Reply: Looking for info on learning Revit and BIM solutions for FM company.
I recently had the pleasure of joining an online conversation with a fellow AUGI member. I thought that the post held some relevant questions and answers for the BIM Extension Followers as well.
Hello, I am a CAD Tech at a Facilities Management company in Ohio. I have a pretty basic CAD knowledge base. I went to school for Engineering and ended up not finishing, but worked at a consulting engineers company for about 5 years doing lots of Civil work. After the housing crash, I found a position with this FM company. I am struggling with finding my place here, as there is very little need for CAD drawings. Basically I work in the Trades dept. I manage and create drawings for the HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, GC, and Casework groups. These are generally quite basic, nothing too awful involved. My manager talked to me recently about wanting me to look into any kind of training I would be interested in taking that might benefit the company, some kind of continuing education. So here I am.
Generally, I am very interested in learning Revit and figuring out how our company might benefit from me learning about Building Information Modeling. I am just somewhat confused on the whole topic. Most of the facilities we manage are building that have already been built, some have electronic drawings, some don’t. Pretty much NONE of them have 3d drawings anywhere that I’m aware of. I would love to figure out how we could create the 3d drawings for some of our biggest clients and incorporate BIM into them. From my understanding, aside from the time I would spend learning all of it, it would take quite some time to realize a real “BIM” environment and reap the benefits from that, but it seems like, over time, it would definitely be worth it for us. We handle a LOT of facilities. Some are very big, well-known companies.
So anyway, I guess what I’m looking for is any information that anyone could help me out with to figure out how I might go about implementing this into our business. I am only one person, with fairly basic AutoCAD skills. I know I need to learn to use Revit. I have learned Civil 3D and Land Desktop working for the engineering firm, and I learned a lot there just about using CAD in general. Anyone have any resources I could look into, information that would be helpful? I would greatly appreciate any input here!
Thanks!
Our reply:
Jessica,
Facility management is a fairly new concept for Revit. As with anything in the world it is garbage in, garbage out. What that means for facility managers is that the architects, engineers, and/or contractors who develop your models should be required to add necessary models and parameters in order for the model to be applicable to your operations. There is much discussion as to who should take responsibility for COBie and other specifics that benefit the building owner.
If you receive a Revit model without relevant information, all is not lost because you can still edit the model yourself to work for you. However, this can be a somewhat daunting task to someone who is less familiar with the Revit platform.
There are a number of softwares that offer Revit Add-ins, it really depends on what your requirements are. FM: Systems is doing some really cool things with two-way data between Revit models and a web-based system.
I started a consulting firm and aim to help owners and facility managers by either acting as a liaison during the design and construction phases or as a consultant post-occupancy to build and improve the building owners Revit model. I’d be more than happy to discuss this topic more. It is super exciting times in our industry!
