Revit, BIM and Navisworks

This is a blog posting of the information sent in a recent newsletter, archived here for easy access.

There are still many questions about Revit and BIM and what is required for what and by whom. What follows is a simple list of facts that may help explain it to you.

1. If a project up for bid requires that you produce Revit drawings and you are wondering if you can fulfill that requirement; the answer is yes if you have HydraCAD Version 51 and Revit MEP Suite
   
   
2. Revit is not AutoCAD. It is a separate Autodesk product that is quite different from AutoCAD
   
3. HydraCAD V51 can produce 3D piping, hangers, fittings, couplings, earthquake bracing, sprinkler heads and zones of influence
   
   
4. Architects and building owners have been sold on the usefulness of Revit when building modeling and reference information are important. This has trickled down to the rest of us
   
   
5. Revit cannot be programmed like AutoCAD can. Therefore it is not possible at this time to create an add-on to Revit like HydraCAD
   
   
6. Drawing in Revit is very slow and time-consuming. Some things cannot be drawn at all, like flanges and welded outlets. This limits it usefulness for designers
   
   
7. Because of the above, it is necessary to draw in AutoCAD or AutoCAD MEP to be productive and automatically create the Revit model from there
   
   
8. HydraCAD V51 can produce the Revit/BIM model necessary for coordination
   
9. You will need Revit MEP Suite on the same computer as HydraCAD V51 to produce this model
   
10. Nothing special needs to be done to produce a Revit model. You draw the same way you have been in V51. When you are ready, you pick the Create Revit MEP Link to produce the model
    
11. The model produced by HydraCAD contains Revit native objects
    
12. Any AutoCAD can be upgraded to Revit MEP Suite - the only Revit product supported or needed
    
13. Revit is capable of clash detection, but only with projects submitted in Revit
    
14. If a project up for bid requires that you produce drawings than can be clash-detected in Navisworks and you are wondering if you can fulfill that requirement; the answer is yes if you have HydraCAD Versions 50 or 51
    
15. Navisworks can do clash detection of drawings produced across a range of drawing packages - AutoCAD, Bentley, etc.
    
16. Navisworks comes in two flavors. The Simulate flavor will let you produce Navis files, but not do clash detection. The Manage flavor will allow you to do both. Both flavors come in stand alone and network configurations
    
17. Nothing special needs to be done to produce a Navis file. You draw the same you you have been in V50 or V51 and press the Make Solid Pipes command

We offer two hour webinars for companies that want to see how Revit works with HydraCAD. We can also show you how to produce a Revit file by using your own drawing. Contact us for cost and details.

We can We have produced a PowerPoint presentation to see how HydraCAD works with BIM and Revit. This particular presentation emphasizes our ties to Victaulic and references some of the tools that they have that are also BIM compatible: BIM/Revit/HydraCAD PowerPoint Presentation.