Schedules/Reports
The last thing this course will cover is how to extract data from the model and IMPACT. There are two different ways, which can be used in combination.
Schedules in Revit
The schedules is the solution integrated in Revit to enable the user to extract data. This can be used both during the modeling phase (e.g. you might want to check if there are walls shorter than 3 meters and longer than 13 meters. You can also use the schedules for printing out data to e.g. Excel.
The benefits of using the schedules is that they are very customizable. As long as the data exist in the model, it can be used in the schedule. The negative is that you need to keep track of parameter names and what category the parameter is connected to.
Go to View - Create - Schedules/Quantities to start the command.
The dialog for creating schedules pops up. Scroll down and select 'Generic Models' (1) in the list and finish with 'OK' (2).
Figure 1. Create schedule dialog.
The schedule properties dialog pops up. Here, you need to configure what parameters to show, and if they should have any filters, how the data should be organized, and then lastly the appearance of the schedule.
Figure 2. Add parameters to schedule.
The first step is to add the parameters. Select them (1) on the left side in the 'Available fields' and transfer them to the schedule with the green arrow (2).
Continue adding all parameters in the Figure 3.
Figure 3. Add parameters.
Go to the 'Filter' tab (1) and set up filters. The schedule is of the category 'Generic Models'. This category handles more than just the cast-in materials, e.g. recesses. This schedule should only show the loose cast-in materials, so filters are required. Start with filtering by 'IMPACT Schedule' (2). Set it to 'equals' (3) 'cim' (4). This will filter our only cast-in materials. There will be MEP-keys in the model as well, which we don't want to see in this schedule. Therefore, add a second filter with the parameter 'IMPACT MEP Name' (5) and set it to 'has no value' (6). In this way, only the cast-in materials will show up.
Figure 4. Set up filters.
Go to the 'Sorting/Grouping' tab (1) and configure the sorting of the list. In this case, we are starting with the lowest cast-in material number. Sort by 'IMPACT CIM Mark' (2) and keep the default 'Ascending' (3). Make sure to uncheck the 'Itemize every instance' (4). This will make sure that each cast-in material name gets one row with a summarized quantity, instead of one row for each instance.
Figure 5. Sorting/Grouping.
Continue with the 'Formatting' tab (1). The only thing we are going to do here is to hide the parameters (IMPACT Schedule and IMPACT MEP Name) that are only used for the filters. Select one of them (2) and check 'Hidden field' (3). Repeat for the second parameter.
Figure 6. Formatting.
We don't need to do anything in the final tab 'Appearance', so skip that one. Finish with 'OK'.
Figure 7. Schedule.
The schedule will get generated and we can get an overlook of the cast-in materials of the model. It can be renamed to specify what it contains, in this case 'Cast-in Materials' (1).
Figure 8. Rename schedule.
This type of schedules can also be prepared in the project template which is used to create new models. In this way, the schedule will appear automatically in the models.
Reports from IMPACT
The data that gets saved to the database from the model can easily be extracted with the IMPACT reports. These are predefined reports that will create Excel sheets with the required data. A total of 28 different reports can be used for design data from the IMPACT database. Below, we will take a look how to print the cast-in material list. Click here if you want to learn more about what reports that can be used.
The benefit of using the IMPACT Reports is that they are easy to use, and no setup is required for each project. The report is just configured once in the company standard. The negative is that there are a limited amount of data available to use for the reports. In the Revit schedules, you can use all data, as long as it exist in the model.
Open IMPACT Project Manager. Click the symbol in the upper left corner to open up the backstage menu.
Figure 9. Open the backstage menu.
Figure 10. Print report.
Click 'Reports' (2) in the list to the left. A dialog for the reports will pop up. Select the 'Cast-in Material Summary' (3) from the list of reports. There are a lot of filters (4) that can be applied to limit what data we should export. In this case we'll export all, so just click 'Print' (5).
Figure 11. Excel report from IMPACT.
An Excel sheet will be created and all requested data will be listed.