Linked File vs Grouping

[mmenendez]

I’m working on a hospital project and have a question on what’s the best practice of putting together multiple patient rooms together. I was thinking of creating a linked file and then inserting into our revit file. I also thought about creating a group and copying it. Do you have any suggestions? I’m also working in the new Revit Architecture 2008.



Thanks in advance!

[aaronrumple]

I’m working on a hospital project and have a question on what’s the best practice of putting together multiple patient rooms together. I was thinking of creating a linked file and then inserting into our revit file. I also thought about creating a group and copying it. Do you have any suggestions? I’m also working in the new Revit Architecture 2008.



Thanks in advance!
The linked file's walls will not cleanup with the host file. So if this is an issue - go with groups.

[Rick Houle]

Which method do you think is faster (or more efficient) for the CPU...?

It seems the all-in-one monster file loads quicker than the 15-links of hi-density housing stacks...

[nnguyen]

I’m working on a hospital project and have a question on what’s the best practice of putting together multiple patient rooms together. I was thinking of creating a linked file and then inserting into our revit file. I also thought about creating a group and copying it. Do you have any suggestions? I’m also working in the new Revit Architecture 2008.



Thanks in advance!

groups, especially with the new edit tools in 2008. You cannot tag link models and like aaronrumple walls will not clean up.

[Arnel Aguel]

I would also go for group rather than link files.

[Wes Macaulay]

If you have a lot of groups, disable the wall joins between the walls in the group that interact with the world outside. This will save you a lot of time when finishing the group and waiting to continue.

[aaronrumple]

If you have a lot of groups, disable the wall joins between the walls in the group that interact with the world outside. This will save you a lot of time when finishing the group and waiting to continue.
However if you disable wall join - you might as well use linking and get even better performance.

[ron.sanpedro]

However if you disable wall join - you might as well use linking and get even better performance.

Aaron,
have you done some performance testing on this, or are you talking "buttdyno"? I have been curious about the performance difference between linked and not loaded files and unloaded worksets. I have just not had a chance to fully test. In principal I like the worksets because of wall cleanups, linework in elevations, and much more granular load control.
And I wonder if Wes was thinking kill the joins durring SD/DD, then turn em back on once the design has settled a bit and deliverables are starting to happen. Or perhaps enable them before printing, then disable again? I guess it depends on how many walls and groups you have to deal with.

Gordon

[Wes Macaulay]

We keep the wall joins off. We may join geo to cleanup, tho. Depends how much time we have ;-)

[ron.sanpedro]

We keep the wall joins off. We may join geo to cleanup, tho. Depends how much time we have ;-)

Thinking out loud here, and in the wrongish forum to boot, but I wonder if there is enough information and API tools to automate toggling cleanup on the right ends of walls that interact outside of groups. Imagine a single click that toggles all the right joins? Woo hooo! Then again, imagine something is Visibility Graphics like a Clean Group Wall Joins. It is view by view, so the "working" views have joins off for speed, and the sheeted views have it on. As long as you work with sheeted views closed, you will be speedy. But printing will be right. I guess that belongs in the wishlist, eh?

Best,
Gordon

[aaronrumple]

What does now exist is the ability to switch from a linked file to a group and back. I'm trying this on a housing project now. I hope the linking will speed things up in the planning. Then we can switch to groups later.

[Rick Houle]

...is there any way to globally (or by family) disallow joins?
i can see that helping.

[sifuentes]

What does now exist is the ability to switch from a linked file to a group and back. I'm trying this on a housing project now. I hope the linking will speed things up in the planning. Then we can switch to groups later.

Aaron, for those of us still on 9.1, would you care to elaborate on how this works?

Thanks,