Step 1: Select the centerline method as a starting point:

Once the room areas are created, they can be modified to meet more specific standards such as BOMA or IFMA. The centerline method should be chosen as a starting point, so verify that the Room Area Computation is set to “At wall center”, so that the vast majority of room-to-room area associations are correct.

This setting can be found on the Area and Volume Computations dialog accessed from the Ribbon by selecting Home/Room & Area drop down arrow, and then selecting the Area and Volume Computations button.

Step 2: Make room selection easier

To make these Rooms easier to see and select:

1. Select Visibility / Graphics Overrides (type “VG”).
2. Select the Interior Fill and Reference check boxes underneath the Rooms category.

   This will cause a transparent solid fill and an “X” to appear across all Rooms in the view.

Step 3: Define rooms

Rooms will need to exist for any area of the building that needs to be accounted for and managed within Archibus. This includes rooms for vertical penetrations (stairs, chases multistory lobbies, etc.) as well as normally occupied spaces. The Archibus room categories applied to each room will determine how that room is treated in the calculations for chargeback. In most Revit models, these rooms should already exist, but may need to be created or modified depending on how the Revit model was set up. In the case of areas open to below, a Room object does not need to have a floor or ceiling. So long as you have a perimeter for the Room, a Room can be defined for any purpose you require.

If there is an area of the building that you do not want associated to your Archibus database, do not define a Room in that area and simply leave it empty. If a volume of space within the building is left empty, there will be a potentially large difference between the Gross Building Area generated in step 1 and the total square footage of the Rooms in the building, as that volume of space will be included in the Gross Building Area, but excluded from the Room inventory area.

Step 4: If needed, manually define Room Separation Lines.

For those rooms that need their perimeter defined by something other than wall centerline, (vertical penetration, walls on the exterior of the building, etc.), manual placement of Room Separation Lines (very similar to Area Boundary Lines) will be required.

1. Turn off the automatic "Room Bounding" parameter

   In order for these Room Separation Lines to be effective, some walls will need to have their automatic “Room Bounding” parameter turned off. By turning off the Room Bounding parameter, you will be able to accurately define exactly where the separation between rooms or the perimeter of a room should be. This Room Bounding parameter can be found by selecting the wall and looking at the properties palette.

As you turn off the Room Bounding parameter within key walls, you will likely receive warning messages similar to this one:

If you know that you are going to be drawing a Room Separation Line over the top of the wall you just changed, this warning can be safely ignored and you can click the OK button and continue.

2. Select the Room Separation Line command . From the Ribbon, select Home/Room button, and then Room Separation Line.

   

3. Trace out the room separation lines: Just as with Area Boundary Lines, you will now have a Draw tool panel available on the right side of the ribbon, and you can use the line/arc/circle commands to trace out the specific room separation that you need.

   Once the new Room Separation Lines have been drawn, the Rooms associated with those lines should reappear, using the new boundary that you specified.

   

Step 5: If needed, define rooms-within-rooms using Room Separation Lines

These same Room Separation Lines can also be used to define rooms within rooms. While the centerline definition is an automatic setting within Revit and no significant work is required to generate centerline boundaries, manually creating Room Separation Lines will be required in some locations of your building to get a higher level of accuracy or to generate Rooms that comply with established standards such as BOMA and IFMA.

To define rooms using Room Separation Lines:

1. Draw a series of lines and/or arcs that define a closed shape within one room. This area becomes a “hole” in the room that can be filled in by another room:

   

2. To add a Room into this interior void, go back to the Room command on the ribbon and then click in the middle of the open / white area.

3. This will place a Room and a Room Tag into that bounded area. You will then be able to change the Room name and number as needed.

   

4. If you need to turn off or on the visibility of Room Separation Lines, go to Visibility / Graphics Overrides (VG), and you will find Room Separation lines underneath the “Lines” Category.

5. Repeat this process as needed to generate a room inventory that is much more accurate than the default centerline measurement for room boundaries.

   Note : One key limitation to be aware of is that Revit will not allow you to create one room that overlaps another on the same floor or level. It is a core feature of how Rooms work and cannot be overridden.

Next Step

The next step is to create a chargeback based on Revit areas.

See Creating a Chargeback Based on Revit Areas .