As the software, hardware and technologies are always improving we would like to have more and more information in our BIM models, and we would like this information to meet BIM criterions – it must have its geometry, materials, actual quantity and all the information we might need about some parts of the project or its elements
Often various detail drawings or just detail elements we draw in 2D, mark its places in the project and calculate approximate quantity. We usually do that because our clients don’t ask for these details as those are being coordinated at the construction site, or distribution of these detail elements takes too much time. However various details are quite important in our projects, especially in precast elements or structural models.
Fortunately, there is a new BIM solution that quickly distributes detail elements or even specific cuts to your Revit® elements according to predefined rules – AGACAD team has created a new BIM solution for Revit called Smart Details. The tool is currently in Beta version, however everyone can try it out for free. After the installation of the tool you will see a new tab in your Revit ribbon with Smart Details tool’s functions inside.
All functions are quite similar and their names are self-explanatory, therefore it’s quite obvious what they are for.
First, you have to open Configuration window and define various configurations according which you would like to have your detail elements to be placed. You can have as many configurations as you need and you can share them with your colleagues.
The tool can place various free, face based, or line based elements according to various rules, layouts and priorities. It can also check detail elements placed on other Revit elements for correction or skipping new elements (e.g. you can choose to place details only on top face if solid part depth of the main element is bigger than the one defined in configuration window). Furthermore, this tool has a possibility to place detail elements on various faces of the host and array those according to additional rules.
After creating and saving configurations, you have to close the Configuration window, select elements you want to have your detail elements on (those steps should be repeated for different configurations), click Insert Details, choose from the list needed configuration that you created before and click Insert Details. That’s it – all detail elements will be placed automatically on your selected Revit elements. If you make any changes to your host elements you can always automatically update detail elements by clicking Update Details.
Afterwards, you can create shop drawings of your elements or use another tool by AGACAD called Smart Assemblies for automatic creation of shop drawings according to predefined configurations if you design precast elements.
If you would like to test Smart Details before its official release, please contact AGACAD team at support@aga-cad.com.
