BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo

This project highlights a practical problem which I had experienced during my professional internship with a main contractor firm. Expansion joints are one type of building elements, normally used in buildings and roads to deal with the expansion and contraction of concrete slabs. They are normally...

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Main Author: Lim, Brendan Jie Kang
Other Authors: Teoh Bak Koon
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158089
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1580892022-05-29T08:42:00Z BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo Lim, Brendan Jie Kang Teoh Bak Koon School of Civil and Environmental Engineering bakkoon.teoh@ntu.edu.sg Engineering::Civil engineering::Construction management This project highlights a practical problem which I had experienced during my professional internship with a main contractor firm. Expansion joints are one type of building elements, normally used in buildings and roads to deal with the expansion and contraction of concrete slabs. They are normally represented by lines on construction drawings, with their descriptions included at the side in a text box. In times where the lines are not present on the drawings, a zone to place the expansion joints will usually be identified by the consultants. The exact locations are then decided by the main contractor, together with the expansion joint supplier. The problem experienced by the main contractor was that despite recent advances in building information modelling (BIM) tools, the process to obtain information about the expansion joints was still highly manual. While the consultant firm provided the building models in Revit and Navisworks, along with PDF drawings, expansion joints were not present in the models. Hence, a large amount of time was spent on drawing lines in PDF, measuring the distances in AutoCAD and PDF, and then tabulating these results in Microsoft Excel. These manual processes can be replaced by automated processes with the help of BIM software to save time on repetitive tasks and subsequently boost productivity. In this project, Revit families were created to enable easy incorporation of expansion joints into the Revit building model, and the automated process of retrieving the expansion joints’ data and information were carried out with customised Dynamo scripts, inclusive of some Python nodes. Data retrieved from the model were automatically tabulated in Excel and presented in a user-friendly manner. A 2-way link had been successfully created between the construction model and Microsoft Excel to facilitate the easy updating of data and information. This function is crucial in handling changes during the construction phase. Finally, a time cost comparison was done to establish the potential time savings of such an automated process. Potential applications and future improvements are also discussed in the report. Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) 2022-05-29T08:42:00Z 2022-05-29T08:42:00Z 2022 Final Year Project (FYP) Lim, B. J. K. (2022). BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158089 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158089 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Civil engineering::Construction management
spellingShingle Engineering::Civil engineering::Construction management
Lim, Brendan Jie Kang
BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
description This project highlights a practical problem which I had experienced during my professional internship with a main contractor firm. Expansion joints are one type of building elements, normally used in buildings and roads to deal with the expansion and contraction of concrete slabs. They are normally represented by lines on construction drawings, with their descriptions included at the side in a text box. In times where the lines are not present on the drawings, a zone to place the expansion joints will usually be identified by the consultants. The exact locations are then decided by the main contractor, together with the expansion joint supplier. The problem experienced by the main contractor was that despite recent advances in building information modelling (BIM) tools, the process to obtain information about the expansion joints was still highly manual. While the consultant firm provided the building models in Revit and Navisworks, along with PDF drawings, expansion joints were not present in the models. Hence, a large amount of time was spent on drawing lines in PDF, measuring the distances in AutoCAD and PDF, and then tabulating these results in Microsoft Excel. These manual processes can be replaced by automated processes with the help of BIM software to save time on repetitive tasks and subsequently boost productivity. In this project, Revit families were created to enable easy incorporation of expansion joints into the Revit building model, and the automated process of retrieving the expansion joints’ data and information were carried out with customised Dynamo scripts, inclusive of some Python nodes. Data retrieved from the model were automatically tabulated in Excel and presented in a user-friendly manner. A 2-way link had been successfully created between the construction model and Microsoft Excel to facilitate the easy updating of data and information. This function is crucial in handling changes during the construction phase. Finally, a time cost comparison was done to establish the potential time savings of such an automated process. Potential applications and future improvements are also discussed in the report.
author2 Teoh Bak Koon
author_facet Teoh Bak Koon
Lim, Brendan Jie Kang
format Final Year Project
author Lim, Brendan Jie Kang
author_sort Lim, Brendan Jie Kang
title BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
title_short BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
title_full BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
title_fullStr BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
title_full_unstemmed BIM: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
title_sort bim: automated quantity retrieval of expansion joints using revit & dynamo
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158089
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