Exhibitors at Revit Technology Conference 2011

Earlier this month, I provided an overview of the inaugural Revit Technology Conference (RTC) in the US that was held from June 23 to 25 in the Huntington Beach area of Los Angeles. As mentioned in my earlier article, the RTC is a conference put together entirely by Revit users, and it actually originated in Australia, where it has been held every year since 2005. This was the first time the event was being held in the US, and it hopes to become an annual conference that will be held in a different location of the US each year, so that more local professionals in those areas have the opportunity to attend and benefit from it. For an event that was being held for the first time, the RTC 2011 event in Los Angeles was very successful, with about 300 attendees and close to 17 exhibitors, showing various Revit-related tools and services.

While the earlier article on the US RTC 2011 event focused on the sessions that were presented, this article is dedicated to providing an overview of the different technologies that were being exhibited by vendors such as Bentley, Newforma, Ideate, and CTC, further pushing the boundaries of what can be done with Revit and adding many more capabilities to the application than what Autodesk could do alone. It was a healthy sign that the robust third-party universe that has evolved around Revit continues to thrive and expand, affirming for many Revit users the choice of their BIM application. Some of the exhibitors also showed other products that were not directly related to Revit, which are covered in this article as well.

Bentley’s Revit Plug-Ins

It was certainly surprising to see Bentley as an exhibitor at a Revit event, since Bentley also develops its own multi-disciplinary BIM applications on top of a common platform (MicroStation) and is thus one of Autodesk’s leading competitors when it comes to Revit and BIM. However, it also has a number of plug-in applications to Revit, some that were developed in-house and others that came to it through acquisitions. In fact, Bentley considers itself as one of the leading third-party developers for Revit!

Bentley does have a large number of applications for Revit users. To start with, there is the Revit plug-in that allows Revit models to be saved as i-models that lets them be opened in Bentley MicroStation, Bentley Navigator, and many other Bentley building products, retaining the Revit properties information from the Revit model. The plug-in is designed to help teams working in a mixed Bentley/Revit environment to be able to reference Revit models into a MicroStation-based design workflow for coordination purposes, redlining, interference detection, and similar tasks. This is a one-step process that does not require MicroStation or any other Bentley application, other than the i-model plug-in for Revit (see Figure 1). The plug-in works with 2011and earlier versions of Revit; a plug-in that works with Revit 2012 is available in beta.

Bentley also showed how its ProjectWise application for project management and collaboration can be used for better management of Revit models that are in the i-model format. The benefits of using ProjectWise on Revit projects include synchronized Central File management, better organization and management of Revit project and library content, and a file dependency viewer that allows you to see the relationships between different files, for example, linked and master files, etc.  Given the large size of Revit files, many firms that are comfortable using both Autodesk and Bentley solutions for BIM would find it helpful to extend their use of ProjectWise to also manage their Revit files. Hopefully, at some point, ProjectWise will be able to manage Revit files without needing them to be saved as i-models first. (Editor's Note: The last statement was pointed to be incorrect by Bentley. ProjectWise actually supports Revit natively and can manage all aspects of Revit files, worksets, and workflows. It does not necessarily need Revit models to be saved as i-models.)

On the structural engineering front, Bentley acquired both RAM and STAAD, leading structural analysis tools, in 2005, and it has continued to build upon the bidirectional integration between the RAM Structural System (RSS) and Revit Structure. The integration enables users to analyze and design buildings within the RSS environment and subsequently use Revit Structure for multidisciplinary collaboration as well as documentation. Bentley also showed its new Structural Synchronizer V8i plug-in that can be used to bring Revit Structure (and Architecture) models into Bentley’s Integrated Structural Modeling (ISM). The ISM is Bentley’s platform for open infrastructure information exchange that is intended to maximize the interoperability of structural information among different specialized applications, including CAD and BIM platforms and review and analysis tools, for creators and consumers of a project’s structural information. It provides engineers with a shared and dynamic repository for all structural content, including visualization and revision history for increased coordination, and also allows them to better manage the multiple software applications that are required for structural projects.

Ideate BIMLink

Ideate, Inc. used the RTC to show the new release, version 2012, of its Ideate BIMLink application, which creates a bidirectional link between Revit and Microsoft Excel, allowing the BIM data from a Revit model to be pulled easily into Excel as well as pushed back from Excel to Revit. It works with all the three disciplinary Revit BIM applications, Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, and Revit MEP, and includes additional capabilities that Revit schedules or the Revit dB link do not provide (see Figure 2).

Ideate BIMLink can be used both by Revit users as well as additional project team members to get access to the model data, check it, modify it if required, as well as use the data for other design-related tasks such as cost estimating, takeoff, or analysis. The link also includes data that is otherwise hidden, such as phase and design option data, as well as family and non-shared parameters. Excel’s sophisticated editing capabilities, such as a global search and replace, can be used to make many kinds of additions and modifications to the design data more quickly and efficiently compared to manually editing the data in Revit. Large quantities of fields can be quickly populated in Excel; also, large volumes of data can be updated following external and internal changes while maintaining linked relationships. Advanced formulas can be applied in Excel to allow calculated data such as occupancy loads, duct and pipe lengths, or beam cut lengths to be added to tags very easily. The application facilitates better quality control of the Revit model by allowing measurements, naming conventions, and parameter values in the data to be standardized in Excel; the processed data can then be pushed back into the Revit model.

