Training for Interior Designers Using Revit?

[phyllisr]

For the past several months, I have been following the questions and requests that focus on what Interior Designers want and need in a Revit environment (process, content and more). For AU 2006, we submitted a course suggestion we thought we could teach (subsequently not a finalist in the slection process) specifically addressing some of the issues I see appearing more frequently. Our original thoughts (intermediate level) included such representative topics as:
Area Plans for ANSI/BOMA CZ65.1-1996 Calculations
Area Plans for Program Verification
When to use Worksets and When to Create a Separate Model
Using the Model for Department Sign-Off Meetings
Leveraging the Information: Working with Owner Purchasing Departments, Developing Bid Packages, Strategies for Furniture or Equipment or Both, Special Requirements for Medical Equipment.
and More...

At this time, we would probably suggest adding family creation for FFE (strategies for using Multi-View Blocks from ADT, when is 2D enough and when is 3D enough, using AWI 600 Series Library content for Furniture Bid Packages, other), managing materials, strategies for calculating quantities when required, and more.

Are there others who see this as critical to Revit success? Are there others who would like to see a greater attention given to Interior Designers in Autodesk platforms generally? Would more people attend from your firm attend AU if there were sessions for Interior Designers? Please share your thoughts.

[DaveP]

Great timing, Phyllis;

I'm meeting with our Interiors group Tuesday to figure out what we need to develop for them.
Here's our list of topics. Some we have families & procedures for. Many we don't.


Finish Plans

Floor patterns

Room Separation Lines
Filled Regions
Finish Tags

Placing

Copy from Floor Plan
Duplicate w/ Detailing
Editing
Adding Leaders
Finish Schedules
Exporting to Excel
Wall Protection
Keynotes
Furniture Plans

2D/3D furniture
Creating new content
Creating new Types
Furniture Tags
Furniture schedules
Exporting to Excel
Corner Guards

Interior Elevations

Materials

Filled Regions
Split regions
Custom casework

I'll post again after the meeting.

[phyllisr]

...2D/3D furniture...
While you think about your strategies, attached is something in-process with which I have been tinkering. Applies equally to other areas besides ID.

We used ADT for about 6 years before migrating. I have tons of multi-view blocks still in our network. Attached is a Revit family for an Aeron chair. All I did was import the plan, front elevation and side elevation view blocks into Revit and using the pick option, made those lines symbolic. Then, I deleted the DWG import. Finally, I used the model view (direct from Herman Miller as I did for ADT) as a CAD import. I save the DWG file and as time permits, will eventually make this a true Revit model. You can see in my example that I already swapped the casters and some of the frame.

This was just a testing example and I have no intention of doing the model work for everything we have but using the view blocks from ADT content is great for "fake" 3D content that will look correct in plan, section and elevation. Using the various plans and elevations in the Kohler library for 2D families is another application (something similar was done in the Revit City site but those have no symbolic lines and look pretty awful in anything except a model view). I am not a fan of DWG content in Revit and eventually want to dump all the models entirely. Until then, attached is my interim approach.

Let me know if this is totally confusing. Just a preliminary idea.