As-built Checklist: What is it? & importance of it in BIM architecture

Comparing the designs and the actual construction, with any project, this checklist concept may be a huge benefit that makes asset management easier, especially during the maintenance stage.

The as-built drawings should always be updated and accurate to reflect reality. This is unquestionably an effective technique to save chronological information about the asset’s building phase.

A good BIM management platform that enables you to handle 3D models, data, information, and open BIM procedures is another crucial factor.

As-build Checklist

Checklists for as-built drawings help to maintain the as-built drawings and also provide helpful information that can be used to verify that the drawings correspond to the actual asset.

In light of the actual conditions, the complexities of the construction site, the budget changes, and the varieties in progress, it has become necessary to rethink the initial idea of the project and, consequently, redraw the project drawings to reflect the new conditions.

Despite the most fluid construction process and the commitment to a more advanced BIM/VDC methodology, there is no guarantee that the actual building built will correspond exactly with the drawings prepared for the project.

As-built drawings

A set of as-built drawings describe in detail the condition of a building as it appeared at the end of the work or after a series of modifications have been made after the work was completed.

There is no longer a representation of the original project in the model; rather, it is a summary of the measurements, geometrical characteristics, and updated information that has been gathered from the asset.

Simply put, it is a situation that is at the end of a construction process that includes all of the changes made during that process.

Continual updates are added as work progresses, and they are subsequently supplied to the client at the conclusion of the construction process. They indicate the precise positions of all pieces, enabling you to reconstruct a full picture of the structure as it is today in its genuine operational context.

Importance

Working on as-built documentation during the construction process and updating it when modifications are made are effective practices. By doing this, you can make sure that the virtual information model corresponds to the actual one and that any contractual obligations are honored.

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Free CAD Software for your use

A 3D object must first be modeled before it can be printed. This phase in the design process is essential and may be completed using a variety of tools, including CAD (computer-aided design) software.

They provide you the ability to visualize any shape, whether you start with an existing design or from scratch.

Many of these software packages also include functions for modifying a 3D version, visualizing anything, or even simulating something before printing. As you have already realized, each CAD software program has its own unique features and can be used by both beginners and seasoned pros.

List of free CAD software

We offer you the option of using our completely free CAD software, which will enable you to test out various options without having to spend any money. Some provide a premium variant, where some features are complimentary but you must pay a subscription fee to access other features.

3D-builder software

Microsoft’s 3D modeling software, 3D Builder, was created in November 2013. 3D Contractor is completely free and compatible with Microsoft-powered devices. A wide variety of 3D versions of the CAD software program are available for free download and installation through the interface.

The program from Microsoft allows you to create 3D versions if you’re the more inventive kind. It is sufficient to add, superimpose, or cross simple geometric forms, making it quite user-friendly.

Customers really like the possibility to use their smartphones to scan objects for 3D printing that 3D Building Contractor provides.

Free CAD software

Free CAD is a free modeling application that may be used to create products of any size. Free CAD is an open-source program that is perfect for amateurs and developers alike.

The free CAD software program is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac and has the ability to output documents in a variety of layouts.

Originally intended for mechanical style, it also has options for other industries like product design or fashion. The free CAD software’s most recent update was made available on March 20, 2021.

LeoCAD software

Free, open-source CAD software that allows you to model using LEGO bricks is aimed at beginners and those seeking to gain a better understanding of 3D modeling.

A style mode that makes the program a lot more accessible to kids, and also makes LeoCAD one of the primary software programs for educational purposes.

On top of that, the program allows the development as well as modeling of relatively large versions, needing plenty of components. Lastly, LeoCAD is open-source as well as uses the opportunity for its customers to share their versions.

TinkerCAD software

TinkerCAD is a CAD tool developed by Autodesk and is suitable for all levels of experience. TinkerCAD may be used from any kind of internet browser and is simple to use for teachers, beginners, and even developers.

It is based on the building geometry of solids to generate models and was released in 2011 before being bought by Autodesk two years later. These are suitable for 3D printing since they can be saved in three different formats.

