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Saturday, May 9, 2015

Electrical Productivity Pack for Revit

From the CAD Technology Center website...

High Quality Electrical BIM Starter Package

Compatible with Revit MEP 2013, 2014 and 2015

*Note - EPP is version specific

New users can be productive with Revit MEP right from the start. This site-license starter pack includes a project template, electrical content, shared parameters file, a user’s guide and a sample project. Utilize the "I" in BIM with the Electrical Productivity Pack for Revit MEP.

The template includes many features such as schedules (light fixture, equipment, cost estimating, etc.), legends, sheets, titleblocks and more. The content utilizes shared parameters and contains actual electrical information. When content is placed the appropriate schedules begin to populate; for example, lighting fixtures have information on lens type, number of lamps, ballast, manufacturer, etc... The template also has a Meter Schedule for documenting LEED projects.

This product contains nearly all of the content needed by electrical engineers to create electrical systems that work within Revit MEP. The Electrical Productivity Pack enables you to pass the flow of electrical data from outside of the building, to the inside and throughout. The included content has consistent parameters that enable accurate data transfer of electrical information between equipment and devices.

Template

The template is setup as a project with worksharing enabled and placeholder links for Autodesk Revit Architecture, Mechanical and Structure models (with links placed on corresponding worksets). Electrical Settings, Load Classification and Demand Factors are preset to NEC requirements. All corresponding tags are loaded.

The provided template is especially beneficial to firms just getting started in Revit MEP as the template includes many of the essential basics such as sheets with a custom titleblock, general notes and keyed notes placeholders.

The project template has plan and RCP coordination views with nearly all categories turned on to aid in visual inspection for potential conflicts. These views can be used in addition to Revit’s Interference Check functionality.

The image below highlights the titleblock and the provided Electrical Symbols Legend sheet; all created with native Revit elements. Note: red text indicates items which need to be reviewed for a given project.


Content

Out of box content that is provided with Revit MEP does not have consistent parameters. This lack of consistency creates a disconnect in the data flow.

Light fixtures, receptacles, certain electrical equipment, communication, and fire alarm devices are created as face-based content.

Lighting Fixtures have an IES photometric file associated with them (either model specific or a generic placeholder). This allows the EPP content to be used in ElumTools by Lighting Analysis. ElumTools is an add-in for Revit MEP to calculate point-by-point electric light levels. Within ElumTools, the light designer can then select a specific IES and Light Loss Factors for each luminaire.

Most of the panelboard content has built-in clearances, both graphically in plan-views and three-dimensionally for clash detection.


Electrical content requires many parameters and formulas to properly design and document a project. The content which is provided out of the box with Revit MEP does not contain all of the necessary parameters and formulas. This productivity pack does have these parameters and formulas added to the content. An example of a single parameter for the Motor family is provided below:

Motor family parameter with formula – in Family Editor:


Motor family parameter with calculated result – in a project:


Content containing more than six types come with an accompanying type catalog. This allows the designer to load content with just the needed information. A partial example of this is seen in the image below for the motor family.


Schedules

Equipment schedules are setup in the starting project and positioned on sheets. Schedules have been developed using shared parameters. A method for managing schedule footer notes is included and documented in the user’s guide. Many of the schedule fields are automatically populated as content is added to the Revit model as seen in the example Lighting Fixture Schedule shown below.


Panel Schedule Templates are provided to quickly generate panelboard schedules once a panel is placed in the model.

A number of Working Schedules are provided. Working schedules are not intended to be placed on a sheet, but used by the designer to aid in the electrical design and check for errors and omissions. The image below shows the TROUBLESHOOT LIGHT FIXTURE schedule. This schedule can be used to verify all light fixtures are circuited and associated with a panelboard.


Shared Parameters File

A shared parameters file is provided to allow additional content to be made by the designer’s as needed. This is critical for making the provided tags and schedules work correctly.

User’s Guide

The provided User’s Guide includes nearly 100 pages of detailed instructions on how to use the content and describes the intended workflow. As seen in the image below, the steps are clearly outlined and several images are provided to help the electrical designer more quickly implement Revit/BIM.


Three appendix files are also provided (in MS Excel format):

Appendix A - Content Parameters and Formula
Appendix B - Light Fixture Parameter Values
Appendix C - Content Costs

Sample Project

See the template, schedules and some of the content in action with the provided sample project. This file can be used to see how content and schedules work within the project. Most of the images in the User’s Guide are based off of the sample project. Here you will find the Power Plan (see first image below), Lighting Plan and Systems plan views developed, as well as schedules and panelboard schedules. Including cost estimate, meter schedule and a unique switchboard schedule which can have multiple distribution sections (see second image below).





The Electrical Productivity Pack is brought to you by the CAD Technology Center and is price at USD 1,495.00 for a site license.

There's more information available on the CAD Technology Center website.

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