Utilizing Revit for the Field

CHRISTOPHE JONES: Good afternoon everybody. So thank you all for coming. So just a little introduction. So this about Revit and utilizing it for the field really. So there's a couple of things that, you know, just as an objective. What I really want you all to come out of here is looking at Revit in a different way, how do you really use it for whatever trade you use it, or whatever trade you're in, whatever field you're in, trying to expand it and use it differently than how maybe the mainstream is always using it.

So just a little bit about myself. I have a pretty big variety of background. I've been assistant superintendent, I've worked the field, I've walked steel, I've done pretty much every job on the job site, operated cranes. I've been a project engineer, estimator, director, pre-construction, and I've been VDC manager. I try in every day to use Revit as a tool that pulls everything together.

If I'm doing logistics, if I'm doing estimating, if I'm doing scheduling, everything is try to go right back to Revit where Revit is-- It is a master builder tool to me. So that's the key thing that I really wanted to try to stress, is that Revit, if you really use it, you can be a master builder. It is a tool, it's not a program. If you look at it like a program you won't get everything out of it. If you look at it as a tool it's no different than a hammer, it's no different than a crane, it's how you apply it and what you want to make out of it.

So the number one thing is really using parameters. Parameters open the door for how you're going to actually use the program, what you want to get out of it. Revit is a smart program, but it also doesn't have a lot of information in it. If you look at-- most people know is steel beam-- it doesn't know how to calculate the weight of it. If you want the calculations of tons you have to add a parameter in there to make it work.

So you have to make Revit smart. So you have to out think the program, and you have to actually make it be what it is. So the more data you can put into it-- and this goes into everybody in here knows that the push is to go to 6D-- when we give a model we want to have that information inside the program, inside the model. We want the metadata available there. Every time you put it into an outsource program-- So if you go to a third-party program and you're actually putting the data in the third-party program, it's not in the original document.

So when you turn the model over it doesn't contain everything. Not every single owner is going to own Synchro, they're not going to own Vico, they're not going to own Assemble, they may get to Navis. Navis will at least read that information. They will be able to go back and forth. So it's about how to build information into Revit that will speed up the process in other things, but that's really heavily done inside of the parameters.

So what can parameters do? They allow for very detailed information. They allow you to manipulate the program to how you want to do it. They lets you go through the programs faster. And I will show you some actual examples, and I'll pull up models that I'm actually currently working on to show you how things are.

At the side over there is a list of some of my base parameters that I use in my template every day. So they range anywhere from scheduling activities, to information about concrete columns, to just blank lines so that in schedules you can sort things and make it easier to read, make the exports available.

And I'm going to go through quick unless you all want to ask questions. I'm very free how I do things, I like to kind of go through everything and then I like to explain more on a real-world situation. It all ties together to me. The parameters tie into logistics.

This is a job in Miami that actually is being redesigned now. It is a large-scale mall. This looks like a pretty picture, everything in it is correct. The tower cranes, the mass of the tower cranes, the hoist, the steel parts and pieces, it is made to be a real model. It is not just a pretty picture. And this is built during the proposal stage. So you put in the information of what you want to get out of it.

Here's two different types of logistics plans, most would do this at a very early preliminary stage. There's not a lot of detail, there's no dimensions. The one on the other side you can see there's elements. I'm calling out a lot of items, you see the grid lines, it is a true drawing, it's exported out as a CAD file, it's overlaid. Parts and pieces of it can be put into total stations. Items are correct size, tower cranes are located, but you also don't want to get too caught up with just pretty pictures.

So there's also a big reason to build mass families. So if you look here, this is a job that I'll show you all in a little bit, it's an 82-story building in Miami. And I'm studying the location of where the cranes are going to be. I don't need to have an actual crane family, I need a mask, I need to know that I have the actual coverage. So it's by building simple families, but also you need complex families at times. You need families that can grow and change sizes, you need to be able to just visually see things at times on a logistics side.

