Program Validation & Data Management Using …aucache.autodesk.com/au2012/sessionsFiles/2244/3200/handout_2244... · Program Validation & Data Management Using Autodesk® Revit®

Program Validation & Data Management Using

Autodesk® Revit® + dRofus® + an IFC Model Server] Rolf Jerving, CEO Co-speaker : Greg Schleusner, HOK

Code AB2244

Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, you will be able to:

Explain why data-driven design is more efficient than design-driven data management

Explain how controlling and managing all parameters across models helps to reduce errors

Explain how a server-based programming and data management tool, such as dRofus®, improves

productivity with Autodesk® design suites

Describe the advantages of synchronizing data through the Autodesk® Revit® API combined with an integrated IFC model server

About the Speaker

Rolf Jerving is CEO of dRofus Inc. (US) and dRofus AS (Norway). He holds a degree in Economics and

Social Services, and has for the last 19 years been one of the owners, and CEO, of the Norwegian

hospital consultant company Nosyko AS and the software company dRofus AS.

He has hands on experience from how large complex building projects are executed, with a focus on

how to manage large amounts of data between program and design. Jerving has also been project

leader for the planning and purchase of medical equipment in several large hospital building projects.

In 2007, Jerving initiated the buildingSMART Norway / Statsbygg project on Building Programming

Information Exchange, BPie. BPie is now an official part of the COBie Challenge in 2013.

From 2001 until now, Jerving has been the leader of dRofus. In August 2012 Jerving relocated to New

York to build the daughter company dRofus Inc. in the US.

Email : [email protected]

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https://www.autodeskuniversity2012.com/content/sessionDetail.do?SESSION_ID=2244

Program Validation & Data Management Using Autodesk® Revit® + dRofus® + an IFC Model Server

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Building programming and data driven design

About building programming

The buildingSMART (http://www.buildingsmart.com/) work group for BPie (Building Programming

Information Exchange- http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/index.php/projects/activeprojects/31),

defines building programming as: “Building programming is the process of collecting all

requirements the building must fulfill”.

In order to meet a project goals, it’s normally necessary to collect and update the owner’s

requirements to a project. This process can be illustrated as a step-by-step process in parallel

with, and integrated with, design and engineering:

In addition to the owner requirements that need to be collected and maintained, there is a

general need for data management outside of the design tools in order to work efficient, keep

overview over the project, for reporting purposes and to keep information consistent across

several/many design models.

http://www.buildingsmart.com/

http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/index.php/projects/activeprojects/31


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In the early phases of a project, the data from owner requirements can drive the design, while

the design naturally will develop during the project and lead to necessary updates of the

program. This requires data management tools that are flexible enough to adapt different work

flows during the project.

There are not too many tools in the market that focus on various programming tasks. Most

known is probably Trelligence Affinity, Codebook, Ernest, dRofus and Onuma. These tools are

different in both scope and capabilities, and all of them are not necessarily competitors.

In this class, we’ll show how dRofus®, combined with Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and

Autodesk® Revit® MEP, support building programming, equipment planning and data

management in general.

I will show a work flow where data is planned in dRofus® before or in parallel with detailed

design in Autodesk® Revit®, but dRofus® also supports the work flow where you do all your

planning directly in Autodesk® Revit® and use the database as backend for reporting, data

management and program validation. Through screen shots I’ll explain the work flow that will be

shown in the class.

What is dRofus®?

dRofus® is a cloud based planning, program validation and data management tool. It has been

designed to handle large, complex projects where many design models needs to be

synchronized to a central database. All projects can benefit from using cloud based software

like dRofus®, but the larger the project is, the more beneficial it is.

Project setup

Customize the requirements model


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After logging in, create new setups for room data sheets and equipment data sheets by setting

up view filters for the information you find relevant for the project. Settings can be copied

between projects.

The department structure and room list can be established in dRofus® through

- Import from Excel, (most common method)

- Build it in the 2D graphical function planner module and add adjacencies,

- Push the rooms directly from Autodesk® Revit®

- Build it directly in dRofus®

Example of Excel import (will not be shown during the class):


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There is also a graphical function planner in dRofus® (will not be shown during the class).

You can create departments and rooms in this interface, or work with already created/imported

room objects. Apply requirements that will be stored in the room data sheets and in printed

reports. Save diagrams as .jpeg and use in reports.

Efficient planning through the use of templates

If you use templates to add and maintain data/requirements to the model, there are several

advantages:

Rooms and zones that need to have equal requirements/data will update

Fast & easy data input

Efficient edits of data for a large number of rooms during the project

Templates are often similar from project to project, and make the re-use of data easier

when you copy the templates between projects.


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Create (or copy) the template catalogue you need, apply the view filter you have created and

confirm that the templates hold all necessary room & equipment data

Apply the templates to all rooms (that use templates).


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Data driven design

Rooms in model vs rooms in program

The dRofus® plugin for Autodesk® Revit® installs automatically if you have both platforms

installed on your computer. Before you start using the plugin, you will be asked to log in to the

project in dRofus® that you will be working on.

