BIM Model Checklist - Revit

Twinview supports over 148 file formats, including native formats such as Autodesk Revit, Navisworks, Bentley AECOsim, etc.

Twinview also supports open standards such as IFC 2x3 and IFC4, so depending on your workflows, this may be your preferred option for providing models for upload.

Where available and possible, we recommend using Native formats. Twinview has been designed to understand the proprietary data schemas inherently available in these formats, which may provide additional benefits over open formats such as IFC. A couple of examples are sheet support, realistic materials, and weather location data.

Twinview is designed to understand the 3D model, the inherent data schema, the data itself, and the relationships in the models. Before uploading your models, you should perform several good practice checks.

• For native formats that support sheets, such as Autodesk Revit, we recommend leaving your sheets in the model. Some consultants make a habit of deleting any sheets before issuing their models; however, if these sheets are left in, Twinview will automatically bring them into the 2D Sheet browser and build the relationships between the 2D and 3D. It is also recommended that any views on sheets be set to vector rather than raster if your software supports this option.

• If the sheets are removed, they can still be uploaded as a separate process, but the 2-way asset relationships may not pull through automatically.

• If your software supports it, ensure that you have rooms placed correctly and named properly. Twinview will automatically extract these rooms and associated levels and build relationships between levels, rooms/spaces, and assets. It also allows the export of room volumes for Heatmapping etc.

• If using Autodesk Revit, ensure that you have your room settings to ‘Calculate Areas and Volumes’ and not ‘Calculate areas only’.

• If using IFC formats, ensure that spaces are defined properly as ‘IFCspace’ and included in the export mapping settings when exporting IFC from your authoring software. Some software allows for these to be removed or have them removed by default.

• Twinview will take the default 3D view in the model, and as such, this view should represent what you want to see in Twinview. You should remove any colour overrides, section boxes, etc., from the default view.

• For Autodesk Revit, you should ensure that the default view has the correct phasing set (normally, it is ‘Show Complete - New Construction’). You should also ensure that the model LOD/Graphic representation is set to ‘Fine Detail’; this will ensure that all geometry is exported. This is especially important for MEP models where services typically show as symbolic lines in anything but ‘Fine Detail’.

• Models created in 3D software that supports multiple 3D views/representations may require the default view to be specifically defined. For example, in Autodesk Revit, the option to set the default 3D view is in the manage tab.

• If uploading multiple models, ensure they all share the same coordinate system and are correctly located in 3D space. Also, ensure that all units are consistent with all the models. While it is possible to move and transform the models once they are in Twinview, making sure that this is correct in the native models is the preferred and good practice.

Twinview has no minimum model requirements and can work with 2D or even without 3D/2D at all. The complexity/detail of the model will depend on the project requirements and the specific use cases.

Twinview supports everything from ‘No Model’ to fully detailed Fabrication level LOD500 (LOD6) models. We recommend that you speak with a Twinview implementation specialist to discuss your requirements.

A good amount of data is inherently available by default in the models if created in intelligent BIM software. Even if no specific classification exists, everything belongs to a software category, and Twinview will understand this data. For example, when drawing a pipe run in Revit, that pipe must belong to a system. Twinview understands this data and will pull through all the information automatically. The same logic applies to Levels, Room, Spaces, Assets and their relationship to each other.

Twinview also understands asset/object metadata that may exist in the model in an industry-recognized format, such as COBie, and handles such data accordingly.

Where a classification exists in the model data, Twinview will understand this and utilise this data for the internal classification of rooms, spaces, assets, systems, levels etc.

Twinview supports multiple international classification systems out of the box, such as Uniclass, Omniclass, and CiSFB. If a custom classification is used, it can be added to the classification manager via the admin area before uploading the model. Twinview will create one based on the inherent data if no classification is found.

Non-intelligent models created in 3D software that do not support metadata (Autocad, Sketchup, Grasshopper, etc.) can still be uploaded. The data is mapped using the data importer and mapping tools built into Twinview. This process will be specific to your project and the implementation, and it is recommended that you contact a Twinview implementation specialist for advice or training.

Twinview brings all model objects and their data into Twinview as objects with data, however only ‘maintainable assets’ are accessible through the Facilities management interface, and can be used with IOT data streams.

While you can upgrade an object to be a maintainable asset through the Twinview interface (or in bulk via the data import tool), Twinview can automatically make assets maintainable when the model is uploaded. This saves time and makes it much quicker to onboard a project with 10,000s of maintainable assets.

If your model has COBie data, the ‘AssetIdentifier’ parameter will be part of your asset data schema. Typically, this parameter is only populated if the asset has been assigned a unique value. If Twinview finds objects with the ‘AssetIdentifier’ populated, they will be automatically upgraded to maintainable assets in the background as part of the model upload process.

If your model/project does not use COBie or has no ‘AssetIdentifier’ parameter, you can define your own parameter to use in its place, such as ‘Asset ID’. The chosen parameter must be established and set before the models are uploaded.