Wayfinding/Signage based on seen and unseen data in a BIM model

• 50-67% faster message schedule creation
• Multi-line data visible via Excel export
• Better Revit / non-Revit collaboration

Wayfinding presents significant challenges due to the immense amounts of disparate data that must be incorporated into BIM models primarily designed for other purposes.

The Challenge

Rick Sorensen, Wayfinding/Signage specialist at HDR, illustrates these challenges by using an elevator directory analogy. On the wall of a multi-story office building, the directory usually includes line after line of information to clearly indicate which businesses and organizations are located on each floor. Sorensen explains, "In a Revit model, you can only see one data line at a time, but we still need to have multiple lines of data contained in the model, accurate, up-to-date and retrievable."

"We also have people in our studio who do not use Revit and know nothing about it; their expertise lies in situational planning. They contribute different pieces of the data puzzle such as the messages that direct people to get from Point A to Point B." HDR Wayfinding/Signage looked for a way to streamline several processes. The studio needed a way to take the data created by non-Revit team members and incorporate it into the Revit model without using hour after hour of their Revit-users' time. Additionally, once incorporated in the model, they needed a way to easily access the hidden data.

The Solution

According to Sorensen, "With Ideate BIMLink, we can take full advantage of Excel's capability to reveal multiple lines of data at once. We may not be able to see all the Wayfinding and Signage data in the model, but we can see it all in Excel." "Ideate BIMLink gives me a tool that helps the people in our studio who aren't familiar with Revit. They can review the data in an Excel format and change or verify the data as needed. I can then bring the data back into the model where it can be incorporated into our final message schedules."

Sorensen does not have to spend a second thinking about model integrity. He receives input from the non-Revit using members of the studio team in Excel. As a Revit user, he tasks Ideate BIMLink with pushing the Excel-checked data back into the BIM model. The accuracy is reliable, and that contributes to even greater efficiency. Efficiency allows for a better end result and value to the owner.

Before adopting Ideate BIMLink, HDR's Wayfinding/Signage studio struggled with a fundamental mismatch between how their data needed to be reviewed and how Revit could display it. A single message schedule could require dozens of lines of location, message, and formatting data per sign, but Revit's model views could only surface one data line at a time, making it hard to catch errors or inconsistencies across an entire building's signage program.

The problem was compounded because much of the studio's expertise in situational planning and message development belonged to people who didn't use Revit at all. Without an efficient way to move their input into the BIM model, incorporating their work meant either training them on Revit or having Revit specialists spend hours manually re-entering data, eating into the limited, billable hours available on each project.

Before Ideate BIMLink, HDR's Wayfinding/Signage studio managed message schedules largely within Revit itself or through separate, disconnected spreadsheets, with Rick Sorensen and other Revit specialists manually keying in location, message, and formatting data one line at a time.

Input from the studio's non-Revit planners, whose expertise was in situational planning and message development rather than Revit modeling, had to be manually transcribed into the model by a Revit user, since there was no efficient way to move their Excel-based work directly into the BIM environment.

Planners within the HDR Wayfinding/Signage studio have one focus – to devise means to orient people so they can get from point A to point B and back again. If the studio team was forced to do their planning in Revit, the resultant growing pains would slow productivity to a standstill. The division of labor with the help of Ideate BIMLink allows Sorensen to focus on Revit-based functions, which are his realm of expertise, and the planners to use the capabilities of Excel, which is where their expertise lies.

Sorensen says, "With Ideate BIMLink, I can take all the long strings of Wayfinding and Signage data that planners in our studio give me in Excel, and input them into the model. In the past, I would spend three days at a specific data management task that I can complete now in one-half to one-third the time. As for cost savings, we are limited on our hours per project. Anything that saves us time saves us money."

Learn more: https://ideatesoftware.com/about/customer-success/spotlight-on-hdr