With Autodesk® Revit®, building design is an integrative effort. Its foundational process, Building Information Modeling (BIM), frees the architect’s imagination from the cell of Computer-Aided Design, welcoming input from any stakeholder invested in an architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) venture.
Though Revit’s BIM functionality removes barriers to collaboration, users still encounter impediments when working with Revit schedules and sheets.
CTC Software understands the Revit user experience, which is why we developed targeted add-ins to improve schedule and sheet operations. Our BIM Suites containing these extensions rid users of unnecessary repetition–because we know tedium equals time, and time equals money.
A Bird’s-Eye View: How BIM Tools for Revit Enhance Project Delivery
The soul of BIM is data.
Like van Gogh’s 1887 Self Portrait, employing pointillism–a method through which artists shape cohesive images by patterning discrete dots of paint–a Revit model is an amalgam of data points. BIM is the process by which these data points are exposed, similar to one taking a magnifying glass to Self Portrait and finding staccato particles of paint.
Once revealed through BIM, a Revit draft’s atomic data can be tabulated on schedules accessible to AEC project contributors, who can monitor, control, and adjust that data. Changes or limits placed on a schedule amount to active dialogue with the corresponding Revit model. This cyber-conversation influences Revit sheets, which present views of an architect’s digital model.
BIM is the Alpha and Omega, the microscope and panorama. It is the information recorded in each cell of a Revit schedule and the schedule itself, as each item of data makes up the views on a sheet and the Revit sheet itself.
CTC Software products broaden Revit’s dynamic qualities, offering BIM Suites with add-ins supporting scheduling and sheet actions. Inspired by BIM, our tools unite to form specialized BIM Batch™, Data®, Project™, and Manager™ Suites that optimize project delivery.
Nuts and Bolts: CTC Software Enhancements for Revit Schedules and Sheets
Revit schedules and sheets are central to design development and, thus, the smooth transition from concept to project conclusion.
With schedules, each datum related to a Revit figure (e.g., a door-width measurement) is compiled into a table. BIM allows for communication between the schedule and the associated model, so experts across the AEC spectrum can easily revise the model by updating the schedule.
A modeled blueprint can be documented and presented on Revit sheets. A template may be applied to these sheets, ensuring uniformity for views of a blueprint’s floor plans, 3D iterations, segments and their components, annotations, and linked schedules.
Spreadsheet Link
Revit users complain of technical issues when working with schedules and sheets despite their apparent reciprocity. For example, some users have trouble creating categories (e.g., sheet names, page size) within schedules that list all sheets associated with a project.
CTC Software’s Spreadsheet Link™, part of the BIM Project Suite™, rescues users from arduous manual procedures for generating new or different categories within a Revit schedule. The problem is solved through bi-directional spreadsheet connection.
The Spreadsheet Link extracts element data from a Revit model, exporting it to a modifiable Excel-like table. If a user alters the spreadsheet, edits can be imported back to Revit, refitting the model according to the converted data. Settings within the Spreadsheet Link allow users to add categories to the table, as well as incorporate and compile single-category Revit schedules into a spreadsheet.
Users can subsequently implement Schedule XL™, another BIM Project Suite add-in, to forge Revit schedules from one or more spreadsheets external to the program. Schedule XL produces sheet views from these assembled schedules.
CTC Software’s BIM Suites for Revit Deliver Scheduling and Sheet Solutions
The Spreadsheet Link and Schedule XL add-ins are widely popular for simplifying data manipulation within and outside Revit schedules and sheets, but there is so much more to discover from the CTC Software treasure trove.
CTC Software’s BIM Suites and Revit coalesce into a powerful vehicle for productivity, delivering precise results that will fulfill your client’s project expectations. Visit our website to dive into the wide array of tools contained in our BIM Suites, which include (but go beyond) resolving impediments to efficient Revit scheduling and sheet tasks. Reach out to our team with any questions.
