MF04 keynotes in Revit

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Author Message Chris Grimm, CSI, CCS, MAI, RLA Senior Member Username: tsugaguy Post Number: 63 Registered: 06-2005 Posted on Wednesday, March 07, 2007 - 05:54 pm:    Using the out-of-the-box keynote list in Revit, is there any way to draw a bolt without knowing exactly what size bolt it is? I'm considering crafting a customized RevitKeynotes_MF04.txt file for our firm (as long as Autodesk isn't already working on one and I'd just be reinventing the wheel). Experience tells me that design teams will not need or want to actually draft things to that level of detail, but on the other hand, using BIM is going beyond most people's current realm of experience too. Has anyone ventured out there already and would care to comment? Or anyone trying a 3rd party add-on like e-Specs? J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 222 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Friday, March 09, 2007 - 10:25 pm:    This is one area in which people need to be carefully thinking about design process and the ultimate goals of BIM. On one hand, early stages of design work best when some degree of ambiguity is preserved. One can think that large issues need thinking through before small details can be defined. It can be argued that this is an excuse for delaying a decision at a detail level; however, designers work all the time with a certain level of ambiguity without harming the overall process or unnecessarily delaying the project schedule. Is that "fat pencil" line a 4-inch CMU partition that goes to structure above? or is it a 4-1/2 inch drywall partition that goes 8 inches above the ceiling? or is it an 8-inch loadbearing masonry wall? While it may be argued that the designer must be knowledgeable about all of the parameters associated with that graphic representation, the alligator at hand may only be the approximate size of a space. In fact, that particular line may not represent a wall at all, but only the division between a major space and an alcove. On the other hand, I am firmly convinced that architects are inherently trained to defer decisions which they may be required to defend and change. In the particular case of this bolt, it seems like a 5/8-inch diameter might serve as a place holder (sort of a propositional entity) to be reviewed and possibly revised at a later date.