By Justin Doughty
I thought I would run through a few of the new Fabrication Part features for Revit 2017 and maybe give a few observations as to how it should be used, and problems that may be encountered.
For all those new to the feature this can be found on the System tab> Fabrication Part:
Content:
Revit 2017 does come with 2 default fabrication content libraries with a basic set of generic parts, however to access and use a full set of real-world content, we would suggest an installation of Fabrication CADmep:
Trim/Extend:
In the same way as other Revit elements, the Trim/Extend tool will now allow you to fill a gap between two Fabrication straights:
Quick Connect:
The Quick Connect command is available only when a fitting is selected. You can use this to drag the connector onto another part to connect:
Route & Fill:
Route & Fill lets you quickly link together Fabrication Parts. You are then presented with various routing solutions, can switch direction of the route, and even filter the solutions to force it to use certain parts:
One thing to remember with this feature, that Autodesk state in the help file: “A route must exist in a single plane. Solutions that require two planes or three bends are not supported.” So varying height connections that also require bends, will not automatically connect. Hopefully this is something that can be improved on. It may be quicker using the below “Design to Fabrication” feature for these situations.
Design to Fabrication:
You can convert generic, design-intent Revit parts to LOD 400 Fabrication parts:
Remember this is a one way process, once the Revit MEP Design has been converted to Fabrication Parts, it cannot be reversed. I would suggest using a copy of the MEP Design to convert, and this gives us the benefit of linking the projects for comparison.
Swap Parts:
In 2017 we now have the ability to swap Fabrication parts in the same way as Revit Families:
Optimize Lengths:
You can use this to reposition short straight segments and to extend fitting extensions. Additionally, you can review warnings to find fittings that are longer than specification-defined lengths:
