- Investment in Enhancing Room Data Features of Ideate BIMLink
- New Room Data Features
- Workflows Supported by the Expanded Room Data
Investment in Enhancing Room Data Features of Ideate BIMLink
This blog post is part of a series exploring the room data in Revit.
In this post, the second of four, I cover the newly enhanced information that Ideate Software is providing, specifically as it is accessible through Ideate BIMLink.
Ideate BIMLink is a powerful tool that exposes an expansive amount of data much more than is easily accessible from within Revit. Room data is an area that Ideate Software has made a significant investment in, allowing Ideate BIMLink to report on room data in a variety of situations beyond Revit capabilities.
New Room Data Features
For model elements in Revit, Ideate BIMLink finds room information in each of the following scenarios:
- Rooms in different phases. Ideate BIMLink looks in the phase defined for the link first and then works backwards through the phases in which the element exists until in locates a room.
- Rooms in design options. Ideate BIMLink will look in rooms in design options and the main model for elements that exist in either the main model or a design option.
- Rooms in linked files. If Ideate BIMLink does not find an associated room in the same model as the element, it will look in the linked files. The cases covered include:
- Elements located in the main file and rooms located in the linked file.
- Rooms located in the main file and elements located in the linked file.
- Rooms located in a linked file and elements located in a different linked file.
NOTE: Data from linked rooms for doors and windows is only supported for families that are using the ‘Room Calculation Point.’
In addition to reporting room data for a given element more completely, Ideate BIMLink expands the scope data available by reporting on a greater array of elements. Columns, structural elements, and interior elevations are just some of the categories that are not supported in Revit but are supported in Ideate BIMLink. We also have room data in our multi-category links to help provide a complete picture of the model in one place.
When lighting fixtures exist in a different file than the rooms, Revit will not report values for the room fields.
Workflows Supported by the Expanded Room Data
With this information, Ideate BIMLink can empower all participants of the design process to utilize room information, even when they do not have control over the rooms. Existing Revit schedules can easily be used as a template for creating links in Ideate BIMLink. Once created, the schedule and the Excel export of the link can be compared side by side, allowing you to see the additional data. Here are a few of the workflows supported by the expanded room data:
- Match up spaces in the MEP file with rooms in the architecture file
- Furniture layouts in design options can be reported together with their rooms
- Furniture in an FF&E file can include room information from the architecture file
- Interior elevations can be renamed to reflect the name of the room they display
- Electrical and ventilation equipment can be identified by the room in which it is located
- Complete project data can be exported from a campus file, including data spanning multiple files
When the same lighting fixtures data is viewed in Ideate BIMLink, the room data from the linked file is reported.
Once the data is exposed, Excel can be used to generate reports, which can then be brought back into Revit using Ideate Sticky. The room data can also be copied to a custom parameter on the element for reporting in Revit schedules.
The enhanced room data is just one of the new features in Ideate BIMLink, recently released for Revit 2016, Revit 2017, and Revit 2018. Give it a try today, and feel free to contact us. We are always happy to discuss your workflow challenges.
For more information on the software solutions, training, and consulting Ideate provides, please visit the Ideate, Inc. homepage.
Jesika DiGregorio
Software Team Lead
Jesika received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon in Eugene where she also spent time studying advanced math. Her work experience includes Junior Designer at an award-winning firm specializing in architecture and land planning, and Intern Architect at a firm that provides services in planning, design, construction documents and construction administration for projects of all sizes. After working in architecture design for several years, Jesika decided to pursue her interest in programming and her love of efficient systems. She now serves as a Software Team Lead for Ideate Software.