L.O.D What does this mean to me?

So... LOD... Level of Development how does this affect the typical Revit User?
In the old 2D drafting days we would draw lines to represent objects such as walls doors, windows roofs etc... remember that? We use to draw two lines representing a complete (and often complex) wall assemblies. Often these lines didn't even represent the true dimensions of the assembly either!
Drawings got done and buildings still got built.! Amazing times.....

Now with BIM were adding more information to our drawings by adding more information to our Building Information Model. for the majority of us the end result is a set of documents that someone can build from. Don't loose sight of that. we are in danger of Over Modeling....
We get so wrapped up in creating content and families for everything that sometimes we loose sight of why we are creating this model in the first place. Remember your creating drawings (and hopefully get paid for them) within a specific time limit. If you go over this time limit you are burning up your profit margin, when we first are introduced to Revit we think to ourselves "wow, this is going to save me a bunch of time", "I no longer have to draw elevation, sections" etc... however my experience is that we get seduced... yes seduced! by Revit and we want to build a complete model down to the nuts and bolts.....
Now before I get a bunch of emails and comments I'm not proposing that we get stoopid and just model the exterior walls and just draw lines for the interior.... no we need to model what is appropriate to the project. If your doing a residential home do you really need to model the gutters and drains? Do you need to model the gas meter on the side of the house? For larger projects do you need to model the tactile strip at the top of the stairs? Would detail lines in the view be sufficient. There is a huge difference in resources between the two. Do you need to use the roof top mechanical unit from the supplier that is detailed down to the nut and bolt? Why not use a generic placeholder.

Try to use families that are smaller in file size this will help your project file size to stay manageable.

So try and stick to a LOD of 300 (Precise Geometry) instead of LOD 400 (Fabrication)......

Quick tip

Here is a quick tip I came across while preparing an introduction to Revit course...

To hide the status bar

Click View tabWindows panelUser Interface drop-down, and clear the Status Bar check box.

Level of Development

My next series of Blogs are going to be about BIM Level of Development as outlined by the AIA. Even though it's American standards (some of us are not from the States) they have done a lot of research on this subject so it's defiantly worth taking a look and modifying it to your specific needs.

The reason I'll discuss this subject is that as we use Revit more and more we at risk of Over Modeling our model. Over modeling will reduce your efficiency of your workflow as well as the efficiency of your model.  We work hard to make Revit work for us but we are in danger of getting sucked into the Void  of Over Modeling.... Du Du Du Daaaa! (dramatic sound effects !!)

Here is a brief explanation of Level of Development (LOD):

Level of Development: Levels of Development (LOD) describe the level of completeness to which a Model Element is developed.

How much we model at each stage is broken down into 5 basic levels.

LOD 100 -  Conceptual Design, creating mass models for the concept stage. Volumes, height, location and orientation. Basic building analysis etc.

LOD 200 - Schematic Design/Design Development. developing the general assemblies, etc. A basis for the working drawings. 

LOD 300 - Working Drawings, construction documentation, building analysis etc.

LOD 400 - typically not achieved by the Designer or Architect as this level of detail is typically required by fabricators. for example manufacturers of RTU's would detail their components at this level for fabrication.

LOD 500 - As Built Model. the final level of detail that represents the true building. Ideally used for building operations and maintenance.

Model Elements: Model Elements represent building component, system or assemblies within a building or building site.

Model Element Author: The party responsible for developing the content of the specific model. to the Level of Detail required by the particular phase of the project.

Model User: this refers to any authorized individual or company who may use the model. for example some one doing a quantity take off, scheduling, analysis?

I'll go over how each of these LOD's can be used in my next Blog.

Section Box - Axonometric Views

I love Axonometric Views.

Especially when creating elements that span multi levels such as stairs.
I find them to be very helpful...

Just check the Section Box in the View properties.

In the example shown above I have hidden the section box to clean up the view.

Common Keyboard Commands

If like me you came from an AutoCAD background  before using Revit you found you were most proficient when you had one hand on the keyboard and one hand on the mouse. Quick short cut keys made it easy and quick to type commands than hunt and peck the icons.

