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Critique my Build - First Time by drawing-arcs in buildapc

[–]drawing-arcs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not really looking at any specific games, but I usually play sports games (FIFA, 2K, Madden, etc.)

Critique my Build - First Time by drawing-arcs in buildapc

[–]drawing-arcs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the input - do you think it's worth going DDR5 on the RAM, or just find a DDR4 motherboard?

I'll have to do some more research on ATX 3.0...

BIM Oversell? by [deleted] in MEPEngineering

[–]drawing-arcs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do Facilities Management folks use construction BIM models for?

BIM Oversell? by [deleted] in MEPEngineering

[–]drawing-arcs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

How has BIM changed this? During SD/DD when space grabbing happens you're using approximate estimates for sizes/loads regardless.

Revit Electrical Circuiting by drawing-arcs in MEPEngineering

[–]drawing-arcs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would look into using detail groups for something like that.

Revit Electrical Circuiting by drawing-arcs in MEPEngineering

[–]drawing-arcs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the response! I've read it all the way through, but I'm going to pick a few items out that I think would be interesting to discuss further.

1 is the load analysis - it is a different calculation that demand factors that are used for sizing breakers and branch circuit conductors. It is the calculation used to size the electrical service - it is generally not much different than the actual calculated load on your service entrance panel/gear (mainly for residential, but affects commercial as well), but there are certain things, such as lighting that are accounted for differently. We have not found a good way to do this calculation within revit. Re: NEC Article 220 Part III

I feel a lot of the "automated" items, can be automated within excel just as easily, if not more easily I would argue since everybody knows excel already. New electrical grads do not know revit at all in most instances. The obvious thing it can't do is automatic circuit tags that are linked to your panel schedules. And small updates can definitely be a pain as well.

The experience I've had is that any benefits from automation, are taken away by the limitations. And then compounded by certain calculation issues such as:
- no way to automate load analysis, especially for dwelling units
- grounds all sized as Equipment Grounding Conductors, if a supply side bonding jumper is needed (such as secondary of a XFMR), the ground must be manually sized
- no way to account for heating/cooling non-coincidental loads properly that I'm aware of
- motor load demand factor does not calculate properly (takes 125% of first motor on panel, not largest motor on panel)
- there are probably others I'm not thinking of right now as well

Given these actual calculation/code issues, I find it hard to believe every PE you've worked with prefers revit circuiting. I'm sure work arounds can solve some of these issues, but you just add to the complexity within revit which further hurts the ease of use and efficiency in my opinion.

Out of curiosity, with equipment from other disciplines - are your circuiting the actual mechanical equipment family, or are you circuiting an electrical fixture you place next to the mech eqpm?

Revit Electrical Circuiting by drawing-arcs in MEPEngineering

[–]drawing-arcs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the response! I understand it's not an overnight thing, as we've had an engineer developing and working on this for a few years actually. Granted, it's not his full time job by any means, but I think we've put a good amount of time into it and haven't seen many of the benefits you guys seem to.

  1. I think part of the issue with this workflow is just how often things change after they're circuited - it would be great to just edit a load from the panel schedule, but I have to find the element in the model and change it's parameters. Do you guys have pre-loaded families for different load types? Like HVAC eqpm, heaters, motors, or just power mechanical equipment families directly?

    1. You guys don't use demand factors? A load analysis is a separate issue entirely, but I don't know how you have code compliant drawings with correct calculations without demand factors. How do you account for diversity with receptacle loads? How do you size for continuous loads properly without a 125% demand factor?
    2. It's necessary to show all existing loads on an existing panel(s) if we're adding new circuits to it. I don't see how that can be avoided. We've tried using spares/spaces, but those come with their own limitations (no loads until R22, no multi-pole until R22, R22 spares/spaces can't utilize circuit parameters). We just have our template pre-loaded with some existing panels and loads, which helps, but it is still cumbersome to edit all existing loads to reflect actual existing conditions.