existent) that we will keep one great family in, but change the data to represent another. (this leads into the last discussion point at the end.) So, please, minimize the amount of pre-determined parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"-
The three panelists from the manufacturer side.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the\ntopic of sustainable information came up (not going to lie, since I helped set\nup the event, I wanted this to be a talking point from my futurism<\/em> standpoint). I was relieved to hear\nanother designer say that not having information for sustainable references\ncould be a deterrent for using them, others said they didn\u2019t need that type of\ninformation for the work they did. But the reason I wanted to talk about this\non the panel was the \u201cwhat if\u201d perspective. What if, my Revit\nMaterial Browser could populate the VOC information and spit out if my project\nis meeting the low emitting materials from LEED or WELL? What if designers knew\nroughly where they stood with the Building Product Disclosure and Optimization\ncredits for everything they were specifying \u2013 as they were specifying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren\u2019t limited to\nwhat we see on the screen today, just by how far we are willing to see the\nfuture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last addition to this\ntopic is the curious case of \u201cgenerics\u201d. Designers are a funny bunch\nwho want a very detailed model one minute, and a bare minimum version the next.\nI\u2019ve seen designers use a linear light fixture that was \u201cgeneric\u201d\nwith its length as an instance parameter to play with the design. I love these,\nthey\u2019re great, allows for flexibility\u2026\u00a0\nuntil you need them to render and end up having to create family types\nfor each length anyways for the light emittance to be the correct length as\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s the verdict\non how much is just enough? Hard to say. We all do things differently and\nhaving an event like this helps to bring everyone together to understand our\nneeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\ndon\u2019t have it, we probably won\u2019t use it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Easily the most important take-away for manufactures from the people that use their products (or could specify their products): if you don\u2019t have a Revit model these days, there is a good chance you won\u2019t be on the project. Clients are visual. Heck, it\u2019s probably safe to say everyone reading this is visual. So, if we show a perspective, but that light fixture doesn\u2019t look like what we are proposing, there is a good chance there will be confusion down the road. Seriously, that\u2019s part of why we don\u2019t show color or materials initially in renderings \u2013 the client will focus on why the door frame is orange for a solid 20 minutes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And make sure, like\nthe comments above, these models are truly\nRevit families! If it\u2019s not simple enough to insert into our model and\nmake some adjustments here and there, most designers will move on to the next\n(or, like me, I will get asked to model something for another team).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s\ndo it again!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The event was such a\ngreat turnout, I wish we could have answered the other questions waiting in the\naudience! The IIDA Illinois Chapter has already determined this was just the\nfirst of a 3-part series since there was so much interest, and there was even a\nrequest for a coalition, or roundtable, discussion to bring everyone to the\ntable! You guys really made my night! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is any interest in being on the next panel, or joining a working group \u2013 let me know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big\nthanks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This event couldn\u2019t\nhave been done without the help of Marisa and Enza from IIDA Illinois Chapter,\nour moderator Johardy Sunandjaja from Armstrong Ceilings, and our stellar\npanel: Ben Glunz from BIMSmith, Kinga Accolti from Focal Point, Sarah Hampton\nfrom Haworth, Genie Bae from Cannon design, Logan Christensen from Stantec,\nPeter Cuvalo from Gensler, and Candace Mountain from UniSpace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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