Firenetics®  is an Autodesk® Revit® Plugin developed to assist designers with modeling the building's passive fire rating to satisfy the IBC Code requirements.

This app targets popular sprayed fire-resistant materials, such as intumescent paints. Intumescent coatings are an increasingly popular method of providing passive fire protection to load-bearing structures, especially structural steel, which is becoming increasingly popular in the modern architectural design of industrial and commercial buildings.

It is generally a rather challenging task to estimate the amount of fire protective coating needed to give the required fire rating for each specific situation because it is driven by each manufacturer’s testing reports (such as ASTM-E119 classification reports) issued by accredited certifying laboratories, the geometry of each structural element the coating is applied to, and from several other factors. Because of this inherent complexity, fireproofing buildings were frequently considered an afterthought, which usually resulted in problems and mismatches. This app brings fireproofing to the design phase, giving Revit users the ability to plan and optimize fireproofing early on.

For example, when designing steel structures, engineers can sometimes neglect that it is much more difficult to fire-rate thin steel elements. If a 2-hour rating is required for the structure, it is better to use thicker steel elements, even if they weigh and cost more, as the savings come from using less fireproofing.

The plugin will allow the Revit user to identify the amount of fireproofing needed on an element-by-element basis for each fire rating and for each participating fire protection coating manufacturer and brand. PlugIn users can select the structure element, the manufacturer and brand, and the required fire rating, and the PlugIn will calculate the required DFT (dry film thickness), the number of gallons required to cover it, the number of layers of coating, and several other helpful parameters.

Also, the plugin has a function allowing to parse the whole structure, create the list of structural elements to be protected, analyze the fireproofing requirements for each of them, and provide the fireproofing estimate for the whole structure, thus saving a lot of steps in the future and providing valuable insights to the designer. The plugin will highlight the elements of the structure that are not defendable by a selected product to the required fire rating due to its geometry or for other reasons, thus prompting the user to change the element to improve fire safety before the building is erected.

It is important to understand that the plugin only gives an approximate estimate and that a more precise estimate can be obtained from the manufacturer.