Summary: We should have the option to maintain the phasing properties of objects and the phasing relationships between objects when binding a linked architecture model, copying and pasting from the arch model, or using copy/monitor.

Description: Getting a structural model started based on an architect's model when a project is a renovation or addition to an existing building is a tedious and error-prone process.
Oftentimes an architect will have an existing building fully modeled down to the beams and foundations, and we'd like to be able to USE that model rather than recreating it from scratch. Phasing properties and relationships are currently not maintained no matter how you try to get the arch's model into yours - through copy/monitor, by copying and pasting, or by binding the link.

The only way phasing is maintained is if you just open up the arch's model and use it by deleting the arch's irrelevant views and model elements. But we don't want to just use the architect's model because it was not created from a structural template - won't some analytical features be missing if you do that??? I'm really not sure... You could transfer project standards to get a lot of your stuff from your company template into the model, but then you'd still have to manually set your defaults for things like section heads, callouts, and view titles for every single project. Annoying.

One way around this, I've been told, is to create 3D views in the architect's model and again in ours that show only existing elements and only new elements, respectively, and then copy and paste existing elements to the existing view, and new elements to the new view. There is problem with this method though: if the architect is putting new windows in an existing building, you cannot copy the existing walls that those new windows go in without getting a warning that says "Can't copy to clipboard because of relationships between elements". You literally cannot complete the copy process without deleting the walls/windows, and therefore, you cannot paste anything into your structural model.

I'm not sure how phasing would work when you're dealing with groups that the architect made in their model that we'd like to maintain in order to make updating the model easier.

Related to this, copy/monitor is a useless tool when the architect has already modeled the beams, foundations, and some in-place families that you'd like to use because it is not possilbe to copy those types of elements using the copy/monitor tool. Copying to the clipboard and pasting has it's own problems too - warnings and errors are unpredictable and sometimes impossible to get around without deleting elements. And when trying to bind in an architect's model or parts of the architect's model, you get the "cannot keep elements joined" warning over and over again. So then you have to rejoin all the walls where they intersect, and rejoin wall to floors to get them to clean up, etc. etc.

Once you do get everything you need from the arch's model into yours, you then have to go through the entire model and change the phase created property to existing for all the elements that are supposed to be existing.

There needs to be a better way. Starting a revit project with an existing building always seems to be a trial and error process of finding the least painful method - there is no good one.

Product & Feature: Revit Structure

Submitted: Fri, 07 Oct 2011