The evolution of BIM 360 and Revit Cloud Worksharing revolutionized the capabilities of how Architects and Engineers alike, were able to collaborate. BIM 360 provided the AEC industry a cloud based solution that allowed teams from across the country to work more collaboratively and streamlined.
As the AEC industry continues to evolve and more teams are working further apart and even working more remotely, BIM 360 continues to evolve and help designers to provide more streamline services.
However, with the evolution of BIM 360, things seemed to be pretty single directional. Revit models were able to be stored, synchronized, published and viewed in the cloud. Additionally, providing designers with methods to review and identify potential design or coordination issues. The downside to this was that these issues were cloud focused and while reports could be made and distributed to teams, there was a lack of feedback, back into Revit.
On December 14, 2020, Autodesk released the latest evolution to the connection between Revit (2020 and Revit 2021) and BIM 360 with it’s Revit Issue Add-in. The add-in is not available to Revit LT license holders. This add-in allows users to open, edit, comment and resolve BIM 360 issues within Revit; this includes issues that have originated from multiple locations; BIM 360 Design Collaboration, Model Coordination, Document Management and even Navisworks.
Let’s take a dive under the hood and see this workflow in action. In this workflow, I am going to focus on the connection between Revit 2021 and BIM 360 Document Management. A future blog will cover the connection between the other platforms.
Setting up the Model for BIM 360
First thing is to setup the model within Revit. Using a standard BIM 360 / Revit setup, create view sets that will be used to publish the model up to BIM 360.
Once the publish settings are setup, then it is time to push the model up to BIM 360. Depending on if this is a cloud based workshared model or a cloud stored single user model, will determine which approach you will use to get the model on the cloud. For this session, I am going to use single user approach and save it up to BIM 360.
Creating Issues on BIM 360
With the model hosted on BIM 360, I am able to review and identify some design issues that need to be addressed by the design team. A couple things to be mindful of.
- In order to have Revit recognize where the issue is, it must be associated to an actual element (typically done in a 3D View).
- In order for Revit to be able to switch to the issue, the view the issue was created in must be an existing view in the model (hence why we saved/sync’d) the model. If need be, you can also publish an updated model with the needed views, if the publish settings were not done prior to establishing the model in the cloud.
Going to a 3D View of my model in BIM 360 that I included in my publish, I am able to create issues as needed.
Figure 1: Creating Issue within BIM 360
Working with Issues within Revit
Once the issue is created, then we can go back to Revit. Within Revit there is a new ‘Issues’ add-in tab.
Figure 2: Revit Issue Add-in Tab and Ribbon
Selecting on the ‘Manage Issue’ in the Ribbon will bring up an ‘Issues’ dialogue panel. This panel will display any of the issues that are currently identified on this model that is saved in BIM 360.
Figure 3: Issue Panel displayed within Revit.
With the Issues panel open, selecting on one of the issues, will orient you to the same view that was used to create it within BIM 360. Then the yellow Issues pin will display in your view to help identify the location of the issue. If you marked up a view that is no longer in the Revit project, the issue will remain and you will be able to resolve the issue, however, selecting on it will not jump you to a new view, rather it will display in the active view.
Figure 4: Issue Push Pins displayed in Revit Model.
Selecting the issue in the Issue panel will bring up details of the issue. Here further information can be seen about the issue, including any attachments that may be included (i.e. photos, sketches, etc).
Figure 5: Issue Details within Revit
Updating the BIM 360 Environment
Once the model has been updated and the issue is resolved. While the issue state will immediately change in BIM 360 based on the response provided in Revit.
Figure 6: Issue shows as answered but model not updated.
The actual model will not show updated in BIM 360 until it is published or saved, depending on the method that is used to host the model on BIM 360.
Figure 7: Updated Published Model on BIM 360.
To assist with tracking and coordination of issues, you can export the issue list out to a CSV file within Revit. By clicking on the export button in the Issues panel.
Figure 8: Issue Export
In summary, this ability to see and modify BIM 360 Issues within Revit will greatly assist in the coordination between reviewers, designers and modelers; or even between the field and office documentation, as issues can be identified in the field and then viewed directly within the Revit model back at the office. While we cannot create new issues within Revit and push them into BIM 360, Autodesk has identified that this is on the roadmap. Hope you are as excited about this connection as I am.
Enjoy and Happy BIMing!
For further information, please reach out to your local IMAGINiT representative.
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