This article continues the VDCI course content for the BIM 321 Mechanical course, discussing how to manage broken links in Revit model, and giving an overview of mechanical systems. It also highlights how to navigate through the project, ensuring that all downloaded files from the learning management system have been correctly placed in the designated VDCI folder to facilitate the course.
Key Insights
- The course involves managing broken links in Revit models, a common issue that might occur in an office setting. This is done by reloading the lost file link from the correct location to make sure that the architectural background and previously created spaces are properly displayed.
- In the process of learning, students will navigate the project files placed in the VDCI folder, which should include the BIM 321 file downloads. It is important to select the correct starting data set like the HVAC design starting data set, among others.
- The course provides an overview of mechanical systems, explaining the functionality of various elements such as ducts, air terminals, supply air, among others. The colors of these elements represent their respective system types, which can be customized as per preferences.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Welcome back to the VDCI course content for the BIM 321 Mechanical course. In the previous videos, we reviewed some items regarding starting a project, linking in a Revit model, creating spaces, and even talking about worksharing. Now, since we talked about worksharing, you'll see that—you know—you create the central file. We talked about all that. You didn't need to do it, but if you didn't, what we're going to do is we're actually going to jump into the class project at this point.
And what I want to go ahead and do is—hopefully—you've downloaded the file downloads from the learning management system and placed them in a VDCI folder in a specific location. So what I'm going to go ahead and do is go over here to Models, and I'm going to hit Open. I'm in my Documents location.
And I'm going to select my VDCI folder. This is a folder I've created for all my VDCI file downloads. In here, I have my BIM 321 file downloads. And then I want to go ahead and select my HVAC design starting dataset.
So you should have this file here. I'm going to go ahead and hit Open and open that up. You may get a pop-up, but if that pop-up comes up with regard to Manage Links, we'll talk about that in a second.
If you do get a couple of pop-ups that say something like “Link is broken, ” just go ahead and click through those and hit OK. We're going to talk about that right now. You'll notice that I do not have my Architectural background here. We're going to start with this dataset because we're going to talk about some of the systems here with regard to the Mechanical system.
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We're also going to be modeling some, and we already have some work done to kind of talk about a few things and go over some items and elements. But one thing you'll notice is that we do not have an Architectural background here. And that's really because the link is broken.
This happens from time to time in the office—not commonly—but it does happen. We wanted to address it with you and kind of talk about how we get this Revit link, this linked Revit model, back in here. So since we've lost the background of our file, we want to reload that link and make sure it's loading from the correct location.
You'll notice all of the spaces that we previously created now say “Unoccupied.” And that's because that link is broken. There's no space here—there are no room-bounding elements to create that space.
So what I'm going to go ahead and do is go up here to my Manage tab. I'm going to go to my Manage Links, which will be here. Now you can see it says “Not Loaded.” Yours may say “Not Found” or something along those lines. What I'm going to go ahead and do is select this file and hit Reload From to path it to the new file.
This kind of operates like an Xref. But we need to tell it—since you've downloaded the files and the location has changed relative to the path—that we want to go ahead and Reload From. So I'm going to go to Reload From. Please go into your BIM 321 file downloads—again, it might be under Documents > VDCI > BIM 321 file downloads. I'm going to go to my linked Revit, and I'm going to select this MEP Architectural.
If the name is different here, don't worry about that. We want to go ahead and use this MEP Architectural. I'm going to go ahead and hit Open.
And it's going to load in that linked Revit model. It's going to tell me the instance of the link requires Coordination Review. What this is referring to is that there are some elements that are copy-monitored—things like grids and levels may need to be reviewed. We can just go ahead—it’s not going to stop us from what we're wanting to do moving forward. So I'm going to go ahead and hit OK just to bypass it.
And now it is loaded. If I go ahead and hit OK—there we go—you should see your Architectural background pop in showing your walls, doors, windows, stairs—those kinds of items.
And now we have our frame of reference to work from. So before I end this one, let's go ahead and take a look at this Mechanical system that we have placed here. We're going to look at it purely in 2D for right now in this Floor Plan view.
If you go ahead and zoom in—just to kind of give you an idea of what's happening here—it’s a pretty basic system. Nothing super complex—pretty straightforward. You can see we have a duct. This duct is dropping down or going vertical. I can tell it's going vertical based on the profile that I have here with the square and the X going across. That's letting me know it's going up and aligned with my view.
Then you can see I have a main trunk line of supply air. Then I have a branch line that goes to what we call a VAV. Then it goes out and branches off again into these taps. Then it goes to the actual flex duct that is there.
Then you have the actual air terminal where it terminates. You'll see some other air terminals kind of spread throughout. These are my return air terminals, which are currently not colored because they're not connected to a system—or not connected to an element of a system. Then we have our return air plenum here, which is just pulling all this air rather than actually tying into the individual air terminals. It’s one way of creating that return air—just pulling everything.
So let's look at this in the 3D view. I'm going to go over here under Views. I'm going to go to my Coordination, then go to my 3D view. Right now, my Revit model is not being seen—most likely because my Revit model is turned off.
But let’s go ahead and take a look at this in 3D. You can see I have my rooftop unit here. As I orbit around, I have drops coming out—again, the supply drop. I have my main supply drop here. It branches off, goes down, and then works its way around. Again, we have the system of taps.
Then we have the VAVs. And then we have the flex duct going to the air terminal. Okay, so that's kind of the basic explanation of the system.
The reason why they are colored is that it’s based on what type of system they are. If I were to select this duct, we could go ahead and look at all the properties here. Under Mechanical System Type, this is a supply air system. The default color for that is blue.
If I select one of these pink ducts, you'll notice that it is part of the return air system. These other colors are a way to customize the view. You can have different colors for exhaust systems, outside air systems—any kind of system. You can come up with a color scheme. And we'll talk about duct systems a little bit later on as we get more into this.
We've talked about what the Mechanical system contains. We have the Revit Architectural model LinkedIn as a background. And we have our spaces and all those items. What we will do now is stop this video here.
And in the next one, we'll start getting into what's going on with the ducts and then start modeling. See you then.
