Can we mirror projects yet?

[mlgatzke]

I haven't heard anything lately about this. Have the newer versions of Revit enabled us to mirror an entire project? I haven't seen anything on this lately - it used to be a popular topic for rants. I've run into an increasing number of questions about this lately (not in this forum) and I've been telling them that this is a known limitation. Am I wrong? Is this now possible? Now, when I say "possible," I mean without using the old-fashioned export to dwg mess. I mean actually being able to do it from within Revit.

This is a popular request among production housing designers who need to flip plans for multiple lot layouts, some with particular options, and some with others.

Are we there yet?

[beegee]

In a word - no.

But I think its on the developers radar. :)

[rhys]

I hope so, along with improvements to groups, nested linked projects, and all the other things that improve reusability, within and between projects.

[mlgatzke]

I think its on the developers radar. :)

I hope so. I've been trying to promote Revit to designers and builders in my area. After trying to schedule a class on Revit, I was finally able to get enough people to register after a year of trying. Those taking the class have absolutely been thrilled with Revit. Then,inevitably, last night (the 4th class in a series of 7), one of the students asked about mirroring the project. Ouch. I laid it on the line and said that that's a known limitation in Revit. Jaws dropped and you could hear sighs around the room. The air was just let out of the Revit thrill balloon.

The ability to mirror a project is an ESSENTIAL part of a production housing designer's (and builder's) world. If Revit doesn't overcome this hurdle soon, it will begin to lose an enormous part of it's potential buyers - in our area anyway. Not to mention that it would just be handy to have for all of us - just in case.

[beegee]

The ability to mirror a project is an ESSENTIAL part of a production housing designer's (and builder's) world. If Revit doesn't overcome this hurdle soon, it will begin to lose an enormous part of it's potential buyers - in our area anyway. Not to mention that it would just be handy to have for all of us - just in case.

Well, don't tell them it can't be done, cause thats not true either.

The number of hoops you have to jump through depends very much on the project you're mirroring and how much detail you want to mirror, like call-outs, annotations etc and how constrained the original model is.

Sometimes its relatively easy, others....

[sbrown]

You can't just mirror an entire document set in any program. Can you mirror the building model in Revit, yes. Can you mirror your entire set, no. Do I expect revit to be able to mirror an entire set of drawings no. I'm not saying that improvements can't be made. But what exactly do you want to mirror and how. I can easily mirror an entire model, currently. I will loose some annotations and sections(possibly). If its the end of the project and they say mirror the whole thing, you've got problems in any software is my point. They are just compound in Revit since the wall sections are based on the model. If you used drafting views for all you sections and details then you could mirror an entire revit set equally well as you could an autocad set.

[mlgatzke]

I wouldn't mind having to mirror parts of the model at a time, but in the end - yes - I would want to be able to mirror an entire project without losing anything.

In the production housing arena (houses built on speculation) multiple house designs are created and completed for an entire development at one time. Then, the completed plans are mirrored according to the site and plan chosen by the client. Therefore, a large contractor or design studio specializing in production housing would NEED the ability to mirror complete documents for a project depending on the particular client and site - and do it quickly.

[beegee]

We often need to mirror a project, prior to making design changes to it. In that case we want to get as much as possible done by simple mirroring - and 90% of that can be done reasonably well.

For a tract house builder who just wants mirrored copies of the same design, there are other possiblities, like using dwg and then pasting in text for example. I think MartinP covered some of this in THIS TOPIC (www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=483&highlight=mirror)

That doesn't work for us though, - we would like to be able to miror a full project, then change it.

[Scott D Davis]

The problem with mirroring a complete project, with a full 3D model, text, notes, dimension, etc, is that what works for a 3,000 square foot 2 story residential design must also work for a 500,000 square foot 65 story skyscraper.

We had a discussion at the Revit users group at WATG the other night about mirroring. It's seems like maybe 5% of the projects done in Revit truely need to be mirrored, almost exclusively for the residential market in tract housing. I can't imagine all the calculations that must be computed to mirror a project. I don't have experience in Viz, Max, or any other 3D modeling program. Can you build a complete model in any of these other programs, and then mirror the entire thing?

In ADT, how would you go about mirroring? Open each individual xref, mirror it, save it as a different name. Then open the sheets, mirror all the text, notes, annotations, etc.? Redo all the xrefs in the new mirrored plans?

[mlgatzke]

Scott,

I'm not sure how you are used to seeing the development of an ADT model, but my experience shows the annotation and model existing in the same model environment. Thus, the annotation and the model can be mirrored at the same time. I would expect this could be accomplished in Revit as well, either by having Revit release all constraints before the mirror or by having Revit modify all constraints to reference a central point or plane before the mirror (if it's an entire project being mirrored). Heck, this function could even be a menu selection only, thus allowing it to work differently from other Revit functions without user confusion (a warning dialog could even tell the user what's about to happen).

Also, I think the 5% assumption of tract housing users is a bit myopic. What I mean is that you're only looking at existing users, not possible future users. I just feel that the Revit Development Team might be "cutting off their nose to spite their face". If you know what I mean by that - not that mirroring has been left out of Revit out of spite, but I mean that they may be alienating a huge future market for Revit by overlooking this "seemingly" basic function.

I don't want anyone to get upset. I'm just trying to express a frustration and concern that has been expressed to me multiple times from those in this industry looking at Revit as a possible purchase for their company.