Calculate your fire safety coverage based on your latest Revit model. Add fire extinguishers from the app in your model and the Fire Safety Asessor automatically calculates the fire safety coverage of the building.

  • To show the fire coverage in your building click on the button with the fire hose pictogram which says: Fire Coverage. In the floor plan the app will show you a realtime fire coverage per floor level based on your latest Revit model.
  • To import fire extinguishers in your project click on the button with the fire extinguisher pictogram which says: Products. From the list select the type of product needed for the product by clicking on it. Select the type and size of the product by clicking the arrow of the drop-down menu and click the load an place family button to import and place the product in your model.

Required
  • Rooms
    To be able to set up the Saval Fire Safety Assessor, the app uses the floor area of all defined rooms in the model. Without rooms the app cannot define floor areas needed to calculate the fire safety coverage.
    Since Autodesk Revit 2015     you can place rooms automatically per floor level, with just one click on the button.

  • Doors
To be able to set use the Saval Fire Safety Assesor properly and increase your fire safety coverage, the app uses doors of the defined rooms in the model which can be entered with the fire hose. When a door is a fire safety door and should be kept closed, the app takes this into account and considers the door and the wall it is places on as a fire compartment.

  • Walls
To be able to use the Fire Safety Assessor properly, it is necessary to have walls. Walls are needed to add rooms and are required to define fire compartments. When a wall does not contain a door, this wall can not be passed with any fire extinguisher. When a wall is part of a (sub) fire compartment, the wall has to be set as such.
 
  • Fire equipment
            In order to calculate and show the fire safety coverage, fire equipment needs to be placed in the model.


The Main Interface

To assess the Fire Safety of your building open the app by clicking the Fire Safety button under the Xinaps button in the ribbon in Revit. The main interface is set to the Fire Compartment tab by default. You can change between the Fire Compartment tab, Egress Time tab and Fire Hose Coverage tab by clicking the tab buttons on the left.


Fire Compartment tab

The fire compartment tab gives you a quick overview of the different fire compartments in your building. In this overview you can see quickly whether the compartment meets the fire safety requirements or not. Settings are by default set to Dutch standards and can be customized in the settings menu. Read more about settings>>


Remember to define the define the fire compartment correctly, where in default it is set to "None". 


The Fire compartments can be defined by either the "room parameter", the "wall parameter" or by the "Area plan scheme". Where within this window you have to option to define the minimum width of the fire exit (mm per person), the maximum size of the compartment (m2) and the maximum egress path (mm). Once done click "Ok", this will recalculate the "Egress Path" for each of the compartments per floor level, as per the newly define "Fire Compartment". 


Egress Time tab

The Egress Time tab gives you a quick overview of the time that is needed to get all the people out of the building. It is possible to sort the results by floor levels, fire compartments and by rooms. To do this click the dropdown menu in the upper left corner and select how you want to sort the results from the options.


To create a 3D Animation of the egress time of your building, click the 3D animation button. A new window will open showing your model in 3D. To play the animation click the play button. The egress will be displayed by the calculation steps that are set in the settings menu. You can orbit the model by clicking and holding the right mouse button. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. Click the mousewheel to drag and move the 3D model.


To draw a line of the egress path from a specific room, click the 


The settings are by default set to Dutch standards. To change the settings click the settings button in the upper right corner. Read more about settings>>


Check fire exit door swinging direction:

Where clicking the "Check fire exit door swing direction", will only take into consideration the doors that can be pushed to be as valid fire exit doors that are on the boundary of the fire compartment. Also if the button is clicked then any other door that is within the fire compartment will be neglected, unless they themselves have been defined as a separate fire compartment within a fire compartment. Also if checkbox "Check fire exit door swing direction" is not set, and doors lead to outside, then that door is used as an entrance / exit door.


For a visual example of what is indicated here please view the following images, explaining the same: 


 

Where: the red cross marks the door that will not be considered as an emergency exit, as you would have to pull the door during an emergency.  

           the green cross marks the door that will be considered as an emergency exit, as you can push the door during an emergency. 

           the red line marks the boundaries of the fire compartment. 


Where fire compartments can be defined in Revit as the following three examples: 


Colour Scheme by Area
Colour Scheme by Rooms 
Colour Scheme by filtering out wall type or by wall fire rating


Whereas Xinaps Fire Safety Assessor allows to create 3D Visual representations of the same in three easy and quick steps:

  1. Click the settings tab visible in the main interface of the plugin. 
  2. Select "Fire compartment defined by" as "wall parameter". 
  3. Click the second drop down menu and select how you want your walls to be defied as.
    • By "type of parameter "Fire rating".
    • By "wall type name"
    • By "comments"
    • By "marks"
    

Visualization can be achieved for each fire-compartment by double clicking on the "Egress Distance".

Need help in using the mouse for 3D Visualization?  

Although this visualization can also be seen in the floor plans, by clicking the "Revit Floor Plan" button visible in the main interface, as indicated by a green line: 



Fire Hose Coverage tab

The Fire Hose Coverage tab gives you a visual overview of the percentage of your building that is covered by your fire hoses. To change the floorplan shown in the fire safety assessor to a different level, select the desired floor from the dropdown menu in the lower left corner or click the up/down arrow next to the dropdown menu. The location of any fire equipment will be marked with a fire hose icon. The direct reach of the fire hose will be displayed in dark blue. The water throw length will be displayed in light blue. Areas that are not within reach are shown in red. When fire compartments are defined the walls will be marked in yellow.


