Schedule Issues in your Revit Project

A symbolic note family can help track some of the coordination items or other issues in the model. This is a way to actively note in a view issues that need attention.

1. Place the tag

2. Edit the type

a. Duplicate type

b. Assign it the next number in the sequence

c. Add your initials & a description

d. Use the drop downs to place the dot in the column where it affects specific disciplines.

We used this system in the Language Academy ORG project to keep track of issues and share them with our consultants.

You can right-click on the schedule, click “show” and it will hyperlink you to the location of the issue.

This photo was taken before the year 2000. It was taken with a Pentax K1000 and digitized with the Kodak Photo CD process.

Petrol vs Batteries vs Fuel Cells

Petrol is the fuel of modern economies.

Solar for all its virtues is still more expensive in both land and $$$.

Petrol is the most dense, portable, relatively safe, energy storage medium. No current battery tech even comes close. Batteries also have significant energy losses over time. Batteries are much more subject to temperature variances.

Fuel cell technology is much closer in energy density and storage than batteries. Fuel cell tech comes close to Petrol in terms of overall performance. The only problem with Fuel cell tech is that it does not have the infrastructure that both electricity and petrol have in place.

Perhaps come day, solar + batteries will be a viable option on cost and performance. Today is not that day.

SCRUG July 19, 2018

SCRUG returned to Orange County this month. Architects Orange hosted. Thank you Rob!

We had two new sponsors. Thanks to Plan Grid and Masonry IQ for providing Newport Rib Company and drinks...

Tom Cuneio of Masonry IQ presented first to the gathering of 21 SCRUG members. Their Revit Plug-in and custom CAD software adds a Level of Detail presently lacking in the masonry tools in Revit. The main benefits to the add-in are hatch patterns on masonry walls that match both sides, masonry module alerts when cutting of masonry units will be required, coordination of bond beams, layout of control joints, ability to choose specific colors/products from suppliers, quick/easy custom coursing, color mixing and better renderings of masonry. And once your get outside of Revit, the software identifies every masonry unit. It is a dream come true for those making masonry shop drawings or those having to coordinate masonry with other building systems.

Under the hood, Masonry IQ

• creates custom .pat files for Revit to use
• lays out control joints - and they are adjustable
• generates sweeps on Revit walls
• for rendering it can create custom blends of masonry units and colors 
• creates custom .jpg files for Revit materials
• creates custom materials inside Revit

The future holds... custom grout colors, rebar tools, and more.

Wayne Atkins of Plan Grid presented second after a brief tech interlude. Their niche in the market is making a fast, mark up tool with offline capabilities. The live demo included things that field people typically do - review drawings, make mark ups, document punch lists, create RFIs, respond to RFIs, search for stuff on drawings, take photos, paste stuff on drawings, ...

Under the hood, Plan Grid

• creates a database out of the drawings exported from Revit or imported PDF files
• gathers everything that it considers as hyperlinks (drawing call outs, references in note blocks, and so on)
• stores everything locally and in the cloud
• time/user stamps every mark up, upload, attachment, photos, document, 3D photo, spreadsheet, specification, ...
• stores blank forms 
• project chat room
• version controls for issuance of drawings
• voice to text (it uses siri, android, cortena)
• geo tagging of all changes

The future holds...free RFI access/response, 

SCRUG June 2018

SCRUG had a new venue this month...Studio 111 in Long Beach CA.
Thanks to our sponsors... Kelar Pacific, Microdesk, & U.S. CAD. 
The food was street tacos, with cookies, danishes for a treat. The drinks included beer, pop and bottled water.

Studio 111/Retail Design Collaborative is in a LEED Platinum building. It is a remodel of a former Nordstrom Rack. 

I should have gotten a photo of the patio. It is a nice urban space.





Chuck and Garrett of Keller Pacific presented first. They ran through a variety of Scan to BIM projects. It was great to hear how they progressed from their earliest efforts to the modern tools and techniques that they have today. The software in use today includes: Recap and Edgewise. Scan to BIM is a value proposition. It provides value in time savings for the survey team. It is also a quality savings by providing accuracy to as tight a tolerance as ±2 mm. The uses of the technology is not just in pre-design, but also in construction and post construction. Keller Pacific also uses this technology to provide support for BIM deliverable compliance. Overall a solid presentation with videos of actual projects and narratives of how it was done. Thanks Keller Pacific.

The final presentation was by Clive of LOD Planner. They have been working on their product for more than 18 months. LODplanner.com is a web based collaboration and accountability reference for BIM projects. It is a live BIM Execution Plan. Some of the questions it helps to answer include:

• How do you pick the BIM standard for a project?
• Why is BIM required?  
• What does the team expect the BIM to do?
• What level of detail is required, when and for what purpose?
• How much modeling is required for the owner's purposes?

One future feature is to have the ability to integrate with existing tools to check the compliance of the deliverable.

SCRUG 3/15/2018

Last night at the offices of Little, an important meeting took place. Thanks to Allen Jay, and Sam

Little was the only sponsor. They provided the venue, parking, pizza, water, pop, beer, and wine.

Susan is a principal at little. She sat on the AIA documents committee for over 10 years. She presented some background and provided sample documents.

The 2013 documents discussed were: Guide to Digital Practice Documents, C106, E203, G 201, and G202

The key take away points are:

• AIA documents are made to fit into the court system
• It something won't work in court, it gets cut
• The committee includes lawyers, insurance representatives, architects, contractors
• Some AIA documents are guides on how to use the other documents
• The documents are updated every 5-10 years
• The AIA help line has good customer service Docinfo@aia.org
• Agreements save time and headaches by spelling out who does what, the scope
• Digital data includes everything digital: email, photos, BIM, Sharepoint, ...

Schedule sorting hack