MEPF tagging time: 50 typical Revit views, by hand and with RayCAD
How long MEPF tagging takes in Revit, by building type and view type. 50 typical views, from a 10-tag section to a 8,000-tag hospital floor plan, by hand and with RayCAD.
On this page
Tagging time on an MEPF shop drawing swings from a few minutes to more than a day. A section view carries 10 to 20 tags. A hospital floor plan can carry 10,000. This page sets out how long a typical view takes by hand and with RayCAD, across 50 views of the kinds MEP firms tag every week.
The short version
- By hand, tagging runs at about 200 tags an hour on an HVAC plan, slower on crowded views and on piping, where most tags need a leader.
- With RayCAD, the same view takes about 80% less time. That counts the whole job: the run, the drafter's review and submitting the drawing.
- The run itself is the small part. Most floor plans run in 1 to 2 minutes and sections in under 5 seconds. The review is where the time goes.
- Across the 50 views, about 104,000 tags take about 556 hours by hand and about 110 hours with RayCAD.
Hours to tag each of the 50 views
How many tags a view carries
The tag count depends on floor size, building type, how many systems run through the space, and how crowded the ceiling is. HVAC usually carries the most tags. Piping carries fewer tags, but most of them need leaders.
Tags per floor plan, by building type
| View type | Tags on a typical view | Range in this set |
|---|---|---|
| Section view | 15 | 10 to 20 |
| Residential HVAC plan | 720 | 210 to 1,110 |
| Piping plan | 960 | 360 to 1,660 |
| Commercial office HVAC plan | 2,600 | 1,100 to 3,560 |
| Hospital HVAC plan | 5,200 | 3,940 to 8,130 |
How long each view takes
A typical view of each type
| View type | By hand | With RayCAD | RayCAD run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section view | 5 min | 1 min | under 5 seconds |
| Residential HVAC plan | 3.5 h | 37 min | about 1.5 min |
| Piping plan | 5.7 h | 1.2 h | about 1.5 min |
| Commercial office HVAC plan | 14 h | 2.5 h | about 2 min |
| Hospital HVAC plan | 28 h | 5.6 h | about 3 min |
Each row is the middle view of its type. "With RayCAD" is the whole job: the run, the review and submitting the drawing.
Why a few tags can still take long
Tag count is not the whole story. A view with a few hundred tags can still eat an afternoon when:
- The view is crowded. Each tag has to be nudged clear of the others, the model and the dimensions, often more than once.
- Most tags need leaders. Piping and electrical views lean on leaders, and each one has to be routed and kept clear.
- The model changes. A revision moves elements, and the tags around them have to be checked and moved again.
RayCAD places tags clear of each other and of the model the first time, so the drafter's time goes to reviewing the sheet, not to moving tags around.
Electrical and fire protection
RayCAD tags HVAC and piping today. Electrical and fire protection are coming soon, so the figures below are projected and will be updated when those trades ship.
- Electrical: close to piping. Fewer tags than HVAC, but leader-heavy, so hand tagging runs slower per tag. We project a saving close to 80%.
- Fire protection: the simplest of the trades. Fewer tag types and less complex views than HVAC, so hand tagging runs faster. We project a saving close to 80%.
What this means for a full set
Hours on one view add up across a set. A 10-floor office building with one HVAC plan a floor comes to about 140 hours of tagging by hand and about 25 with RayCAD, before revisions. Every revision round repeats part of that work. To run the numbers for your own set, use the capacity calculator.
How we measured
- Views. 50 views across five types: sections, residential, commercial office and hospital HVAC plans, and piping plans. Tag counts follow the usual spread for each type, as firms describe it.
- Hand time. About 200 tags an hour for HVAC and 150 for piping, the rates firms we work with report, slowed or sped up for how crowded each view is.
- RayCAD time. The run time follows RayCAD's run data. The review and submit time follows what firms using RayCAD see, which brings the whole job to about a fifth of the hand time.
If your firm has timed its own sheets, we would like to compare notes. Write to founder@raycad.in. For the steps to time a view yourself, see how long MEPF tagging takes.
Try it on your own view
Run the 15-day free trial on one of your own views and time it against your usual hand time. No credit card is needed.
Figures describe typical views, drawn from rates reported by MEP firms and RayCAD's run data. Times on your own views will vary.Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to tag a Revit floor plan by hand?
At about 200 tags an hour, a typical residential HVAC plan of around 700 tags takes about 3.5 hours, a commercial office plan of around 2,600 tags about 14 hours, and a hospital plan of around 5,200 tags about 28 hours. Crowded views and long leaders add to that.
How long does it take to tag a section view?
A section view usually carries 10 to 20 tags, so it takes about 5 minutes by hand. RayCAD runs a section in under 5 seconds.
How much time does RayCAD save on tagging?
About 80% across the 50 views on this page. That covers the whole job with RayCAD, the run, the drafter's review and submitting the drawing, against tagging the same view by hand.
How long does a RayCAD run take?
Most floor plans run in 1 to 2 minutes and almost all in under 5 minutes. Section views take under 5 seconds, often a fraction of a second. The review afterwards takes longer than the run.
Where do these figures come from?
From the hand-tagging rates MEP firms report and from RayCAD's run data, across 50 typical views of five types. Your own views will vary with size, congestion and your firm's standard.