Anybody have any recommendations for DYNAMO use in MEP firm

Packages
1

Hello all,



I have just downloaded and began my journey into using dynamo. I am just wondering is anybody using this platform successfully in the MEP design side of things?


I am just curious as it looks very flexible.



Thanks in advance,



John Egan

2

I can see this post going to die a sudden death without some sort of input, so let me begin with some thinking out loud.


Dynamo is integratable with revit and thus lends parametric capabilities to Revit, both of implicit and explicit nature. Relationally, families and objects of instance or type can be grouped into performing process driven tasks as defined by the user. Similarities can be seen between the broad concept of parametric design and computer programming as they are both process driven. Dynamo creates that link with the feature, pythonscript.


Python is a powerful programming language that has efficient high level data structures and is a relevantly simplistic approach to object orientated programming. In other words, complex processes can now be scripted according to a process of actions that the user would tend to do as part of their day to day workings. Once understood it has the potential to simplify and allow many iterative processes to be automated according to the script. With an increasing number of open source python libraries now accessible to the user, he/she is no longer limited to the built in components within Revit.


The flexibility of adaptive components, defining controlling nodes via formulas or synchronizing family parameters coupled with the ability to script the process in how they interact would seem like an MEP designers dream. However, I cannot seem to find any reference in any where I look to anybody that is using such techniques.


Is there any MEP designers with any creative thoughts on this subject out there? Or perhaps engineers workflows are defined to the out of the box tools Revit gives them after all...


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Oh, I have loads! I think its just taking a while for us MEP people to know about and see the benefits of Dynamo (And that its not just for parametric facades and other geometric stuff that doesnt interest us at all
)

-Read fire rating of walls in a linked model, find all intersections with ducts or pipes, place fire dampers. (Possibly also useful if openings in normal walls need to be shown).

-Add ‘location’ to pipes, ducts and other non-‘space aware’ objects. Either by space or by Scope Box or something. I often get asked “Can you schedule the total pipe length in building/department/room X” and the only way to do that in revit is to manually fill in an instance parameter like Comments for a selection to give something to filter by.

-Use ‘Overide colour in view’ to show things that for some bizzare reason revit wont let you schedule/filter, like Offset, for reviewing designs.

-Actual placement of equipment, such as sprinklers, air terminals, lighting etc. that are placed in predictable repeated ways, and fill in thier information based on the room type specifications.

And general import export of data and automation, so that engineers and designers can work with a Building INFORMATION Model and as much of the modelling and making drawings stuff as possible is done automatically.

As you say, most MEP design is fairly linear and it is defining the inputs and boundary conditions that is interesting. So there is so much that could be automated. Unfortunately I think many MEP companies are stuck in days of professional Engineers who WILL NOT learn how to use ‘CAD’ software and Draughtspeople who dont have enough of a total overview of the design process to take automation to the next level. Luckily there are Engineers like myself who have always found it easier to make our own cad drawings rather than mess about with paper, wouldnt expect, or want, someone else to do it and look forward to not having to ‘draw’ anything at all :slight_smile:

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  • Smarter placing of tags in pipes and ducts. So that Tag All doesnt just place overlapping tags EVERYWHERE and it takes just as long to move them all as it does to tag manually. Tagging and dimensioning to gridlines really is the weak link in our drawing production process at the moment (And no sane person wants to do it
)

  • Synchronisation of selected space parameters between many seperate aspect models. (Change parameters in the model you are working in, select the parameters you have changed (not everything) and synch to all other linked models with spaces).

-Area plan information to and from Spaces. Lots of our different disciplines use Areas for making colour plans because they all want slightly different dividing lines from eachother and the Space bounding (which should match the architects rooms exactly IMHO) and many area sets can be made without interfering with eachother. Sometimes it would be better to get all that info back into the spaces.

I will add more as I think of them


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5

Hi John

I also missed som exambles on revit MEP, but i created this and it helped me out.

Not a complicated dynamo script, though

It is about Mark value. Every time, i place an electrical fixture or any other MEP object, Revit automaticaly gives the item a number. That is fine, but i dont use the mark value to anytihing ells so i migth aswell delete it.

Because; If more peoble are working in the same file, they also get a number, and if they both are working with electrical fixtures, then they will get a warning, when the syncronise with central file, because they have the same number.

If you get to many warnings revit will slow down when syncronising, because of the long list of warnings. We had in one project 17000 mark warnings, and it took 15min., to syncronise. So i made a 3D view with a filter, so i could mark the objects and delete the mark value. This took also some time, and was kind of boring.

Now, i just klik run in the dynamo button, and all the mark values are deleted.

The file are only Electrical, but i also have one to M and P, and i guess you could just make one.

It took 30 sek, to delete 42217 mark numbers in one click. :slight_smile:

Cheers

Claus Lindhé

Delete mark value EL

 

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Hi Joseph,

First of all thanks for sharing your knowledge. I am a beginner in Dynamo, I would like to see some examples (MEP related), can you post some examples of scripting (especially tags one) and if you any other scripts for dynamo please share. It would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

7

Sheesh, I’m not sure where to start on use of Dynamo with MEP Revit.
We are a piping fab/install only company, and Dynamo is already making it possible to;
Create spools
Spool maps Object color overrides based on Spool numbers
Add a BOP/BOI parameter on pipe and duct
We’re pulling NDE requirements from Excel and applying them to the correct spool sheets based on Line numbers.
We’ve added the ability to have dissimilar end types on pipe, if trim is added to a pipe, the takeoff cut length will include trim, even though the Revit model shows the “trimmed” location like it would in a design model.

Not to mention dozens of little routines to apply property data, to clear property data.

In short, THERE IS A LOT YOU CAN DO WITH DYNAMO YOU COULD NEVER DO WITH REVIT BEFORE!!!

Almost forgot, you can push parameter data around to have the ability to schedule Pipe, Accessories, and Fittings all on the same schedule instead of having 3 separate schedules per fab spool


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Hi John,

I have written a few examples on how to use Dynamo for MEP design, maybe it will help you :

http://bim42.com/2016/04/using-dynamo-for-mep-design-part-1/
http://bim42.com/2016/04/using-dynamo-for-mep-design-part-2/