Using CAD for Details HELP!

[Nicole B.]

I'm starting work on a big project that's already been underway for a few months - hence I was not involved in the initial set-up and have to live with some of the decisions that have already been made. The problem is this HUGE project has a really aggressive timeline and a bunch of people working on it who are new to Revit.

Anyway, I have to find a way to deal with the fact that the decision has been made to do all the details in AutoCAD, even though the rest of the drawings will be produced in Revit 9.

Can anyone suggest a way to handle that? I don't even know where to begin...There is no turning back. I've already suggested both doing the entire project in AutoCAD OR doing the details in Revit to no avail....HELP!?

[patricks]

The only way to key the details is to create dummy drafting views and place them on sheets, giving them the same numbers as the details on your sheets in CAD.

[Nicole B.]

I have read about the drafting views solution - but doesn't the file size get really big when you start importing a ton of CAD drawings?

[ron.sanpedro]

I have read about the drafting views solution - but doesn't the file size get really big when you start importing a ton of CAD drawings?

You could make the argument that the CAD for detailing decision requires a separate RVT file for details, with a manual coordination process between the blank placeholder details in the Building model and the "real" details in the Details model. Or you do all the details fully in CAD, including the sheets, and still have the manual coordination.

For what it is worth, my office had a rather large project that is the third building in a campus, and it was decided to reuse all the details to save time, as they where intended to be identical to the other buildings for the most part. In hind sight, the PM and PA both agree that they would detail in Revit if they had it to do over again.

one thing to remind people is that detailing in Revit does NOT mean throwing away all your Acad work. You just make pull pertinent parts from Acad details into Detail Components, and then use them as native Revit content. VERY powerful. And unless you are half way thru detailing, it is perhaps not too late to switch gears.

best of luck.
Gordon

[twiceroadsfool]

For what it is worth, my office had a rather large project that is the third building in a campus, and it was decided to reuse all the details to save time, as they where intended to be identical to the other buildings for the most part. In hind sight, the PM and PA both agree that they would detail in Revit if they had it to do over again.

one thing to remind people is that detailing in Revit does NOT mean throwing away all your Acad work. You just make pull pertinent parts from Acad details into Detail Components, and then use them as native Revit content. VERY powerful. And unless you are half way thru detailing, it is perhaps not too late to switch gears.

best of luck.
Gordon


I couldnt agree more. EVERY time someone has tried that in our office, i had them tally the time it took them to make edits as the job progressed. Bar none, they ALWAYS come out on the losing end.

Frankly, for what they want to do i wouldnt use a dummy project though, i would go with the heinous "Import in a drafting view and place on sheet" method. Does it suck? Absolutely, but i dont see a GREAT way to do it...

[sbrown]

You will waste dozens of hours controling lineweights, text styles and dims. You could spend those hours teaching the team to detail in revit. 8 hours of training on detailing in revit would cover everyone I've ever met who willingly want to learn the software. Get the team in a room, show them how to create a callout, set the model to underlay, click to the drafting toolbar, created filled regions, detail lines. Then after lunch teach them to make their own detail components. then drink a beer and celebrate the beginning of a successful end to your project. Or do like I've experienced on too many job spend your time sorting thru thosands of imported linestyles, hatch patterns, layers etc to make your drawings look good. I can absolutely guarantee you that NO one will be happy with a hybrid solution. Your autocad users will say the details don't print the same(note many hatch patterns will not come thru well from acad to revit). Your revit users will complain that they have to figure out how to "fake" all the referencing, etc.

If you must use acad, do it purely on separate sheets that are printed from autocad, then just create a set of dumby tags and place them in revit as needed. you can make variable length sections, wall section and detail tags, you can make a detail line callout symbol with radius edges.

I could go on all night about the frustrations of trying to mix the two. If you are linking any models you will get errors from time to time prohibiting someone from opening one model until errors are fixed in the other. You will find the error has to do with a dimension placed from revit to a cad line. You will need to delete that dimension. So don't think at all about using revit to dimension the cad drawings.

Share this post with your PM and I'm willing to talk him down from the ledge if you want. I know I sound dire, but the bigger the job the worse it will be for you nd your team.

So if you must do it, do it completely separate. Fake referencing and redlining is much better than hybrid from my experience.

[Firmso]

I couldnt agree more. EVERY time someone has tried that in our office, i had them tally the time it took them to make edits as the job progressed. Bar none, they ALWAYS come out on the losing end.

Frankly, for what they want to do i wouldnt use a dummy project though, i would go with the heinous "Import in a drafting view and place on sheet" method. Does it suck? Absolutely, but i dont see a GREAT way to do it...

Just adding on to this. you can also reference details in drafting views imported from CAD by placing Section callouts and selecting "Reference other views".

[Rick Houle]

...oh, yeah... and let's talk CAD CORRUPTION...!!!!!
I call them "Cad Bombs"... someone takes what was already a messy piece of cad with thousands of layers and other hidden **** and SPLODES it inside the dbase... yeah, that's nice. I currently have a 280mb central file posted to the subscription center b/c one cad detail botched the entire dbase. DO NOT EXPLODE YOUR CAD inside a dbase you care about.

Now, if your cad is pristine, blue-ribbon trophy-like detail work, sure, link it all in (i wouldnt).
But anything short of that, you're paying for it either in ****** looking prints or time time time to clean.

The best part of Revit is detailing... SOO SOO EASY.