Revit MEP 2014_Electrical Plug-in

[Binu Mathew]

Hi All,

Does anyone knows what are the plug-in we can use for Electrical and where is available to buy by cash or free

Such as
- DIALux for Lighting Design in DIALux and transfer to Revit
- Any Cable sizing ?
- Voltage Drop ?
Etc...

Would be really appreciated if any one can list the Plug-in for Electrical only

Thank you

Binu

[sbrennan]

I've heard one - but obviously because of the intense development, it's not free. Not only is it outrageously expensive (costs nearly the same as a new license for a Building Design Suite ULTIMATE), but the electrical is still in Beta. It also includes modules for duct work, pipe work, spool drawings, and more. The developer doesn't allow to purchase these modules one at a time, so I won't even consider it. I have heard from a friend who is using it that it is horrible and he's having several problems.

[wgfletch]

any updates on this topic?

I have been lookign around and none of the ones i have come across have been to impressive

I'm really looking for things that are actually something i cannot handle doing myself within the api...not just basically shared parameters with content and modified schedules

[Steve_Stafford]

I've heard good things lately about Design Master (http://www.designmaster.biz/revit/).

[JoelLondenberg]

I've heard good things lately about Design Master (http://www.designmaster.biz/revit/).

Wow that's interesting. Last time I used Design Master it was for HVAC in AutoCAD. I hadn't heard they were putting any effort in to Revit development.

I absolutely recommend them for HVAC on ACAD - I'm sure their Elec software is similarly great!

[Binu Mathew]

Steve,
Thanks a lot...
Noticed that when doing the volatge drop (VD) calc..s the feeder length such as X,Y, Z length calculated by Revit automatically. However, the real fact is not that we have to decide as per the available BOH corridor space. is there a way in revit that the user will decide the cable routing then the cable length calculate accordingly

[Steve_Stafford]

It isn't possible to change the logic that Revit uses to calculate a circuit's length, at least not with the tools they put in front of us on the interface. I haven't used the Design Master tools personally yet so it may be possible to do so with it.

Generally engineers tell me that Revit is more conservative than their own calculations and that's consistent with what Revit's product mgrs have said too. In the case of circuit length it is difficult to predict the exact routing that a contractor will use, unless you get them involved in the process early enough. At this stage however Autodesk has not provided any tools to define actual wire routing to determine more accurate circuit lengths.

[JoelLondenberg]

Also important for voltage drop is that Revit assumes that the entire load goes to the farthest fixture. This is fine for some circuits, but not all.

For instance, most EE's I've worked with prefer to design the feeder for parking lot lighting by accounting for the load dropping off as each light is connected. Revit won't do that, it calculates the total VA for the entire circuit traveling to the farthest light fixture in the parking lot.