Meeting Status Report Requirements with Ideate BIMLink
Evolve Consultancy, a premier BIM consultancy in the UK, has been appointed Information Manager for a major project in Saudi Arabia. The deliverables include .rvt, .nwc, and .ifc formats, and the requirements include weekly progress reports to demonstrate development of the models throughout the design stages. With models issued at this frequency and the need to generate reports accurately and efficiently, Evolve Consultancy settled on a suite of tools including Ideate BIMLink and Excel to analyze the Autodesk Revit models.
The information requirements specified key performance indicators, including items such as the total number of elements in each model, the number of rooms, the number of elements correctly named and those with required COBie data assigned.
“Simplicity is the key. We need anyone to be able to produce and analyse these reports with a minimum of training, as quickly as possible. Ideate BIMLink gives us that ability,” said Joseph Frame, Associate, Evolve Consultancy.
The Process
The process of reporting starts with a custom link created in Ideate BIMLink to extract the necessary property values from the model.
Using the Properties tab, the required properties are selected in a similar manner to standard Revit Schedules. The selected properties are partially previewed at the bottom of the interface to show how the results will end up in Excel, allowing for efficient customization of the selected properties.
A plus point is that Ideate BIMLink allows properties from linked Revit models to be included, avoiding repetitive processes on multiple models.
In the image above, the Category tab lists the required Revit categories to be included in the export, and again, a preview of the total number of elements, parameters, and their values to export.
“Ideate BIMLink allows the selection of multiple Revit categories, including both system and loadable families into the scheduled export, something not possible with Autodesk Revit multi-category schedules,” said Francesco Pirritano, Consultant, Evolve Consultancy.
With the required properties and categories selected, the data is exported to Excel.
Reporting
Due to the previous spreadsheet being overwritten every time a new report is exported, the data is linked through to a separate summary spreadsheet. This spreadsheet uses formulae to calculate the number and percentage of elements against each key performance indicator.
The calculated values on the summary sheet are then copied to the final reporting spreadsheet to show the progression of how the models are developing over time.
The data is added to a running weekly report…
…And presented as a series of charts
With Ideate BIMLink, the team at Evolve Consultancy is able to verify the accuracy of their model data on a regular basis and meet their client’s requirements of weekly project status reports.
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Visit www.ideatesoftware.com for more information on how Ideate BIMLink and the other Ideate Software add-ins for Revit can help you save time while enhancing the quality of your models.
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