SCRUG

The Southern California Revit Users Group meets monthly around Orange County California. Often this means a cheap dinner and conversations & presentations about Revit - a design and documentation software by Autodesk.

January 2013 the meeting had presentations by Louis Navarrete of Brookfield Homes and A. Jay Holland of KTGY.

Louis is Brookfield Homes's BIM (Building Information Modeling)Manager. He recounted the history of the firm's BIM experience and why he came on board and what he has implemented. Portions of the presentation focused on different softwares that assist their work flow. Specifically:

●BIM Link (exports/imports between Revit & Excel)
●Autodesk's Quantity Take Off (Estimating tool)
●Metal Wood Framer (Revit plug-in creates framing members)
●Sladia (Visualization tool)
●Autodesk's Navisworks (Visualization & clash detection tool)
●BH Export (Custom tool for Brookfield Homes)
The presentation included both descriptions and live demonstrations.

A. Jay Holland provided images of recent KTGY projects and recounted their struggles complying with Brookfield's requirements.

Some news items to take away form the meeting are:

●Consistency is King - when information resides in a specific spot from project to project it smooths the process of design, estimating, plan check, and construction
●When using design options in Revit always include "off" as the default or primary option
●Linking is more efficient than groups when documenting design options