Residential Plan & Elevation Options - Need Help ASAP!!

[eric.110455]

any help would is greatly appreciated.
I'm about to start a large project that requires 4 homes to be designed for a large subdivision. Each home will have multiple floor plan options and three elevation options, my question is how do I manage this within Revit (use to it all in AutoCad)? Floor plan options will show 3 to 5 different room layouts to choose from. when each layout is interior walls only, using design options seems the easiest but what if one or more options involve the exterior wall that slightly increase the square footage and modifies the roof? lastly and most important, how do I manage three different elevations? For example, if we want to have an architectural theme for Spanish, Tuscan, and Craftsman, how do we show different materials to be used on each elevation along with architectural elements such as corbels, trim, arc openings versus square, etc....

if one or more of you have successfully accomplished this in the past I would love to see some examples before I get too far into this project and find out I'm doing something the wrong way or the long way.
Thank you again in advance for your help.
Eric

[david_peterson]

You have a few options, some are much better than other, but none of them are a lot of fun.
You could use design options to create each different option, but that would require you to basically model everything 4 or 5 times depending on the number of options.
I'd suggest that you create separate models to start from, 1 for each option.
The other option would be to split the interior and exterior depending on how interdependent the interior to exterior are.
If it's really 3-5 different houses, I'd say make 3 to 5 models. From there you can use those as a starting point, find out what the client/designer wants and use the base model as more of a template. Switch out the exterior material as needed.
Basically IMHO there's no silver bullet option for what you want to do. Design options are nice, but each option needs to be modeled separately so I'm not sure what you really gain. I'm assuming that in the end the buyer is going to choose before construction starts. In this case you don't want to be so locked in that you don't have the ability to make slight adjustments per buyers request.
Just my thoughts.

[eric.110455]

Hi David,
thank you for your response. One of the biggest negatives I see to creating multiple models just for different elevations is when it comes to revisions. Let's say my client wants to add a couple feet to the house and change some of the interior layouts, it's nothing major but I have to go into every model and do the same work over and over right?? there must be a better way to do this? has anybody else tried this approach, if so were you successful? Again, I am not saying it's the wrong way I just want to make sure I start my first production home project with as much knowledge as possible. Thank you again.

[david_peterson]

Well if your client is making changes, isn't it a custom home at that point?
I'm just suggesting you come up with some very basic exterior and or interior models and link them together.
Use them as a template for the final custom home.
You can use design options, but your basically going to model everything 5 times anyway. Why not start with a base model and go from there? Again, you can use design options, but they get very cumbersome. They don't seem to work very well for the way they are intended. For example, if you wanted a design option for taller walls in the kitchen or the bath or something, the objects that were hosted on those walls would need to be duplicated for the design option or they would loose their host. That's the big kicker. I'm not saying you can't do it all in one model, but from what I've heard, it's not always your best option. Sometimes it's just better to bite the bullet than it is to try to add all that complexity to your model. Just my humble opinion.
I'm sure some others will chime in. Or at least I hope they do.
Best of luck.

[jsteinhauer]

Eric,

I would agree with Dave's concept of separate models for differing house floor plans. If the client wants to change the base model, you can always do a save as of it, and go from there. The site model could then reference all of the different models that get deigned, and placed onto the lots. I would keep a whole house model within one file, instead of breaking apart the interior vs exterior. If you want to have options setup for different exterior materials, patterns and colors, this can be done easily enough by taking your base model elements, and applying them to your different Options under an Option Set via the Add to Design Option Set. I would also probably have two separate walls for the exterior butted up together and joined so windows and doors cut both. The first being the stud with drywall on one side, and maybe sheathing/insulation on the other. The outer most material would comprise the second wall, and would end up being the thickness of your finish material.

Start by setting up your Option Set, and creating your Options underneath. Be sure to name them, so that everyone understands what they are looking at. You can draw your walls, then apply them to one or more design options. If you want to change the color scheme of one of the design options you can duplicate it, then continue to modify the elements. To increase you're productivity, you can setup working views that reference each Option. That way you don't need turn Options on and off.

Best of luck. Be sure to update us on your progress, and let us know if you have any other questions.

Cheers,
Jeff S.

[eric.110455]

the more I think about it the more your approach makes sense, but I have a couple questions before I get started. Are you suggesting three separate models of exterior elements only (walls, windows, doors, roof, etc....), then a fourth model which is the main file with interior elements including, interior walls, floors, fixtures, notations, sheets, etc... I then insert one of the exterior models and use that as my main viewing model for all sheets and floor plan options. I then insert the remaining two exterior models for my elevation options sheet and possibly roof options sheet? does reference files such as this work correctly with schedules ( window and door)?

Am I on the right track with 4 separate files, 3 being exterior elements and 1 being interior elements which is also my main construction document file? also, when referencing files does hosted objects work correctly? example, if I have a wall based interior object such as a toilet in the fourth file ( my main file) will it host to one of the exterior reference file? I hope that makes sense.

Thank you again for all your help, I think you guys are going to save me a lot of headache

[irneb]

I'm also in agreement about the DesOp being less useful than separate models. Separate models (especially if you can split interiors) is much more manageable to mix-n-match than DesOp - especially for these cases.

One thing I can note about the separate models: If you're going to link them into a "site" make sure when you draw them that each one's project origin is in the same place and that it's oriented the same way. Then you can simply change the linked model the same way you do with family types. If you're not pedantic about the project origin, you're going to find such change "jumps" and/or rotates the building if you change it to another option.

I had a retirement village last year, around 200 semi-attached simplex-units. We did a modular design, and since I made sure these worked it was a breeze to choose between 1/2/3 bedroom, north / south entrance and economical / luxury units. Fortunately I didn't need to worry about external finishes differing between units. That might be an issue!

[david_peterson]

Hi Eric,
You're right on track. You don't have to go this way, but it might be your best option. The other thought I had (depending on how different the interiors are as well as file size. Start with 3 basic complete (interior and exterior) models. Use them as a starting point (template if you will) and modify to your hearts content.
Again I'm looking at this from kind of a spec home line of thought. Here's the baseline design. Now Mr. Customer, what would you like us to do with it. If they're all going to have the exact same foot print, separate int. and Ext models might be better as it would be simply to swap them out. If the foot prints vary, then I'm not so sure I'd see much productivity gain by having them separate. Exterior materials are easy enough to change IMHO. The more the interior interfaces and drives the exterior and vice versa, the less benefit you'll see from the separated models.
Hope this helps.