Felipe Contier, Principal, Architect, Contier Arquitetura, Sao Paulo, Brazil explains some of a recent project's size and complexity issues. The main or master file had to be divided into different sub-files, such as "Tower," "Underground," and "Ground Level." A change to the values of any parameters in one might or might not affect one or both of the others. Before the deployment of Ideate BIMLink, the team had to copy exactly the same text in every file.
The firm needed a reliable, practical, easy and stable way to change values of parameters and copy to Families. They also needed to organize their schedules, verify values and changed descriptions.
With Ideate BIMLink, the team is able to standardize sizes, naming conventions and parameter values. Once data is standardized in Excel, the team can quickly push processed data back into the Revit model using Ideate BIMLink. This capability has eliminated confusion and errors based on different people having assigned different names for Rooms and other elements. It has also increased accuracy, since values are processed via the automated capabilities of Excel. One Ideate BIMLink use case that Contier Arquitetura provides relates to managing wall families. The wall instance and type data would need to be synchronized across at least two of the three aforementioned files - the Tower and the Ground Level.
Contier Arquitetura project using Ideate BIMLink to manage various wall families in Revit.
Felipe Contier describes the dilemma by saying, "If in the course of the project we change the description of the wall, even if the change is very minor such as adding a comma, we had to make the same change in all files without fail. If the wall description in one file included the comma, and in the other omitted the comma, the quantity take off file would appear blank with no value at all for that description."
What Contier needed was a way to link all sub-files to each other and to a master file. With Ideate BIMLink, the Contier team can explore and edit the schedules for each file.
"Ideate BIMLink is saving us time. For example," Felipe Contier adds, "We have 68 kinds of electrical fixtures. For each one of them we have a parameter in the form of a description. We have the quantity, the energy consumption, and other data. To change each parameter in one single sub-file, even if I had the text, it would take probably a half-day. When the data is in three different files, it would take much more time, something like four or five times this, so about two days."
"With Ideate BIMLink, we can change the parameters in less time, say about one hour. But that is not the most important thing to us. What is more important to us than the time savings is the guarantee that the data is correct. That is the most valuable advantage."
For the whole story on how Contier Arquitetura utilizes Ideate BIMLink in their Revit data editing, look here: Accuracy Transcends Speed for Contier Arquitetura