Provision for void

[MariusGan]

Hi

I am an engineer and I'm drawing pipes in a building for a project. The structural engineer wants me to make Provision for voids where the pipes are coming through the floor.

How do you do this in Revit without any external programmes?

Thanks in advance.

[iainsavage]

I know you said without external programmes but the easiest method that I found is a free app by Agacad.

However I think it has to be run in the model/link which hosts the floor elements, rather than running it in your MEP model.

You can also use Navisworks to identify clash points and then use a dynamo script to add a family into your model at each clash. (search for AussieBIMguru advice on how to do this - there is a youtube video and also content download from github).

Alternatively someone else can maybe advise on how to use Dynamo only to do something similar but I've not done that myself.

[MariusGan]

Thanks for the tip, I will check it out.

Is it possible to just make a new family with the same size as the pipe and place it where the pipe comes through the floor? And then change the ``IFC Predefined Type`` to PROVISIONFORVOID?

Is this a method?

[hmunsell]

if I understand correctly, the structural engineer wants you to model the penetrations for your pipe, correct?

Issue I see with this is if you're the MEP engineer, YOU can't put a penetration in the linked Wall/Floor/Ceiling. You only have control over the MEP content, you don't control the other link(s). 

That said.... you could:

• Make a Detail Item and place that where your pipe is making penetrations.
  • you could make it dynamic to adjust the size as needed.
• Maybe make a Pipe Tag that is a circle and/or rectangle, representing the penetration.
  • since it's a tag you may be able to use the "pipe size" parameter in a formula to determine the penetration diameter.
• Copy/Monitor the architectural walls floors, etc... into your model.
  • then you would be able to put voids, in your model, in the walls/floors.
  • personally, I wouldn't recommend this method unless the model is very small. copy/monitored content can get out of control and effect model performance. 

There are probably other ways too, these are just a couple that come to mind 😊. 

[iainsavage]

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@MariusGan wrote:

Is it possible to just make a new family with the same size as the pipe and place it where the pipe comes through the floor?

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Yes, but I assumed that you maybe had hundreds of instances and didn't want to go through your model manually placing such families.

[ToanDN]

Whether using an add-in or doing it manually, it must be done in the structural model, not MEP model.  You could suggest the app that @iainsavage mentioned to the engineer but they will need to do it on their end.

For our projects, this is a coordination item under the contractor scope.  But I understand every contract is different.

[MariusGan]

Thank you for the replies guys. I ended up doing it manually because it was only 15 instances. I will try an add-in in future projects.