I not so recently had the distinct opportunity to be a speaker at the 2015 North American Revit® Technology Conference in "Washington DC". It was actually in Crystal City, VA. After putting countless hours into writing my handout, I was finally ready to present, cut to, reading directly from my notes to the whole 12 people that signed up for my class, some of which under some unfortunate false pretenses. After which, I decided to recognize my limitations as a public speaker and stick to writing. Poor grades and reviews aside, the thing that bummed me out the most was that probably no one read the near 40 page handout that I had so tirelessly poured over for the 4 months preceding the conference. In my own humble opinion there was a lot of really good information and tips in there to just go to waste in a data farm on RTC's dropbox account. So, I've decided to republish my handout, somewhat refined, as a series of blog entries in a series I'd like to call IPD and Revit. The original title was VDC and Revit, which I was informed by a somewhat unpleasant review of my presentation that I was actually talking more specifically about IPD. Tomatoes tomattos, I agreed, though somewhat begrudgingly, and find/replaced all the VDC references to IPD. Voila, somewhat refined. At any rate, I will be publish each topic section as a blog entry about once a week, so check back weekly and enjoy...
What is IPD? Is it a new, fancy buzzword for design build? Well, yes and No. Design build is an integral part of IPD but is not necessarily the whole picture. IPD, as a whole, encompasses many more elements of the design and construction process and acts as an umbrella, thus creating a fully integrated project delivery system. For example, in design build you may have the A/E working for the GC who is working for a client. Or you may have the A/E and GC working jointly for the client. In a true IPD effort, the A/E, GC and Client would be working jointly and collaboratively to achieve the end goal.
Within and IPD effort there are many subtopics to be considered and that design build is only one of the components. IPD also incorporates collaboration, Lean, virtual design and build, and target value design. Since we are speaking specifically to where Revit fits into all of this, we will be focusing on the virtual design and build aspect. However, let me preface this by saying that all aspects of IPD feed into each other thus creating a fully integrated delivery system. So, although we will be talking about how Revit can contribute to the Virtual Design and Build element, it will as a result feed into every other IPD aspect.
Now that we’ve identified where Revit fits into IPD, let’s talk about some specific aspects of IPD and how Revit can contribute to the process. From here we’re going to be looking at the following topics:
1. Leveraging a Joint Venture Throughout Design
2. Connecting the Dots Between P&IDs, Models, and Fabrication Drawings
3. Cost and Material Estimating Through Schedules
4. Key Elements When Considering Design for Fabrication
5. Creating Fabrication Drawings from the Design Model
In discussing these topics I will be approaching them primarily from an MEP perspective since that is my Revit comfort zone. It is also the area where we’ve had the most development and success in our projects. More specifically, I’ll be using piping for most if not all of my examples, but the concepts can easily be applied to other trades and disciplines with a little transposition.