Now with Revit we are more icon based because what we are drawing (or creating) is more complex than "dumb lines" so simple keyboard commands no longer cut it as more input is typically required.

HOWEVER..... there are times when keyboard commands can be used....... here is a list of the most common keyboard commands.

·         ZF = Zoom Fit

·         WT = Window Tile                                       

·         ZA = Zoom All (Used with tiled windows)

·         TL = Thin Line

·         MO = Modify

·         AL = Align

·         SE = Snap End

·         SM = Snap Mid

·         SQ = Snap Quadrant

·         SP = Snap Perpendicular

·         SO = Snap Off

·         SX = Snap Points

·         SZ = Close

·         SS = Turn off overide

·         MM = Mirror (along reference plane)

·         DM = Draw Mirror point

·         TR = Trim (Fillet, Trim Extend)

·         CO = Copy

·         RO = Rotate

·         OF = Offset

·         MV = Move

·         SL = Split Elements

·         PN = Pin

·         UP = Un-Pin

·         WA = Wall

·         DR = Door

·         WN = Window

·         LI = Model Lines

·         DL = Detail Line

·         LW = Line work

      ·         RM = Room

·         CM = Place Component

·         DI = Dimension

·         TX = Text

·         TG = Tag

·         RT = Room Tag

·         GR = Grid

·         VG = Visibility Graphics

·         GP = Create Group

·         PP = Properties

·         MA = Match Properties

·         SU = Sun Settings

·         UN = Project Units

·         CTRL +S = Save

·         CTRL+O = Open

·         CTRL+Z = Undo

·         CTRL+Y = Y Redo

CTRL = to add to selection

SHIFT = to subtract from selection or force horizontal or vertical

TAB = Cycle through selection or snaps

Setting Up Worksets

I had this in my notes for working with worksets... I may have pulled it from another blog if so please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due... or maybe it was the Wiki Help??.......(Or I may have wrote it myself !?)

In general, when Setting Up Worksets, you should consider the following:

• Project size

The size of the project may affect the way you enable worksharing for the team. In general, elements that are edited together should be in one workset. You do not need to create a workset for each floor of the building. In a multistory structure, however, you may want to create a workset for a set of building elements that only appear on one floor, such as a tenant interior.

If the floor plate of a project is too large to fit on a sheet and you need to split it up, you may want to consider creating a workset for each side of the building.

• Team member roles

Typically, designers work in teams, with each assigned a specific functional task. Each team member has control over a particular portion of the design (for example, interior, exterior, or site). The workset structure for the project can reflect this breakdown of tasks, and you can name the worksets accordingly.

• Worksets and templates

Worksets cannot be included in templates.

• Default workset visibility

The performance of Revit Architecture improves if some worksets are not visible by default. This visibility control eliminates the time required to draw additional views of the project. To identify visibility requirements, determine the frequency with which the elements in the workset display in the project. Under this guideline, you might have an exterior workset visible by default, while a specific furniture workset would not be.

• Groups and families

Groups and families have a type workset and an instance workset that do not have to be the same.

All elements in a group are in the group instance workset. To edit the group, make the group type workset editable or borrow the group type. To modify the elements inside a group, make the group instance workset editable. You can determine which worksets the elements are in by accessing the element properties. If you use element borrowing to check out a group instance, Revit Architecture automatically borrows all elements in the group.

Communication and Worksets

When dealing with worksets communication is critical.

You need to be able to communicate with your colleagues so there is no overlap of duties and that everyone is all "on board" with how the Job Captain wants things done.

Remember the Job Captain (or Project Leader) assignees who does what however there is occasional overlaps where some people may need to temporarily adjust worksets owned by other people.

I have found that the Revit Editing Request process is too slow so in our office we looked for another messaging process. We looked for a faster messaging system but didn't want to go with a open Web messenger such as MSN. so we found a LAN messenger that seems to work really well for us.

Squiggle is a free (I love that!) open Source (I also love that) LAN Messenger program that looks and feels similar to MSN, it's easy to set up and easy to use. http://squiggle.codeplex.com/

With Squiggle we can send requests for workset editing as well as send messages about the project etc much quicker.

Seems to be working great for us. :-)