help! file instability

[jessica.146534]

I've done quite a bit of internet searching to find some advice on how to get my 550+MB file under control but so far I haven't come up with anything that I can actually use.

I'm working on a LARGE (65K sq ft) private residence and we need to incorporate a lot of detail work which means lots of families (both external and in-place) and basically custom everything. We are working on a presentation with the client right now and just over the past few weeks the file size jumped about 200MB because of all the modeling we've been doing.

It is not realistic to split the house into multiple files (although we did build the topo in a separate file and link that in) and I need all the custom families & detailing.

We are having significant performance issues lately (5 min STC times, panning around even in plans is laggy, forget trying to work in a view with shadows turned on, having to restart Revit every hour or so because every views becomes wireframe, etc.).

I am concerned that as this project continues to move forward and we add even more detail to it (we haven't even started CDs yet) that the file is going to keep growing to a point where it's unusable. I can't afford to lose all this work!

FYI we have 6 people all working simultaneously on the file which is hosted on Revit Server.

Does anyone have any advice/best practices? Could it be a hardware issue (we all have 16GB of RAM and seem to fill all of the requirements for graphics cards, etc. that Autodesk recommends).

Thanks in advance, I'm really hoping AUGI can help me!
Jessica

[dhurtubise]

Few questions
1- What's the file size?
2- Warnings count?
3- Why Revit Server?
4- Can you define detail?

And last but not so obvious, can you share the file?

[jessica.146534]

1. File size is 570MB (according to Revit Server admin Support File size is 115MB)
2. Warning count is 720 but I would say 90% of the warnings are about lines being slightly off axis (that is intentional - areas of the house are on an angle) or elements have duplicate Type Mark value (also on purpose)
3. We are using Revit Server because we have someone out of state working on the project.
4. Detail is lots of in-place families (many had to be created in-place because of the weird geometry of the project), the weird geometry of the house means lots of custom families, non-regular wall openings on curved walls had to be created in-place (voids), lots of complex roof shapes, lots of custom extrusions because of unusual shapes.

One thing I'm concerned about is that we've use in-place sweeps for crown molding and baseboard - in EVERY room. I hate the wall sweep command (I feel that it's clumsy and difficult to control, especially when using it in small rooms) and didn't know what else to use. There are hundreds of rooms which means there are a ton of in-place families for base and crown.

Unfortunately I cannot share the file. Privacy issues.

Thanks,
Jessica

[meng005]

Hi Jessica,

When was the last time you re-created the model? Based on your file specs, I would suggest that you re-create the model at least once a month. Frequent crashing, unique errors, and quirky behavior are indicators that it is time to re-build the model. I recommend this for all Revit projects, not just Revit Server projects.

[jessica.146534]

Hi Jessica,

When was the last time you re-created the model? Based on your file specs, I would suggest that you re-create the model at least once a month. Frequent crashing, unique errors, and quirky behavior are indicators that it is time to re-build the model. I recommend this for all Revit projects, not just Revit Server projects.


What do you mean by "re-create the model"?

[Duncan Lithgow]

You haven't mentioned how you're using worksets in the project. There should be a lot to gain there.

Valid angles under 0.2° seems unusual, but it sounds like your project is unusual.

[jessica.146534]

Duncan,
I'm using Worksets for linked files (ACAD and Revit) as well as some detail items (ie. floor patterns). The bulk of the model is all on one workset. It's not realistic to break it into exterior and interior walls but I am considering adding more worksets for detail items (for things like baseboards and crown moulding).

Any other suggestions?

[rtaube]

What do you mean by "re-create the model"?

I think he means to save it as a new Central file. With a file this size you should also Purge Unused on a regular basis, and I've found that simply clicking the Compact File can cut your file size down by 30% sometimes.

[Duncan Lithgow]

Duncan,
I'm using Worksets for linked files (ACAD and Revit) as well as some detail items (ie. floor patterns). The bulk of the model is all on one workset. It's not realistic to break it into exterior and interior walls but I am considering adding more worksets for detail items (for things like baseboards and crown moulding).

Any other suggestions?

I suggest that any categories that represent aspects of the project you don't work on at the same time should be in separate worksets. If the roof is complex and you don't usually work on roofs and other things at the same time, then move the roof(s) to their own workset. You can keep doing this for all sorts of things. If you have stairs and railings they could also benefit from being in their own workset - especially if they represent a lot of geometry, for example complex balusters or treads. By keeping all of a/some categories in one workset it's easy to maintain model discipline by setting up views which only show things which are in the wrong workset.

Worksets can really save a large project. I've had 300,000 m2 in one file managed as links and worksets.

I assume you don't have links as room bounding, that's a heavy toll on the model.

I assume also that you're running 64bit with a lot of RAM, ie. up to 32GB.

[jessica.146534]

Thanks Duncan,
I've started creating some additional worksets as suggested. Hopefully that helps a bit. There are no rooms in the linked files so that's not an issue, and I have more RAM coming next week (we currently have 16GB and will be upgrading to 32GB) and we have 64 bit.

I also compacted the central file which made the file size drop by about 20% so that's good.

I'm trying to avoid paying a third party to analyze the file (it's crazy expensive!) so fingers crossed that all of this helps. Thanks again!

Jessica

[Duncan Lithgow]

Just to clarify for future readers. The point of moving things to Worksets is so that some of them can be closed when opening the file. A closed workset represents a whole set of information not sent to your computer and not using your computers memory. To get people into the habit of using worksets in a large project I always save the central file with the 'Specify worksets' option. That way all users are presented with a dialog on startup asking them which worksets they want to open.

[kubsix]

Check out http://download.autodesk.com/us/revit/revit_performance/Autodesk_Revit_2015_Model_Performance_Technical_Note.pdf

In-place families can add up.

[rtaube]

Also make sure that everyone is using the same Revit Build (Update number). Not doing this can cause instabilities.