Multiple instances of a link

[MikeJarosz]

I am planning a large campus with multiple buildings. We've established a site and a project orientation. There will be five identical dormitories besides 5 or 6 other buildings: admin, visitor center, maintenance etc. All are separate models linked into a consolidated site plan. Naturally we want to model the dorm only once. I took a chance and arrayed the dormitory link. It seems it worked!

This was just too easy. "Easy" in Revit is a relative term. Is this indeed the right way to do it, or will I get into trouble later having copied links?

[jsteinhauer]

Mike,

Are you modifying any of those 5 identical dormitories? Or are you using them as a reference for your new work? I would say that you did it the right way, without knowing any more then what you shared already. Remember, that you can manage the visibility of links either globally or for each instance.

Cheers,
Jeff S.

[CAtDiva]

That sounds good to me ... at least as a starting point. My skeptical side wonders how long the "identical" dorms stay identical ... but they can be updated/replaced later if that becomes necessary.

[MikeJarosz]

I understand that it is possible that the 5 dorms can drift away from perfect copies of each other during development, but this is a feasibility study, while we are negotiating a contract. Right now the goal is speed with a minimum amount of work. This is coming out of our marketing budget.

[david_peterson]

Not sure if array was the correct method. I've copied a link before to a different location on site. It was a small little guard shack, but it worked. No different that copying an xref in cad only it's a linked model. We've done similar things with stairs on a project before. They were all supposed to be "Exactly" the same. That lasted about a week.

[Steve_Stafford]

Yes, copying links is anticipated. It's also one of the scenarios that Shared Coordinates was intended to address. Reused designs like what you describe or housing where Design A is repeated and Design B is repeated elsewhere is quite common. For example, you'll find that each instance of your single linked design is listed beneath the main "link definition" in Visibility/Graphics, expand the list beneath the top level listing for the linked file.

You can Publish Coordinates for each copy after rotating, raising and position each of them on the site. Yes it is best to do this in a separate site model that is aligned with survey data. When you publish the coordinates you can create unique Named Locations for each copy's position on site, like Bldg A, Bldg B etc. This means you can return to the building file later and show the site orientation for any one of the (five in your case) positions that have been stored there. You make the desired location "current" and Revit changes the orientation of the model in views that are using True North. Views assigned to Project North are unaffected but Levels can report their Shared Elevation (actual elevation) and so can show the different elevations of each building, if any.

Quite powerful once you understand it.

[MikeJarosz]

Thanks Steve, that's what I wanted to hear: that these links can go on to be named Building A, Building B etc. Here's the result:


95479

Okay, Okay -- we need floors. We'll get to that :lol: