Need suggestions for conceptual design/file management

[bwilliams133]

I've used Revit at a couple of past employers where they had people who understood this program much better than me. I didn't work at either place long enough to really understand the whole file management-best practices thing and now, after 1.5 years of non-Revit work, I'm the "revit expert" at my current company. With past versions of Revit, I know there were some good rules to follow concerning file management, but I'm not really able to find information on that now. Here's what I'd like some input on...
1. How do you handle the conceptual phase? This is where we might be completely rearranging the floor plan 3-4 times and design options just doesn't seem like a good idea for that. We're not even ready for massing at this point, we're just trrying to understand program and the user's needs.
2. Are you generating plans with a different software then bringing it into Revit once it's closer to design development?

In the past, with AutoCAD, others in my company would create a floor plan, then copy and paste over and make changes all within one file. There could be 10-15 different floor plans in that one file. Then once a plan was chosen, they would archive the original file and create a new one to work off of with just the one (current) floor plan. I know that I've been told in the past that copying a revit model multiple times within the same file is not a good idea. My co-worker would like to create several revit files with a different floor plan option in each one. While this seems like the option that might work, I'd like to know what you might be doing at this stage? Any suggestions would be appreciated as I'm just not familiar enough with what Revit does or doesn't like in the background as far as the software and file management is concerned. Too many times with Revit I've been bitten by heading down a road without understanding the consequences of what I've done to get there!

Thanks in advance.

[cliff collins]

1. Design Options are actually perfect for what you are trying to do.

2. You can also explore using Groups for certain situations.

3. You can create separate Linked Revit Models, and combine them into a Master Model file, then use Worksets and/or Filters to control the various models' visibility.

[Mike L Sealander]

Ahh, there's the difference between Revit and AutoCAD. With AutoCAD, you draw lines and pretend it's a building floor plan. So to do a couple of quick sketches and plop them all over model space is not a big deal. With Revit, the impulse might be to try and sketch with walls, floors and windows, when what you might really want to be doing is just drawing with regions. A friend of mine made parametric detail families that can be assigned program information, and also show area in big letters. You might try that route: just sketch, without pretending it's a building. When you decide on a winning bubble diagram, draw walls on top of it.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

If all you are doing is space planning area plans are another option.
Create a new area scheme for each different layout. Organize the poject 3 dimensionally so you can schedule by level. You can use color schemes to provide color fill plans for presentation.
The ability to schedule area objects and add other properties is also valuable at early design stage.

[antman]

Dimitri, do you have a tip for using Design Options for areas and area boundaries? I can't figure out how to add those to a particular option. Or do you mean to create a new level for each option? That was the best workaround I could think of.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Anthony,
Check out this thread from Revit Forum http://www.revitforum.org/architecture-general-revit-questions/373-area-plans-phasing-3.html
I could have sworn I had posted about this on AUGI somewhere along the line but couldn't find it with a quick search.
The bottom line is each 'option' (different set of boundary lines) needs to be a separate 'area scheme'. Each area scheme then has its own set of plans and its own schedules.