It also gets down to very detailed items. This is the same job, if you look I'm very detailed at a proposal stage on how I'm going to handle hoists. I know exactly where the dimensions are, the hoist is made and a certain dimension, I am looking at no problems. So this particular job-- and I don't want to get too much-- this is an exterior facade piece that needs to be put into the job prior to me going forward. So it's a pre-cast system on the outside of the building, I have to have that before I put any glass in, but I also can't stop the construction. If I put the hoist in there without putting that piece in then I have 82 floors of precast that I need to go back and put in. So you can imagine topping out a building and having 82 floors to go back to is not very economical.

So here you can see I'm trying to show the details of what I want even at a proposal stage. And I'll be open and honest, this is a job that I had the final proposal on Thursday, I'm still going back and forth with the owner, and it's down to me and one other competition. The logistics is something that's very critical on a 82-story building. If you mess up on logistics on a large-scale job you can completely blow your budget.

The other thing is going into other systems. So this is a formwork system on the same job, so I decided to use a handset form system on this job. Now, what you'll see is hundreds and hundreds of beams of formwork. All those pieces have been drawn correctly, so I've made a-- that's actually a Doka beam system-- I've made a Doka beam system family for each beam, each had the tripods down below, each of the parts and pieces that hold the system up.

So what you end up doing is, this may not be fully accurate at the proposal stage. I'm very close. I know enough about, say a formwork system to come up with a close enough design that can then go to either the concrete guy, a formwork companies to show them what I'm looking to do. I'm also getting quantities out of this, so that's on a GC side it becomes a very important tool.

So now when my concrete guy tells me how much formwork he has I can go back to him and say, well how much do you really have. And I can go back to him with a number and say, how many sheets of plywood do you really have on this job for your formwork, how many post shores do you have, how many Doka beams do you have, how are you really planning to do it. So as a GC, by doing this, a little bit of extra work on the front-end I'm able to not only check things, but I'm also able to show an owner that I know the project.

When a subcontractor comes to me I've put the effort into it, I'm not relying just on a subcontractor, and it's not to be in competition with the subcontractor, it's to give them a different view. One subcontractor is going to come up with a different formwork system than I am. What this shows is that I'm not just coming up with a system, I clearly designed a system, I thought about the system, now I can talk to my subcontractor on pros and cons. Maybe his way is better, maybe my way is better, but unless you actually show the effort as a GC, that's not the best thing to do. You want to be trying to push your subcontractors.

A subcontractor in reality should I be wanting to push against a GC and want them to challenge them. By challenging each other, that's how we actually use these programs better, but it takes a little bit of effort in modeling this. So a system like this, this one side probably took me an hour and a half to two hours to come up with the grid system that I wanted to use for the formwork. But is it time well spent?

I'm able to show an owner what the limitations of a building like this are, how am I really going to build this building. I can tell you my competition did not have things like that. Will it make the win? I hope it does but you never know, you have to put the effort in.

But when you get on to a job and you really want to look at costs, understanding what you're doing. If you're self performing you want to be able to have these parts and pieces in. If you're a subcontractor it doesn't have to be formwork, it can be drywall. You want to draw your elements in, in a way that actually gets you the information. You want it to be broken down on a floor by floor basis.

So if I have a shear wall or-- what I have is in the red there are actually the coupling beams-- I call those out differently than a regular bean because they cost more money. I also, when I export this model into Navis, I want to see that red beam. I want to see if a piece of plumbing goes through it, I want to see if a piece of HVAC goes through it, electrical. I might not be able to penetrate that beam, so once I export it, it's a very easy visual. It's not just the bean, it's a beam that's called out specifically so that I know what's going on.

This kind of it goes back into the material. So you can see on the side of the screen, this is actually the formwork on a level by level basis. And I have a piece count of everything that I want. I have a piece count of the formwork, I have a piece count of the plywood that I'm going to use. I can go further and I can put nails if I really wanted. It's all about using the parameters, and if you use the parameters at the right way you can get any information that you want. I think that's what a lot of people forget about using it. They build a model, they push it into coordination, but they don't want to use it for quantities.

Now as an estimator-- my background being an estimator-- most people that are modeling, the estimating groups don't want to trust the models. Why? Because the models are built for coordination. The same thing on why you wouldn't really want to use an architectural model. And architectural model is being built to do drawings, the design model is used for analysis, structural analysis, and again, to do drawings. It's not really made for coordination, and that's why there is a difference between designer's model, and architect's model, and a subcontractor's model.

