I use them for many things. One is to schedule the items in each room, ie furniture and equipment and doors know what rooms they are in. They are used for quantity take offs, volumes. Color fill plans require them, etc. Not to mention program data like target area, program category and sub category. Some use them for occupant loads.

We don't even use Rooms for areas.

Thanks for the replies. We used to used them to occupant load, but we use areas for that.
Sdbrowaia, your uses make sense. Thank you.

I guess another way to look at this question is: What else were you thinking they would be used for, that the feature is leaving you underwhelmed?

I use rooms for some of the things Scott Mentioned:

1. VERY importantly, tracking what items (Furniture, Equipment, Accessories, Fixtures, etc) are in what locations. That is a VERY important feature, for a lot more than drawings.

2. Client facing square footages, where net SF of each individual room is needed (Estimating room finishes in early design (when no finishes are modeled/painted yet), looking at program requirements versus fulfillment for USABLE space, and so on). Department program requirements and fulfillment tracking, etc.

3. With some trickery, i use Rooms to export 3D geometry of some complex spaces, to other software. But it requires "a few hacks" to make it work. (I once had to export 3d geometry of a chase outside a room with non vertical walls, for an organ pipe designer. Worked like a champ, and that was about five years ago).

4. Getting "Room ID's on drawings." This isnt the minimalist feature you describe, though: Rooms can be seen on different View Type drawings, whereas Areas can only be seen by Area Plans within their own Area Scheme. That makes "using Areas" for a lot of this functionality completely a non starter, as you would have to be limited to using Area Plans for all of this. Also, since Areas dont play well (at all) with Phasing, Design Options, or interacting with the other items in the model, the Rooms are quite a necessity.

...but I do use Rooms to make these

Snowy, I think this is a great example of what Rooms (Or Spaces for MEP) are for... to contain and visualise data.
People are always saying "Revit is not CAD it is a database" but how many of us actually use it as one for all our project data? I see the value of creating a good rooms model is that it is the container for all the project specifications and requirements that are usually contained in all kinds of useless hand sketches, excel, word or marked up pdf drawings that you cant easily do any analysis with.

Occupancy is a good example of how the room model provides the link between a general specification and the actual 3D model, and is how we work for all kinds of things in MEP models. You get a basic requirement that is specified per m2, m3 or per person, that is linked to a particular room function (Eg. with a key schedule) and you only have to define what the function of the rooms are for this to be calculated to the actual area or volume.

Then you can easily visualise the results and make design decisions without actually modelling anything. Managers are always complaining about how BIM is an extra cost because it takes so much work to show everything on drawings, but I think this is mostly because of the expectation that the actual components have to be visible and tagged on drawings. If you can communicate a design concept using purely colour plans and figures, with very little work, thats a massive win compared to modelling things before a decision can be made and then re-modelling.

Finally, when you have made your 3D model, how do you know it is correct? How can you show if the furniture, finishes, lighting, ventilation etc is correct and meets the design requirements? If you have all the design requirements in the rooms model, updated to the latest areas, it is utterly trivial to check this. Compared to the traditional alternative of someone printing out the drawings, peering at them to visually check against a list, scribbling on them in illegible red pen and expecting them to be re-worked, this can also save a massive waste of time.

So I am personally all for modelling Building Information instead of stuff in 3D. However, as MEP engineers we are totally dependent on getting an architectural model from which the Number, Name and Function of a room can be easily imported for us to attach all our data to. You wont believe how many models I have seen with no rooms at all (Areas?), non-unique room numbers (!) or slightly different spelling of all the rooms that actually have the same function.
For many architects their experience of MEP engineers is probably constant moaning about how unexpected changes have given them lots of extra work to do , but give a thought to how the info will be used by others, so the movement or change of function of a room can be picked up automatically, and they will be happier :thumbsup:.

IMHO Revit Rooms are greatly underused. Add your own suite of parameters to the Room category and store all the data you need regarding the requirements, function and attributes of each space in your design. Their fantastic for producing an Accommodation Schedule- which you can sit down with the Client and complete BEFORE you start designing.


Kind Regards,
Ian

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Autodesk Revit:

Exactly!

You can even use Unplaced rooms/spaces (Whichever it is you dont use for actual rooms) to contain all kinds of data.

YES! Not sure how many people pick up on that little drop-down on the Options Bar that gives you access to pre-defined Rooms or "New".

As you say...... You can define all your requirements against Rooms and / or Spaces and THEN add them to your model in due course.

Many a time I've sat down with a Client and populated a Revit Room Schedule prior to designing. That's it- Accommodation Schedule / Client's outline Brief captured and ready to distribute to the Team via WorkSharing


Kind Regards,
Ian

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Autodesk Revit: