Floors and helping an MEP user understand them

[ch0mpion]

This question is directed toward the Architectural users so I may better understand your workflow.

I am working on a project where the basement "floor" was modeled using the sub-catagory pad under the site model catagory. Is this a suggested workflow?

[Mike L Sealander]

It's an appropriate thing to do if, for instance, the basement floor is really a dirt floor, or if it is being used to cut into the topography, or if you don't have to ship your model to a mechanical consultant. The best thing to do is call up the A firm and develop some rules for shared modeling. All the disciplines can be guilty of doing weird things that have no practical impact until model sharing begins.

[ch0mpion]

Thank you Mike.

This is the first project for this particular firm so I expected some out of the ordinary items. As a MEP user I was curious if modeling a pad as a floor was some sort of work around for perhaps a known issue with modeling basements, I guess not.

[antman]

Since we are on the topic, I'm gathering there are specific reasons why a floor element is necessary for MEP? Is it just for hosting fixtures, or is there some other reason? Is it a problem if the floor lives in the structural model instead of architectural? Is it a problem if there are additional thin floors on top of the 'structural' floor representing finishes?
Sorry for all the questions - I'm working through a model element author matrix and want to set up protocols that help the whole project team.

[irneb]

The pad is always needed to "flatten" the topography underneath the floor. I'd usually then place a floor on top of that, something like a surface bed or paving or whatever. But leaving the "floor" as simply a pad is a bit silly, unless it's supposed to be some form of soft-scaping or clearly external to the building. If it's simply to be left as a "dirt" floor then I'd suggest making some dummy floor type with a minuscule thickness - so it may host some future floor based families (makes life easier in the long run).

As for extra floors on top of the structural - used as finishes. I tend to do this myself also. Allows spot levels to indicate stuff like FFL and TOC. If you make the floor by layers as one single object, there's no possibility of indicating its TOC (only its FFL and Bottom). Unfortunately using this after the fact makes for strange behaviour, since if the finish is placed after a 2d (or detail lined) floor based family is placed - that family gets hidden. So when using these, be aware that you might need to rehost some stuff.