Creation of heating and ventilation project: from paper version to BIM
Construction of any facility, either it is a residential building or a factory, cannot exist without a project.
Industrialisation has given a boost for the development of cities and industries. The 20th and 21st centuries gave us the development of computer technology. All this enhanced the requirements to the complexity of buildings and engineering systems, and led to an increase in the speed and accuracy of design and construction. Design documentation has come a long way from hand-drawn paper drawings to building information models. Starting from the creation of the first projects to our time, this process can be conditionally divided into three main stages - this is the creation of drawings manually in AutoCAD and the creation of an information model in Autodesk Revit. Using the creation of heating and ventilation design discipline as an example, we will describe each part of it in detail.
Creation of heating and ventilation design discipline without going into details remains unchanged regardless of the way of implementation:
Each of the project creation methods has its features. Let's consider each of them in more detail.
Industrialisation has given a boost for the development of cities and industries. The 20th and 21st centuries gave us the development of computer technology. All this enhanced the requirements to the complexity of buildings and engineering systems, and led to an increase in the speed and accuracy of design and construction. Design documentation has come a long way from hand-drawn paper drawings to building information models. Starting from the creation of the first projects to our time, this process can be conditionally divided into three main stages - this is the creation of drawings manually in AutoCAD and the creation of an information model in Autodesk Revit. Using the creation of heating and ventilation design discipline as an example, we will describe each part of it in detail.
Creation of heating and ventilation design discipline without going into details remains unchanged regardless of the way of implementation:
- The main calculations (in our case, the calculation of heat losses and air exchanges in the premises; when there is process equipment, calculations of hazardous substance removal or heat removal) are carried out based on the plans, sections and façades of the building created by the architect.
- Based on the building norms in force, the premises are united into separate ventilation and heating systems, the main air ducts and pipings are laid, the diameters are calculated and the main equipment is selected with the arrangement on the plan.
- Assignments are submitted to adjacent design disciplines (if an air duct crosses the wall - an assignment for an opening goes to an architect, a fan can't work without electricity - the corresponding assignment goes to an electrician, the equipment is quite smart and it can be and should be controlled - an assignment goes to an automation specialist, who knows how to implement it).
- System diagrams are designed, specifying the necessary data. Materials needed for project implementation are calculated in the list.
- Discussions about the clashes of communications and prior submitted assignments are held with adjacent specialists and the corresponding approvals are obtained.
Each of the project creation methods has its features. Let's consider each of them in more detail.
Handmade design epoch
First project drawings were designed by hand. Creation of the drawings took long, sometimes to make changes in the drawings, it was needed to redo the whole sheet (consider - create from scratch). This was handmade design epoch.
The algorithm for creating the heating and ventilation design discipline also had some peculiarities. After the drawings were created by an architect, they were submitted to a special department, where they were manually copied for MEP-specialists. Drawings, calculations, assignments were made by hand. In the beginning, copying of the project for construction was only manual (later copying machine were invented). Some specialists have not experienced that epoch. It is difficult for them to imagine the scope of this manual and painstaking work at the drawing board with a plan on the transparent paper and with calculations carried out entirely by hand.
First project drawings were designed by hand. Creation of the drawings took long, sometimes to make changes in the drawings, it was needed to redo the whole sheet (consider - create from scratch). This was handmade design epoch.
The algorithm for creating the heating and ventilation design discipline also had some peculiarities. After the drawings were created by an architect, they were submitted to a special department, where they were manually copied for MEP-specialists. Drawings, calculations, assignments were made by hand. In the beginning, copying of the project for construction was only manual (later copying machine were invented). Some specialists have not experienced that epoch. It is difficult for them to imagine the scope of this manual and painstaking work at the drawing board with a plan on the transparent paper and with calculations carried out entirely by hand.
Fig. 1 Design behind at the drawing board
AutoCAD epoch
With the advancement of computer technology, Autodesk released the first version of AutoCAD in 1982. It made the work of specialists significantly easier, enhanced the accuracy in the creation and execution of drawings, increased the integrity and the possibility of reusing design solutions in different projects just by copying. But in terms of drawing tools, it remained a digital drawing board.
With the advancement of computer technology, Autodesk released the first version of AutoCAD in 1982. It made the work of specialists significantly easier, enhanced the accuracy in the creation and execution of drawings, increased the integrity and the possibility of reusing design solutions in different projects just by copying. But in terms of drawing tools, it remained a digital drawing board.
Fig. 2 Appearance of the working area of AutoCAD
Specialists still worked separately, seeing only their design discipline.
Architects' assignments and assignments to MEP-specialists became digital files. Air exchange calculation or heat loss calculation from manual turned into a spreadsheet or a special program, but the calculation data were still transferred to the plan by hand. System diagrams were created individually according to the plans using the program tools. The lists were calculated by a specialist, but using software to some extent. To get approvals from MEP-specialists became far easier, but still took time from a specialist. However, a lot of work remained hand-operated.
