Construction Simulation

Construction Simulation

Plays your Revit model being built over time, with the construction programme and the money behind it: 4D (when) and 5D (how much), inside Revit, on the model you are already working on.

What it does

• Reads the model — every element, by level, zone, stage and trade, with its materials, its host and what it stands on. Linked Revit models are read with it and can be planned element by element, as one task, or shown only as the setting.
• Writes the programme for you — measure the model, say what kind of building it is and how fast it is to be built, and the programme and the budget are written from a market database that ships inside the plugin: work items, unit costs, crew outputs, five building types, three paces, 46 markets in their own currencies. Or build the sequence yourself from your construction methodology, with your own crews and rates.
• Keeps the order of work honest — nothing appears before the thing it stands on or is fixed to; structure first, walls and services after the deck above, equipment and planting with the finishes. Cranes and crews are limited, so the programme is one a site could actually run.
• Connects every element to its task — a "4D Task" and a "4D Type" on every element, readable and editable in Revit's own Properties palette, in both directions; a selection set per task; a "5D Cost" on every element.
• Prices the work — rate books, cost per element, cash flow, S-curve, dirhams or dollars with a real conversion, and an Actual column so the variance is visible.
• Shows the build — in 3D beside the model with a live cost dashboard: Revit's visual styles and hatch patterns, real materials, a physical sky, sections, filters, labels that follow elements and dates, moving cranes and hoists, planned against actual side by side. Or play it date by date in a Revit view of its own.
• Reports — planned against actual by value, SPI and CPI, forecast out-turn, look-ahead and at-risk lists, every table exportable.
• Delivers — programmes, films, dated sheets of real Revit views, a glTF sequence for Twinmotion or Unreal, Navisworks and Unity routes, and a single web page that plays offline.
• Remembers how you work — save a look or your office setup once and start every project from it.

When to use it

• Before the job: to see whether a programme is buildable and what it costs, and to compare paces before anything is committed.
• During the job: to track actuals against the plan, element by element, and to show the client or the site team what next month looks like.
• For a bid or a presentation: a film, a storyboard of dated views, or an offline page the other side can open with nothing installed.

How to run it

1. Open the project in Revit, with its links loaded if you want them planned.
2. In the BimCode pane, open Plugins and start Construction Simulation.
3. Work left to right: Model reads the project; Automate or Sequence writes the programme; Programme is where you adjust it; Assign connects the elements; 4D and 5D Cost set how it plays and what it costs; Reports, Scene, Simulate and Export are where the work is seen and shipped.

Everything you type is kept with the project; Undo steps back through it.

A walk through the screens

Good to know

• Writing into a linked model asks first, opens the file, writes, saves, closes and reloads it. Cloud, workshared, read-only and nested links are declined with a message saying why.
• Switching between dirhams and dollars converts every rate and cost at the peg; other currencies change the symbol only, and the notice says so.
• The site image stays on this computer and is never written into the project file.
• The market indices and exchange rates are indicative; every rate is yours to edit.