Subcontractors are usually going to be doing fabrication, they need to do their shop drawings off of the drawings, so theirs are even more detailed than, say a contractor. They're all one in the same though. So in a coordination sense I will typically overlay a designer's model, my model, and a subcontractor's model all for the same trade. Everybody is going to have a little different take on how to use the model, what to do, how to actually look at the job, and eventually it's going to be one of three models all merge together. You have to look at everybody's perspective, but that's how you make things powerful.

And that kind of goes into the estimating, and that's how I'm going to show you all. So I'm pretty quick on that side, I really wanted to get into the models, and how I'm actually using the models as an example. So I'm going to show you all a current project that I'm working on.

So this is that 82-story job, and you can see I have a lot of different elements in here. This is the formwork down here. And you can start seeing it, that's a lot of formwork to model up, but there's a lot of information. And you have to understand also, that every one of these floors is a little bit different. That's why there's so much different formwork systems shown right now. It's because every floor is going to have a little bit different thought process to it in how we're actually constructing.

So when it comes down to parameters for estimating, for quantities, if your superintendents want to be able to have how much cubic yards is at a certain area, what you'll see is I've added a bunch of parameters in here. I'm coding this one to level 48 so I know exactly that my parts and pieces need to go to level 48. Now if we look at scheduling, I have a scheduling activity ID which would go right back to my schedule. So the reason why I'm trying to program things in Revit is, one, I think it's a lot faster.

So I'll pull up a smaller project here. So here's a 20-story building which I have not actually coded yet. So in a third-party program, usually you're going through and you get a full exported model. It's not broken up, it depends on how you build it. I build a model with a lot of different phases. So my base template model, what I've done is I've broken it down into existing, mobilization, demolition, a [? soil mix. ?] It goes into a super structure.

So if I'm going to draw concrete I'm going to draw it in a super structure phase. If I'm going to draw drywall partitions I'm going to draw it in my interior construction phase. If I have finishes I'm going to draw that in a finished phase. The reason why is because it's a speed later on. Usually you're going to have guys that aren't modeling the same trade, you're going to have a concrete specialist, you're going to have a drywall specialist, you're going to have mechanical specialists. They don't need to be drawing in the same area. Now, you can do this with a central file, but if you're doing it with the phases from the get-go it actually opens you up to be able to sort things a little bit faster.

So in this perspective I'm looking at the concrete, but if I change it to show new I will just see what I have drawn in superstructure concrete. This would be an export to me for Navis, it would be an export to me for a program like Vico, it would be an export for me for Synchro. So I'm automatically isolating these things just so that when I get to those programs I don't have to sort through anything. I've done it in my modeling because that's how I'm modeling it, but I'm also keying it in that that's my specialist that's doing that.

I want to see the concrete structure by itself I don't want to see it necessarily with the masonry. I want the ability to go to merge them, but I also want the ability to isolate it in my base program as well.

So if I were to switch this to interior construction, this would be my main core in the building. So you can see I don't have everything put there yet. If I want these at exterior facade it's a fairly easy grab that I pull them. This is a concept level. I'm going to switch this to exterior facade and then I won't see it.

So by doing that, what I do is I really isolate the elements. Now when I want to code all the drywall let's say in Synchro, and I want only vertical. So when you get into these third-party programs like Synchro for instance for your scheduling, you want to apply a different growth for horizontal element than you do for a vertical element. So now I'm going to isolate just the walls for my export for that, same thing with columns and walls. My beams index would be put together.

But here is all my walls for a specific level. I'm going to come over here and I can type in, maybe it was test 101. Now all those elements always have that in there. When I export this and I go into another program and I say, I want to code scheduling activity ID with something else, now an auto matching everything. So I can do this a lot faster in Revit than I can and a lot of other programs just simply because this is my design tool. While I'm drawing I can actually copy and paste these elements as I'm drawing so I'm not really taking any extra time. But if you do it by hand in these other programs it's twice as much time, so I'm using the parameters to try to help me organize information, call out items.

