Back to Profile

AEC/MFG solutions enabling growth & success

Contact us

Success Story

Revit Implementation to Stay Competitive

Revit Implementation to Stay Competitive

Customer challenge

A few years ago, Limbach leadership began seeing an increasing demand for Revit-only projects on the East Coast of the US and the Midwest. National VDC Manager Mark Lamberson became aware of customer comments like, "Why aren’t you in Revit yet?" “We were a leading firm,” he said, “but were not the preferred company because of something as simple as that in some instances.” That spawned the decision to support the switch to Autodesk Revit and create a team to implement it. “We had to do it.” People with 30 years of AutoCAD experience had to completely change the way they did things. The company took the transition slowly, with some branches transitioning earlier than others. Lamberson monitored how groups were doing in their adoption. When Limbach began its Revit implementation, it was involved in mega-projects around the country, so the company wasn’t able to adopt Revit completely on a massive project. Implementation began in bits and pieces, and large jobs lagged behind.

Project goals

There are more and more Revit-only projects coming online, and many companies are feeling increasing pressure to switch from Autodesk AutoCAD to Autodesk Revit now. Companies involved in the transition to building information modeling processes (BIM) – from CAD to Revit – can confirm that it involves a big learning curve. The longer a company’s users have been using AutoCAD, the bigger the impact will be to processes. Limbach, Inc – an integrated building systems solution firm with 18 branches offering expertise in design, installation, management, service and maintenance of HVAC, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and control systems – recently went through this transition.

Solution

In adding Revit to the Limbach workflow, Lamberson made sure Limbach had a process in place to build out the functionality of Revit and make sure it worked properly. “It’s going to take some time to get that tool and its workflows to function for what you want to accomplish,” he said. As is the case of many tools, Revit did not fill every specific need Limbach had. Lamberson’s team researched third-party applications so they could optimize specialized workflows; they reached out to Autodesk Solution Provider Applied Software to help with that evaluation and implementation. “Where we really found it could be an issue was in our pipe fab shops and sheet metal fab shops,” he explained. “We pared it down to one main modeling tool added on to Revit.” The team was mindful that add-ons need to communicate with each other without time-consuming workarounds. “Make sure the tech you’re using is making things better for the people around you,” Lamberson advised.

Business outcome

Teamwork was crucial to the Limbach transition, especially an implementation support team. Lamberson described the best implementation team as one that is a good cross section of the company, from high to low. Implementation is a journey. The company studied the way people learn and worked to make meetings and training engaging. They also monitored deliverables to determine how they affected the company as a whole. As the company worked through issues, the implementation efforts gained momentum and significance. Seeing the benefits made the entire process more comfortable. It took about a year for Limbach employees to learn to think differently and really see the benefits of implementing Revit. As Lamberson summed up the transition, “It's worked out very well.”

Conclusion

Lamberson advises companies considering the Revit transition, “Do your due diligence, but don’t overinvest time. At some point, you need to pull the trigger then follow through.” Limbach found it was critical to continuously evaluate the implementation, make changes and move forward. Lamberson also felt it was important to listen to other people and get input from everybody in the company. “You’ll learn something from everyone,” he advised.

Project summary

    Duration & delivery

  • 1095
  • 2021-11-01

    Autodesk solutions

  • Revit

    Services provided

  • Workflow Documentation
  • System Implementation
  • Configuration & Deployment
  • System Integration
  • Product Training

    Customer industry

  • MEP Engineering
More success stories

Productivity Tracking with Assemble

Construction is a difficult game,” Hunt said. “There are a lot of things that make our job difficult. Working with our own data shouldn’t be one of them.” Dee Cramer has become one of the largest heating, ventilating, and air conditioning companies in the country. With productivity tracking in mind, what the company really needed was a live feed from the project’s Autodesk Revit model. If a user could change the status of the model’s components to live feed, Hunt knew the company could track the workflow, including hours, margin and profitability. Hunt said another motivation for making a change came from realizing the industry is moving toward designers being more willing to share their design content in native Revit with contractors before projects are awarded – in the pre-bid stage.

View

Progressing Forward with Vault

The company’s owner is a proponent of using up-to-date software to keep the company progressing forward and found that the Autodesk trend toward doing that aligned better with Sigma Thermal goals, particularly in the use of Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD P&ID, and Autodesk Inventor. Until 2016, Sigma Thermal was using Synergis Adept. Users found that the Autodesk Inventor integration was slow when using Adept, especially checking larger drawings in and out. Efficiency was suffering. In addition, because Sigma Thermal is ISO9000 certified, everyone in the company – not just IT personnel, designers and engineering – needed access to project files, corporate information, procedures and the employee handbook.

View

By accessing and using Partner Finder, you acknowledge and agree to the following Additional Terms as referenced in the Website Terms of Use: (i) Partner Finder may be modified, updated, interrupted, limited, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice or liability; (ii) any query or request for information regarding a specific provider or provider services may be forwarded to that provider, however Autodesk in its discretion may retain a record to conduct business analytics to improve Partner Finder and other Autodesk products and services; (iii) Autodesk has no obligation to enforce any terms on your behalf against another user; and (iv) any feedback you provide in connection with a provider, including ratings or reviews, is a non-confidential “Submission” as defined in the Website Terms of Use. You are advised to conduct your own independent analysis and assessment of any information provided by or though Partner Finder, including whether a selected provider is appropriate for your particular circumstances. Without limiting the Website Terms of Use, Autodesk does not warrant, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any service advertised or offered by a provider through Partner Finder or any hyperlinked website or service. Autodesk is not liable for the content of this site, or for the consequences of any actions you may take based on information provided by, or through, this site. You release Autodesk and its affiliates and subsidiaries from all liability arising from your use of Partner Finder, including any hyperlinked website, service, or content.

This page has been translated for your convenience using a machine translation service. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation; however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace human translators. As a result, this translation may contain errors and inaccuracies. Autodesk provides no warranties, either express or implied, about the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the machine translation and disclaims all liability for any losses or damages caused by, or resulting from your reliance on, this translation. The English version of this website is the official version.