Forums >> General Discussion >> Revit Project Management >> General Contractors Using Revit

Sanford

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I am looking for general insight from any General Contractors using Revit.  My firm has made the investment in Revit and I am looking for ways to incorporate phases and scheduling from the Bid phase through the As-built phase of a job.  Also any other ways that Revit is being used, maybe with Prolog and/or Suretrak.  Architects, feel free to chime in.

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coreed

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Joined: Fri, Feb 10, 2006
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here is a Contractor's blog that maybe of intrest to you

http://bimx.blogspot.com/

HTH

-----------------------------------

best regards,

coreed,aia

bmpArchitects,Inc.

"Revit has to be implemented, Not installed." 

Long Live Revit

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Sanford

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coreed, thanks for the link.  I am actually planning on going to a Conference here in Boston, put on by the AGC, which features the author of that blog.  It'll be tough to ask specifics of her.  Her company is one of our competitors.

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colt

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I am an architect and also a general contractor and I am using Revit for both entities.

Scheduling and take-offs are very useful and I am finding that I am doing much of my bidding with subs directly at my computer using the schedules generated from Revit.

Let me know specifically what you are trying to accomplish and I will see if I can be of assistance.

mark sever aia

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jobcaptain

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I blogged this post to demonstrate and document the use of BIM by our national contractors on our projects; BIM specific to the construction processes and design-build.

http://cadgrafx.com/blog/revit/2007/01/contractors-bim-blog.html

 There are two downloads; a whitepaper I wrote for AGC Wisconsin (July 2006) and a report on an AGC presentation (October 2006) from one of Wisconsin's largest contractors. Both provide business case issues that BIM is solving.

 If you're an AGC member, you can use your member ID number to download a free whitepaper regarding the use of BIM for contractors. It came out last fall. A link to the AGC site is at the end of the post.

Cheers!

-----------------------------------

LinkedIn Profile:

• http://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhughes1/

I author Bradley BIM Blog: http://bradleybim.com

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Sanford

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colt,

I am interested in every aspect of how Revit can aid my firm, starting with preconstruction all the way through post construction.  From your architect side, I'm interested in how to present the advantages of clash detection and plan validation, at the bid phase, without having the architects feel and act like we are trying to throw them under the bus or point out all of their designs shortcomings.  From your General Contractor side, I'm interested in if you have coupled Revit with any other programs to include estimating software and project management software.  Also, how have you presented the program to clients.  Do you incorporate screen shots into Power Point or do you use live Revit presentations and what points of interest do you present? 

I am giving a Revit presentation on Friday for a job that we were awarded prior to Revit implementation.  I am going to do a live presentation using Revit.  We don't have the luxury of time at bid, so I am looking for ideas to stream line presentations into 2 or 3 minutes.

Thank you for your response.

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Sanford

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Daniel,

 I have attended the AGC presentation on BIM.  That was part of the process in determining if BIM was right for us.  I am very interested in how others are implementing Revit.  We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do with it.  If others are already doing it, their stories may help us.  Thanks for the link.

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colt

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Sanford,

The bottom line as a contractor is that you don't want to miss anything in the bid phase that will cost you during the construction phase. Contractors "rebuilding" the architects design has been a practice going on for years. Revit allows you to be as generic or accurate as you require. With little experience in Revit you can re-create the architects project to benifit you, the contractor in a very short window of time. From this re-creation, you gain insightful information from the model that will aid in your contractual relationship with your client, subcontractors and possibly the architect himself. You simply will not be tossing the architect under the bus if you can gain insight into his intent. In fact, if the architect has teamed with consultants who also use Revit, the clash detection and plan validation happens where it is the least costly, at the construction documents phase! As an architect I can accept input from a contractor when it is benificial for the overall good of the project.

