Revit Wall Naming Convention

[keith394833]

This is a very useful thread for anyone trying to put together naming conventions.

If I may I'd like to throw another issue into the mix to see how others deal with them.

We find that as a project develops often we have to split external walls down into and external portion and an internal portion particularly where there is a cavity in which structural elements are located. In general terms this is fine but it leads me to the following issue;

The internal face of the wall - should that now be considered to be an internal wall or possibly a lining or does it remain an external wall as in general terms it's still part of the external wall construction? And with this wall what should be considered to be the 'external' and 'internal' face?

[nsinha73]

I think this is the simplest. Wall naming Convention

EX 6" - W1.0 - SP II G - Typical Wall

EX 6"= Exterior 6" Studs
W1.0 = Wall Tag Designation
S = Stucco
P = Plywood Sheathing
II = Resembles "CORE"
G = Gypsum Sheathing
At the end is a simple description

Letters before the "II" is Exterior side.

I have not seen anything simpler than these. A complicated Naming system becomes a "Chore", which is counter productive in Revit

[Abin Jose]

Is there any common standard we can follow for naming Walls. A bit more easier than this.

[marmiketin]

For exterior walls we use W followed by a number (W1, W2, W3, etc.) and these are built up for each project as exterior walls are almost never the same. For interior walls we use P for partition followed by a number and then a lower case letter (P1a, P4d, P6b, etc.). P1 - P4 are different size metal stud walls, P5 - P8 are the different sizes of wood stud walls, then we have P9 - P13 for concrete block walls and a few more for other common core types like double studs or flat studs. The lower case letters after the number represent the finish, P1a is 64mm metal stud no finish, P1b is has 1/2" gypsum on one side, P1c has 1/2" both sides, P1d has 1/2" one side with batt insul fill, P1e has 1/2" both side with batt insul fill, then the it cycles through the 5/8" gypsum as well as different thickness gyp on both sides and double layer gyp with and without batt. The lower case letters always represent the same finishes so its fairly easy to know what walls are what once you have used them a few times.

[pmartini4560626]

There was a comment made earlier from "cek" about the complexity and variation that comes from the many wall types in any given project. Our firm does a lot of ground-up work, so we find ourselves having to create dozens of wall/ceiling/roof types, particularly for the exterior walls. We could theoretically create a wall type for each and every condition, but we generally don't do this and let the details/drafting views capture the nuances. For instance, at the rim joist/floor assembly, our details stipulate only a single layer of gypsum board on the inside behind the rim joist for FLS purposes while the rest of the wall assembly has (2) layers, but we are definitely not going to split our walls up by floor and create a new wall type just for the rim joist--it effort required is not proportionate to the results. Fortunately, we don't have a BIM execution plan that stipulates this level of specificity.

It has been my experience that as soon as you have a separate document that stipulates the naming convention, people will generally not adhere to it. There are already so many issues to worry about, both BIM and non-BIM, and to have to find a document to type in a cryptic naming convention is just not worth it. People will create wall types with a naming convention that is "good enough," i.e., it might not follow a rigid standard, but people can find the wall type within a reasonable amount of time and understand what it's composed of without having to find a separate PDF to explain what it's all about.

In my opinion, if you need an entire document to explain it, it's not intuitive enough to use and therefore another method should be pursued. I am a firm believer of visual management a la Lean. If the BIM lead on the project has a few wall types already set up, and people can figure it out by just looking at the wall types, you're golden.

With that being said, in my current project, the wall type names are their wall tags followed with a few descriptors. Example: (3A) Plaster - White - Sand Smooth (11") (Double Shear). I inherited this project and decided to follow this convention for the sake of consistency. Kind of long, but I think most people by looking at it would be able to figure out the methodology.

I'll certainly be thinking about this more, although I am still not convinced there is a system that will yield a truly flawless naming convention, i.e., one that is intuitive and does not require a separate document to explain, will not yield dozens of wall types, and that will be readily used by all.