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Here are some tips for Preventing and Solving Construction Defects with BIM

The construction industry is faced with the problem of defects in buildings on a regular basis. It will be easier for all parties involved to navigate the system if you can understand the issues and take simple steps to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Construction Defects Types

Design

Typically, design defects are the result of an unorganized and inaccurate construction document from the design team. There are many ways in which these defects can occur, such as omissions or errors. A change order is typically used to fix omissions that require an additional scope of work by one or more contractors.

Material

When a building material is damaged, either directly from the manufacturer or after it has been installed, it is considered to be a material defect. Material defects can be particularly costly; it’s not uncommon to discover them only after a contractor uses them. The problem is especially acute when it comes to defective materials.

Workmanship

When you think of construction defects, you usually think of workmanship defects. When components or structures are built improperly, they occur due to failure to follow the project’s documents. Workmanship defects can range from aesthetic problems to structural issues. In either case, allocating responsibility and fixing the defect can be a complicated process.

Communication

Due to lack of communication, project stakeholders, construction crews, office staff, and contractors fail to complete the project, resulting in construction defects. Besides rework, excessive delays, budget and cost overruns, and safety hazards, poor communication can also cause billions of dollars in rework. It is one of the most important aspects of project management and the construction industry overall.

How to Solve Construction Defects

Gather Your Documents in One Place

The use of outdated building drawings by subcontractors is a common cause of construction defects. Design errors have been corrected on these old drawings in the latest building models.

This type of issue can be significantly minimized if all stakeholders have access to the most current information. By ensuring everyone has immediate access to important documentation on-site, you can prevent construction defects caused by inefficient document management.

Through the use of construction management software like BIM, companies can avoid the loss and damage of documents and speed up the distribution of files among teams by moving from paper to digital forms.

Using a digital platform like BIM is a great way to manage your documentation so that all users will have access to the latest revisions, reviews, and comments in the same place.

Choosing Right Material

It is important to use only the materials specified in the building plan when constructing a building to minimize defects. In spite of the temptation to replace one material with a cheaper one, it could backfire if the cheaper alternative turns out to be the culprit.

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The Role of BIM in Facilities Management

What do you mean by Facility Management?

Once the building has been constructed and handed over, facility management begins. Throughout the lifecycle of a building, it is a continuous process. As part of this process, the asset and its content equipment, space, furnishings, etc are managed optimally. Facilities management involves all the activities that integrate business administration, asset management, maintenance, contract management, renovations, and refurbishments.

BIM in Facility Management

Both buildings and the technology used to control them are becoming smarter. Building Information Modeling is one of the most popular technologies that organisations may use today (BIM). It helps with the process of extracting measurable information from physical settings is the next stage in the digitalization of facilities.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) allows professionals to refer to and use a central database for maintaining the life of the building. With BIM, a complete database is provided of the structure, plumbing structure, floor plan, space requirements, furnishings, equipment, electrical, etc. In every small detail with regard to its service period, manuals, replacement period, etc.

The detailed guide at this level helps managers achieve operational efficiency at the lowest possible cost.

Functions of BIM in Facility management

Efficient usage of Energy

In addition to having a negative impact on the environment, efficient energy use has a high operating cost as well. In building construction, energy efficiency is of great importance. Facility managers and owners can use BIM to analyze costs and compare alternative options in order to reduce the cost of energy by adopting the most feasible and environmentally friendly option.

Continuous monitoring of the building’s performance over time and other factors, such as comfort, water consumption, electricity consumption, etc., can also be carried out, allowing alternative proposals to be implemented if needed. Information provided by BIM helps formulate the best energy consumption strategy at the lowest cost.

Manages lifecycles more effectively

The building element’s lifetime data is extremely important since it is necessary to predict when it needs to be replaced and how much capital upgrade will cost. The facility manager or owner can use BIM models to analyse the advantages of investing in materials and systems that may have a one-time cost but have a long-lasting effect that gives better payback over the lifecycle of the building by including building design data, such as life expectancy and replacement cost.