Another thing is, the goal for me is that this is a working model on the job site. You'll see here I have a proposed installation date and an actual installation date. What I would expect is whoever is my guy on the job site, as we're installing he's going to come into his model, he has to be in there anyway, he's going to say, well we started putting drywall up on this particular day. He's going to keep that in here. So now we're using the model not only to use it for coordination and for scheduling, we're also using to track against the original schedule. It's all about adding these additional parameters, which to me is what really makes everything happen is the parameters.

So a project like this, which is a fairly large project to do the coding of all the structure, the interiors, and a big majority of the exterior facade, which I broke the exterior facade down in about three different areas. I coded this in a Synchro program in about three hours, and I had an auto matched together and starting to run within about five minutes of pulling them together. Now of course there's a whole bunch of changing and moving things there, but that is a lot of time to go through on a hand by hand basis to go through each of these elements in a third-party program.

The same thing happens in programs for estimating, you have to key these in, you have to get the areas in. Instead, what I'm doing is I'm making the program smart or the model smart. This element I know is on level 12. If it's building A it's building, if it's a grouping of public space it's public space. In the schedules what this actually allows you to do is, if I look at, say the beams, here's the concrete beams on a beam by beam basis. You're also going to notice that I have a little bit different way to look at beams.

So a beam that a 12-- Most people will draw a 24 by 24 beam as a 24 by 24 beam. This is a 24 by 24 beam in a nine inch deck, so my formwork is going to be different in a nine inch deck, than it is going to be in a 10-inch deck, than it's going to be in an 11-inch deck. So I'm keying this information in so that I can clearly see in these schedules, in the model, how I'm actually getting this information, because I'm going to actually price an eight inch deck versus a nine inch deck differently, not by much, but there is, if you get to the subcontractor level, you have to get detailed.

The other part is, is by having these naming conventions then you're going back into the schedules of the engineers. Now I can apply the rebar weights that I want, how I want to handle certain activities. Like I said, Revit it is not super smart, it doesn't let you get in into that beam width and depth even though it allows you to put those parameters into it to make it, it doesn't let you tie into it to actually see it. Other programs third-party programs do, so what I've done is I've added extra parameters. So by doing that I have a beam width, and I have a beam depth, and I also have whatever slab thickness I'm using.

And what I've done is it's letting me get the length out of how I'm drawing it. What I'm doing is I'm calculating it, getting a formwork square footage by using additional formulas and using that information, trying to change it and manipulate it. So all the information is there, it's how well you can grab it from there.

It's also sorting it. So now when somebody wants to know how much cubic yards that we need to get on a specific floor I have a volume, and then I have a volume with waste. I might change my volume with waste as I go up, so an 82-story building my waste factor on level 20 compared to level 60 is going to be completely different. That's why I try to build all these parameters in here, but also to get the schedules.

So these schedules are sometimes difficult to use, but if you build them almost like how Excel would be you can go back and forth. If you used some of the third-party programs you can go back and forth using the programs on the outside, getting in Excel, and then pushing it back. So typically what I'll do is I will export a schedule like this as a .txt file, I'll pull it into Excel, and then I'll do my calculations for quantity survey, for what I'm going to give to a superintendent, how long I want to give it to them, I'll do that all in the outside programs, but the base of it is all done here.

I try to get the calculations done, and the reason why is if somebody goes there later on and grabs that element I want them to be able to see, here's all the information I need for that specific column. That call them cost me x amount of square foot, that square foot of formwork costs this much dollars, so that column costs this much.

At times you will have an owner that wants to get down to having an estimate for every single unit. By doing this you can code everything for unit A, a unit B, a unit C. It takes a little bit of time, but then when that owner comes back and asks you to do those things you can do it 10 times faster than going back and trying to find it by hand.

So the other thing with logistics is really trying to understand how and where things fit. So that's where I will use a lot of these mass families that I built to see where I'm going through. So typically I will isolate these families and that will go into in Navisworks as well. And that's because I need to know what I can install, what I can't install during the sequence.

So in this specific job I'm actually looking to put tower cranes on the inside of a building, jump them up, and about every 10 floors I get to in-fill where my mass section was. That's a little bit different. What you'll see on the red and the yellow, the yellow is actually where one of the concrete companies had plans to put a tower crane, and-- sorry I say red, magenta-- the magenta is me fixing the location to actually make it work. So it's about understanding what the equipment is.

