Workflow, Standards, BIM

[Shaiki_]

I am not sure if this is the right place for this, please point me to where I should go if that is the case.

Our small structural engineering firm has been working with revit for about 10 years now, and as far as I know we use it quite proficiently. However, due to the scale of our company and the relatively low turn-over, we haven't had much opportunity for experienced revit users to come to us and share their knowledge from other companies etc. 

As the drafting "manager" of our company, I am curious if anyone working for a large-scale structural engineering firm would care to share some of the techniques and standards they employ to ensure consistency throughout a large firm. What sort of information management, annotating and detailing methods, scheduling and presentation do you rely on for efficient and 'fully loaded' drawing packages? WSP for example has hundreds of offices across the world...are all their standards consistent throughout the company? How is this possible?

I know this is quite a broad and generic question, especially since I didn't explain at all how we operate currently, but any tips or tricks would be helpful. If anyone working for one of these top tier firms is even allowed to talk about this I would be forever grateful for a private conversation on this topic!

Thanks ahead of time.

[hmunsell]

we have a similar problem at my firm. we have been around over 100yr and have drafters that have been there for 50+yr (and there still drafters). many of the new hires we have are right our of collage and have no practical experience. i rely heavily on attending user group and conferences and networking with others. as well as participating in forums like his one ;-). 

as far as maintaining consistency across the firm... good luck. it has been my experience that if you don't have direct line of sight with the user they tend to do what they want. what i have tried to do in my firm is only provide the users with OUR company template that is pre-loaded with View Templates, Families, Schedules, etc for them to use in hopes they wont do there own thing. i have even gone as far as to replace the default revit template with a completely blank template with a note on the start screen telling them they are not supposed to be using that file. 

that said... we also provide users with bi-weekley L+L's on various topics and best practices that are recorded and stored on the company intranet. i do my best to write a monthly BIM Newsletter that is emailed to all design staff with tips&tricks, best practices, etc.... i also try to attend as many project and department meetings as i can so i can be seen if anyone has questions or issues. 

[Shaiki_]

We have the benefit of having a small enough office that I am able to easily communicate with everyone. I also have a pretty solid template file with the basic families, schedules, view templates all loaded in, but its a matter of making sure people are using them correctly. It's quite frustrating when someone is having a visibility issue with a category, does 20 workaround steps to get it to show up, but in the meantime messing up things in different views, when all they should have done to start with was apply the correct template. 

The best practices letter sounds like a good idea, but at the same time I don't really have spare time to put something like that together on a regular basis. 

And still, I'm stuck in the same hole of "I don't know what I don't know," where maybe I'm missing a huge element of Revit that could be saving us time. Something that could help us (and really every firm) is understanding and utilizing Dynamo, but how do you find time to learn a new program when you're busy putting out fires all day every day? And good luck hiring someone who has experience with these things... Such a complicated position to be in 🙂

[hmunsell]

we have 24 offices, 5 of which use Revit regularly. its like herding cats. i share your frustrations with the whole 20 workaround issue. i regularly poke around in the various models we have just to see what people are doing. i occasionally have to go see someone to ask "why'd you do that...". then i show them the correct way, and make them fix it. 

like i said with the newsletter, "i try to....". i still haven't gotten one out this year yet LOL. i think you'll fined most of us are in the same boat. not enough time to do what we wold like to do an implement. what i have found works well for us is getting an advocate in each discipline that i can mentor. i let them "encourage" and steer there department. someone within the group is more likely to be listened to. Then they give me feed back on what is working and what there having issues with.

[dgorsman]

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@Shaiki_ wrote:

The best practices letter sounds like a good idea, but at the same time I don't really have spare time to put something like that together on a regular basis. 

Make time.  Sounds trite, but it's worth it.  As users start picking it up you'll save time from not running around chasing your boss with the hair on fire, and can use that gained time for finding more efficiencies. 

What I've done in the past is implement "Documentation Thursdays".  Doesn't matter what I'm working on, I always dedicate at least *some* time on that day to writing documentation.  Doesn't have to be picture perfect, doesn't have to be complete and self contained,  it just has to have some time put towards it.

Oh, and not every division of WSP uses Revit.  😉

[ipselute]

I agree with @dgorsman.

I can't believe that any large company like WSP could possibly have one single standard software across the globe. It depends on the local workforce. In Europe Tekla & Allplan are widely used. In Asia may be other software. You can't force people to use a particular software if they can't comprehend it. Especially if that software is not localized to the local language.

As for the workflow, it's just wishful thinking. People are not robots. You can't program them (yet) to do certain tasks like clockwork. Every individual will do things a little bit differently. What really matters is the end result. And everybody must be on the same page at the end (result). No matter what strategy one adopts, the end result must be clear and according to specifications. And (most important!!) , the result must always be replicable. It must be copyable and repeated as many time as necessary, in as many projects as necessary.

Logistics are more important to me, than the software itself. You must check all the team members regularly to ensure that everybody is on the right track. People tend (naturally) to drift away from the common trunk (team guidance) if they are left on their own devices.

Final advice: "The devil always hides in (between) the details". Don't overlook any details, don't delay details for later times. Unaddressed details will come back like boomerangs and will bite you hard right in the butt.