New Analytical Workflow for Electrical Preliminary Design
We are pleased to deliver a new early stage design workflow for electrical engineers and designers. Similar in concept to the Systems Analysis
Framework provided for mechanical engineers in the 2020.1 release, new functionality equips electrical engineers to define early stage design
information pertinent to power distribution within Revit.
Unlike traditional workflows that have engineers managing information in different places — preliminary one-lines, spreadsheets, DWGs, and often
PDFs — this new workflow provides a way for Revit to manage the key electrical loads and distribution information, without having to physically
model any part of it. We heard from designers that the requirements for distribution systems are defined and iterated long before it is necessary or
even desirable to create a physical model. As such, it is now possible to conceptually define and connect loads and distribution system elements
commencing model creation.
This new workflow provides a BIM centric way to commence electrical power distribution design workflows, with a vision towards connecting those
workflows to downstream workflows in the future.
Major Pain Point Resolved for Mechanical and Electrical Designers
One of the long standing big pain points with connected MEP networks is that they were never designed with phasing in mind. Over the years, this
has resulted in two main problems that arise when an element is demolished, and resulted in one of the top MEP specific ideas on the Revit Idea
Station. This release solves those two key problems, which are: elements losing their system association, and elements no longer connected to
adjacent elements.
Historically, once an element (e.g., duct or pipe elements) is demolished, it no longer ‘remembers’ what system it was part of. As a result, various
workarounds existed to be able to define views that show the appropriate demolished system elements (e.g., piping views for hydronic, plumbing,
fire protection, medical gas, etc.) in appropriate demolition views. This has been resolved in this release. When an element is demolished, it still
maintains relationship to the system, thus property values such as System Name, System Classification, and System Abbreviation persist.
Additionally, when elements are demolished (whether design duct/pipe, conduit, cable tray, or fabrication elements), they maintain their connectivity
to adjacent elements, thereby support typical modification behaviors.