From the contractors side I am using our own documents created through Revit, Excel and MS Project along with Powerpoint and Word to create an integrated bid presentation. I am using all these programs to make my bid presentations to clients. I am making real-time design presentations and changes in front of the client and these become part of the construction documents in real-time as well. Try doing this with AutoCAD!

I just completed a similar presentation in front of about 70 architects and engineers that were considering Revit and showed them a few projects I have done in Revit. I would focus on the speed, accuracy, time savings and information generated from Revit. For me as a principal of a firm these are the key elements to success. In two or three minutes you have to focus on these areas, I think.

Best of luck Sanford!

mark sever aia

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Sanford

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Marc,

Thanks for your input.  I usually have good luck working with the architects.  I have found, typically, that there is a certain feeling out process, where the architect is a little reluctant to have us "rework" their design.  Once they realize that we are just trying to get the job done, as smoothly as possible, they mellow out.  This is also a new avenue for business development for our firm and we are looking for the best way to market it. 

My plan for the presentation is to show what the construction documents show in 2D and what those drawings actually translate to in 3D. Pretty straight forward.  I will also show a "reworked" area and the cost associated with the changes. Also I plan on showing the speed in presenting information to the subs.  To end the presentation, I will show a time-lapse slide show of how the building will be built.  All pretty much the standard for these kinds of presentations. 

Again, thanks for your time.

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jjurewicz

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Initially contractors benefit in the speed of doing takeoffs using tools QTO and exactal's Cost X) but these rely on cost libraries which few contractors wish to share with the public. So the trend I've seen, is for contractors to hire revit modelers in house and develop their own private libraries  on models they control. This can disturb architects at first, until they realize contractors are using the model not ot design with, but to make cost saving suggestions. More importantly, a digital model (just like the old days of a cardboad model) can be used as a tool to discuss site logistic questions, like how far a crane can reach, which wing will be evacuated on an existing building to make ready the assembly sequence and phasing. As for whihc sofgtware to use, archicad's constructor has had an early head start, Revit has a lot of downstream tools (Innovaya and Exactal's CostX) and with tools like naviswworks, that can work with any model (Bentley, revit or archicad) it becomes a mute point which program is used. Contractors can try this out by outsourcing the model effort to an architect (its not expensive and takes very little time, which is how we bill).

after a few test runs, investing in an in-house BIM specialist is the next step. To learn more, there is a teleconference scheduled at this link to discuss ways BIM is benefitting contractors, check out http://eventplus.ilinc.com/client/listEvent.php?orderTypeId=116 for the schedule.

-----------------------------------
John Jurewicz

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ale02

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John,

Great stuff, thanks for sharing..

Regards,

WL

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Life is never easy but nor it should be complex. Just stay simple

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CBJConstruction

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I work for a General Contractor and have been using Revit for estimating, takeoffs, logistics & Coordination for a while now, As a general contractor there are many things we have to look at differently then how an architect looks at it, just as we will build models differently then an architect will. 

 Knowing what your objectives are the most important part to getting this startied, i.e is the model just goin gto be for show, or will it be implimented in as many ways possible.  One of the biggest mistakes General Contractors are makeing right now are they are doing double the work, thus doubling the price when it comes to BIM, not because this is what they are after, but because most people do not understand how they can really use a model and what department BIM/3D Modeling needs to be housed under. 

You can easily make revit become an extremly powerful tool even without the additional "Contractor Programs" that are on the market as add ons, for me, take offs, budgets, logistics, scheduling and coordination among other things are all drawn from a single source, thus lowering overhead. 

By understanding what the needs are and by making specific formulas, formating and giving the right perameters to objects, a general contractor can benifit greatly, its just takes a while to really understand how to make the formulas to give the right data that the GC needs as compared to what Revit gives by default

Im more then happy to talk in more discussion, as i also consult on the side for BIM/3D Modeling email is cbj321123@hotmail.coml

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Washington3

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Hey all

I dunno if this will help out but here is a link to general contractors.

Hopefully it helps out with finding reliable general contracting companies.

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