Ideate BIMLink made its debut at Autodesk University 2010, and has since then not only kept up with each new version of the application but has also added new features and functionality. The new 2012 version, for example, supports Key Schedules, which was a top user request (see Figure 3). For architectural users, access to the Key Schedule data makes it easier to hand off Equipment, Fixture, Room or Hardware Schedule to a consultant or any non-Revit user to be filled out in Excel. For engineering users, Key Schedules in Ideate BIMLink can provide a much-needed method for managing divergent manufacturer-supplied data.

Revit Express Tools

At the RTC, we had the opportunity to get an update on another suite of tools that originally made their debut at Autodesk University 2010: the Revit Express Tools that are developed by CAD Technology Center (CTC), an Autodesk Gold Partner for AEC. The tools work with Revit content libraries and are designed to leverage the power of BIM and save time. At the RTC event, CTC exhibited a new “Pay-Per-Process” functionality for two of its most popular Revit Express tools—the Revit Family Processor and WaterMark. The Revit Family Processor can be used to quickly change entire directories of Revit families programmatically, including deleting and adding materials and parameters (see Figure 4). It is a great tool for adding shared parameters to content and ensuring consistency throughout content libraries. The WaterMark a tool for permanently branding Revit files with data that identifies the proper owner; it can be used on Revit families as well as project files. It works by storing encrypted data in the Revit database, which cannot be removed. This identifying data is a deterrent for unauthorized users to use the Revit files without permission.

Both the Revit Family Processor and WaterMark tools can now be used on a per-process basis. Users can visit CTC’s website to create a user account. Credits are added to the account and enable the per-process use. The tools can then be used on demand, paying a low price of only $1 for each family that is processed or watermarked. The programs are installed locally and communicate with the user account to use the available credits. This enables use of the tools without having to purchase a full license.

CTC also gave a sneak peak of their new Revit content browser and management program for finding, organizing and using Revit families called BIMList. Designed to be simple to use but more robust than existing family browsers, BIMList includes administrative tools that let administrators control tab set grouping, tab naming, and accessibility control of Revit content (see Figure-5a), and can be used to ensure that company standards are followed when creating and organizing Revit content. As shown in Figure–5b, it also allows for logical grouping of families set up by the user or administrator for easy content management. One of its most unique and helpful features is that it allows content to be searched by parameters.

Newforma Add-In for Revit and the new Project Analyzer

Newforma used the RTC to exhibit its new Add-in for Revit that had been introduced in the Eighth Edition of Newforma Project Center (NPC) introduced earlier this year. As described in my review of the Eighth Edition, this add-in enables the model data in Revit to be better managed as well as integrated with the project information management (PIM) tasks and processes that are being captured in NPC, essentially bringing PIM into BIM. The add-in works for all the three disciplinary applications of Revit: Architecture, Structure, and MEP.  When it is installed, it adds a toolbar to the Revit ribbon menu that provides access to the key functions of NPC’s PIM-BIM integration. At the same time, a new Building Information Management activity center is added to NPC that can be used to link one or more Revit models to the project. Once the link has been made, it can be used to synchronize sheets, spatial information, as well as building elements and their associated properties between the two applications for a project. More details about how this add-in works, including screenshots, were provided in my review of Newforma Project Center Eighth Edition.

Newforma also used the RTC to show a new project financial and resource management software for architectural and engineering project managers that it had just launched called Newforma Project Analyzer. The new software pulls data from a firm’s existing financial system, such as Deltek Vision, to facilitate what-if scenarios concerning project scope, milestones, budgets, schedules, and staffing. The product was developed by licensing and adapting technology that one of Newforma’s customers, SHW Group in Dallas, had originally developed in-house in response to their frustration with other commercially available solutions for project financial and resource management. It is now a full-featured stand-alone product that does not require Newforma Project Center as a prerequisite. It pulls data from Deltek Vision on a read-only basis only; users of Newforma Project Analyzer cannot alter data in Vision. The application enables project managers and firm executives to make more accurate projections for individual projects and the firm as a whole; make more timely and better-informed decisions; get a deeper understanding of the cost and time ramifications of project team decisions; identify project financial issues in need of correction more easily; train and mentor junior project managers with greater ability; streamline the billing review process that facilitates timely billing; and enhanced the use of existing financial data. The application is interactive and highly visual, making it very easy to use and get the required information, as shown in Figure 6. It is not directly related to Revit, however, and will therefore be covered in more detail in a separate article later.

Conclusions

As I mentioned in my earlier RTC article, I found the event very interesting and informative to attend. It was terrific to be at a conference that was organized “by users, for users” and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Revit from the user’s perspective. It is definitely a sign of the growing popularity of the application that has even made such an event possible. Given its success and continued run in Australia, it does seem like the RTC is here to stay in the US, and can eventually spread to other parts of the world as well. It’s always terrific to see a dynamic and vibrant community of technology users, irrespective of the particular application they are using. It’s a heartening sign that technology is very much alive and well in the AEC industry, despite the economic struggles of the industry in this protracted down economy worldwide.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.

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