8.1/E - Improved model linking - O

[gibson.tim91884]

I need better functionality with linked files. A few items of note:

1. The ability to put doors, windows, and openings into walls in linked files so that I can use a model that the structural engineer provides as an "underlay" (if there is such a concept in 3 dimensional BIM).

2. Join to geometry in a linked file so that walls can attach to the underside of floors in the structural model.

3. Edit a linked model from within the current session so that I can modify floors, wall locations, etc, without having to unlink and open the model to make changes which will be sent back to the engineer.

4 (2006-01-16). Control Visibility of linked elements with the same granularity as everything else. Either make the graphic settings from the Model Categories tab trickle down to linked models, or include all of the items in the Linked Revit Categories tab

This idea of working tightly with engineers using Revit Structure is FANTASTIC! but needs to be smoother to be truly effective. On my current project, I'm simulating this by drawing the bulk of the structure in another model and linking that into the architectural model. For the most part it works nice, but I have a few workarounds to handle the limitations of file linking.

[Steve_Stafford]

Shoot for the moon! Those are not minor wishes! It would be interesting to see if they could pull them off, I wouldn't hold my breath... :)

[gibson.tim91884]

I know that these are not minor, but it comes down to being able to work back and forth with consultants. If I have to remodel the structure in the architectural model, then I lose the coordination benefits. I honestly don't expect much in the next couple of releases, but as Revit Structure gains acceptance, and "Revit MEP" (I'm hoping something like this comes along sooner rather than later) comes to be, the two-way, parametric philosophy in Revit will have to move this way.

Revit is SO CLOSE to being perfect; I just want it all now! ;)

[Phil Palmer]

Room tags need to be sorted as well
Using linked files does not expose the room tags and when we get to FULL multi-discipline working this needs to be resolved.

Come to think of it there are LOADS of things that need to be available from any linked file.

[gibson.tim91884]

Come to think of it there are LOADS of things that need to be available from any linked file.
Yep yep! And the more I think about it, the more I expect that once a model is linked, it should behave almost as if it was part of the main model.

[gibson.tim91884]

More on this topic... I thought I read somewhere that we could tag items in linked files. It's not working for me. Am I missing something, or am I confusing tagging with scheduling?

[dbaldacchino]

Well, today we tried for the first time to link a Revit Building model into a Revit Structure file, but the walls didn't show up. Is that by design? I hope not! The wall category in the view was turned on (both the view and the linked rvt file). We have in-house engineers and want to work off separate but linked files. I hope we don't have to all work in the same model for things to display right.

[gibson.tim91884]

Well, today we tried for the first time to link a Revit Building model into a Revit Structure file, but the walls didn't show up.

Check your view range?? IIRC the views from RS have a really low cut plane. This might be the problem.

[dbaldacchino]

We checked. It was good. But we did find what the "problem" was. First of all, it wasn't a problem, if that makes sense :)

By default, the walls drawn in RB are designated as Non-Load Bearing. Views in RS are by default assigned to the Structural discipline. So non-load bearing walls disappear, even though doors and windows still show up! So it's a matter of changing the view discipline to Coordination or Architectural and walls show up.