Construction Documents & Details

Creating detailed construction documents marks tudthe beginning of the conversion of a proposed design into a constructible project. No drawing set is complete without descriptions of the materials and the assembly details, which is why adding annotations, linework, and detail components is a critical phase of the complete BIM workflow.

The process of detailing is often used to present:

The following annotation categories are often added to model views to transform them into fully functional construction: dimensions, detailing (detail lines, regions, components, revision cloud, and detail group), text, element and view tags, and symbols. Annotations and drafting detail are view-specific and do affect the underlying building model.

Here we will.

In this lesson, you explore the progressive layering of detail describing the construction of a single wall and its features by creating a building section, drilling down to a wall section, and creating details to illustrate the key connections between the wall and other building elements.

Often the detailing process begins by creating section views of the entire building and specific wall assemblies.

Building sections often serve as a road map that point the way to related wall sections and connection details. Wall sections typically display the detailed layers in a wall assembly and how they connect to other building elements.

Since these section views are automatically updated when changes are made to model elements, internal consistency of the model views is ensured. The BIM methodology saves a great deal of time otherwise spent cross-referencing changes and looking for consistency errors, which is typical in paper-based workflows.

Detail views are typically added to a set of construction documents to present information at a larger scale or a finer level of detail needed to accurately understand specific elements and connections between elements. Although detailing can be a tedious process, it is an essential step in converting designs into realizable construction documents.

Details bridge the gap between design and construction, conveying critical information to the builders and contractors about how a design should be built. While it would be unrealistic to try to model every single construction detail in 3D, details enable design professionals to quickly convey practical assembly information in an easily shared 2D form.

Using Revit software, details can be created in two ways:

It is common practice to incorporate details from product manufacturers or even standard details from our own office detail library that we’d like to include in the project drawings. Drafting views provide a convenient vehicle for including this model independent information into the project.

References to details can be placed on larger-scale views using view tags, such as callout tags or section tags. These callouts and section tags provide markers that lead to the detail views and increase the coherence and usability of the document sets by pointing users from one view to other related views. Therefore, we should plan our use of views and callout or section tags to provide a logical sequence moving from large-scale view to greater levels of detail.

View Tags

View tags (such as elevation tags, section tags, and callout tags) provide pointers to related views in two ways:

View tags are dynamically updated to show the proper sheet number and view number as views are placed or moved between sheets. This real-time coordination prevents errors in cross-referencing, thus creating more reliable documents and saving costly rework.

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Model elements represent true model objects and any changes to them are immediately reflected in all views in which they appear. Annotations are view-specific. They can be copied between views, but each annotation remains independent and can be changed in each view.

All dimensions are dynamic and are automatically updated as the model elements they reference are moved or resized. Dimensions can be locked to constrain the movement of model elements and prevent further changes.

Text is typically static and is not updated as model elements change. One exception is keynotes, which will update in views if the underlying keynote is changed.

Tags are dynamic and are updated as the underlying values in the model database are changed.

Yes. Annotations can be added to any views to explain the unique features of specific design options or projects phases.

Annotations can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into other views. Another strategy is to duplicate an existing view with detailing, thus creating a new view that include all the annotation. Finally, we can export a view including its annotations as DWG file and import it into another project.

Drafting views offer a quick way of incorporating information, but since they are not linked to the model they don’t ensure consistency as the model changes. Detailed model views use the underlying model to generate the geometry shown. While this provides the benefit of propagating changes, it also requires you to verify the accuracy of the added annotations relative to the dynamic model elements.

Empty view tags indicate that the referenced view has not yet been placed on a sheet. The tag will be filled in with the view and sheet number when the view is placed.

Yes. When placing a callout you can choose to create a new detailed model view or to reference an existing view, including drafting views and detailed model views. It is common practice to place callouts referencing a detail at all locations where the detail information is relevant.