Revit with large projects

[yonit_levy1867]

I am trying to convince my boss to use Revit in the office but he is afraid that it is not a proper solution for the large projects we are dealing with.
is it true?

[BomberAIA]

What type of projects? The largest building I produced in Revit was a 28,000 s.f. clubhouse. I am now working on 2 townhouse projects.

[yonit_levy1867]

Mostly We are designing public buildings and commercial projects (Government projects, hotels, shoping centers etc.)
The size of the projects varies, starts from around 10,000sqm and on

[David Sammons]

Go to RUGI.org and look at the projects in the gallery. As they say...the proof is in the pudding.

I think Revit is well suited for the large projects. In fact, I believe the larger the project - the better, particularly if the project has a lot of repetition (i.e. typical floors, etc.). But Revit is even suited for the more atypical projects if you are well versed in using the program.

Invest time in learning Revit with the tutorials and all of the other online resources and try not to get yourself into a time crunch without being very familiar with the program. It does not take a whole lot of time to get up to speed with the program and begin to wonder why you did not start using it months or even years ago (in my humble opinion).

Dave S.

[yonit_levy1867]

I was looking at the www.rugi.org but it seems that most of the projects are private resident. Is there someone here that actually work on a large project and can help me with this question?

[Paul P.]

Try looking at the Autodesk Revit Gallery, this has a number of projects of varyinh types and sizes.

Regards, Paul.

[jbalding48677]

Yonit -

We specialize in the hospitality industry and the type of large projects you are discribing. (see www.watg.com) We are working on a prototype hotel of 42 stories and experimenting with "best practice" solutions for buildings of this type.

I might recommend that you take things one step at a time. Start small, get used to the new interface and way of doing things and move up from there. That is not only a good way to get used to the software etc. it is easier for the boss to swallow a few subscriptions at a time all the while seeing the benefit of this new way of doing things.

There is a library example of 100,000 s.f. throught CDs on the Revit Gallery along with a 320,000 s.f. sample hotel. You might take a look at those as well.

HTH -

[christopher.zoog51272]

Yonit,

We use revit for large projects. We design and documnent Large Scale Senior Housing projects (apartments, assisted living), hotels, warehouses, office buildings, etc.

Here are two of our senior projects tyhat are currently in the construction documents phase, both around 115,000 to 135,000 sf, 4 to five stores, with 90 to 115 dwelling units.

http://www.zoogdesign.com/albums/revit/2k222_00_DDEV_LOCAL_FILE_CJZ.sized.jpg
http://www.zoogdesign.com/albums/revit/redeemer.jpg

An office building:


http://www.zoogdesign.com/albums/revit/DAY_RENDER_copy.sized.jpg

rennovation project in schematic design

http://www.zoogdesign.com/albums/revit/GREEN_NIGHT_watercolor_cflat.sized.jpg

in short we do a lot of large projects, BUT, we also have the hardware muscle to handle such jobs, expect to invest in quality enterprise level workstations.

hth,

Z.

[yonit_levy1867]

Thanks, I hope it will help

[SCShell]

Hi Yonit,
I have been using Revit (or learning rather) since July. I can tell you this. I do only commercial/retail/healthcare projects as well as lots of zoning and rezoning type work. This involves mostly site planning; however, the architectural work I have done on Revit 5.1 has been a real treat.

I started with all of the tutorials, and these on-line forums as well as my local Revit Users Group which meets once a month. I immediatly started out by modeling my first "as-built" for a small 8,000 SF office building remodel. (the client is a friend, and I asked if he would mind if I tried out my software on his project.)

Since that time, I have done over 8 projects on Revit. All of these were finished sets of drawings for permits. They range from tenant improvements to a 20,000 sf metal building addition to a manufacturing plant which involved a lot of remodel work to the site and adjacent buildings. I can only tell you that Revit has far outperformed by original expectations.

Up until July, I hand drew everything! (I trained on cad in the early eighties and learned AutoCad enough to work with my engineers; however, I never bought into it all. I am an "artist", not a production king.
The only thing I asked when buying my new program was that I wanted a program that "understood" what a building was and knew that a wall was a "wall" etc. Much to my surprise, Revit did.
It is an amazing program; however, it does require that you have a good working knowledge of buildings!!!! A simple, entry level "drafting person" might not be able to enter a building model since he or she may not understand all of the complexities of a building. Design decissions are made very, very early in the process in order to fully take advantage of the modeling ability of Revit. (You can always go back and change things of course; however, I like getting it right the first time.)

Every project I have done is an improvement on the project before it. The latest project I did in Revit involved a mid-rise office building here. I have been doing all of the Tenant Improvements in the building for the past 15 years. Now, we are getting ready to re-do the entire lobby, first level in order to expand the Bank tenant and create a whole new "feel". In addition, we have 4 or 5 TI's in the floors above. I took this opportunity to model the original "Shell Building" in order to have all of the individual floor plates and site/ground level. As a result, my tenant improvement have taken a fraction of time and I presented the Owner with a wonderfull rendering of his building for Christmas last week. (I still like that old tradition!)

Hopefully, this has helped. I am off to work. (late start this morning!)
Steve Shell, Architect
Tucson, AZ

[sbrown]

With proper usage of worksets and project set up I don't think large projects are a problem. However to learn the software I highly suggest you do a small project first, less at risk. You don't want to fail or get to frustrated because you picked the wrong type of project to start with.

A simple commercial building on really any size is ideal to start with. Square footage really doesn't have much bearing on revit performance. A large warehouse 150,000sf will be a much smaller file than a 8,000 sf custom home. Its all in the amount of detail the project needs.

The hardest projects I've done in revit have been custom homes.

I'm currently working on a 125,000 sf golf clubhouse that will probably be the most ornate building I've done in Revit. Tuscan style, high level of finish.

I'd say core and shell projects of anysize are a breeze in revit, Heavy interiors without proper management can get performance down. Ie, don't model (or don't include) 400 beds, sinks, etc. in a hotel, just place what you need to see, then use symbols instead of 3dmodels for the rest.