Forums >> General Discussion >> Revit Project Management >> Looking for way to track revisions and history on revit

david125

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This may not be as easy to do as one may think. Our office is implimenting revit and there are some ways we use AutoCad that we would like to carry over to Revit. On AutoCad, for the revision description block, we use a seperate xref, all plain text.  Every time we issue project we just touch one file to update all our sheets (biggest set I've seen is 120 sheets). When we get addendums or change orders we explode the rev block and edit the text one the individual sheets. Is there a way to emulate this on Revit.  Using Revits sheet issue/revision function we would have to touch every sheet at every issuance, not acceptable. Using shared parameters wouldn't work because you can't "explode"  labels with shared parameters. I've attached a image sample of how it looks on our AutoCad sheets.

How do you project history on your revit drawings?

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teafoe5

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In the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog box you get the option to do Numbering PER PROJECT or PER SHEET.  We do it per sheet because we do not always issue entire sets everytime we make an issue.

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WWHub

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I don't understand.  You say you "...we explode the rev block and edit the text one the individual sheets."  So you touch every sheet?  yet you say "Using Revits sheet issue/revision function we would have to touch every sheet at every issuance, not acceptable."  That seems to be a contradiction.

If you just want a text based revision box that is the same on every sheet no matter what.... then just do it on your titleblock.

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WWHub

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I really suggest that you embrace Revit and how it works.  If need be, change your standard way of working.  Revits automatic tracking of revisions is a great tool.  I would never dummy it down to meet office standards that were developed to meet the limiting methods of AutoCAD.

Our office tracks revisions by project but not every sheet records every revision - only the revisions that are on that sheet.

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dgcad

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I agree with WW. You need to use the REVIT revisions they way they are designed. They work just fine.

To try to make REVIT do what AutoCAD did with xRef's and exploded attributes is just a bad approach.

Add the revision fields to the title block family.

Insert the title block into the project.

Append the Revision Table in the Project from the View Tab..

Apply what ever revisions you want to each applicable sheet.

Use Revision clouds as required.

It works. 

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david125

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Allow me to clarify in regards to "touching every drawing", we try to MINIMIZE it when ever we can.  As it happens, there are RFI's and change orders that have to be dealt with, so SOME sheets have to be  touched again. 

As far as embracing "Revit and how it works. If need be, change your standard way of working", it's not our standards it is our clients standards we are complying with. I am trying to make Revit do what AutoCad does, I am looking for a way to comply to our clients requests while trying to be efficent in what we do. That being said, TEAFOE5's suggestion showed promise but even when I select the box PER PROJECT only one sheet gets the new revision information, does not update all sheets in file.

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WWHub

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If you want all sheets to show a revision, even if they don't have any revision, then I beleve you either put a cloud on every sheet or do as I suggested.  Dummy it down and modify you sheet family with a Revision schedule that is all text.

For RFI's and Change orders that a minimal, we only issue 8 1/2 x 11 sheets that are a vignette of the original, modified sheet.

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teafoe5

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As WWhub said, if you want a revision on every sheet you will need to put a cloud on every sheet.  If you do not want to open every drawing and don't want a cloud on the plans/details you could encorporate it into your MARK on the title block then click on it, ctrl+C to copy, go to the MODIFY tab, click the Paste pulldown and select Align to Selected views and click the sheets that you want to see the revision on and hit OK.  There will be a cloud around your MARK number/letter but nowhere on the sheet so it would be somewhat of a workaround.  See the attached image, hope it helps explain what I mean.

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TKennedy

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You no longer need a cloud on every sheet to make Revit fill out revision information, there is a button in the sheet properties called "Revisions on sheet" that will let you select which revisions you want shows, even if there is no cloud.

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teafoe5

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TKennedy- Yes you are correct that you do not NEED a revision cloud on each sheet but in order to  reach the sheet properties and the "Revisions on sheet" selection you would need to open EVERY sheet and switch that property and that is what I believe david125 is trying to avoid.  Unless there is an apply to all option that I am not aware of.

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TKennedy

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Ok, I see what you're getting at. No, there's no way to do multiple sheets at once that I know of, but you can move through sheets fairly quickly once you get a system down. There is no need to actually open the sheets, you can just select them in the project browser and get to the sheet properties. It's still a sheet-by-sheet process, but I still prefer doing it that way than using rev clouds. It seems neater.

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david125

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TKennedy, you and teafoe5 have it right about what I'm trying to do. So far I like your suggesstion is the best. I know a few folks here  that will be griping when they have to do it on 120 to 150 sheets.  I wonder if an app can do that, I'll have to issue a challenge out to all programming jockeys for this one, thanks.

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TKennedy

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Yes, it is a pain, but as I said you can move through the process fairly quickly. What I do is set up a sheet list with

parameters for Sheet #, sheet name and current revision. The current revision has to be set to numeric or alphabetic

in the revision manager, you can change it temporarily if you don't need it to be none. Just be sure to change it back when you are done. I set my project browser and properties windows side by side so I can quickly cycle between them. When the Revisions on sheet window opens up, I move it so that the check box I need to click is right over the Revs on sheet button, so it's a quick double-click|enter instead of searching for the check box. I keep the sheet list (I name it Rev Check) open so I can see if I missed a sheet. I've attached a couple of screenshots of what my screen looks like when I'm doing this.

Again, WWHub and teafoe5's method of copying rev clouds is faster, but I prefer this method.

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mechanicaldesign

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MichaelJarosz

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I happen to have written a VBA program to manage revisions. I was with a very large firm at the time. We had very large drawing sets and manual procedures were out of the question. The largest single drawing set had over 3000 sheets. When you write a program, you have to think of every possible thing that can go wrong.

Putting the same revision history on every sheet will eventually get you into trouble, possibly into serious error/omission issues with contractors, especially those contractors who actively search the drawings for architect's errors to exploit.

Consider this. You create a drawing set with 120 drawings and issue it on January 1. Over the next month, you revise all of them 3 times. Each sheet now has 4 revisions. In March, you add a completely new sheet, making the set 121 drawings. What revision list do you put on that sheet? The complete set, that says it was issued on January 1, long before it even existed?

Consider another situation: You put the same revision list on drawing A-119 as on all the others, even though nothing changed on that particular sheet. A smart (evil?) contractor will find a way to turn this into an instant change order because your history says this sheet was changed. Once a sheet has been issued, it is a binding contract. Revisions are amendments to the contract, and amendments cost money. I have seen it happen, not in a polite dispute, but in a multimillion dollar lawsuit. Many contractors make more money from change orders than their original bid. The rule is "write up the change order and see if it sticks".

I have worked on big, phased projects like hospitals and airports that drag on for years. I have actually run out of room on the sheet to even place new revisions. You really need to have a unique history for every sheet. My Acad program could read every sheet and report the unique revision history into a Word file, every day if neccessary. The Word file is then included in the specs for the next issue. How many of you out there try to do this in Excel? Before long the sheets and the Excel file are so far apart, they disagree more than agree.

BTW, putting dates on 3000 sheets could take the whole team days to do manually.  The program did it in a few minutes, with the Word listing as a free bonus.

Fortunately, Revit has made it possible to avoid this whole hassle. I recommend that this is one case where you let Revit show you how to do it, not the other way around.

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