Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Managing large projects in Revit? Site with multiple units/buildings.

Robb

active

Joined: Fri, Jun 18, 2004
23 Posts
No Rating

I would like to know if it is possible for Revit to manage large projects from seperate files?

We have a project with several buildings on the site. Each building has several floors/levels made up of multiple mixed units. I am thinking the project is too large to be managed in one file so we plan to draw each room unit as its own revit file then link/import the units into a seperate revit file to make up each building. This would be similar to how we would do it in AutoCAD with external references. I don't know if this the proper method but thats how I am thinking of doing this.

My questions is, if done this way, is it possible for Revit to keep track of the families used in the entire project and synchronize doors/windows/schedules/etc and have entire project update normally as if it were created in a single file even if the project is split into multiple files?

Am I on track or is there other methods or handling large projects?

TIA

-----------------------------------

Primary: Revit Architecture 2008\AutoCAD 2007Old Versions: Revit 9.1\AutoCAD 2002

This user is offline

Mr Spot

site moderator|||

Joined: Mon, Jan 12, 2004
2889 Posts

You concepts are correct.

 Here is some info from my talk at the Revit Technology Conference 2007:

1.  
   • In Revit 2008 Groups and links are now interchangeable.  They can be bound or saved out at any time making this decision a little less critical.  The following outlines some of the benefits and limitations of both:

                                                              i.      Groups

1.      Can be tagged and quickly manipulated in the host file.

2.      Can interact (to an extent) with surrounding geometry not part of the group.

3.      Can exclude elements from specific instances of a group.

                                                            ii.      Links

1.      Better for file size as all information is stored in the other file.

2.      Tags have to be applied in the other file and the view linked across (not possible for sections & elevations)

3.      Somewhat more reliable as they do not need to interact with elements in the host file.

 Generally with large files (large is very ambiguous BTW).

So you links are going to be quicker to move and change, but more difficult to co-ordinate changes...

Once you go to DD/CD stage how you document will greatly depend on whether you use groups or links.  I try to keep 1 site file, 1 file for each building and the units as groups (which can be saved out and used in other files also).

HTH.

-----------------------------------

Regards,

Chris.

Co-Founder | BIM Consultant | Software Designer  B. Arch)

Xrev Revit API Addins | Revit Rants

This user is offline

View Website

At what stage do you know when it's time to break up a model?

2

Multiple buildings on one site

1

Multiple units on sloping site

1

Linking buildings to a site

5

Topography over multiple phases.

2