Divide and Conquer?

[troy.crandell635379]

So I've looked at several threads, and I'm sure there are a lot more I could read, but I want to know if there is a hard and fast rule to deciding whether one should divide a project up or not. I have a project starting up right now and I want to know what others are doing. I've elected to keep everything as one single model despite there being three different buildings. The buildings aren't very big so I figured I could manage the project with worksets instead of creating separate models and linking them in to another file. How do others deal with documenting three different models? Do you just link them in and document from that file? Or do you document from each individual file? It seems like one file is less confusing for users, and I don't have to make sure all the files are documented the same way. Any thoughts?

[Jun Austria]

So I've looked at several threads, and I'm sure there are a lot more I could read, but I want to know if there is a hard and fast rule to deciding whether one should divide a project up or not. I have a project starting up right now and I want to know what others are doing. I've elected to keep everything as one single model despite there being three different buildings. The buildings aren't very big so I figured I could manage the project with worksets instead of creating separate models and linking them in to another file. How do others deal with documenting three different models? Do you just link them in and document from that file? Or do you document from each individual file? It seems like one file is less confusing for users, and I don't have to make sure all the files are documented the same way. Any thoughts?

For me, IMHO. Its best to link then to burden one file with all the buildings in the project.
This will keep your CPU in a manageble level.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=86818

[Rick Houle]

We have found that multi-family housing projects work best when the buildings are together in one file. The unit groups, sections, details, etc. are widely shared across all buildings. It was a coordination nightmare on another multi-family project that we split up too early. IF the multi-fam gets too big at some point in production, we split it as necessary, in some logical fashion.

Other multi building projects, that are not as complex as high-density housing, we will keep separate from one another entirely or sometimes base the decision on submittal packages, logical site divisions... building types.

Once you have your head about you, multi-building dbases are not so confusing.
It's all about how much you really need to share across the site.

So, I recommend keeping it all together if you have 30+ unit groups to coordinate.
And dont bother if you are only going to benefit from say, 3 wall sections or a single detail page...

[sbrown]

I can only answer that question after asking wether or not the buildings can be documented as separate packages, if yes then separate models is the definate answer for me. If it needs to be one package then you may want to consider linking. I personally still haven't tried to document mult. buildings in one set due to all the visibility issues(annotation).

[Rick Houle]

What visibility issues?

I can think of other concerns about multi building projects - size, organization - but i dont have any visibility issues i can think of...

can you elaborate in short?

[patricks]

What is the recommended course of action for separate buildings that are connected, like with a pedestrian bridge across a street?

[twiceroadsfool]

Ive done it both ways, with small buildings... Both have advantages and disadvantages. Scott's question is paramount though. If theyre going to be seperate packages, you almost WANT them in seperate models, simply for the sheet numbering issue (you can only use each sheet number once, so you only get "a2.1" one time).

If its ONE package of documents, ive done it both ways. In one model is slightly easier to maintain and work through (particularly managing content definitions and working on wall sections), but linking is definetely easier on hardware... especially as the model gets close to full CD's.

Scott, in 09 we didnt have any issues with linking and annotation visibility. Ive heared there is a shortcoming in keynoting, but we dont use them currently so there was no issue. You do have to take some time to get it set up, as you need all the views linked in all the models. Linking does take a little time to plan out, but it makes manipulating the buildings much easier, worksets or not.

[patricks]

I do have separate worksets for each building (interior/exterior/structure for each building), but the biggest issue is there are probably 30+ level datums, as this is a sloping downtown site, with tons of ramps in the buildings on the ground floor.