Help Structural Parts and Weldments Details

[Anonymous]

     In our business of structural engineering it is our job to supply detailed parts and detailed weldment shop drawings for our customers.  We have recently made the switch to Revit, the modeling is great but we have to get these parts over to a shop drawing detailed with copings and dimension specs for the fabricators which is where we are having difficulties.  What is the best way to get these parts as shown in the model into a orthographic projection (side view, top view and cross-cut view) for dimensioning on a drafting view/sheet for printing.  We have looked into sections and callouts but in a project with 300 parts that makes 900 sections/callouts which is not very efficient and makes Revit a cumbersome environment to work in, and another option is to export the model to ACAD for manipulation then importing back to Revit as a drafting view and with 300 parts this is not very efficient either.

     Does anyone have any other options/solutions for this type issue with Revit?  I have also had the privilege of seeing this done in Autodesk Inventor which is made really simple, just drag and drop onto the drafting view page in which it will place all three needed views onto the view. This should be an added feature to Revit for a time efficiency point.

[AJA14]

Hi. I think you have 4 options to consider when working with connections.

1- Use Revit for everything and use drafting and detailing tools to provide connections and welding symbols.

2- Use SDS/2 Connect which is an add in you could buy and use for connections inside revit.

3- Export to ASD, do you work there, Import back to Revit.

4- Export to TEKLA, do you work there, Import back to Revit.

Now, to answer your question with regards to parts, this is where assemblies play a nice role. Try to utilize them and they will save a lot of time and effort especially with provide automatic views and sections and takeoffs for the assemblies.

Regards.

[bjur]

We do full shop drawings in Revit.  I hate checking shop drawings that others have done...takes forever.  You need to invest some time in family creation.  After you have the major connections made, it works great.  We use assemblies to accomplish the magic of getting all the different views on one sheet.  There are some nasty bugs involving nesting families in other families that show up in assemblies, but there are work arounds.