Archibus Smart Client Extension for Revit
Drawing Room Areas Accurately
If you are performing chargeback to your internal divisions, the default Revit boundaries for Room elements will typically be of acceptable accuracy. However, you might be performing a chargeback to external entities. That is, you might be using the area figures to proportionally charge space costs and indirect costs to an external entity, such as a healthcare insurance provider or a government grant.
In this case, your figures often must meet a published standard for area measurement such as BOMA or IFMA. And in this case, your figures must be able to withstand an external audit. For instance, if auditors find that 2% of sampled rooms are not of the same size as their physical measurements, the auditors may dock your organization 2% of all chargeback costs, fine your organization, and pull the previous six years of invoices for similar scrutiny. Errors can cost your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Revit places room boundaries automatically within walls. However, you can use Revit room separation lines to alter how Revit places the boundaries. To place a room separation line, use the Revit Home/Room/Separation line command.
For instance, if your chosen standard specifies that interior rooms are measured to the inside face of the exterior wall and of demising walls, but to the centerline of interior separation walls:
- Set Room Centerline Default. Select Home/Room & Area panel drop-down/Area and Volume Computations. On the Computations tab, select the option for “At wall center: Locates the room boundary at the centerline of the wall.”
- Place Room Separation Lines. Use the Revit Home/Room/Separation line command to place a separation line along the inside of any exterior wall or demising wall. The Revit Room elements will now extend only to the face of those walls.
See Also
For a complete description of the process of preparing Revit model data for chargeback to external entities or to internal entities, see:
Preparing a Revit Model for Chargeback to External Entities.