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The Importance & Impact of BIM for Structural Engineers in Different Job Roles

There is a special place in the construction industry for structural engineers. These highly skilled team members move between the office and the job site creatively and practically. Nearly every member of the construction team is impacted by their decisions. They lend their expertise to a variety of projects.

Safety Experts

It is arguably one of the most important aspects of a structural engineer’s job. Structural engineers conduct safety audits and inspections every day, whether it’s assessing a construction project or inspecting an existing building for reported structural issues. A complex inspection should record and action regardless of its complexity.

BIM allows users to access it through any computer log on to sites. Building regulations comply with predefined templates. Furthermore, they can be customized for specific site irregularities and client needs.

Construction Audit

Using this new audit template for future projects can be easily adapted and saved for future use. Once the audit is completed, it is automatically backed up in the cloud and stored in the site project, ready to be integrated into site reports upon handover. A major advantage of this tool is that it makes it easy to take action on any concerns found in the report.

Construction workers or specialists can be assigned these tasks, along with deadlines. Dashboards allow you to keep track of all actions at a glance. In addition to automating logging, site diaries can also be compiled easily every day.

Designers

Software plays an important part in supporting the first element of structural engineering. There are many design tools AutoCAD and RISA general 3D design software, as well as STAAD.Pro structural analysis software and a variety of niche and structure specific tools. As BIM models become more popular, they are becoming more and more popular.

Government projects have become increasingly dependent on 3D modeling software, and private projects of all sizes are increasingly requesting it.

Problem Solver

Often, structural engineers are forced to deal with unforeseeable problems. The structural engineering profession contributes to building structures that last longer, require less maintenance, and have a lower environmental impact by understanding materials and their properties.

Through BIM, users can view a single source of truth for all components of a construction project, manage audits completed by structural engineers, and transmit the results of those actions to construction teams. In addition to voice notes, images, and voice recordings, defects can also be logged along with their location on the digital plan.

Communications

Communicating with other team members is a key to creating sustainable structures. Structure engineers will have daily contact with architects, designers, site managers, and health and safety officers, so collaboration is essential. The necessary actions can be viewed on smart phones by construction teams. In addition, push notifications provide information on the progress of the task.

Project Handover

Handover of the project is the ultimate solution to any problem. Reporting is easy with BIM’s easy templates and automatic data collection.

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Revit families: Different types

Families are essentially a collection of objects with a shared set of characteristics known as Parameters and the corresponding graphical representation. It is essential to utilizing the Software that we understand how everything in the Revit platform relates to a family.

Every element we employ, including Walls, Columns, Mechanical Equipment, and Annotation Tags, belongs to the Revit family, which has a clear hierarchy. The hierarchy’s highest level are the Revit Categories, which cannot be added to, changed, or eliminated.

There are two main families of Revit Categories:-

1. Texts, tags, and dimensions are among the components that make up an annotation category.
2. All elements contained inside the building model, such as doors, windows, floors, and walls, fall under the model categories.

Revit family types

A general classification of Revit families can be made as follows:-

Families related to System

The System Families are the fundamental components that come together on a building site. They are pre-defined components in the Revit platform, and the Revit User Interface cannot be used to add or remove them.

The specifications for these kinds of families are already pre-defined, so you don’t even need to import them into your projects or save them somewhere else. However, inside a System Family, we can replicate and change the “Types.”

‘Types’ are merely groups of variables that may be added, changed, or removed according to the user’s requirements. The reason for this is that most system families are made up of many types in order to be customized to meet the needs of individual projects.

Families related to Component

Standard component families, commonly referred to as loadable families, contain parts that are typically bought, transported, and installed in buildings.

Families that may be loaded include, for instance, doors, windows, furniture, water heaters, and plumbing fixtures. According to the needs of the project, these user-defined families may be established and adjusted in Revit.

The Loadable Families, in contrast to System Families, may be stored as external RFA files and imported into projects as needed.

As a consequence, models are produced more quickly and with greater accuracy. Architects may immediately import the components that are currently accessible in the active project.

