Why Would You Model Gyp Board?

Ok, time to get a little more technical and I guess quite a bit more nit-picky. Before I begin I will just say that I have completed jobs in the industry as a production guy and as a BIM manager at first including Gyp Board modeled in walls and then acquiescing and going without. What I have found for myself seems to go against the grain of how most firms I see using Revit model walls.

I am a recovering Gyp Board modeler. Its known on the streets as "sheet rock", "Gypsum", "GB", "white wall candy".  Well I am off it and I am not looking back. Ok, now lets take a look back.

In the early days of BIM it was cool to see what you could model, the possibilities were endless, base board, casework section information, roof drains, 3/4" reveals. Then, the realities of system performance and general practicality sunk in. To model the minute means to over-embellish the overall.

Gyp board seemed acceptable, I mean what if I want to do a material takeoff of all the gyp board on my model? I had core boundaries if I wanted to dimension to the stud face so that worked, everything was great. These were the salad days.

Unfortunately, these days were short lived as the workload that needed to be undertaken to realize this dream was, well… realized. It forced me to make many more wall types and take what should be a very simple and repetitive area of the floor plan to model and turn it into something far more complex. And for what?

What about when gyp board stops above the ceiling but the wall structure keeps going? Are we really unlocking the gyp board layers and modifying that everywhere, not just the documentation views? Its no wonder firms want to up their fees, its no wonder there is significant concern over modeling scope and budgeting hours. What about when the model changes? Too much work for too little benefit.

The data is what's important: Type Marks, Partition Type Legends, Fire Rating, detailed views.  How could an estimator effectively use your model without gyp board? Easy, they probably weren't using it in the first place. Linear feet of wall, Areas and Heights of rooms, these are the limitless possibilities chosen by the people that most directly benefit from your modeling workload.

 I've been gyp board free for 3 years now and I can't tell you how good I feel.  Join me.