exterior / curtain wall strategy

[trmpublic]

I'm looking for some advice on the best way to create an exterior skin of a 19 story building. The exterior of the building has several different materials (brick, pre-cast concrete, metal panels) and different finishes of those materials. There is enough repetition to merit making an objects that can be repeated. See attached file

From what I've read on AUGI, curtain wall and custom family panels is better than groups. I've actually built some of the facade as a curtain wall, but it has not been as easy as it sounded. My main problem is that I tried to create families that could mirror (Some of the red brick pre-cast at the base is mirrored). Is this possible? I've been using the "Curtain Wall Panel.rft" template; would I be better off using a generic model? (I haven't figured out how to bring in a generic model as a curtain wall panel.)

As far as general strategy goes, would anyone suggest a completely different route? We're in SD now, so there is potential for a lot of elevation design changes (not too much in plan). It is paramount to have a strategy that is both useful and detailed, but not cumbersome for edits.

If I continue the curtain wall approach... I've been breaking up the curtain walls into single floor, single column bay panels. Sound good?

Thanks!!

[patricks]

Well, I don't really have any experience doing building that large in Revit, although in my spare time I am trying to model my school thesis project (15 story multi-use building in a downtown urban area).

But I just wanted to say that's a really nice-looking elevation, as far as graphics and presentation goes. Should be a nice looking building.

[Wes Macaulay]

Actually groups do work fine, but rather than edit group > save change, you're better off to duplicate group > edit duplicate > swap old groups with new groups... it's faster that way.

What you're saying about building complete components is true -- it's better than groups -- but more work to build. Looking at your design using groups is easier and provides more flexibility.

My 2 cents!

[Merlin]

This will be a good thread to follow! I'm always fascinated by everyone else's strategies and steps.

John Mc

[trmpublic]

Wes, another similar project (size and design) in our office used copied groups extensively on the exterior - balconies, windows, pre-cast panels, etc. When I open the file, it's very slow. The file is 55mb, FWIW. Perhaps I have too many worksets open? I worry if I was to do the same strategy on this project, a slow computer would be the same fate. How have you avoided this with copied groups?

[Wes Macaulay]

How much RAM do you have? You'll need 2 Gb for starters.

Under Settings > Options > Graphics, is OpenGL checked and Underlay Planes unchecked? This combination gives the best graphics speed with Revit. See the Hardware forum for recommended video cards.

Have interior walls on a workset you can turn off. No need to see them in the elevations. On our residential tower projects, the unit plan groups are on a workset that, when it was created, was NOT visible by default in all views. Sections don't show these objects because all we want to see in the sections are the corridor and demising walls, and they're on a separate workset.

Revit loads what it needs to show what is on in the current view. Your file is not very large; but a lot of locked relationships between objects can slow things down too.

[Arnel Aguel]

I too really want to hear different approaches used by people to successfully implement this type of of project....

[dbaldacchino]

Under Settings > Options > Graphics, is OpenGL checked and Underlay Planes unchecked?
Wes, you made my day :) My laptop is flying....I can literally work with shadows on!!

[Wes Macaulay]

Glad to help out with one of the most common complaints with Revit that I hear about... life is certainly much better if your card can and is using OpenGL acceleration!

[Joef]

I just changed my setting to the ones you suggested Wes, and it is much faster. However, strange things are hapenning with filled regions on elevations. They appear and disappear at different zoom levels.. No real consistent behaviour. Probably my cheap graohics card at fault.

Joe

[patricks]

On my machine, OpenGL is off, and Use Overlay Planes is on. Would it be better to swap those around?

*edit*
I just tried turning on OpenGL and turning off overlay planes, and while performance did seem faster, especially with shadows, I did get the flickering when selecting any object, as described in this old thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=9006

What if I ran with both options turned on?

[Wes Macaulay]

I'm not sure about having both on... what sort of cards do you have, Patrick and Joe?

[patricks]

sorry, nVidia Quadro FX500 here.

[trmpublic]

The openGL tip is awesome. Works well for me for and I have the ATI Radeon 9550. It didn't work until I updated my drivers. If you need to update your drivers, follow this link for ATI chips:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

About my other questions... I would love to hear some more comments on the main topic of this thread: exterior / curtain wall strategy. Thanks!