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An improvement in Revit’s 3D graphics is in the works

There are going to be many changes and improvements to the 3D graphics of Revit. A new graphics engine will improve Revit and 3ds Max performance, among other applications, according to Autodesk.

A ray-tracing engine will also be integrated directly into the viewport in the ‘next-generation’ system, boosting visual quality. Regardless of the graphics hardware and complexity of the model, it should be possible for users to switch between a shaded view and a photorealistic view easily.

One Graphics System (OGS) was completely restructured with the new viewport system, which takes vector data and converts it to pixels using rasterization.

Modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are notoriously hard to use in Revit. In 2015, the ‘draw visible elements only’ feature was added to the graphics engine, which has only seen a few improvements over the years.

Other updates and improvements

While Revit uses an older graphics API, the frequency of the CPU remains a major bottleneck for its 3D performance, as it is with many other tools that use older graphics APIs. When working with large models, the GPU resources on AEC Magazine’s workstations are often underutilized, resulting in poor 3D performance.

This needs to be addressed by Autodesk’s new viewport system, which should allow users to view their models more smoothly without having to rely on software to simplify them.

The use of modern graphics APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan will allow Autodesk’s applications to communicate directly with the GPU hardware rather than routing everything through a graphics driver and make better use of multi-core CPUs.

Modern graphics cards, including Nvidia RTX and AMD and Intel GPUs, support hardware-based ray tracing as well.

Tools to be improved

Nvidia GTC showtime

Real-time ray tracing was used rather than shaded views to assess performance.

Architects, engineers, and designers can switch to full ray-traced quality at the click of a button when working on a model in the viewport. Currently, Revit is dependent on CPU rendering, which can be slow and produce mixed results.

The new engine, according to reports is aimed at offering a real-time experience similar to game engines. While photorealism is important, performance is a top priority.

Reports indicate that non-rendering experts will have no problem using it. Similarly, Revit’s wireframe, shaded, and realistic modes will be paired with this new style.

Nvidia GTC showtime

An Autodesk Inventor-based welding robot model was demonstrated as a path traced reference application. Autodesk Inventor 2022 uses a rasterisation engine that is not as photorealistic as the one used by Autodesk Inventor’s earlier versions.

An environment light and a single directional light lit the scene. In the demonstration, several aspects of the render quality in this scene, including contact hardening soft shadows, realistic ambient occlusion, and glossy reflections, focus on the subtle reflection of a red socket on a black surface where highlighted.

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What every Revit user should know in 2023: 10 Tips and Tricks

Revit is a vital tool for architects, engineers, and construction professionals looking to streamline their building information modeling processes. With its powerful features and versatility, Revit can help you design, build, and maintain structures with greater accuracy and efficiency. To get the most out of this software, it is essential to understand the tips and tricks that can improve your workflow and productivity.

Revit is powerful BIM (Building Information Modeling) software that enables architects, engineers, and construction professionals to design, build, and maintain structures with accuracy and efficiency.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are a quick and easy way to speed up your Revit workflow. Common shortcuts include the “Q” key for quick access, “Ctrl + Tab” to switch between open views, and “Ctrl + Shift + Tab” to cycle through open views. Familiarize yourself with these and other keyboard shortcuts to streamline your process.

Quick Select

The Quick Select tool is a great way to quickly select multiple elements in your Revit model. To access Quick Select, you can right click on an element and select “Quick Select”. From there, you can select elements based on parameters such as type, category, and phase.

Use Worksets for Collaboration

Revit’s workset feature allows multiple users to work on the same model at the same time. You can create worksets for different parts of the model, such as walls, roofs, and MEP systems, and assign them to different team members. This helps to minimize the risk of conflicting changes and ensures that everyone is working with the most up-to-date information.

Reference Planes

Reference planes are a powerful tool in Revit that allow you to easily create and manage constraints in your model. You can use reference planes to define symmetry, align elements, and control the orientation of elements. Reference planes can also be used to create section cuts and elevations, making them a versatile tool for any Revit user.

