Site Plan Location after building Model started

[kmarquis]

What's the proper procedure for placing the buiding topo/site plan Revit file after the Building model has already been started? I created Topo from a Autocad survey that we had in a seperate Revit File. I want to link it into my building file. Should I place it in Center to Center, and then physically move it into place to line up with the building? Should I Publish Coordinates to the site file or should I acquire coordinates from the site?

Thanks

[patricks]

When using a separate site file, this is the procedure I follow:

1. Building model has already been started, usually with Project North as straight up on plan views. Be sure your building model is CLOSED at this point.
2. Start a Site model. Link in CAD survey Center-to-Center. Look in elevation or section to make sure everything (topo lines) is at their true elevation above the 0-0 elevation.
3. In plan, rotate and move the CAD link as needed to get your building location more or less near Revit's origin point and to place Project North as straight up (usually some angle away from True North). We typically try to align buildings with one or more property line boundaries or some other site datum.
4. Change your plan view to True North, and then acquire coordinates from the CAD file. The view should shift back to the CAD files original True North orientation. Then you can change the view back to Project North if you wish.
5. Save the project. There should be some dialog box about saving positions back to the linked file, yes you need to do this.
6. Link in your Building file. CtC or OtO doesn't matter. You'll need to move the building into position anyway. Your site plan view and the building should both be oriented with Project North as up anyway, so no need to rotate the Building Revit file. I also usually set the link to By Linked View, to some 1st floor plan view. That way I'm not seeing the roof and everything else above, which aids in placing dimensions to exterior walls from various site elements.
7. In elevation or section, move your Building up or down to the correct Finished Floor elevation. Depending on whether you did CtC or OtO, you may need to move the building down so that its first floor level aligns with the Site's 0-0 elevation, and then move it back up to the FF elevation. Or put a dimension between the level lines and change the dimension value.
8. At this point the building location should be set on the site. Now you want to Publish coordinates to the Building file. Do that and then close the Site file.
9. Open the Building file, and then Link the Site file using Shared Coordinates. If everything was done correctly it should come in at exactly the right spot.

Now keep in mind that I have used this process on a number of projects solely for the purpose of editing my toposurface with real world elevations showing on the topo interior points, instead of some + or - value relative to my building's finished floor elevation. However I have recently discovered a method that involves unclipping and moving the Project Base Point, which will allow my toposurface to be in the same file as my building, let me show Project elevations of 0 or 100' for my finished floor in section/elevation, AND still show the real world elevations when editing the toposurface. I'll have to see if I can dig up the thread...

[fkumbre]

Hello. I am having the same issue and I can't get my building to align with my topo at the sea level. I can move it manually but I need to be able to edit the surface of the topo with the sea level coordinates. Also need to be able to read both project and survey levels.
@patricks - how did you achieve that with survey and project base points? I tried every combination and had no success.
Thanks.