Digital and BIM
Revit MEP modelling, RIBA Stages 0 to 7
Revit MEP modelling through every RIBA stage — concept space reservation, spatial coordination, technical design and record model.
- Discipline
- Digital and BIM
- Typical timescale
- Continuous across the appointment, with a delivery at each stage exchange
WHAT IT IS
Revit is the authoring tool SDE models MEP services in, and the model is carried through the whole appointment rather than built once for a deliverable and abandoned.
What the model is for changes at every stage, and that is the point. At Stage 2 it reserves space and proves the plant fits. At Stage 3 it resolves services against structure and architecture. At Stage 4 it carries the sizes, schedules and specification that the drawings and the tender are produced from. At Stages 5 to 7 it absorbs contractor information and becomes the record.
WHEN YOU NEED IT
On any project where the design will be coordinated in three dimensions, where the client or the lead consultant is working in Revit, or where the appointment requires model deliverables at defined exchanges.
Also on projects where it is not contractually required but the building is congested — a plant room, a laboratory, a refurbishment with a fixed ceiling void — because the coordination is faster to do in the model than to discover on site.
OUR PROCESS
Stage 0 and 1: no model. Loads, capacities and space requirements are established first, because modelling a system before its load is known is modelling the wrong system accurately.
Stage 2: systems and plant placed to prove space, risers and plant room sizes, against the architect's model.
Stage 3: spatial coordination. Services routed and resolved against structure and architecture, clashes run and cleared, builder's work openings agreed and issued.
Stage 4: technical design. Sizes, materials, insulation, schedules and specification carried in the model, with drawings produced from it rather than alongside it.
Stages 5 to 7: contractor submittals reviewed against the model, and the record model updated with as-installed information for handover.
DELIVERABLES
What you receive
- Native Revit MEP model and IFC export
- Stage-appropriate model at each information exchange
- Coordinated services drawings produced from the model
- Builder's work openings and penetration schedules
- Equipment schedules generated from model data
- Record model updated with as-installed information
STANDARDS
Standards applied
The editions in force at the time of design. Where a standard is amended mid-project we confirm which edition the appointment is based on.
QUESTIONS
Common questions
Which RIBA stages does SDE model in Revit?
Stages 2 to 7. Stages 0 and 1 are calculation and strategy work — loads, capacities and space requirements — which is settled before modelling starts. Modelling begins at concept, is coordinated at Stage 3, carries the technical design at Stage 4, and is maintained through construction and handover.
Do you provide the native Revit file or only IFC?
Either, as the appointment sets out. IFC is the open exchange format required by BS EN ISO 19650 workflows and is what most clients specify for federation and archive. Native Revit files are issued where the appointment provides for it and the receiving party has a use for them.
What Revit version do you work in?
The version agreed at the start of the project and held for its duration, because a model saved forward cannot be opened by an earlier version and an unplanned upgrade mid-project breaks federation with the rest of the team. The version is recorded in the BIM Execution Plan.