Once you have established the room program in dRofus®, you can start placing the rooms

directly in Autodesk® Revit®. The rooms in Autodesk® Revit® must be enclosed with room

separation lines or walls.

Hit “Start placing rooms” in the plugin, and you will get a dialogue window showing you all the

unplaced rooms in the program. Choose room from the list, and press link. A basic sync will be

performed, writing common ID, room name from program and programmed areas into the room

parameters in the model.


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Data driven furniture and equipment planning

If your project involves furniture and/or equipment planning, and you have already planned

these items in dRofus®, you can hit “FF&E in room” when a room is selected. You will then get

a dialogue telling you the relationship between what is planned in dRofus® for this room and

what is placed in the model.

Note that you have the choice of either place the family in the room as planned, or update the

planned FF&E in dRofus® by choosing “delete from dRofus”. The choice of updating dRofus®

only applies when you have a unique FF&E list in dRofus for the room. If there is a template for

FF&E for this room, you’ll not be allowed to change the program in dRofus® as this template

probably affects several other rooms as well.

If you already have planned your FF&E in Autodesk® Revit® but not in dRofus®, you can easily

export your families to dRofus®, apply the FF&E to the equipment lists per room, and use

dRofus® for reporting and updates.


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Validation of all furniture and equipment in the model

Reporting and the use of graphics

The ability to combine and report the data in the database with the graphics from design, is

critical important in most projects. dRofus® use an integrated, professional xml-based reporting

tool to create new customized pdf report templates.

In the plugin for Autodesk® Revit®, you can take 2D or 3D pictures of the rooms and floor

plans, and save this automatically in the database for use in reports.


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In addition, pictures can be imported directly to the database in order to create cut sheets for

FF&E, upholstery and other. All data in dRofus® can be exported to Excel.

Combined with the flexible report design, this gives good reporting capabilities. Below are some

pdf report examples: (reporting will not be covered during the class)


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Configurable, detailed data management

Configurations

In order to control data flow between multiple Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and MEP models

and the central dRofus® database, you can create various configurations. The configurations

you can primarily work with are all parameters on:

- Rooms in dRofus® vs rooms in Autodesk® Revit®

- Templates in dRofus® vs. rooms for template layouts in Autodesk® Revit®

- Families in Autodesk® Revit® vs articles in dRofus®

- Autodesk® Revit® areas vs departments/functions in dRofus®

The data sync configurations are stored in dRofus®, not in Autodesk® Revit®. In this way,

many users, working on different models can all use the same configurations when they

synchronize to the database. The project manager decides which configurations that is

available to the team.

Here is an example of the room data configuration:

The other data configurations follow the same principles; - list all attributes and enable creation

of new configuration where you control the matching of attributes and the data flow direction.


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Create new shared parameters in Autodesk® Revit®

If you chose a parameter in dRofus® that does not exist as a parameter in Autodesk® Revit®

and hit “new” in the linking dialogue, dRofus® will create a new shared parameter in Autodesk®

Revit® and sync the information from dRofus® into this new parameter. This applies for all the

configuration setups.

Program validation and visualization of the design

Since dRofus® and Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and MEP are connected through the plugin,

you validate the relation between the design and the program as you work. But in order to do

this validation for the project as a whole, and across many design models, dRofus® has

embedded a special dRofus-edition of a model server from Jotne EPM Technology AS,

Norway(http://www.epmtech.jotne.com/jotne-epm-technology-as.241684.no.html) in the latest beta version.

This technology makes it possible to achieve new and valuable features, and makes new work

flows possible;

- Everyone with access to dRofus® can - with one click - see and analyze the detailed

design for the whole project in the viewer without any additional software installed.

- Program validation can be executed and reported automatically across all models for

o Rooms in program vs rooms in model(s)

o Programmed area vs designed area per room, sub-department, department and

project.

o Furniture and equipment in model(s) vs planned furniture/equipment in the program

o Occurrences of objects in the model(s)

This ease of access to detailed validation reports and the visualization of the building, enables

new work flows where owners, end users, contractors and team members can all have

continuous access to the same information about the status and the progress of the project.

Over time, this can eventually lead to a reduced need for some of the contractual deliverances

on paper, or at least reduce their volume.

http://www.epmtech.jotne.com/jotne-epm-technology-as.241684.no.html


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View detailed design:

See occurrences of furniture or equipment in the model:


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In the class, I will show how this technology performs when projects grow large and there are

many IFC files coming from Autodesk® Revit® that need to be merged on the server, validated

and visualized.

Export of data to IFC and COBie format

In order to export all your project data to IFC and COBie, you need to synchronize relevant data

from several design models into dRofus® through the plugin – or through IFC import.

After creating a new IFC file, you choose the data you want to export :


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After synchronizing, you have a COBie compliant IFC file with all the relevant data exported:

If you prefer to have this COBie compliant file in Excel format, you can run the file through the

aec3 “IFC to COBie-Excel” translator (http://www.aec3.com/en/6/6_04.htm):

http://www.aec3.com/en/6/6_04.htm

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Program Validation & Data Management Using …aucache.autodesk.com/au2012/sessionsFiles/2244/3200/handout_2244... · Program Validation & Data Management Using Autodesk® Revit®