So if I know that right off the bat where my subcontractors are telling me I'm all the way in the deck, this does not work. I know that I need to be 12' 6" from the edge to the center of my crane right here, but I also want to look and see what does that do down below. And this is a pretty big model so bear with me.

So what you'll see here, is if I were to free-stand this crane all the way to the top I am always going to have a hole down to my basement level. And I'm in Miami so having a basement full of water is not a good thing, and I'm right next to the water over here, you can see the barges that I'm using as additional storage.

So the yellow is their original, this has me fixing it, and if you look on this side, now every single unit that's along this area I can't install until I top out this building. So this is me playing with the locations of the cranes, finding out where the best location is for me, how it's not going to impact my schedule. But it takes time to do this, so it is using Revit in a very construction oriented way. I move the cranes around, I see where the locations are going to be, I see what the impacts are going to be, I see what problems I could possibly have. So by having this, this is a water issue, I don't want that, necessarily.

I've dealt with having a hole in a slab and then going down to the basement and flooding it every three weeks in a Miami area. If it floods or if it starts raining I'm going to fill it up, so you have to know your location and what the problems are, but it is a waterproofing issue, it also affects how you want to construct. So on a tower crane I'd think that anybody that's using these programs should have a kind of a base knowledge of what things are that they're putting into things.

So a tower crane for instance is rented on the number of mast sections. I'd cut the mast sections down but I've changed the way the system is, now I the add extra shorring into the building, I have to change the way I'm doing things, but on the overall I'm not paying for the same set of masts. At 1,000 feet, 1,000 feet is a lot of mast sections so I'm just playing with things.

So a set of logistics plans that I put together is a little bit different. This is a more detailed logistics, I try to put dimensions in things, I try to show what I'm doing as I'm going through. This is page 12 about-- This is package one of eight packages in the logistics plan at the proposal stage. And then it's page 12. So there's quite a bit of information that I try to put in.

But the main the main thing is, is that this is part of the model. Whoever is on the job site has this model, they're going to edit it. It's not done in Bluebeam, it is truly part of the model. Having that makes Navis work better, because if you're in Navisworks and you didn't understand where your materials are coming in, how large an air handler is, and you need to see where that is in conjunction to where crane is, where the trucks are going to be, you have to have those elements in there. So it is a different take on using the program by spending a lot of extra time on things that maybe are overlooked. I'm hoping to gain a lot of time when I'm actually building.

When I'm doing estimating it's the same thing. A structure like this is a pretty big undertaking to model. If you were to do this by hand on an estimate, you'd probably be spending about two to three weeks as an estimator. By using Revit I was able to model the structure in about a week and a half. I'm also a lot more detailed, and the minute that I switch an element, because I have something, if I change the column sizes I automatically can just reprint my schedules, I don't have to go back and find out what happened.

If the owner came back and said, you know what, add three feet to every single floor, everything is interlocked, everything is also tied. If he picks a specific floor and I go to say level 30, level 30 needs to add 10 feet, or we're going to erase levels 30 through 35, I can easily go to my schedule faster than I did when I did have takeoffs by just manipulating it. All that data is in here. Every single floor has an association to it. It takes only a matter of minutes to go through this.

So when you do look at scheduling-- So from a standpoint of once I've modeled, I have it isolated where I want. This could be drywall, it could be duct work, it could be plumbing. Very easily I can grab all the elements of whatever floor that is, labeled it as level 14, building A, hide it, and I go right to the next one.

So that's how I'm coding things a little bit quicker. I'm using the model, and I'm using my parameters, and I'm using the extra phases to kind of go through very speedily going through. I'm spending time modeling it, and then I sit there and I spend one hour going through here and coding everything. Yes.

AUDIENCE: I was just wondering I was looking at the numbers for your I was --the numbers in them, are those related to the order that they are placed, or does that tie back to the location [INAUDIBLE]?

CHRISTOPHE JONES: You're talking about these?

AUDIENCE: Correct.

CHRISTOPHE JONES: The numbers just had to do with however I place them. It's-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]

CHRISTOPHE JONES: --somewhat-- my background being an estimator, if you look at this there is some CSI coding into it if you look at it. I am trying to put concrete before certain elements, so there is some CSI built into how I have it phased, but it could be done pretty much any way that you want.

