Project setup in Revit/BIM for the MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) discipline can be tough to plan out. When you specialize in one discipline or you’re new to Revit, this task can be even more difficult to navigate. It may require you reach out to other departments to find the views you need to complete the design. If you are new to Revit or are struggling with project setup, this task that can feel time-consuming.

Setting Up Plan Views in Revit

First, when it comes to setting up views in Revit, you need to understand how Revit works with views and sheets. Unlike working in AutoCAD, Revit is not separated into spaces for model and paper. Revit doesn’t require you to create viewports of the model space in your paper space where your sheets should be. Revit has plan views for the floor and ceiling plans. To set up your plan views in Revit, we start by setting up views for:

• Coordination
• Project Setup
• Construction Documents
• Working

This means for every discipline, sub-discipline and level of the building, there will be a minimum of four (4) plan views. Working on a large building that needs to be separated into zones will increase the amount of plan views in your construction documents based on the amount of zones per layout.

Phasing in Revit

Next, we’ll discuss required phasing for our project. When we think about phasing in Revit, we are specifically talking about:

• New Construction
• Existing Construction
• Demolition

Understanding phasing will indicate the need for demolition plan views for each discipline. Plan views may exist, depending on the amount of work. These will be indicated in our design on the new construction views created.

Sub-Disciplines Systems

Finally, the largest factors for view creation come from the sub-discipline of the overall mechanical, electrical and plumbing disciplines. For this stage in planning, we need to understand our scope of work and the systems we design. Those sub-discipline systems are (click to expand):

Sub-disciplines factor into the amount of views required for our working drawing, CD drawings and coordination drawings, which creates a lot of work when it comes to project setup.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creating a starter project with these views, view templates and corresponding sheets with CD view applied helps speed up project startup time in the AEC industry. Starter projects also help alleviate the amount of work it takes to create a project from scratch. After we create these plan views, we still have our additional supporting views. Supporting views are created using section views for each discipline for working and showing elevated room placements, 3D views for coordination and working, and enlarged plan/callouts for each discipline’s utility room.

By taking the time to setup our project in the beginning of the process, we set our project up for success in the delivery stages of the project. Setting up a starter project and refining as you go affects your ROI, which reflects a much cleaner project and faster production times in the startup process to the modeling and delivery process.

For information about assistance with project setup training or consulting. please reach out to the ATG USA sales representative for your area. If you are interested in our MEP Productivity Pack that has a starter project already created for the AEC industry, please reach out to the ATG USA Sales representative in your area to discuss our MEP3 and the CTC BIM Tools.

For more information on the MEPPP, please visit our MEPPP page.

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This blog is written by Sr. MEP Technical Specialist Joe Levija. If you have any questions or need help with your Autodesk needs, please email us at whyATG@atgusa.com.