Do we make the change to Revit?

[brettc]

Morning All

Hope I find you well.

I work in the mining  industry and work in a large number of disciplines. We do mostly Structural and Mechanical layouts, and some detailing depending on how critical the connections are. I am an Autodesk Inventor expert, and have been on Inventor for the past 8 years. With Inventor I have successfully completed many large projects. Saying all the above Revit Structure seems to be growing, and job opportunities seem to be opening up for Revit users.

I have been asked to access Revit Structure and it’s capabilities in order to see if we would benefit from making the move to Revit. Or if we should look at using Revit for certain aspects of our design (Which Aspects?),  and then integrate our Inventor and Revit models.

I have done a bit of playing with Revit Structure for the past few days, going through tutorials and some videos. When looking at concrete and reinforced concrete I can see good reasons to make a move, but then when I get to the structural steel side of things I find Revit Structure a bit difficult to use when trying to create some complex structures (Probably because of my lack of experience) .  I also find Revit Structure a bit cumbersome when creating detailed components.

In our mechanical layouts, we often include Chutes, Conveyors, crushers, etc, and their supporting structures. I have attached an image of the kind of structures we have designed in Inventor. Please could you comment on the structure attached, and let me know if you think Revit is the correct direction. As I said in the post I can see the benefit in foundations, walls and maybe Levels.

Unfortunately I am currently bios towards Inventor, but its only because I am experienced in it and don’t know all the capabilities of Revit. Anyone using both Revit and Inventor would be a great help.

Best Regards,

[CianG]

Structurally I think you'll be ok, to get connection details you could get the sds/2 connection plugin, or there is Auodesk Steel Detailing.

Not sure about mechanically, not sure revit is geared towards modelling conveyors, crushers etc.

You could always model these items in inventor & insert into revit.

Have a look at autodesk advance steel, might be of interest also.

[Archimedes314]

REVIT is a fantastic choice for documenting steel framing and structural concrete, so I think it could definitely be used for the projects you've shown.  But, it will not be strong for detailing, and you will continue to need Inventor for modeling equipment and other odd-shaped things.  It really comes down to understanding your deliverable, if you are delivering construction documents only, then REVIT is perfect for creating framing plans, elevations, details, and a well coordinated set of drawings.  If you want to add stiffeners, clip angles, bolts, etc. its possible, but you may be frustrated, as that is not what REVIT was intended for.  I would still suggest adding SDS/2 connect to your software as an add-in, this will easily capture 90% of the connections, but generally those connection designs fall out of the scope of engineering consultants, so you probably shouldn’t waste time modeling them anyway.  The trick will be: understanding the best way to use REVIT, you really do have to re-think what you are delivering and question the old drawing methodologies.