It is also possible to generate a Revit floorplan. Click on the Revit Floor Plan button in the lower right corner and the Revit floor plans wil automatically be created and shown. 


To create a 3D visualization of the Fire Hose Coverage, click the button 3D Visualization. A new window will open, showing your fire hose coverage per floor. The location of any fire equipment will be marked with a fire hose icon. The direct reach of the fire hose will be displayed in dark blue. The water throw length will be displayed in light blue. Areas that are not within reach are shown in red. When fire compartments are defined the walls will be marked in yellow.


The settings are by default set to Dutch standards. To change the settings click the settings button in the upper right corner. Read more about settings>>



Need help in using the mouse for 3D Visualization?  


Using the Fire Safety Assessor


The fire safety assessor can calculate and asses several things for you. To make calculations it is important to set the settings properly. More information on the settings


Checking your fire compartments

After you have defined your fire compartments from one of the options in the settings menu, click the "Fire compartments" tab. The app will check your compartments according to your settings and will demonstrate the results in the table in the main interface.


The table will show you the following properties of your fire compartment:

  • Level

The floor level on which the fire compartment is located.
  • Compartment

This shows you how your compartments are defined. You can change the definition of your compartment in the settings menu and by editing the room properties in the properties menu of a room.
  • Type

The defined fire compartments can be classified as different types:
  • Fire compartment
  • Protected escape route
  • Protected sub compartment
  • Smoke compartment
  • Sub compartment


To classify a type of fire compartment, click the drop down menu under "Type" in the table in the main interface. 

  • Protected for

The amount of time for which your fire compartment is protected and the people are safe in the compartment.
  • Area

The floor area of the fire compartment.
  • # people

The number of people in the compartment.
  • Evacuation width

The fire door width of the compartment.
  • Egress path

By clicking the button a 3D Visualization will open, showing you the egress path of your fire compartment.

When your fire compartment meets all the requirements from the settings menu, a green indicator will be shown at the left side of the table. When one of the requirements from the settings menu is not met, a red indicator will be shown at the left side of the table. This means either the settings need to be changed or the design is not sufficient according to the settings and needs to be altered.

 

Calculating the evacuation time

To calculate the evacuation time, the evacuation settings can be set in the settings menu. When the evacuation settings are set, click the "Evacuation time" tab in the main interface. The Evacuation time can be calculated for Floor levels, fire compartments and rooms. Click the drop-down menu and select one of the options the calculate the evacuation time. 


The evacuation time is dependant on the amount of people. The amount of people can be edited in two ways:

  1. Open the Fire Safety Assessor
  2. Select the "Fire compartment" tab
  3. Click the field in the # people column
  4. Enter the desired number of people

OR

  1. Select a room
  2. In the properties menu scroll down to "Area per person"
  3. Enter the area per person
  4. Revit will calculate the amount of people dependant on the floor area. The Xinaps Fire Safety Assessor will use the same number


After you have set your evacuation settings in the settings menu, the table in the main interface at the Evacuation Time tab will show you whether or not your building is empty in time. 


You can check your building for several options by clicking the drop-down menu. You can check:

  • Floor levels
  • Fire compartments
  • Rooms

The table will give you an overview of information of the selected option. The table will give you the amount of people who are still in the building per time interval. It also shows you the amount of time your floor, compartment or room is protected for and the time it will take to evacuate all. If the time of evacuation exceeds the time of protection, a red indicator at the left of the table will appear. Whenever your evacuation time is smaller than your protection time, a green indicator will appear.


By clicking the "Eye icon" of the egress path option, a new window will open, showing you your egress path in 3D.


Fire coverage

To check your fire coverage, click the "Fire coverage" tab in the main menu. A floor plan showing your fire coverage will appear. It is necessary to have rooms defined in your project and to have fire extinguishers placed in the model.


Your fire coverage is dependent on the settings under the "Fire hose coverage" tab in the settings menu. In order to have a complete overview of your fire coverage, enter the right properties of your fire hoses. After doing so, click OK. More information on fire hose settings


The Floor Plan

The Fire Safety Assessor will show your Fire coverage per floor. You can select a different floor by clicking the drop-down menu in the lower left corner or by clicking the up and down arrow in the lower left corner. To make your fire hoses and extinguishers visible in the floor plan, you have to enter the names of the instances in the settings menu under the fire hose coverage tab.

A legend explaining the colors in the floor plan can be found at the right side of the floor plan.


To create a 3D Visualisation of your building:


  1. Click the 3D Visualisation button. A new window will open
  2. Orbit by clicking and holding your right mouse button
  3. Pan by clicking the mouse wheel button or Hold SHIFT + RIGHT mouse button


Defined fire compartments will be indicated with a yellow line in the floor plan and will not be taken into the total Fire Coverage percentage. 

Fire compartments will also not be able to be entered with a fire hose. 


Need help in using the mouse for 3D Visualization?  


To indicate a fire safety door:

  1. Click any wall
  2. Edit the properties under fire rating and enter a value
  3. Enter the value in the settings menu when defining your fire compartment
  4. The door will be a part of the Fire rated wall