Monitoring Autodesk® Revit® Projects Effectively Dan Chasteen Regional Design Application Manager, Perkins+Will Victor Okhoya Regional Design Application Manager, Perkins+Will © 2011 Autodesk Dan Chasteen - Bio Regional Design Applications Manager at Perkins+Will Former Owner of Digital Construction Studio 18 Years 3D-focused experience Research and Development of Cloud Computing at Perkins+Will Hardware Graphics Experience War Eagle! © 2011 Autodesk Victor Okhoya - Bio Victor is a trained architect with 10 years of experience in BIM related consulting. He has worked for leading Autodesk resellers in Canada as well as consulting to Autodesk as a BIM subject matter expert. He is also a proficient software programmer and has developed several BIM tools and databases. He is currently a Design Applications Manager with Perkins+Will while pursuing a Masters in IT degree at Harvard's Extension School. © 2011 Autodesk Class Summary This class introduces tools, techniques and strategies that provide a formal approach to the Model Review process including the tracking of user activity and productivity, diagnosing file problems. Monitor Performance of Models Monitor Status of Models Audit Revit Projects Track User Activity and Productivity Diagnose Model Health © 2011 Autodesk Learning Objectives At the end of this class, you will be able to: Realize the available file reviewing tools and tactics Appreciate journal files and the rich file management information they contain Employ the tool for reading journal files and producing file management reports Utilize tracking and comparison tools to discover file changes © 2011 Autodesk Tools and Techniques Manual Audits Revit Viewer 2012 Model Review Tool Revit Journal Reader Other tools © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need Challenges for Non-Revit Using Project Leaders Check compliance with standards Monitor file errors and warnings Track user activity Understand Revit productivity © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need Challenges of Using Revit for Model Managers Overwhelming Number of Models Large Scale Campus Style Multi-Office Any Combination of Above Limited Time with Each Model Time Spent in the Trenches Limits Perspective Traditional Model Review Time can be All Consuming © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need QUALITY CONTROL (QC) is a process by which an organization assures that project deliverables are in conformance with prescribed quality standards. Since BIM is an integral part of the delivery process it stands to reason that BIM Model Reviews should be part of the QC process. © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need Who should do Model Reviews? Project Managers BIM Managers Revit Project Leads © 2011 Autodesk Responding to Need What should they be looking for? Health of models Productivity Delivery standards Pro-active risk management © 2011 Autodesk Manual Audits & Revit Viewer 2012 © 2011 Autodesk Auditing in Revit Simple, but Time Consuming Category walk – layer walk for Revit Review warnings – assign clean up duties Filter and count – numbers should add up Project browser – views, sheets, families, groups Workset viewer – Revit 2012 © 2011 Autodesk Manual Audit Demo © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk’s Revit Viewer 2012 Allows majority of standard Revit functionality Disallows Save or Save as… If no changes are made… Allows exporting to certain formats Allows publishing Allows printing If work shared files are opened detached, allows editing of elements © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk’s Revit Viewer 2012 What is it useful for? Reviewing models real-time, without fear of accidentally obtaining ownership of building elements Does not use up a license Checking file History Viewing coordination issues Running Interference checks © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk’s Revit Viewer 2012 Ideal tool for non-production project managers who need to: Open files detached Manage visibility Create 3D sections Find views and sheets Take measurements Print or export views © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Business Analytics: Business decisions are driven by the rational analysis of quantitative data. TIME FOR BIM ANALYTICS? © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Journal files are log files Used by programmers to track program activity Written out to text files Revit journals can grow to over 20MB+ depending on the length of the Revit session © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Location of Journal Files: Revit 2012: Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit\<Product name and release>\Journals Windows Vista or Windows 7: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\<Product name and release>\Journals Revit 2011 and before: C:\Program Files\<Product name and release>\Journals © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader What can you do with journal files: Used for support by Autodesk Contain error messages when files crash Contains system and performance information Can recover a Revit session Can automate some tasks (better to use API) Can be parsed into an application e.g. Revit Journal Reader You can set up location of journals files in the admin. image You can set up number of journal files under Options © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Revit Journal Reader: Use Revit Journal files to build a performance monitoring tool Examples: Network Traffic Analysis Windows Events Log © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Revit Journal Reader: Parses journal files and returns log information based on selected categories Read a single