Design Options - best practice

[jmc73]

Hello all,

Has anyone ever experienced a problem with using too many design options? I'm not experiencing any problems, but the issue has been raised in my office as to the "fact" that using too many can be "problematic" -- with no real explanation. I was just wondering if this has been anyone's experience?

Revit 2015/2016

Thanks

[CAtDiva]

A few thoughts (might be a bit random or rambling):
- How do you decide what goes in which option? Are they variations on variations on variations? If the same thing occurs in two out of three options, it can't be in the main model and therefore has to be created/modified more than once.
- Keeping track of which option is for what gets confusing eventually. If you're working with a team, careful communication & attention is required to make sure views/sheets are setup & maintained coherently.
- Are you using Design Options for archiving previous ideas? If so, then you should just save a copy of the Revit model and move on ... rarely have I gone back to a previous idea, but you can always go back to that archived file and pull what you need from it.
- MEP can't use Design Options ... their systems require the whole system to be in the same option (and/or phase). So once they're involved, know they won't be using the D.O.'s.

[jmc73]

The design options are just that .. design options. There's nothing tricky or special about them. Just various ideas (single column vs double column in one, trellis vs awning in another, arched front entry vs squared off etc...)

They aren't very complicated. Just coming up with ideas to present to the client as the design progresses. Right now we have 7 different options. This is apparently "too many". But I haven't noticed any model performance issues at all.

[CAtDiva]

I suspect the technical side is not really the concern, but rather are you overwhelming the client with too many choices to make?

Or is the client asking to "see" this & that for every part of the project?

In other words, I think it's more a project management question, rather than can the software/hardware handle it.

(FWIW, I am very likely to want to present many options to a client myself, so I probably should just shut up now. ;) )

[jmc73]

Haha ... no. This is strictly an internal office issue. The client has requested various options. One person in our office is claiming that too many design options can be problematic from a Revit performance standpoint. I think it's more of a housekeeping/ocd thing than a model performance issue, and since he's the BIM model maintenance guy for this project, he gets to make this type of call.

I was just looking to see if anyone's model has exploded due to having too many design options.

[Revitaoist]

In theory excessive design options will slow the model down, not by the nature of DO, but just that it is model geometry. It's just a good practice to purge out what you don't need, and applies more to the end game than up front. Just use DO for that: DESIGN options. Once the contract is signed to move forward with CD, there should be no design options in the model for any reason.

[CAtDiva]

Haha ... no. This is strictly an internal office issue. The client has requested various options. One person in our office is claiming that too many design options can be problematic from a Revit performance standpoint. I think it's more of a housekeeping/ocd thing than a model performance issue, and since he's the BIM model maintenance guy for this project, he gets to make this type of call.

I was just looking to see if anyone's model has exploded due to having too many design options.

Yes, I think you're right that it's more housekeeping/management (i.e. keeping track) than Revit itself. And he may be remembering his experience with older versions & older computers.

Here's a questions for him: given the client has requested to see these options, how would he propose managing them if you don't use design options? I would contend that managing multiple models is more cumbersome than managing multiple D.O.s

And another question: What phase of design are you in (schematic, design development, construction docs)? How far into the design process does the client want you to carry these options? At some point, one (of each set) needs to be selected for construction ... the sooner that happens, the less headache there is for the whole team.

I once carried D.O.s through the DD issue set as "alternates" (in this case it was additional building, not something to switch between). After DDs, the project was handed off to another firm to finish the CDs. The next time I saw the project, the D.O.s had been incorporated into the whole, even though they were still "alternates". I think it confused the architectural team in addition to not playing nicely with the mechanical system.

[david_peterson]

Has anyone ever tried to use DO's as an option for adding additional floors to a building? I'm talking about adding 100ksf to a building with a larger project team. Thoughts?