Revit for wood structures

[dhoward26]

I was browsing the search engine for information on revit for wood structures such as custom homes and office buildings.

Anyone using this software instead of AutoCAD for Wood? IF I buy it, will it replace my AutoCAD and I can do all the drafting I need in Revit? Just curious what the opinions are if it is worth the money to purchase it. I can see it saving a bunch of time cutting sections and making sure all my stuff lines up. If you have it, do you still use AutoCAD for detailing?

Thanks

 

[a7x1984]

I see BIM's power mainly coming from the coordination between MEP and other trades as well as facilities management (piping systems, etc). Single-family dwelling design doesn't benefit from BIM, because it doesn't have these complexities. Even custom homes are generally conventional wood framing and can be easily adjusted in the field for mechanical, electrical, etc. and do not require the same tight tolerances from other building usage types. If most of your intended work is of custom single-family homes, prepare to be disappointed by other firms/people performing the same work cheaper and faster. As an anecdote, we only use it for big projects with a lot of MEP coordination, e.g. waste water treatment facilities - they are notorious for being a coordination nightmare.

Office buildings of "larger" size could benefit from BIM software, but there are a lot of "ifs" with that - one being that if no other consultant on the project uses BIM, it is not worth it.

As far as detailing: You can detail within Revit if you wish.

In Russia building design you!

 

[dhoward26]

Thank you for sharing. I think I will probably download the demo and play around with it on some previous work.

 

[asixth]

I strongly do not recommend it and do not see what a 3d modelling software will benefit a wood framed house. I even know of local engineers who design and issue hand drawings for single dwellings.

Don't want to open a can of worms here but I do not see many benefits in using Revit at all. It is very tedious program and the user must have a good understanding on how a building goes together and how the details work. If you employ a "technician" who does not know how a building goes together and expect them to produce an accurate 3d computer model than you will more than likely be disappointed.

Saying that it saves a bunch of time with sections is correct if it is modelled properly. As soon as one thing is modelled incorrectly or elements are incorrectly linked to other elements the ease of cutting sections quickly degenerates.

 

[dhoward26]

asixth:

I can see your points. I'm a one many shop so I don't have a drafter I have to worry about putting my drawings together correctly. It just seams like a good tool to expand my capabilities with. I only use AutoCAD LT right now and it isn't much to upgrade to the Revit LT. I have been asked in the past for 3D drawings for details and for extra section cuts. Seams I may be able to save quite a few hours of my time with this program. I'm downloading the trial version and am going to give a whirl for a month.

 

[manstrom]

My company is going through this now. I have plenty of opinions.

REVIT is an enormous undertaking especially for wood structures. Expect drafting to take at least twice as long. The coordination and 3-D aspect can greatly help with identifying conflicts and visualizing a structure, but it may not be worth the effort.

My office does single and multifamily residential. We do REVIT only if the Architect requires it. We can do it twice as fast in CAD. I do not see it being popular in the single family market due to the pace and low tech approach of most builders.

It is extremely tedious and requires a major hardware upgrade. For a one man shop, this might be too much.

REVIT was created with steel/concrete in mind. Wood is much more detailed due to the number of elements.

Keep in mind, we produce 2D paper documents and have been doing so for decades. It ain't broke. The builder will not see a 3D model when the CDs are done (yet). If it looks good on paper, it doesn't matter what program you use.

It is not an easy switch over. REVIT does not work like CAD. Your details library will need to be redrawn. Standards will need to be redeveloped. You need to relearn drafting, basically. Drawing a wall is not merely two lines. A wall is a wall, it needs to be created. It has an X, Y and Z coordinate. The 3rd axis adds a significant amount of time. Some things are very difficult to do in REVIT that are relatively easy to do in CAD. I have seen it affect some designs since we can't draw it the way we want it.

There are some advantages - a detail automatically links to the section cut. The whole model is in one file. Everything needs to be drawn correctly at first (not just a plan and an elevation that don't match), making it easier to see what is going on. Architects seem to really like it. Structurally, it overcomplicates things.

I was reluctant to accept it, but I do see BIM as the future. The software is coming along, but it is not "there" yet. My company is slowly adopting it so we can be ahead of the curve. It is however, a huge PITA

 

[XR250]

I can't imagine a one man SE shop needing much 3D capability. If they need more detail, draw more 2D sections. I have never drawn anything in 3D and have really never needed to. Time is money for me. I draft everything myself (charge full rate for it) and use the fastest program available - Powercadd 9 on a Mac.
I'll have a detail done before Revit even boots :>

 

[nhstruct]

It really depends onthe situation. I am currently doing a wood structure in revit. Our firm does a bit of everything and we are working are way towards using revit as the primary drafting program. I find the model take a little longer to buildind than drafting a floor plan, but the details go much quicker. The keyis having a good template to start with. Ours is decent but needs work, the hard part for us is having the time the update the templetes and set-up the needed families.

 

[Archie264]

dhoward,

My two cents worth is that AutoCAD LT is all the drafting software any structural shop needs...unless the clients or other consultants require that a specific product be used. Presenting a structural engineering solution usually requires good old fashioned, highly detailed, project-specific drafting. We usually do the drafting now with computers, but it is still drafting. Other than a few specialized situations, such as, perhaps, a company that specializes in designing foundations for metal buildings, the solution must be customized and it is simply too complex to be produced with just a few punches of buttons.

I remember when Ram Steel came out and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I am still amazed by it. But, the first time we used it we thought it would model, design, and draft a building with a few punches of buttons. It only took that first project -- a rather simply, one-story warehouse addition -- to disabuse us of that notion. Even that simple building had too many things going on to be able to be designed by a semi-automated process.

I understand that X-Steel has proven to be of great value to steel detailers but I've also heard that early versions of it caused problems. In any case, from my observation any attempt to automate structural drafting falls short. I even believe that for most structural work nothing will ever be more simultaneously effective and efficient than two-dimensional custom drafted solutions because they are crafted by human brains and thought must be put into their creation. And while perhaps counter-intuitive, the two-dimensional aspect of it proves to be a net benefit, because it forces the solution to be efficient and elegant, that is, it must convey the most amount of information in the least amount of space. And the best examples of this are clean drawings that convey the maximum amount of information possible with the least amount of lines and clutter...sort of the opposite of the way this post was written, come to think of it. But it brings to mind a statement (probably apocryphally) attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who wrote, "If I had more time I'd have written you a shorter letter."

 

[dhoward26]

Just got back from my 2-week military training so I have a chance to catch up on stuff.

To update: I have been playing around with Revit LT for the last couple of weeks and it is a beast. I think I will stick to AutoCAD LT at this point. I can draw sections fast enough and have a good handle on framing. I can see it being of use for large scale models, but even then, it would probably come from an Architect that uses it frequently.

Worth a shot to try it, but not worth the extra time for me at this point. Thank you for all the comments.