Introduction
Welcome to Mastering Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2014. We have worked diligently to bring you a book
that takes you through the core features and functionality of Revit MEP 2014 from both the design
and documentation perspectives.
Revit MEP started out as Revit Systems in 2006, and, in just a few years, it has been on a
fast-track development pace in order to bring it up to speed with the Revit Architecture and
Revit Structure platforms. The 2014 release of Revit MEP provides platform improvements
along with MEP-specific features that make this a very exciting edition. When Revit Systems
was first released, it was primarily to allow MEP engineers to join the move toward building
information modeling (BIM) that was being taken on by architects and structural engineers.
The features and functionality were, in the opinion of most, limited to provide a complete MEP
project. The development team has been listening to the needs of users, and has delivered tools
and features in this release that have been desired by many from the beginning. We now have
tools for duct-mounted air terminals, applying lookup table files directly to fittings, temporary
visibility overrides, and many other new features.
The primary focus of this book is, of course, on the MEP disciplines, but there is plenty of
information that applies to Revit in general. The idea behind the format is to take you through
the major points of the design process and requirements for completing a building design and
project submittal. This book focuses on building engineering, but it may also be helpful for
other types of engineering projects such as process piping design or any others that require
a combination of data and model components.
The book is written in five parts, the first of which covers general functionality that is useful
for all disciplines. You will find suggestions throughout the book for including features and
components in your project templates. The first part does not cover every pick and click available
in the software; it approaches the use of Revit from a best-practices standpoint, which we hope
will inspire you to think about ways to make Revit MEP 2014 work best for you. Any topics not
covered were not omitted to imply that they are unimportant, but simply because you can find
information about these features in the documentation provided by Autodesk and in the Revit
MEP 2014 Help.
The next three parts of the book are MEP-specific and have been written to cover the key
design areas of each individual discipline. Again, we focus on best practices by relating our
professional experience with not only the software but also the design industry. In an effort
to tie it all together, the fifth part of the book contains information on how to optimize your
Revit experience by learning the tools and features available for creating the various components
that make up an MEP model.