Rules to Follow or Follow the Rules

It's been one busy month & a half with deadlines every 2 weeks & on top of that having to move into my new home doing new paint, replacing carpet, accent lighting, refinishing the "original" wood flooring, & landscaping of half an Acre (Colonial Style Home)...I'm getting tired just recalling all I've been doing...LOL

Things I’ve started to notice more while in the “Trenches” & assisting an Interiors Project (a 500K SF Project); that everyone should keep from getting out of hand & some other things I just want to point out apart from the standard knowledge.

1) Too many “Junk Families” or duplications/extra that need to be refined to 1, 2 or 3 – Remind everyone on the team BIM Leaders are in charge of “approving” families to be incorporated in the files or to create more family types, or to be informed if the one creating it is deemed to be competent enough to do it on their own.

2) Also I’ve noticed “Fake Tagging”; Inform “Greenhorns” of no faking at all costs, CREATE “NOTE BLOCKS” INSTEAD. A BIM Leader should be consulted.

3) (for when Match-lines need to be slightly different in each floor) Match-lines in each level file should be set to Floor to Floor & not to Unlimited; it will be less of a hassle when dealing with Atrium spaces that require other files from different levels to be linked in.

4) Avoid “in-place, walls” as much as possible (for better wall joints); if a niche then minimize it to that spot & not the whole wall or use the Wall Opening Tool & create a wall type to have the desired depth of the niche. Model Graphic styles should be set to “wire frame” unless there are special circumstances for floor/area/enlarged plans; & detailed blowups using detail components should be set @ “hidden line” mode.

5) If a file gets corrupted only “BIM Leaders” should be the ones’ resolving the issue, or if anything goes wrong a “BIM Leader” should be involved & not just informed of a decision/action performed to make sure it’s done correctly. I’ve seen different cases where people thought they were competent enough to handle it & the issue wasn’t resolved correctly & a BIM Leader still had to handle it anyway.

6) Providing CAD Backgrounds to Non-Revit Consultants; don’t spoil them or pamper them; simplify the exporting process for you as much as possible on a Multi-Revit file Project & give them 1 hard copy of our ARCH dwgs for them to Coordinate.

7) Best Rule to Follow so Not to Shoot Yourselves in the Foot: Let the “BIM Leader” (with consultation of a BIM Manager/Leader & “some Input” from a PA & or PM with “enough” Revit Experience) decide on how to do any File Management - creating more files to link/Revit Schedules, worksets, families, what could Possibly be done in CAD if a Situation presents itself & (coordination of Dummy Sheets), etc, etc… a PA or PM should not also be a BIM Leader (they have Bigger fish to fry) because it spells disaster for when it comes to maintaining the files.

8) It’s the BIM Leaders job duty to coordinate Any Data between files, let them deal with the process.

9) After each deliverable it will be wise to have a brief “Revit meeting” to discuss issues encountered & their solutions no matter how insignificant so others can learn from it to increase their skills & to also reinforce the “Best Practices/Standards” (practices/standards of (Company Here) & of Revit) especially for the “New Team Members”, because of special circumstances in the Project, some deviations from best practices may be in effect.

10) If someone from another Office will be assisting, Isolate them to an Area that no one else in the team will “touch”. Dept/Area/Floor/View Types like walls are to floor plans & ceilings are to RCP’s & most wall components are to elevations. That way they won’t have to waste time waiting on a S.T.C. from someone on the team.

11) “Custom” & or Complex millwork/casework as families rather than “in-place families” is a good idea. “Management”

12) ALSO, the burning question most asked in all firms making the transition to Revit;
Q: “Who will be the most successful in Revit like the ones’ in CAD”
A: The Ones’ that know how all the Pieces of a Building come together & not just know how it’s supposed to “look on paper” – just because someone is a wiz in CAD doesn’t mean the same success in Revit; & the ones’ more software Savvy or inclined to learn new Software will have some success depending on their Building knowledge.

13) Remember: BIM Leaders are the first line of defense to “enforce” standards/best practices.

14) Remind Team Leaders that are more CAD oriented (still working on other CAD projects) & still new to Revit to pick-up on the Revit Terminology & Practices; they need to always be thinking in 3D when “Redlining”, so that the more experienced Revit production team with terminology (BIM Greenhorns, Annotators, Modelers, & Leaders) will have less confusion & questions to verify or even for the new Interns that may not be that savvy.

15) TIP: if you need to move a view to a different sheet have the 2 sheets open, then in the Project Browser in the Sheet Folder Expand the Sheet to see the views within; click & drag the desired view to move to the sheet in the Browser then move the Pointer to the sheet you are wanting to move it to & you’ll see the ghost outline of the view around the pointer ready for placement.

16) One should create an Official Job Duty List for the BIM Production Team so who’s ever Deemed to whichever of the 5 skill levels to concentrate more on those duties than to where more Hats than they should unless they are getting ready to up their skills, so to create less problems. ((the 5 Skill Levels: 1) BIM Greenhorn 2) BIM Annotator 3) BIM Modeler 4) BIM Leader 5) BIM Manager))

17) Create a Do’s & Don’ts list or a Lessons Learned list for BIM Projects to have all leaders in a project to read over, let’s not trip over the same Rock. So an accumulated List of Best Practices (32-bit & of 64-bit) & of “Do’s & Do Not’s” (AKA: Lessons Learned) (32-bit & of 64-bit).