When issuing a project in the form of paper or digital drawings designed manually or in AutoCAD, it is difficult for a customer and a builder to imagine the building with all utility networks, structural and architectural elements as a united system until the building is erected.
The need to visualize the project had been around for a long time. In the Soviet Union, there were separate dummy workshops in the design institutes. To get an approval of the building appearance, a large-scale dummy was created. It was a laborious process that took a huge amount of time, moreover, it was difficult to make a change upon the customer's request.
Architects' assignments and assignments to MEP-specialists became digital files. Air exchange calculation or heat loss calculation from manual turned into a spreadsheet or a special program, but the calculation data were still transferred to the plan by hand. System diagrams were created individually according to the plans using the program tools. The lists were calculated by a specialist, but using software to some extent. To get approvals from MEP-specialists became far easier, but still took time from a specialist. However, a lot of work remained hand-operated.
When issuing a project in the form of paper or digital drawings designed manually or in AutoCAD, it is difficult for a customer and a builder to imagine the building with all utility networks, structural and architectural elements as a united system until the building is erected.
The need to visualize the project had been around for a long time. In the Soviet Union, there were separate dummy workshops in the design institutes. To get an approval of the building appearance, a large-scale dummy was created. It was a laborious process that took a huge amount of time, moreover, it was difficult to make a change upon the customer's request.
Fig 3 Example of a building dummy.
With the development of computer technology, 3D visualisation programs were invented, for example, ArchiCAD. But it was applied mostly to the architectural design discipline. The problem of perceiving the building as an integral complex of architecture, construction and engineering still remained.
Fig.4 Example of visualisation of a building in ArchiCAD.
Revit epoch
Human is wonderful because he can dream and strives for development, covering all areas of his activities. A comprehensive design approach is applied in Autodesk Revit. Autodesk Revit, or Revit for short, is computer-aided design software that implements the principle of building information modelling. It applies a single system to create all design disciplines of the project, including their visualisation in 3D. Revit enables all participants in the design and construction process to see the building as an integral complex before it is built.
In the course of creating an engineering system, a specialist fills the model with special components - families. Some of them are already uploaded in the program. Others you need to download additionally or create from scratch. Any equipment and material can be created based on the basic model. The algorithm written in Revit enables you to unite families into a system in a special manner. For example, let's take an air duct system with grilles and a part of a heating system with pipes and a heater device. Each branch, reducer, tee, grille and radiator forms an individual family.
Fig. 5 Example of a ventilation system and connection of a heating device in Revit.
The algorithm for creating the heating and ventilation design discipline remains the same. The difference is in the details. Architects' assignment is not a simple plan, two sections and a façade in different files, but the model of the whole building, where it is possible to build sections in the necessary place, consider all the façades in one file, and connect the models of bearing structures as well as place their systems more accurately.
Revit is quite a flexible program and, having certain skills, you can set up additional links with calculation tables for data transfer and then import it into the project, or set up additional calculations in the program itself. It is enough to make a special script once and there is no longer need to enter heat losses data for each room by hand. It enables to implement an air exchange solution: the system will automatically transfer the data on the area and the height of the premises to a calculation table and, after the calculation, import the data on the air flow rates into the model in terms of the premises with an opportunity to select air distributors and air duct diameters. You can make such operations, so that the assignments to subcontractors can be formed and transmitted by pressing one button. The list can be automatically collected from the model.
When creating a system, you won't need to worry about individual building of its axonometric diagram - in Revit, the system is immediately created in all views. Accordingly, if you change something on the diagram - the changes will be on the plan, as well.
When creating a system, you won't need to worry about individual building of its axonometric diagram - in Revit, the system is immediately created in all views. Accordingly, if you change something on the diagram - the changes will be on the plan, as well.
Fig. 7. Example of changing a ventilation system in Revit
When designing a project, it is extremely important to have an opportunity to see the networks of adjacent design disciplines. Due to that, we can avoid the clashes among the utility networks. No one is happy with a sewer pipe in the air duct or an air duct in the beam. You can configure the program to detect these collisions automatically. Thus, the design discipline undergoes the approval not closer to the end of the project, but in the process of its implementation.
Fig. 8. Example of displaying networks of different design disciplines and bearing structures in Revit
Designing and placing heating devices, pipes, air ducts, lamps, trays in the model space, we have an opportunity to perceive our systems at a new level, to see them in three-dimensional space in combination with architectural and bearing structures, and MEP-networks. It is always nice to see the result of your actions and to realize that you are at least a little involved in the development of modern design technologies. I would like to believe that having come the whole way from creating a project manually to a complex information model in Revit, we won't lose the accumulated experience and proceed with the development using those opportunities that we have in our disposal today.