Family Creation

Families are reusable components that can be used to quickly populate your model with elements such as doors, windows, and furniture. Creating custom families allows you to have control over the appearance and behavior of these elements, and can also help to streamline your workflow.

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Top best features of new Revit 2023

The Revit Factory has finally announced that Revit 2023 has been released and is being rolled out globally. Lots of developers are thrilled about this update because it makes Revit faster, easier to use, and more tailored to your workflow.

With more than 30 feature requests derived from Revit Ideas, it is Revit continually evaluated against your developing needs.

It strikes a balance between minor improvements and significant new additions:

1. Improvements that make life better today,
2. Also, the game-changing innovations for the future, like the new granular Data Exchange workflows enabled with Revit 2023 and Autodesk Docs in the AEC Collection.
3. The new Revit really revs, with various speed upgrades designed to facilitate quicker processing, particularly when dealing with big models.

Highlighted Revit 2023 features

Expansion and fine-tuning of go-to modeling tools

The 2023 release is jam-packed with updates that address everything from procedures for documentation to standard design.

Since removing sharp edges from instruments you’re already familiar with, your work will immediately benefit. Scheduling by sheet, for instance, will guarantee that the information in your documentation sets is accurate.

Conditional formatting has now been included in crucial schedules for families and types as a result of a Revit community upgrade. Additionally, there are new settings for the labeling and presentation of displaced objects, which further clarify complex annotations.

Working with flexibility

The demand for greater speed, variety, and quality control that clients will value motivates structural engineers to switch to a new analytical modeling process.

Model in the context of 2D and 3D views to define design intent independently from the physical model, or begin with a parametric, analysis-first approach to developing the analytical model based on the engineering requirements for structures such as buildings, roofing structures, pavilions, stairs, and more.

It has more automated steel connection libraries, including adaptive placement and improved visualization, and several enhancements for rebar. Revit 2023 offers a more comprehensive toolkit for structural engineers and detailers.

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Create 3D Renderings with Lumion for Revit

It’s a great way to obtain good quality views on your projects promptly by using Lumion software. You can enhance your Revit skills with this. This BIM system offers 3D drawing capabilities that are intelligent. Architectural, engineering, and construction firms use Autodesk Revit as the main design tool.

For architects who want to convey their vision using a Revit model, Lumion rendering software is the ideal solution. Lumion creates a live connection to your Revit project even if you have no experience with 3D rendering.

It is possible to capture your project in a compelling, immersive way in less than an hour, whether it is a real-life context or a conceptual one.

It allows you to quickly create images, videos, and 360-degree panoramas that are suitable for VR, and Lumion shows your design in a thick forest next to the ocean.

Real time rendering with Lumion Live-Sync for Revit

Lumion Live-Sync is a free plug-in that allows you to link your Revit modeling project with your Lumion rendering project in real time. Download the Live-Sync plug-in from the Lumion website and install it in Revit to quickly connect the two programs so you can make changes to the model in Revit and Lumion will reflect them in real time.

You can always see how your BIM choices affect the photorealistic or conceptual representation of your project when you’re in the early stages of design, for example. You can alter how the light flows in the living room by changing its dimensions.

Make sure the design concept for the roof fits with the project’s real-life neighborhood by testing it out. Take a walk on a crystal-clear night through an office building or a landscape design on a rainy morning.

Workflow of Lumion

It is possible to shape a mountain, a hill, or create a river or lake. More than 5,600 models are included in the library of content, making it easy to create realistic exteriors, interiors, urban and rural scenes in a matter of minutes. When you import your model into Lumion, you can easily illustrate the beauty of your designs in your design’s real-life or conceptual context due to the intuitive world-building environment. More than 1200 customizable materials in the content library allow you to make the design truly stand out, giving your clients a lasting impression.

2 Key ways importing Revit Models into Lumion

A. Export from Revit to Lumion

There is no compatibility issue between Lumion and CAD or 3D modeling programs or file formats. The Live-Sync design creates a seamless experience between your Mac and PC, but you can also export your project as a Collada.

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