Large Projects on Revit...

[FWSchreck]

Hello:

Our firm does a lot of large, programmatically dense projects. I'm curious about the experience other firms have had using Revit on projects of this type.

What's the largest project your firm has designed using Revit?
How did you organize the project? One project file, a series of linked project files, etc.?


Thanks!

[jeddafish]

Our largest is a 210,000 sf high school. The central file is about 160MB. We have 7 people in the model. Save to central times are about 5 mins. Compacting takes just under 10 mins. We are using 100/1000 mb switches and Cat 6 cable. This is the limit for us, in fact the project manager wants to dump out to Acad at 50% cd's. 100,000 sf. schools would be much more efficient in Revit.
-jeff dunning

[dhurtubise]

Would you happen to have AutoCAD drawings linked in there ?

[keparks123]

The question of Large vs. Small projects is a very subjective topic. Some say that smaller is more efficient and they are correct. Because it contains less information it will be more responsive. At one point I tried a 400,000 sf. building and thought that I had maxed out revit. I have since placed a 1.5 million sf. building into revit and have it running smooth. The key is the amount of information that revit must keep up with in the model.
Ex: placing groups, in place families, etc. Revit will have to constantly keep up with these things. If you create components for 80% of these things, you will eliminate the need for revit to keep track of all these elements.

Revit will slow down, but that needs to be weighed against the amount of repetition that will be eliminated in the process.

Like I said before, this program is very subjective and you can take what you will, but the limit of the program still has yet to be found. For those that say the program is for smaller projects, are doing something wrong!

[jthompson.70974]

I'm also working on a very large project. Just wondering if anyone out there knows exactly how to limit the file size. I assume that in-place families and groups will increase it greatly. Because I feared having one mega-Revit file (and because I'm not ready to jump on the Worksets bandwagon) I set it up with multiple linked files. Just wondering if there are any pointers to keeping the file size as minimal as possible.

And on a related note, I have had problems trying to reduce the file size once it gets too large. Purging doesn't work, nor does reducing the number of views, families, etc. Once the file becomes large, is there no way or shrinking it? Thanks!

[patricks]

And on a related note, I have had problems trying to reduce the file size once it gets too large. Purging doesn't work, nor does reducing the number of views, families, etc. Once the file becomes large, is there no way or shrinking it? Thanks!

If you're not using worksets, then do a Save As and click on Options, and you will see a checkbox for compacting the file. I'm not sure what it does exactly, but I think it's the same thing that used to happen when you saved the file under a different file name. In our experience it has cut file sizes by over 50% in some cases.

[greg.mcdowell]

I get the sense that it has less to do with file size and more to do with relationships between elements in the Revit database... as mentioned before, the more Revit has to "think" the slower it will feel (though if you step back a moment and think about how long it would take the old way maybe it's not as slow as it seems)

[keparks123]

In most of the projects that I have been on, file size has nothing to do with Revit speed. Greg is perfectly correct. My project file sizes have ranged from 15mb to 300mb. There has been a very negligible difference in speed. If you isolate the elements that tend to cause slow downs. Groups, linked dwg, etc. You can keep the model running smooth.
Suggestion on how to achieve this: Turn everything possible into a component that is loaded into the project. (Including linked DWG) This will eliminate the need for Revit to constantly check up on the items "linked" or connected to the project. Taking a large project and splitting it into several smaller projects, if done improperly, will still result in a slower model. Revit will have to keep up with all of the files. You are essential using Revit like ADT. If you take the model and use worksets, the file size stays large, but the information is easily accessible and can be turned on and off to gain speed.
I am not advocating the use of a single model in all cases, I am merely saying that not all cases require a "split model"

[sbrown]

I agree file linking seems to slow things down(unfortunately). However with a proper workset breakdown almost anything is possible. When you say program dense, what does that mean? Lots of rooms. Because one of the things I have found to slow revit down is when I have 100s of rooms and lots of schedules with various shared parameters and calculated values analysizing the rooms of the building.

Basically if you break the building up into the pieces(worksets) and parts you will need to work on at the same time you can do large projects. For example, separate out your stair towers, elevator shafts etc. so you can selectively open just those when you need to really work on them. Have finishes on worksets that are NOT visible by default. If you have a hotel tower, have the podium level on one workset, the core and shell of the tower on one and the units on another. basically break it into pieces that get worked on without the need to see other parts.

[david_peterson]

I have a related question on this topic. We are using revit on a 250k sqft research facility. We will have our Structural model, a model for the archies (in RB), a model for our lab planners (In RB) a topo site map done in Acad, and MEP will be using ABS which we will have to import as well. The project has been split up into a campus style area made up of 7 buildings (250k sqft total). They want to keep this as a "campus" so in the end I will need to combine all info for 7 buildings into 1 centeral file. My fear is that Revit won't be able to open it. Has anyone ever come across a file that was to big to run. I thought that I had seen in one of the threads here that once you get up to about 350 mb, that Revit becomes very unhappy and tends not to work. Anyone else hear anything like that. Thanks in advance.