Is Revit good for Interior Projects?

[nnguyen]

Hello All,

I am gathering information about how many interior firms and/or Architectural firms that have an interior department use Revit as their main program for project delivery. I want to gain more information and examples of interior firms using Revit successfully. Is Revit, or BIM a good idea for interior projects? Any input, information, examples, or if you would like to point me in the right direction to find more information it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[guy.messick825831]

We use Revit for all aspects, with few exceptions, of our projects, including interiors. We have a robust Interiors Department and they are doing great work. The ability to schedule F&E by type, room, etc. is huge. We approach it like architecture, create good intelligent content, design away, and track your data throughout.

[cdetore]

Hi,

We have a large interiors group and have been using Revit on our projects for a couple of years now. The projects range in size from ~10K SF to ~500K SF. So far they have been mostly workplace and residential projects, although we do commercial, retail and academic work as well.

The interiors group loves Revit. Here are some my observations so far.

Interiors staff needs to learn more of the program sooner than normal. Their project schedules are shorter and they typically have a wider range of project responsibilities. Be prepared to change your training outline to focus on their needs.

They rely much more on good standards and templates. They have less time to experiment or reproduce information (legends, schedules, etc). We have a separate templates for interiors projects now with different sheets, families and schedules in them.

The interiors group has embraced and pushed the use of 3D (shaded and rendered) in our firm. It's become an invaluable tool for communicating with project partners (clients, consultants and contractors).

Have a good family building resource. Things like lighting fixtures and workstations need to look right in 3D views. It also helps in space planning to know the correct size of furnishings and equipment.

The model sizes have been (for the most part) smaller than the architectural projects so we have had fewer hardware upgrades. The only exception is the rendering. We set up a couple of X64 machines and they use remote desktop to run the larger renderings on them.

We also use these projects as a learning opportunity for new users (typically the architectural group) to build the existing building shells. They usually have decent documentation to build from and they get to put a building model together from the ground up (without the expectations of design changes).

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

Good luck,

CD

[cliff collins]

Yes, we have Interiors Dept'. as well, and are training them on Revit.
We have used real-world pilot projects to get them started, with close mentoring/help
available at all times throughout the project.

We currently set up our projects with a "Shell/Core" Architectural/Structural Revit project,
and a second "Interiors" Revit project, which we link into the Arch. model and vise-versa.
The reason for this is it helps keep the file size managable--we work on huge hospitality/entertainment projects. It also segregates the tasks for shell, core, and interiors
in a clean, organized way.

This way, the Interiors staff can work independently of the Arch. staff--and add all of their content/finishes as separate walls, finish floors, ceilings, furniture, lighting, etc.

ID Sheets can be printed and added to the full project set as required, or issued as a separate Interiors/FFE Package, etc.

There are some negative aspects of linking the models---like wall joins not cleaning up btwn. linked models, problems with scheduling across links, etc.

I am interested if anyone else has a tried/true method of developing interior design with Revit? Any feedback here is appreciated,

Cheers......

[cdetore]

Cliff,

We set up the larger projects (multi-unit residentials) the same way if we are doing the shell. The only exception is that we put the common areas such as lobby or retail areas in the core/shell file (in it's own workset) for better wall cleanup and visibility control.

Even on the projects where the shell is existing we model it in a separate file and link it in. It helps keep the file size down and prevents accidental "revisions" to the shell.

CD

[nnguyen]

Thank you for everyone that have replied to my question. Any more users out there that have examples or input on this would be greatly appreciated. We also have an interiors department but they have not embraced using Revit for those projects and some people in our office feel that it is not neccessary for them to do so. However, we have a firm initiative to have most if not all of our projects in BIM. So the more offices that I can find examples using it for Interior projects the better. Again thank you!

[eric.piotrowicz]

Over the past several years I've worked on interiors projects, core and shell packages, and also complete buildings. The benefits of doing the interior portion in Revit are very similar to the exteriors, you can track and schedule on the fly and get notices about possible conflicts. The real bonus to doing interiors in Revit is that if you invest the time up front building robust families it is possible to incorporate basically all the manufacturer spec sheet data into the family and thus be able to access it at a moments notice at any point in the project. Many manufacturers are even begining to supply Revit models of their product which already have this info built in. The great part is that when someone asks how much of a certain flooring material is being used, its just a click away. We always seemed to have problems with materials or furnishings getting changed but half the tags didn't get updated or an area changed but the p-line boundary wasn't coordinated. Those problems don't exist in Revit because all of that data is controled by a single element which coordinates itself on the fly. If the interiors are done right I'd venture to say that having them in Revit is more important than the exteriors just because the of vast amounts of easily trackable data. Even if your engineers aren't using Revit you will be able to provide accurate answers to their Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing load questions instead of sending them a stack of spec sheets and hoping they get it right.

[rrothwel]

there are also vendors that have made tile and paints available for BIM/Revit so that the schedules and specified information can schedule for procurement and tracking. Once the program is learned and practices have been established, the interiors is a very clean process. Finishes room labels and schedules can be created and they are very nice. Using Revit is not hard, at times the setup and individual needs can make your day interesting but doing the job is not as hard as even Autocad can be. Apply some wall finishes, add some wainscot and flooring, some lights and furniture and make a render for the interiors group, then show them the schedule and tell them that with revit, designers get to design and not draft. Good luck!

[cliff collins]

I'd like to hear more on this topic -- I think that Interiors in Revit deserves some more discussion.

Anyone have some tips, advice, real-world stories, good/bad--post them here.

cheers........