We recently chatted with interior designer Linette Kilbourn about Revit / BIM and how she uses Revit for her designs. She also gave advice for contract furniture manufacturers who are looking to offer their products in Revit.
Linette has over 20 years experience in corporate interior design and
has worked for top design firms including HOK, RHK Design, and
Gensler.
How do you see Revit/BIM benefiting Interior Designers in A+D firms as a tool and a process?
Personally, I feel that the benefit
for interior designers is even more than for architects. First, we can immediately see the space in
3D, even right after the plan is drawn.
Secondly, we can import pre-created Revit families that substantially
speeds up the design process. And in
addition, we can use the BIM feature to verify quantities in the CD phase.
On a technical level, what
challenges are you confronted with, as designer, if you don't have Revit/BIM
symbols for your Revit projects?
Accurate Revit families are
extremely important to ensure that the actual furniture can fit in the space
well. This is so important when laying
out systems furniture. If we do not have
the Revit symbols from the manufacturer, we have to create them ourselves,
which can cost us hours of lost time.
There is a reason why clients
continually see the same furniture over and over again in every Revit rendering
or wireframe. There are thousands of Revit families of furniture out
there, but they are very difficult to find and tedious to download.
What sorts of things are designers
at A+D firms doing if they don't have the appropriate Revit/BIM symbols for
their projects?
We use
whatever manufacturers product that is most similar. Then if the client sees it in the 3D, they
may prefer to use the other product.
This is not the ideal situation for designers, as we want them to love
the furniture we have selected!
Where are designers in A+D firms
going to find their Revit symbols?
Best if easily obtained on the
internet, rather than a CD. In general,
most of our work is done on a PC, so apps are not that useful at this time.
How has the emergence of Revit/BIM
changed the relationship between the contract furniture dealer and designer in
A+D firms?
The
problem we are running into is that most furniture dealerships are still using
AutoCAD, or worse, their own proprietary programs. This creates a huge problem when
incorporating their data into our Revit files.
Often it is imported, and then becomes very cumbersome to change when
the interior architecture changes. In
addition, the BIM properties are lost, so quantities cannot be checked by the
designers.
A popular question that I get from
manufacturers: at what phases in a design project are Revit symbols from
contract furniture manufacturers used?
I use
Revit from the very beginning of a project, therefore it is extremely important
that I have access to the Revit families at this stage.
What are some positive ways that you've seen contract furniture
manufacturers embrace Revit/BIM?
These
days, designers are more likely to select furniture from the internet, rather
than the office library. The best
websites have the option to download furniture symbols while browsing each
item.
Any final thoughts or advice that you
would like to share with the contract furniture industry about Revit/BIM?
Almost all
firms are now standardized on Revit or are planning to in the future. The best way to ensure your product will be
used in projects is to provide easy access to the Revit families, so the
product can be displayed accurately from the very beginning of the design stage.
 |
