Multi-Building Details....what are you doing?

[cdatechguy]

In the debate of whether we do our detailing in Revit or AutoCAD, Revit is finally taking the lead.

What is causing a controversy though is (dare I say it) in AutoCAD details could be xref'd into each buildings detail sheet and reloaded each time the drawing is opened and only one detail would need to be updated.

So, I don't think one can link drafting views from another project. You can insert views from another project, but you still have to distinguish what is the new one if the title of the views are different. This process is being considered "not good enough" and that "CAD is better"

How is everyone else dealing with this issue? While I was finally making progress on converting our CAD people to Revit, this comes up and I am losing them again.

Yes, we could just keep doing detailing in AutoCAD and link in the DWG's or just keep them separate....but we are trying to fully implement Revit and do away with AutoCAD as much as possible.

[bbeck]

This is something I have been battling with for some time now. We've finally decided that we will not do our buildings as individual projects linked into a campus project. The whole dummy sheet and dummy drafting view headache/coordination is too much. Our multi-building projects are just one Revit Project with worksets and scope boxes. All buildings in one file allow us easy access to one set of drafting views. We rely heavily on keynotes, which don't work across linked files and all plotting comes from that one project. We have taken this approach on large school projects. Our biggest to date is a brand new 18 building Middle School/High School campus, 330,000 sq. ft. of buildings which will accommodate 3000 students when completed.

Our entire AutoCAD Standard Detail library has been converted to Revit.

[twiceroadsfool]

We put multiple buildings from different linked files in a set of drawings that exists in just one file, without any issues... But i think the OP is talking about office standard details that they want to be able to update in their *library* and have it be referenced in projects automatically.

Revit doesnt function that way, in that you can base a new project off a Template, but once you hit the button, the associativity ends. This is true for family definitions, templates, imported views, etc.

For the most part its a godsend (i remember the days in archiCAD where the entire component library was *linked* and when something went askey with IT, all our windows and doors vanished...), but i DO wish we had the opportunity to have more permanent linked/referenced relationships...... Where and when we choose to.

That said, i wouldnt want it for standard details, i dont think. Im not a huge proponent of having large areas of projects covered in drafting views, so that may be why.

But on a surface topic: If youre trying to win over people who are constantly going to have the attitude "i did it this way in Cad, and it was better..." you might as well let them go back to CAD, because theyre going to be a tough sell.

[cdatechguy]

This is something I have been battling with for some time now. We've finally decided that we will not do our buildings as individual projects linked into a campus project. The whole dummy sheet and dummy drafting view headache/coordination is too much. Our multi-building projects are just one Revit Project with worksets and scope boxes. All buildings in one file allow us easy access to one set of drafting views. We rely heavily on keynotes, which don't work across linked files and all plotting comes from that one project. We have taken this approach on large school projects. Our biggest to date is a brand new 18 building Middle School/High School campus, 330,000 sq. ft. of buildings which will accommodate 3000 students when completed.

Our entire AutoCAD Standard Detail library has been converted to Revit.
Wow....that would be pretty interesting to do something like that. Our current project is kinda campus related....but I wonder how large of a file your central file was to have everything in one file?
My largest building right now is 120mb, and I am only at 15% completion. (4 stories)

Our other problem is if we do make changes to a drafting view, even though its the same name, it won't write over the existing one. My only suggestion was to cut and past from new to old to keep the links the same.

[twiceroadsfool]

How much stuff you stuff in to one central model has a lot of variables to consider. Working in retail, where there are a lot of drawings per tenant space (even on just the landlord side) its just not realistic.

We had a 250,000 SF Retail facility get upwards of 240 MB, getting bloated from all of the tenant documentation that the Landlord had to provide. To this day its still useable, but even with selective Workset opening, it just flat out takes too long to open and manipulate. Dividing a similar retail facility (480k SF) in to linked files, and the MAIN file with all the drawings in it, PLUS 250k SF of model and tenant documentation) is to date only around 150 MB, and it flies in comparison.

Workflows have to change, for sure... But i would have a backup plan or a nice reerve hardware budget before i would go back to stuffing a ton of retail buildings in one file.

BUT, depending on your documentation needs, it might work out better for you than it has for us. :)