Revolutionize Your Fireproofing with Our Advanced Dynamo Script
Fireproofing is a critical component in the safety and resilience of any structure, and accounting for it in your BIM/VDC Clash Detection and Coordination efforts can save you time, money, and heartache when it comes to install time.
Modeling fireproofing has traditionally been difficult and time-consuming. It seemed like there were only two options:
1. Modify Revit Structural Steel Families to include fireproofing (possible, but not plausible with IFC files from Tekla or other sources).
2. Set a Clash Tolerance in Navisworks (which doesn’t help your MEPF trade partners avoid the clash in the first place and leads to reactive coordination efforts).
That’s why we’re thrilled to introduce our incredible Fireproofing Dynamo script, designed to apply fireproofing to your desired thickness around selected elements from a linked model in Revit with unparalleled precision.
Precision Fireproofing for Complex Geometries
Our plugin is engineered to create fireproofing that covers each element with the desired fireproofing thickness, regardless of how complex the geometry might be. Take, for instance, a project one of our clients was using our Fireproofing Dynamo script for. The project had a very complex two-piece stair stringer. The stringer was a two-piece Revit family with a horizontal bottom, and a diagonal stringer as the stairs go up. Pretty normal, except for the fact that the diagonal part of the stringer not only arced to the right in plan view, but also had tiny grooves down the middle of both horizontal and diagonal beams. (See model below)
When we ran this through our first version of our fireproofing script, the Dynamo geometry engine totally failed to process the geometry of the element throwing a warning that said:
“Warning: One or more geometries have failed to convert due to this error: trim_with_edge_loops requires all curves to touch surface”
The Journey to Perfection
Perfecting this script has been a journey. During my deep dive into solving the complexities of processing intricate geometries, I stumbled upon an old DynamoBIM forum post that offered a solution using twelve nodes to create DirectShape fireproofing. While this method worked for simpler scenarios, it fell short for our needs due to the fact that it relied on being able to get the Element’s solid geometry in the first place (which was where the Dynamo geometry engine failed earlier).
I also found a workaround for the trim_with_edge_loops error from Dynamo’s Github page, but when I ran the python script on the geometry, it still couldn’t produce a geometry solid saying that even with refinement, it was unable to create a solid.
A Solid Solution (pun intended)
I spent most of the weekend with a brain-itch. How to create geometry that would represent the fireproofing without being able to get solids from the element in Dynamo? I spent hours on Google, the DynamoBIM forum, Autodesk API forums, StackOverflow, and other developers blogs. At midnight, an idea came to me on how to solve our fireproofing problem and that’s what we ended up implementing in our script.
We were able to process 2065 structural steel elements from a linked model and apply fireproofing to them in 2 minutes and 51 seconds. That’s 12 instances of fireproofing applied every second. No modifying structural steel families required. No more worries of “is my geometry too complex for Dynamo to handle?”. We’ve got you covered. (Pun intended)
After Happily Ever After
We were able to then instantly deploy our updated Dynamo script to our client using our Orkestra.online hub and they were able to apply fireproofing across their entire project in under three minutes. Later that evening, they sent me a screenshot of their clash detection results in Navisworks, and they had found 189 clashes against fireproofing just on the first level of the project. With signoff for Level 1 rapidly approaching, this helped make sure that any possible issues that could have occurred in the field are mitigated while coordination is still happening.
Explore Our DynamoCare Service and Our DynamoHub Suite of Scripts
If your BIM department’s Dynamo guy has been serving you well, that’s great! But if you’re tired of scripts breaking down and your resources are stretched thin, it’s time to give us a call. Our DynamoCare Service provides you with maintenance for your Dynamo scripts and automation process. We ensure that each team member has access to the latest and greatest Dynamo scripts and the necessary packages to run it without having to tear your hair out or have your IT department tear theirs out either.
We’re confident that our advanced Fireproofing Dynamo script, along with our other offerings, will revolutionize the way you handle fireproofing and other BIM tasks. Contact us today to learn more or to get started with our suite of Dynamo scripts.
In addition to our Fireproofing script, we offer a variety of other powerful Dynamo scripts designed to streamline your BIM processes, including:
Overridden Dimension Checker
3D Room Text
3D Gridlines Placer
Pipe Slope Checker
Custom Dynamo Scripts for Your Workflow!
If you have always had something you wanted to automate in Revit, let us know! We would love to help you. Our team specializes in creating robust, reliable Dynamo scripts tailored to meet your specific needs.