Drawing File Size "Norms"

[artitech]

As I work away at my Revit project, which is primarily a design / modelling excercise, not for construction drawings... I'm watching the file grow in size as I near the end of the drawing process.

(1) I have yet to complete the 2nd floor and basement plans in their entirety and I'm at 27 Mb in size already. Is this a normal drawing file size for a Revit Project? It seems awful large, but I realize it's packing a whole lot of data in one file.

(2) Is there a point where it becomes a risk to work with a certain drawing file size?

(3) Would it have been better to draw each floor as a separate drawing file?

I have the site plan to do last, but it will be a separate drawing file.

Curios, it's my first Revit project. Image attached.

[SkiSouth]

Although 27 megs could be reasonable for the project, (my most recent project through construction documents was 69 megs), a couple of things you can do. Remove any captured renderings, and purge unused components and objects from the file. But for the most part, as you have mentioned, it is a lot of data in one file. I usually only purge when I'm pretty sure the design has solidified.

[artitech]

Skisouth,

69 Mb's ! Wow, did you experience any problems with the software (or hardware) at that large a file size?

Perhaps these sizes are normal for modelling / database type software - I'm an old AutoCad user and never saw files grow this rapidly in size. I used to woryy when I hit 10Mb.

Thanks for the feedback.

[SkiSouth]

Skisouth,

69 Mb's ! Wow, did you experience any problems with the software (or hardware) at that large a file size?

.

No problems, except I use old technology (quad p3's), so initial load time is slow, but that's it.

[cosmickingpin]

those "modeling exercises" tend to get out of control for me in terms of file size. For me a big killer (besides captured renderings and unused components already dutifully noted) ends to be existing site elements I tend to model. For example, when we do a project in downtown detroit, I drop in a lightly detailed massing model of the entire downtown area, than as you can imagine, blows me above the 70 limit right there, another thing is when I don't have an existing site model, I will model a 3000 feet by 3000' floor (size limit) and decal a scaled aerial photo to it, and that also tends to shoot file size way up I have noticed. My point is that it is not always your building but also site elements that can cause this leap. Mid part of DD phase is when these elements get dropped off, and that brings my file size back down to reasonable ranges. Throwing those file size vampires onto their own workset does eliminate any workability issues as well, so if you find yourself in a bad siuation you can't get out of, you can always split the project into worksets and only open certain worksets as you work on it. So even if you end up with the MEGA file, there are lots of things you can do to keep your file very workable, I recall a Freedom Tower thread where they discuss how they split that project up and manage file size on what may be the largest project that will ever be done in Revit. So you really don't have to worry a lot about hitting a file size ceiling.
So no i wouldn't split the building up into a whole bunch of project files, BTW in Revit we have "project files" not "drawing files" ;)

[patricks]

As I work away at my Revit project, which is primarily a design / modelling excercise, not for construction drawings... I'm watching the file grow in size as I near the end of the drawing process.

(1) I have yet to complete the 2nd floor and basement plans in their entirety and I'm at 27 Mb in size already. Is this a normal drawing file size for a Revit Project? It seems awful large, but I realize it's packing a whole lot of data in one file.

(2) Is there a point where it becomes a risk to work with a certain drawing file size?

(3) Would it have been better to draw each floor as a separate drawing file?

I have the site plan to do last, but it will be a separate drawing file.

Curios, it's my first Revit project. Image attached.

So why don't you do CD's in Revit? Try it sometime, you might like it. ;)

File size depends largely on two factors: building size and amount of detail.

We recently finished a church at my office, approx 30K sq. ft. and the Revit file was around 35MB when all said and done (including all construction drawings, details, etc.). That's probably the biggest file we've had at my office, where we do mostly small-ish commercial work

[artitech]

Good feedback everyone, thanks.

Patricks, our office has just strated it's first construction drawing in Revit and it's going well. Mine is for my thesis, I'm completing it while I work.. it's like..... three jobs !

[sbrown]

I'll have file sizes in SD that are over 150mb due to imported images, etc. then when I remove those it gets down to say 40mb, then once cd's are done, right around 80-100mb. These are larger projects. But I've had 100,000sf medical offices, full cds at around 65mb. When the files get big worksets is how you manage the database. They let you selectivly open only parts of the model, so you aren't having to open the entire database, just to do a door detail.

[SCShell]

Hey there,
My last CD project was a 2 story office building (Shell). I admit that I have not cleaned the file very well since it still has renderings and other "non-used" families and DWG files.
The good news is that the file behaved very well throughout the entire process. It just takes a little time to backup every 15 minutes, but well worth it.

