File size issue...

[cstarr]

I keep reading on the forums about people using 'save as' on the central file. What exactly does that mean? Do I 'save as' from the central file and overwrite itself? Do I check 'make this file central' when I do that? Does my team need to make new local copies from the 'new' central file? Please explain. Thanks.

btw, our file is pushing 98 MB...

[Alex Page]

98 Mb seems big too me, do a search about file sizes

OK....Ill try and explain about central files:
1. When you 'saveas' a central file, you are making a local copy. So all of your team members should be doing this and 'saveing-as' a local copy on there own PC. Then when you 'save to central' it saves the users local work back to the central file.
2. When you 'saveas' and 'make central', thats the equilivant of a, say, autocad 'saveas' command....I guess you would use this if you wanted to create a whole new file and keep the other one as a record

[cstarr]

This is a 180,000SF hospital in Dallas. I can only figure that is ALL of the 3D casework we have in the project. In a healthcare project, we need to elevate EVERY interior wall that has caswork on it. I have purged all unused items and views (plans, elevations, and 3d). i don't know what to do next....

[Alex Page]

I think you are right about the 3d casework..unless you have made them as parametric families.....

[cstarr]

well, none of them are 'in-place' if that's what you're geting at. They are really all included in a small number of families with that can be resized in both height and width. We do have alot of equipment in the project as well (MRI,CT, EP, OR, etc...) all in 3d. i have refrained from using many inplace families or 3d toilets, sinks, and beds. Will just have to keep looking into what is causing it...thanks for the help.

[tamas]

If you contact Revit support, they can look at your file and exactly tell where the bulk of it is coming from. It might even help future development to keep file sizes down.

Tamas

[patricks]

I used to work in healthcare architecture, so I know how complex these projects get. We used Microstation, but even still, the construction document sets were MASSIVE for these projects, compared to the small commercial work I do now.

You (or your company) may need to just bite the bullet and get systems capable of handling 100-150MB Revit files.

[sbrown]

Your file size is not too large. Now that you have a large file you need to start using worksets and selective open to help you manage working on the database. Read the help files on selective open(if there are any) make sure all team members understand worksets. First suggestion is to place the casework on a workset that is not visible by default. Then you won't have to watch revit regen all that casework in every elevation, 3d view etc. Also place any site info, entourage, detail modeling that is not needed in every view on a workset that is not visible by default. another big one is DWG imports, those should also be placed on a workset that is not visible by default and place them using current view only in most cases.

Good luck!

[DaveP]

Our first (pilot??? !!) project in Revit was a 120,000 sq ft medical/MOB building. By the time we got done with CDs, it was about 85 Meg, so yours sounds comparable. Now that we're well into construction, with all the addenda & ASIs, the central file is 94.4 Meg


A couple of things that hurt us bad (learning experience) were importing AutoCAD details & Exploding them and creating, Grouping, and copying a lot of inplace families. The project was started in 6.1 & it was a bad idea to explode DWGs then.

Our next project, which just issued CDs a couple of weeks ago is about 80,000 sq ft & is topped out so far at 57Meg. It's not a medical project, and there are some big open spaces.

[david.kingham]

The MOB i'm currently working on is 70mb and we're just starting DD's, it's 150,000sf....we don't really have any problems with save times. This is on 8.1, was only a little slower on 8.0