PlanIT Impact for Revit: Easy and Fast Model Prep
Dominique Davison / January 28, 2020
Challenges with Building Performance Technology Solutions and 3D Modeling
When it comes to building performance technology, a wide variety of tools have been developed all serving different purposes. Whether a designer is evaluating daylighting, energy use, utility costs, embodied carbon, water use, thermal comfort, etc…. There’s a different solution for everything!
One challenge that has surfaced by having so many technology solutions is that there is typically a very specific way of modeling a building to serve the purpose of each tool.
Most tools tout fast analysis times, but prepping a model for an analysis can take hours. It’s frustrating, it wastes time, and it overall presents a nightmare for BIM managers trying to juggle all the ways in which designers model along with modeling requirements for all the tools.
PlanIT Impact’s Revit Plugin Makes it Easy and Fast to Extract Geometry for Analysis
Here are a few key differentiators in how the plugin is developed to be easy and fast to use:
AUTOMATION
Floor area: The plugin uses Areas to calculate the square footage. It automatically draws Areas and creates Area Plan views. With the Area Plan views, users can visually check that Area boundaries were correctly applied by the plugin, and make any changes as necessary to the boundaries.
Exterior Building Envelope: The plugin checks wall function types to assess if they are set to the Exterior or Interior function type. It automatically corrects any walls that are modeled with the incorrect function type.
A 3D view is automatically created by the plugin so that a user can visually verify the building envelope.
EASY OVERRIDES
For all of the walls in a model, the plugin applies parameters to allow the user to override the wall type without changing the properties of the wall.
For floor area, users can ignore any areas that do not want to be considered for the analysis.
Additionally, users can set Areas to capture landscape surface types in the model for use of the PlanIT Impact Stormwater module.
FAST PERFORMANCE
The PlanIT Impact Revit plugin is designed to work quickly with models of all sizes and complexity. Users do not need to worry about “breaking” the plugin.
Want to learn more?
Request a demo here to see how the Revit plugin works in action.