For reference however:
72 - 24" x 36" sheets total. (38 of them are mine, Architectural)
95 MB total (includes a bunch of imported DWG files for the Civil and Survey info and a lot of detail views for ADA, Curtainwall and roof details.)

Good luck with your project and it does look very nice! (Oh, I forgot, I originally thought that it was a terminal building for an airport project maybe.)
Steve

[artitech]

I'm curios - has anyone divided a project into worksets "after" they were well into the drawing process?

For example, what would happen if I took my drawing that has three floors, and after I've drawn the main floor and part of the second floor already in one project file, decided to make the basement and second floor as separate worksets from the main floor?

What do you do, make the original file the "central" file and then the basement and second separate worksets? What would you do with the information already drawn for the second floor in the original file (which is now to become the central file)?

I ask this because it may not become apparent until later in the process that a project needs to be divided into worksets (either as you introduce additional staff or perhaps the file size starts to become extremely large.

Is this possible / adviseable?

[jbalding48677]

Not only can you divide it into worksets mid project, you can change the way your worksets are set up to mimic work flow. I know from first hand experience, we are on our 3rd workset scheme on the current project here. It was well worth the effort to get to where we are today.

FWIW, Paul, I think you should take the online tutorials on worksets, it does not appear as though you have a complete grasp of the concepts.

HTH -

[cosmickingpin]

It is very possible and I do it all the time. Our esteemed Wes has put together his "Revit Best Practices" which I think the factory ought to put in their manual and start sending him some royalty checks. In it he describes some guidelines for setting up worksets. you can find it here:
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?postid=84083#poststop

When you hit that workset button, under no circumstances try to abort the process, you will get a messed up file. Save off a version of your file before you do split it up to you can go back and do it over if need be. But I have found his guidelines to generally useful in all my work. Just go slow and use your view filters to make sure you get everything on the right workset. It is not hard but you will need to think it through.




I'm curios - has anyone divided a project into worksets "after" they were well into the drawing process?
For example, what would happen if I took my drawing that has three floors, and after I've drawn the main floor and part of the second floor already in one project file, decided to make the basement and second floor as separate worksets from the main floor?
What do you do, make the original file the "central" file and then the basement and second separate worksets? What would you do with the information already drawn for the second floor in the original file (which is now to become the central file)?
I ask this because it may not become apparent until later in the process that a project needs to be divided into worksets (either as you introduce additional staff or perhaps the file size starts to become extremely large.
Is this possible / adviseable?

[Shaun v Rooyen]

I'm curios - has anyone divided a project into worksets "after" they were well into the drawing process?


We do it with almost every project.One person does the initial setup stuff then the CD's team climbs in, seperates the project into worksets to suite the different needs of the team. No one projects worksets are the same.


For example, what would happen if I took my drawing that has three floors, and after I've drawn the main floor and part of the second floor already in one project file, decided to make the basement and second floor as separate worksets from the main floor??

What do you do, make the original file the "central" file and then the basement and second separate worksets? What would you do with the information already drawn for the second floor in the original file (which is now to become the central file)?

I ask this because it may not become apparent until later in the process that a project needs to be divided into worksets (either as you introduce additional staff or perhaps the file size starts to become extremely large.

Is this possible / adviseable?

Its all one file!! think of it as a layering system objects can be placed onto different worksets as you did to different layers, yet its far more complicated than that. Having said that though, (and I am basing this just on the type question you asked in the second part) Do get trained up on worksets otherwise the project could turn messy without training, careful planning and co-ordination.

[beegee]

One "Rule of Thumb" re Worksets, is to wait as long as possible before starting the workset process.

Worksets will take more time to manage. The pm will need to check project status more regularly and also at the end of the day, there could be conflicts that he needs to resolve before STC is completed. Once you start worksets - they're there to stay.

That's not to say you shouldn't use them - they're one of Revit's most powerful features - just make sure you're fully aware of the processes involved.



I'm curios - has anyone divided a project into worksets "after" they were well into the drawing process?

>>Is this possible / adviseable?

[SkiSouth]

As a one man office, I never use worksets. I can easily see where they are necessary, but as BG has implied, they are just one more thing to go wrong. (from a management standpoint).

[JONB.102117]

you can go into your central file, create worksets in the central file, save, and i believe Revit will ask you to specify a central file. i just did the same thing with my project and it was easy. Revit lets you know if your file is a central file or if you want to make it central. good luck.

[aaronrumple]

worksets. Good stuff. Use 'em for every phase of the project - even when working solo.