Reviewing Generative Design in Revit

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MARTHA HOLLOWELL ORCUTT: Reviewing Generative Design

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in Revit.

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In this video, we will investigate

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the concept of generative design and its use in Revit.

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Autodesk defines generative design

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as a goal-driven approach to design that uses automation

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to give designers and engineers better insight,

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so they can make faster, more informed design decisions.

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Your specific design parameters are

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defined to generate many, even thousands,

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of potential solutions.

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You then tell the software the results you want.

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And with your guidance, it arrives

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at the optimal design along with the data

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to prove which design performs best.

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You can think of generative design software

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as an assistant that helps you with creating,

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testing, and evaluation options.

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You decide which problem to solve,

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what goals must be achieved, and which factors are most

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important to solve a problem.

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Computers can help you organize and prioritize these decisions.

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But it can't actually make them.

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Only People can decide what's important.

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The studies are based on Dynamo scripts which you can create

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and modify to suit your needs.

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Generative design for Revit is available with the AEC

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subscription collection with Revit 2021.1.

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So I'm working here in the small Medical Center project,

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and it's open in the working second-floor view.

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And because of the change in office usage,

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this floor has had the interior walls removed to make way

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for a large lab room.

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A sample of a lab cubicle is inserted outside the building.

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Our challenge is to place the most instances

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of the cubicle in the space while still maintaining

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appropriate distancing measures.

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And to do this, we will use generative design.

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Now several sample studies come with Revit.

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In the Manage tab, on the Generative Design panel,

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I'm going to click Create Study.

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This opens a create study palette with existing studies

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available.

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Now there is one that is designed specifically

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for massing.

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We're not going to look at that one here.

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But I do want to just do a quick overview of the other options.

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These all use rooms as your direction.

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So, for example, the Grid Object Placement

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places elements in a rectangular grid pattern inside a room,

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so you specify the room, you specify

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the element you want to place, and then you

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set up your rectangular grid pattern for that.

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There are also options for things like maximizing

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the window views.

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You can do random object emplacement

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if you need that sort of thing, stepped grid object placement

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similar to the first one.

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And the one that we're going to look at a little bit more

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in-depth is a workspace layout.

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And in this one it generates, rows

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of desks in a room considering doors, windows and columns,

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and it calculates the distance to exits, and views to outside,

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and more.

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In the next video, we'll work through this particular

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workspace layout study and create a new lab

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for our small Medical Center.