Design Options and Worksharing

[frustratedtonoend]

We have an existing building that requires design options for completely remodeling the interior of three floors. I am using design options for each scheme. Since the scope is large we have several people working on it. However, it seems ALL design options in Revit are in a single workset. Even when I create a new option set for each floor, people cannot work on different floors (in seperate option sets). This is very frustrated given the scope of the project. Does Autodesk really expect one person to handle the entire project in such a case until an option is accepted as primary, or is there a way to have multiple people work on design options?

This really burns me, since it would seam worksharing does NOT appear to FULLY supported in Revit as advertised. This is a MAJOR blunder.

Please help if there is a solution.

[bregnier]

This is a thorny issue, and I'm interested to hear how other people here are handling versions early in design. If it's an interior remodel and the schemes are totally different, before DD I'd work in three different models, maybe linked into a core and shell. If I use DO's it's for something with a small, definable scope, like an entry canopy or glazing layout. A DO that encompasses almost an entire building is going to bloat the model and make it very hard to work within. If you still want to use DO's I'd make at least one for each floor instead of three gigantic ones, and if I could I'd break it up more. What if the client wants to cherry pick parts out of each option?

As for the worksets, your users should still be able to borrow single DO's out of the workset to edit them separately - as long as nobody makes editable the whole Design Option workset you're fine. It's true that two people can't work in the same DO at the same time, so you'll have to consider that when creating the options. I'm not sure if two people can work in the same DO set at the same time - anyone have experience with this? People are going to have to pay attention and relinquish often until the options are resolved.

If your office is committed to using Revit, it's probably a better approach to ask how you can use this tool to achieve your goals, instead of railing against Autodesk when something doesn't work out perfectly. It's a very powerful tool, but like anything else it has limitations.

[frustratedtonoend]

This is a thorny issue, and I'm interested to hear how other people here are handling versions early in design. If it's an interior remodel and the schemes are totally different, before DD I'd work in three different models, maybe linked into a core and shell. If I use DO's it's for something with a small, definable scope, like an entry canopy or glazing layout. A DO that encompasses almost an entire building is going to bloat the model and make it very hard to work within. If you still want to use DO's I'd make at least one for each floor instead of three gigantic ones, and if I could I'd break it up more. What if the client wants to cherry pick parts out of each option?

As for the worksets, your users should still be able to borrow single DO's out of the workset to edit them separately - as long as nobody makes editable the whole Design Option workset you're fine. It's true that two people can't work in the same DO at the same time, so you'll have to consider that when creating the options. I'm not sure if two people can work in the same DO set at the same time - anyone have experience with this? People are going to have to pay attention and relinquish often until the options are resolved.

If your office is committed to using Revit, it's probably a better approach to ask how you can use this tool to achieve your goals, instead of railing against Autodesk when something doesn't work out perfectly. It's a very powerful tool, but like anything else it has limitations.

I've tried using different option sets for different parts. If someone is in one option set ALL the other sets (not just options, but option SETS) are unavailable. It just isn't practical to have people STCing and relinquishing after ever move within Revit. It's too far along to go back to three models. And while I'm not the most experienced Revit user, I did research the best way to this with various books and training guides for learning courses. NONE mentioned the limititation of worksets and design options, and that's how I ended up in this dilemma.

I don't usually rail when I want information. But this problem seems especially huge. It basically means large firms working on large projects, projects ironically one would think of as perfect for Revit, cannot use Revit until the all options have been presented and one selected. Since this site is sponsored by Autodesk (I think) I'm hoping someone will see this and get something done to fix it. I want to use Revit, because while frustrating at times, it is overall great to work with. In other words, I'm not anti-Revit, I'm pro-Revit Improvement. And let's face it. While Revit has been around for a long time, it's still in it's infancy as a MAINSTREAM project documentation package.

[bregnier]

Check out this thread:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=59508&highlight=design+options+workset

Looks like the workset you're having problems with only gets checked out if you make changes to the design option organization - adding a new one, renaming etc. If someone does that they need to STC right afterwards, otherwise you should be fine. Might be best if people work in dedicated workset views and use "pick to edit". :)

[frustratedtonoend]

Check out this thread:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=59508&highlight=design+options+workset

Looks like the workset you're having problems with only gets checked out if you make changes to the design option organization - adding a new one, renaming etc. If someone does that they need to STC right afterwards, otherwise you should be fine. Might be best if people work in dedicated workset views and use "pick to edit". :)

We will try that. In the mean time, We've only been working on the first option. (there are no elements in the Option 2, etc.). I've made Option one primary and accepted it to effectively delete the other empty options. That way we can tweak areas of the primary option (now the main model) and add smaller areas as option sets. Then we can do as you suggest, use "pick to edit".

Also, I thought about trying to use phases instead of option sets.

Thanks for your help... and for understanding.