Structural - Architectural Wall Coordination
In this article we will look at some workflow methods when coordinating with an architectural model. BIM refers to a process, and for a successful implementation you need all stakeholders involved in decisions early on in design development. Not all consultants have the same skill set, which may require deeper collaboration by offering up ideas, training, etc. All disciplines need to be clear on how they will execute their portion and what they expect from other disciplines. We will focus on the structural engineer and what he/she expects from the architectural model (consultant).
Walls in the Architectural Model
Most building design projects start with an architectural design model. Sometimes this is part of a marketing effort to win a job, or sometimes it is trying to sell a design to the client before proceeding into the construction documentation phase. There are a couple of things that the structural engineer can set as expectations to the architect. The first is whether a wall serves a structural purpose or is just an interior partition not carrying any load. The architect may not be aware that when the structural engineer sets his view discipline to “Structural,” all of the non-structural walls will be turned off and not visible to reference in the view once they link in the architectural model.
Figure 1: Structural usage of the wall
A simple way to check the usage of a wall is to apply filters to the view. Figure 2 is a simple example where a filter was applied to make all walls red where the Structural usage was set to Bearing. These types of filters and views are nice to have built into your templates to help with collaboration and quality control.
Figure 2: Structural filter
During the job kickoff and development of a BIM execution plan (if one exists), it is important to set expectations. If the architect could hand over the model to the structural engineer with a predefined view showing the structural usage assigned and all annotation turned off, etc., it would be much easier for the structural engineer to just link the model and set the visibility graphics to a predefined view than to dig into the model and do a lot of initial visibility setup.
It is up to the structural team to put together some verbiage to set the expectation about what they would like to receive from the architectural team. This could be something as simple as:
“The architectural model is to have one view per level, specifically set up for file linking to the structural engineer. This view is to have the following Revit categories turned on/off: (then list the categories or submit a snapshot of your visibility graphics).”
If the architectural team provides feedback that it is too much additional work on their end to meet the above expectation, I recommend the structural team provides them with an Autodesk® Revit® file. This file will contain view templates and filters that they can use with “transfer project standards” to bring into their model. This will expedite the process for the architectural team.
Along with the Revit file, the structural team should also provide step-by-step instructions on how to transfer the view templates and filters into the model and apply to the views you requested. For the architect it would be a simple process with the following steps.
Step 1: Duplicate one floor plan for each level and rename it by adding the suffix –Struct Reference.
Figure 3: Duplicate View
Step 2: Open the structural file provided and use transfer project standards to bring in view templates and filters.
Figure 4: Transfer project standards
Step 3: Apply the filters and view templates as instructed to each of the structural reference views.
Figure 5: Apply view templates
Figure 6: Assign filters to view
The architectural team should do the same by setting expectations to the structural team and what they need from them.
Working with Parts
Once the architectural model is linked in and all views are coordinated with visibility graphics, there is one more problem to address. The structural team does not need to see all the architectural finishes on the walls. The architectural team could convert the walls to parts and turn off the architectural finishes in the view.
The structural team may be pushing their luck by asking that much of the architects. So instead, the structural team can use the copy/monitor tool to bring the walls active in their model. Then the structural team could convert the walls to parts and turn off the architectural finishes.
The great part about this workflow is that the structural team will be notified if the architectural team moves a wall. I know most structural engineers would prefer to just trace the architects’ linked model with their own walls and skip over this part. If that is the case, I recommend to at least set the walls you modeled to monitor the walls of the architectural linked model. The main goal is to “collaborate”—not just do things your own way. Whatever method is chosen it should be clearly defined in the BIM execution plan. The following steps would be required for the structural team.
Step 1: Link in architectural model.
Figure 7: Link in architectural Revit model
Step 2: Change the Visibility Graphics to view the predefined views created by the architectural team.
Figure 8: Set visibility to linked view instead of hosted view
Step 3: Copy/Monitor the structural walls.
Figure 9: Copy/Monitor walls
Step 4: Convert the walls to parts and turn off architectural finishes.
Figure 10: Convert walls to parts
Figure 11: Hide architectural finishes
To be even more efficient you could hide architectural finishes in a view by using filters. You can create a filter for parts and key in on the material such as brick, gypsum board, and so on.
Summary
Hopefully this workflow discussion got your mind thinking of better ways to collaborate with an architectural model and the importance of including this in your BIM execution plan.