journal file location or multiple locations Filter output based on categories Write output to external csv file or display in grid © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader How it works: Visual Basic application Opens journal files sequentially Uses regular expressions to parse the journals Writes results to XML document XML is accessed by filters and written to grid or written to comma separated file © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Interpreting the results: Creations: who authored what, when? Deletions: “where are my slabs?” Insertions: track DWGs, images and other insertions Errors: user proficiency; could point to training needs Families: track and manage content creation Subcategories: managing view templates, exports Warnings: assign housekeeping duties Fatal Errors: isolate hardware problems, detect corruption early © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Generate performance analysis reports – text based: © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Generate performance analysis reports – visual: Generated by Tableau Software © 2011 Autodesk Revit Journal Reader Demo © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk’s Model Review Tool © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool What is the Model Review Tool? Standards Checking tool analogous to CAD Standard tools in AutoCAD © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool What is the Model Review Tool? Part of Revit Extensions Validate the accuracy and consistency of the Model against prescribed standards Configure checks to suit your QC needs Batch process sets of models Report and optionally correct inaccuracies and inconsistencies within your model(s) © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool How does the Model Review Tool work? Two parts: 1. Manage Checks: Allows creation, editing and configuration of checks 2. Run Checks: Does the actual running of the checks © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Manage Checks: Create Checks based on templates Create additional templates using the API Save checks as a check file (.bcf) Use check file to run checks © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Basic Info Tab: Name: each check has a unique name Category: useful for sorting checks by type Enabled: whether or not the check will be run Report Only: where pass/fail is not the only response Allow Correction: allows user to interactively fix problems Notes: explanation of the check © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Details Tab: This is where the elements, parameters and rules being checked are set up This tab is different for different rule types © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Filter Tab: Restricts the scope of checks Important for performance and preventing over information © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Conditions Tab: provide additional filtering capability allow checks only if they meet certain conditions all check types can be used as a condition for whether other checks are appropriate conditions are defined in the Conditions window and applied to specific checks checks that are used as conditions return either “true” or “false”. © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Example Checks, Filters, Conditions: We wish to ensure our detail annotations do not refer to CONCRETE as CONC Check: Search for CONC and replace with CONCRETE Filter: Text font must be ARIAL Condition: Element parameter case must be UPPERCASE © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Fail/Pass Messages © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool Examples of checks you can create: Find views with imported dwgs. Check if a model, or views or sheets within model meet a specified naming format. Check whether objects have appropriate parameters such as an Assembly Code. Check elements for maximum and/or minimum file sizes such as for code compliance. Check the number of elements of a certain type in the model. Check tags and notes for upper case text. Check that all dimensions use a certain font and leader arrow head. © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Tool General Remarks: You don’t need to know programming You may need to know regular expressions e.g. A – [0-9][0-9][0-9]? matches A-25, A-336 but not A-1, A-A1, A-1001 Create small test files for quicker processing and easier trouble shooting On Win 7 with UAC you need to run as administrator on folders © 2011 Autodesk Model Review Demo © 2011 Autodesk Third Party Model Review Tools © 2011 Autodesk Additional Model Review Tools Solibri Not a Navisworks Competitor Model Checker More than Clashing Egress Naming Convention Missing Spaces/Wrong Location Comparing Model Versions © 2011 Autodesk Additional Model Review Tools Solibri Rule Based Out of Box Custom Rules GSA Reporting © 2011 Autodesk Questions? © 2011 Autodesk Additional Questions? Please email your questions to the following addresses Dan.Chasteen@perkinswill.com Victor.Okhoya@perkinswill.com © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk University Session Feedback Your feedback is very important to Autodesk. You can complete the session survey on your mobile device, PC, or at a survey station. Each completed session survey enters you in that day’s drawing for a free AU 2012 pass. You can help make AU 2012 better! Complete the AU Conference Survey at a survey station and receive an AU 2011 T-Shirt. © 2011 Autodesk Autodesk, AutoCAD* [*if/when mentioned in the pertinent material, followed by an alphabetical list of all other trademarks mentioned in the material] are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2011 Autodesk