Stone fabrication

[heterarch]

Hello,

I've worked in Revit for about three years at an architectural office, but recently moved home for family reasons, and have begun working for my family's stone fabrication business.  They've been approached by architects about working together in BIM / Revit, but since my family's company had no one on staff, until me, who knew how to use BIM / Revit, they've had to turn down those jobs or outsource to BIM consultants.  I've gone through our records to see what sort of BIM / 3d information we may have gotten from our clients in the past, but there is none.  Since weren't using BIM or 3d, we specifically requested only 2d info.  So now I'm trying to be proactive in figuring out how to go about getting us coordnated with our clients / architects via BIM / Revit, but have nothing to go on, in terms of what material we might be given to work with at some point down the line when we get another shot at working in BIM. 

Has anyone out there worked in cut stone in Revit, including precision modeling, correct joints, anchorage, etc., and then successfully (or not) coordinated with a stone fabricator? 

This is new ground for me personally, and for my family's stone fabrication business.  It seems to me this bridge will have to be crossed at some point, for both cut stone and pretty much all other material fabricators and providers, and if it's done properly and coordinated smoothly, it could be a nice benefit for everyone involved...

Thanks

[heterarch]

As a follow-up, I've been developing a library of possible RFA files for a number of the most common stone types (copings, cornices, fascias, etc..), with the idea being to publish them on our website and other Revit sites (Revitcity, et al) for Architects to be able to use. 

I'd like to get these out there so that they're as helpful as possible for architects, and we're planning on using Revit for our shop drawing/fabrication process (if it works out).  Does anyone out there have any ideas / suggestions for what they might like a fabricator (in this case, a cut stone fabricator specifically, but it would be interesting to know what kinds of ways fabricators of all sorts might be able to do to get involved in the process..) to be able to provide?

In particular, one thing I'm aware of us is that many BIM-savvy firms are hesitant to use out-of-house RFAs, in which case, it it really worthwhile for fabricators to develop these sorts of product/material specific RFA libraries?

[perfectjob]

heterarch,

I've got more questions than answers for you, but I found your post very interesting.  Mainly because I am a veteran of the custom stone fabrication business and have recently founded a start-up software company to design business management software (usually called ERP systems - which handle everything from quoting through contracts through preparation of shop tickets, managing production & scheduling, shipping & invoicing).  But the reason for my interest in your post is that I also see the need for BIM integration into these systems to allow fabricators who are using CNC equipment to process files for digital fabrication.  This is going to be the wave of the future enabling fabricators to much more closely work with their customers and GC's in terms of drawing approvals, fabrication planning and scheduling.  I'd be very curious to know more about your business if you care to share that information.  You can reach me directly at abarr@perfectjoberp.com.

Thanks and good luck!

Alan

[amarquez]

Heterach,

Have you been able to develope shop draiwngs and cutting tickets for your cut to size projects in revit? I have been working with a stone fabricator and installer for almost 15 years now and I have always done our shop drawings using Autocad but recently we received revit models from the architects. We are trying to use them for coordinating with the back up walls and other trades and also to develop our shop drawings. I just took a class and revit seems to be great!. any update on your proccess would be really helpful for us.

You also mentioned you are developing a library. it is possible to take a look?

[perfectjob]

Thanks for your email, amarquez, but I wish I had better news for you. We
never were able to finish the design of our product to prepare shop drawings
and cutting tickets in Revit for custom stone projects.

One day I still hope to do this. In the meanwhile, good luck to you.









Alan Barr
(802) 655-0458
stonedetails@gmail.com

[nikm42Q9N]

Any of you guys make progress in this in all these years? I've had success drawing cast stone using using modifyed precast panel and curtain wall familys. The trouble is when it comes to labeling and shop tickets I was always hoping Revit could almost fully automate this but if I still find I have to do the shop tickets and labeling and counting manually ( with some lisp commands) but if I have to do all that anyway timewise it doesn't make sense going through all that trouble with the Revit when I can do an elevation and section cut autocad in 20 minutes. Especially when the quote for the whole job is 5000