Because of that phasing it really has to do with when you want to see it. The reality is, is that when I'm doing formwork or concrete work, I technically need to have all my MEP figured out at that point. I need to know where all my sleeves are. It's really for me to isolate it, but then when I do want to study it I might move these phases close, move them up. I might set it to where I'm seeing it.

Now, typically if we're doing MEP I have that in a completely different model with a completely different set of parameters, because in MEP I'm using that for calculations. So I do have a couple of guys that work for me that can design full MEP systems. So what they will do is thier parameters, they have these parameters in them that I've shown you all, what they do is they have all their fabrication parameters in them as well.

Now as a GC it's a little bit powerful to have that in my back pocket. I can challenge my MEP subcontractors when I want. If they fall behind I can also help them build a Revit model or at least build a 3D model. Most MEP guys don't really like Revit, they use more CAD MEP, but I'm able to help them. I'm able to show them a test. On a concept level I'm modeling it to even show, does it work in the ceilings. So right off the bat I can even go in and start designing something before I have a subcontractor on board, show a full system--

And actually this particular job right here, I did just that. I actually drew up all the central risers, we drew the central loops, all the systems. We don't actually have drawings, we don't even have a design, we only have a set of five or six drawings. This is modeled in about two days. The MEP is about four days worth of work because I'm actually trying to come up with a design that actually works. But is a very powerful tool when you take it to that level.

So you don't want to just look at Revit as, I need to build a model. You don't want to just take it as, hey, the architect gave me a model, I can get everything out of it that I want because they may have drawn it a completely different way than what you need something out of it.

Structural engineers don't cut columns from floor to floor, and it's my understanding from talking to some of my buddies it is because their structural analysis won't work correctly if they do have it cut. For a contractor I need to know there is x amount for me to actually figure out formwork, same thing with drywall or an exterior facade, I need to know how many lifts I'm going to go up.

If I'm doing a unitized curtain wall system I may want to make a unitized system and just keep on copying it and placing it so I have a piece count. From there I can actually figure out how many pieces can I install per day, what's my ratio, how can I come up with a better way to actually install it. I may be able to install it very quickly but due to logistics I might not be able to bring all the materials in that I want to. So that's where I'm trying to use Revit in these parameters to really utilize it in a different way, get more information out of it, get at the same level as the subcontractor. But at the same time be able to take what the architects have given and design it, and be a bridge between the design subcontractor but also be able to challenge both sides.

So I'll let you all ask me any questions now, I mean I've got 20 minutes. Sure.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

CHRISTOPHE JONES: OK, so the question is, do I have a reason to use spaces over work sets.

AUDIENCE: Right.

CHRISTOPHE JONES: It's just a preference. To me it's a preference. I've used it for a long time. I would probably say the reason why is because I'm used to more work sets being done when I'm actually doing it with a central model. Most of the times I'm running these by myself, so if I start the job, in my world I've started the job and I'll pass it out. My guys can then take it from there and they can do work sets in it, but when I start it off I really set us up with that.

The other thing is, sometimes when you're giving the models off, in a work set it ties it together. In the works as it ties together. In the phases it allows me to be a little bit more flexible and move parts and pieces where I don't have to check things out.

AUDIENCE: And it's one button.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

CHRISTOPHE JONES: Correct. Correct. Yes.

AUDIENCE: I was curious how you modelled the formwork [INAUDIBLE]. How did you [INAUDIBLE] the systems [INAUDIBLE] current needs are [INAUDIBLE]?

CHRISTOPHE JONES: It's not parametric, it's actually me placing a floor. And I can try to get to a level.

So it is actually me coming up with a grid system where I wanted. What I would do to speed up the process really, is I know that I'm eight foot from here to here. Once I build out one full row then I'd start mirroring it and manipulate it where the edges are. So if I get to the shear wall over here I'm going to change where the edge of the beam stops. I'm going to pull shoring systems closer to it.

So it's really coming up with the first set of grid systems on this particular one, and then manipulating it. So on this particular job I wanted to use this system. On another job I might have a system of tables already built. So those tables are parametric, where I know where the limit is and the way I built say a table system is, if I go too wide, it will fail out and it will change colors, where it basically shows me that it's not a usable table system.

