CitA BIM Gathering 2021, September 21st – 23rd 2021
OPW Revit Template – an enabler to increase the implementation of BIM on OPW projects Michael Day1, Ger Harvey2, Sheila Foley3, Lennart Sobiecki4 and Kevin Furlong5 1
Structural Engineer Grade 2, 2Assistant Principal Architect, 3Senior Architect, 4Architect at Office of Public Works, Trim, Co. Meath
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BIM Trainer at BIMMTrain Training Providers (working with Digital Built Consultants) E-mail: 1michael.day@opw.ie, revittemplate@opw.ie Abstract – The Office of Public Works (OPW) is a government office responsible for matters concerned with flood management and property services, with responsibility for delivering and managing over 2000 buildings within the state property portfolio [1]. With a full in-house multi-disciplinary design team, members of the OPW are present throughout a building’s lifecycle, which gives the OPW a great opportunity to make the most of BIM. However, while a growing number of OPW projects are delivered using Revit, the overall number of projects using formal BIM processes is small. Arising from a desire to increase the number of projects using Revit and BIM, the OPW submitted a successful funding proposal to the Our Public Service 2020 Innovation Fund [3] to create a multidisciplinary Revit Template for the organisation. Drawing on expertise from across OPW, an in-house “Template Team” was formed to lead the development of the Template under the guidance of an experienced BIM Consultant. Following formal Revit training for the Template Team, Digital Built Consultants (DBC) were appointed to assist the team to develop the Template. Over six hackathon sessions, DBC provided guidance to the team on what to include in this first OPW template file. OPW architects, engineers and draughtspeople collaborated, using a single Revit Central Model, to create the OPW Revit Template. In August 2020, the first version of the Template was successfully completed and has since been made available to staff. It holds common styles, annotations, view types and schedules for use across the organisation; it is also supported by a number of “resource templates” holding discipline-specific information. Since the launch, the file has been used to create single-discipline Revit models on OPW projects on a number of projects and has been further updated in 2021 to include revisions to align with the 2021 National Annex to I.S. EN ISO 19650-2 [7] and a number of other updates following feedback from colleagues. The Template provides a starting point for OPW architectural or engineering Revit models. It is hoped that the tool will increase the adoption of BIM processes on OPW projects in the coming years, acting as an enabler to assist colleagues moving towards the further implementation of Revit / BIM on OPW projects.
Keywords ̶ BIM, Revit, Revit Template, Multi-disciplinary, Our Public Service Innovation Fund, OPS 2020
I INTRODUCTION The Office of Public Works (OPW) is a government office responsible for matters concerned with flood management and property services; its remit also includes the responsibility for delivering and managing over 2000 buildings within the state property portfolio [1]. Properties under the remit of OPW include buildings of national significance such as Dublin Castle, Leinster House and Áras an
Uachtaráin, UNESCO world heritage sites Brú na Bóinne and Skellig Michael and many other heritage sites throughout Ireland. As designers, OPW teams are responsible for delivering new construction, refurbishment, conservation and major maintenance projects throughout the country. These range in scale from one-off buildings for organisations such as the Irish Coast Guard or An Garda Síochána to large, complex projects including the Forensic Science Laboratory at
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