Linking buildings vertically

[Wes Macaulay]

We know it's easy enough to link buildings horizontally -- wings of a building, for instance -- but what experience to people have with linking a parkade to a tall tower over?

And if you want the whole thing in one drawing set, I expect you'd have to have duplicate levels and plan views in the host file so that the plan views in the host file can see the annotations from the linked file. Not a big deal unless you have to change the F2F heights, in which case you'd have to edit level params twice.

[Justin Marchiel]

i have not entered into CD's yet, but this is the approach that i did for a development that has a parkade under it (ie multiple towers with 1 parkade). my towers have there main floors at 100' and the parkade resides below it. So far there has not been to many hiccups.

The only things is that my project will be phased so the parkade will be documented seperatly. I dont know that this would change my workflow, but like i said, so far, so good.

justin

[Wes Macaulay]

You shouldn't have any troubles with phasing -- linked view control also looks at the phase. And given that each view in the linked file has a phase associated with it, you just pick the view from the linked file and that's good enough.

[twiceroadsfool]

Those sound like some really cool projects. Id love seeing some pics if you guys are bored... :)

[Justin Marchiel]

once we get past the "hush hush" and into selling phase i will definetly show the project.

Justin

[sbrown]

I do this alot with hotel towers over podium levels. The tricky part is deciding where the elevator core should go. I usually add the same levels as the podium into my hotel tower file(either copy/monitor, which i too don't like or just create your own). then make the elevator core in the hotel tower, then build finish walls around it in the podium. The only trouble is when you want to do color fill plans or area take offs. you need to make sure you only put the area in on of the two files. the other problems I've run into is if there is a pool or amenities level that sits on the roof of the podium and there are guestrooms around it. It gets harder to figure out where to make the split.

I'm currently in favor of just a sep workset for the hotel tower and using selective open for performance issues. I can't tell how much performance I save by linking and I loose alot of flexibility. When all models are loaded, they are loaded into memory so its hard to know what kind of gain your getting. Its obvious on the hotel tower side though that especially if you put the units on their own workset and only link in the shell. There would certainly be savings there.

[twiceroadsfool]

I do this alot with hotel towers over podium levels. The tricky part is deciding where the elevator core should go. I usually add the same levels as the podium into my hotel tower file(either copy/monitor, which i too don't like or just create your own). then make the elevator core in the hotel tower, then build finish walls around it in the podium. The only trouble is when you want to do color fill plans or area take offs. you need to make sure you only put the area in on of the two files. the other problems I've run into is if there is a pool or amenities level that sits on the roof of the podium and there are guestrooms around it. It gets harder to figure out where to make the split.

I'm currently in favor of just a sep workset for the hotel tower and using selective open for performance issues. I can't tell how much performance I save by linking and I loose alot of flexibility. When all models are loaded, they are loaded into memory so its hard to know what kind of gain your getting. Its obvious on the hotel tower side though that especially if you put the units on their own workset and only link in the shell. There would certainly be savings there.

I have a similar performance issue, from a memory standpoint, although not with a tower. Were working on a capus style mall, and it has proven more beneficial for us to break it up in to "buildings' instead of Building components. We dont have Shell, Interior, Vert Circ, etc... We have "Bldg A," "Bldg B..." and so on. Reason being in existing conditions it was all one building, so it was one file, but now its an open air with several buildings after renovation.

With a 6 person team, we broke them in to buildings so person A can edit and work on Bldg A, and so on... Trouble is, i think we shouldve still broken the Bldgs up in to components. Bldg A Shell, Bldg A structure, etc. Because when i have to render the area where all three Central Files come together (and consequentially need all the worksets), it KILLS my computer (Dual Xeon 3.6 with 3.25 Gig useable RAM). If i could only turn on the shells of the bldg's, im sure it would be much better. 600 MB of models and ****, just for a low level aerial shot, lol...

[Wes Macaulay]

Aaron, when you say you should have broken the building up into components, do you mean separate files? How large is your central file? You're saying at present all 6 buildings are in one file?

[twiceroadsfool]

Yes, BUT... Not six buildings the way youre thinking about them.

Picture one large building thats existing. Thats how the project started, as its an existing structure. So we put it in one file. Theyre ripping the roof off the concourse area, so it will be "open air" which basically means its now divided up in to 6 or 7 small buildings, but its all one package, one phase, etc. There are skylights and canopies between the buildings too.

So were broken up in to:

Workset 1
SL&G
Bldg 1
Bldg 2
Bldg 3, etc.
Canopy

Canopy is only because otherwise its ahrd to decipher where the canopies go, since they touch multiple "buildings." It works great having the buildings separated, as if im working on Building B, im working on all of it.. The structure, the shell, the interior partitions, etc. But i wont need Buildings C, D, A, etc, at all. So i can unload them in the workset dialogue, and not carry the whole model around.

Im just thinking IN ADDITION, we should have broken the buildings up in to separate worksets by components, as well.

Bldg A Shell
Bldg A Interior
Bldg A Structure, etc.

The model in particular is about 210 MB. But its LOADED with stuff. 2 Full packages of CD's, about 30 Tenant Fitout packages (75 more to go, yikes...), 2 Phases of demo and construction, etc.

The performance issue only comes up when i render that file, plus the other two Central files together. There are 3 central files for the mall as a whole... I was trying to render the outdoor feature where they all come together. All three are about 200 MB each, so when theyre all turned on.........