Conntech Revit Project
The Conntech Revit Project is a prefab platform for Revit. The goal was to calculate the shortest or most economical route inside a 3D Revit model and generating output for production.
At Algoteque, we work on some pretty incredible projects, and we thought it might be interesting to share a case study from a project we are proud of. In this article, you’ll find all the information you need for this project.
What this project is about
The software calculates the routes of cables/wires for electrical engineering inside buildings according to the strategy selected by the user. At the moment the default strategy is the “shortest routing”, but we plan to implement “cost-benefit (material/work) routing” and others according to client requirements. The data acquired from a 3D BIM model created in Revit (project) is being processed according to the selected strategy and additional manual changes done by the engineer, which is then calculated to give an output that can be used directly by the prefab department.
Algoteque’s Role
Algoteque worked closely with the client to get the specifications, define the processes and helped to create a release calendar. We also created a workflow and user interface to make the application simple and easy to use for the engineers. Together with Conntech, we created the backend, set up the infrastructure and developed the frontend. Algoteque also introduced testing as an integral part of the development cycle.
The stack we used
- .NET for the plugin (default Revit API environment)
- Node.js, Angular (currently version 7)
- TypeScript
- PostgreSQL
- Socket.IO.
- For communication, documentation and project management we use Slack, Jira, and Confluence.
- The team worked in Agile/Scrum
Some of the challenges we faced
The biggest challenge is definitely the calculation engine we built. Calculating a route inside a 3D environment including manual inputs, parameters, and modifications was the most difficult functionality to achieve. Another challenge was to get the engineers that use the software and the application to use the same standards, for example naming or templating.
The fun part
Seeing the actual cables being routed in 3D through the building (in the shortest possible route) gave a great feeling of accomplishment…So that’s always fun.
Overall what made it fun is the close cooperation with the Revit engineers and seeing them actually improve their workflow and production with the software we created.
Final thoughts
This project brings together BIM (Building Information Modeling) and the almost limitless possibilities to extend, adjust and use this information for production processes.
We want your project to be one of these shining examples.