So if I know what the column space is, I can kind of say, well, I want to use this formwork system and I want to test out whatever I'm doing. So there are parametrics to it, I've tried to figure out how to do a system like this but on a handset system. You can do it, but then you start switching things around very quickly.

AUDIENCE: So do you have any luck [INAUDIBLE]?

CHRISTOPHE JONES: I mean I do. I have had concrete guys that have asked me, well what do you think about this, you know, could you draw this, what do you think the problems are. They've taken this and given it to guys like Doka. This base actually got off of Doka so I actually had Doka's layout plan at one time. So that's where I know where the parts and pieces are. If I were to get a subcontractor at that level and they said, hey, we need to do the systems and we don't have the capabilities, I would probably draw it up for them and go back and forth. And there'd probably be a specific reason why they need all that formwork shown in 3D as well.

AUDIENCE: We just do a lot of [INAUDIBLE] concrete work and we maintain a really good [INAUDIBLE] throughout, you know, we coordinate and do everything with him. Get out there and the formwork guy is doing something independently and we try to do a coordination effort with them similar to [INAUDIBLE] But the system seems to fall down a lot of times where [INAUDIBLE]

CHRISTOPHE JONES: You know what, everybody in here has probably worth in the field enough, and it doesn't matter how well you coordinate, unless you go out there and sit there and watch them put it in. That's the tough part. Some of the things that I do, honestly is, I will build sleeves for everybody. So when I'm in a specific job and we're doing coordination-- And if you put points and you started using this as a system with a total station for instance, if I put like say my legible decks sleeve-- So I'll probably crash out right now, but that's a huge sleeve.

The sleeve actually has points associated to it. So the more that you build into these families, it's color coded already, so the thought process-- I'm trying to make drawings that are simple for the field. If it's blue it's going to be electrical, if it's orange it's going to be HVAV or whatever color you want. Same thing for the formwork systems, you could build something where you actually a points built into it.

So I have five points in this one, I have four on the corners and one in the center. You could have a beam every couple feet in your formwork system where you say, hey, when you're putting your formwork system out you need to shoot these beams as you're going in, and that's how you would get your control. So some of that is also building the control families within Revit and how you want to do this.

So in a system like the sleeves, I get the sleeve information and locations from each of the subcontractors. I pull their CAD file into Revit, I put it into the model. This sleeve family will actually cut into the deck, so now when I export it in to Navis I will run a system of my concrete system versus the MEP system. If I have a clash then I know that they've either moved their pipes, or they're in the completely wrong spot, or they're not following themselves. Now, by building the point system, as a company we've started putting total stations on the job as a checkpoint.

So I can go out and check sleeve locations, I can had the superintendent pull up the total station. As long as he has it programed he can say, hey, you know what, I need to check the plumbing sleeves. Every plumbing point is going to be categorized with a [? PL. ?] All my concrete points are going to be cast CICP, my electrical might be [? alec. ?] By having those different differentiators in the points it does make it a little bit bigger, It makes the models bigger, all this stuff makes the models bigger.

I crash out on laptops all the time, I really use a desktop when I'm really doing it, and then I have to go back and strip things because it is a lot of information. Every column in this job right here, if you see here, has a point already associated to it. I've built families where I have points on the outside specifically for, let's say a concrete company, because usually they want to have a set of stakes outside of the actual location. The sleeves are the same thing, but by having that all built in so your Revit model from the get-go, and even from the start--

So this is a concept set of drawings. If I can give this set of drawings or Revit model to my concrete guy right from the get-go, and I built it in a way that I know that he can actually use it and get the data out of it, he has total station points already set up so that's already reducing time for him. The sleeve locations, as I get them I can update them to him, but everything trying to be built right there, and it's coded.

If I have to go back 10 years from now and look at that model and find out where the problem was and I could pull a total station up, I can probably still go in there, grab that point and find out where was that pipe, is that pipe where it's supposed to be. This can in turn go back into like laser scannings where you're doing a laser scan and go right back on top of this. So it's a different way to maybe use it. I'm looking at it as a full blown construction. It's the first time that I'm building the job so it is a practice session.