Revit Revison Documentation

[joseph.campisi]

This is my first post so bare with me, hopefully everything works out alright.
I am doing a fast paced design build on a very large scale Revit project, and the revisions tools in Revit just arent going to cut it. I was wondering if anyone knew of any software out there that acted a revison check tool simutaneously with REVIT. The goal is to have revit document chages almost like "Word" has built in "track changes." When track changes is turned on in Word it shows who made the change, what date the change was made, and keeps all the info that was changed and deleted; giving the oportunity to add back that deleted info if needed. Or someway of ghosting in the old info and implementing the changes and sending that off to the contractor which will show him what it was and how it has chnaged. Also there is no way for the contractor to be aware of what has been changed through the DD phases, unless you physically tell him, even with doing a revision cloud, the contractor never really is aware of what chnages need to made unless it is very obvious to him. ex: moving a wall is obvious, revising a shaft width by a few inches may not be so obvious.
If anyone has any other software that they know of, or anything else that Revit can do with documenting changes please let me know, i will take all the advice i can get. Thanks
Also we have used BUZZSAW and CONSTRUCTWARE in the past and were wondering if either is compadable with REVIT SOFTWARE?

[ejc]

We create a written narrative based on sheet and list what changed on each sheet.
We create this document in excel, then paste it into Revit text. This text is on its own Sheet. The excel sheet provides an excellent record of changes for us and the contractor. I can be time consuming, but it has saved our butts on more than one occasion.

Tracking changes to model elements in Revit! Approach with caution! In “theory”, you could do every single revision as a “phase”. I have learned the hard way that, just because you can do something in Revit – doesn’t mean that you should. You could end up having to change view settings all over the place.

The bottom line is that Revit, to my knowledge, doesn’t do what you are asking. Look at how design options work for an example. The fact that it allows you to print a whole set of drawings and have the titleblocks indicate which revisions apply to each sheet is light years ahead of ADT (or whatever they call it now).

You can always restore a backup if there is a problem.

Hope this helps.

ejc

[Andre Carvalho]

I'm not sure if this can help you in some way but if you publish to DWF and after the modifications you publish to DWF again, the DWF viewer (Autodesk Design Review) can compare all the differences between them for you. Very useful.

And it is free...

Andre Carvalho

[Tyveka]

Well heck, if you're going to go the compare route, just save off your Revit file as a different file name and use the "model compare" extension for Revit. Will that not do the same thing as the DWF compare?

Not saying I would do that this way, just saying it is an option without resorting to DWF, though I've never used it.

[cbaze]

Well heck, if you're going to go the compare route, just save off your Revit file as a different file name and use the "model compare" extension for Revit. Will that not do the same thing as the DWF compare?

Not saying I would do that this way, just saying it is an option without resorting to DWF, though I've never used it.

I am also looking for a fail safe way to track revisions. Model compare sounds like it might be crazy enough to work. Has anyone tried this?

[meken]

This track changes idea so at the least get onto the wishlist - never know they seem to like MS ideas these days - what with the adoption of the ribbon style of toolbar! It is a great idea - would need implementation like in word where you could easily switch between the view showing the "final" and the " track changes" - so you could have duplicate views of say the floor plan - 1 "final" that is readable and 1 "tracked" so you can see all the changes. Would also need to be able to have it off or on or "reset" it at different issues perhaps - so you could have it off until all the internal design revisions are done then turn on once the scheme is issued and start tracking changes made by client etc. then reset once issued to contractor and track changes from there ?

Could be a very powerful tool - but might blow out the file size?

[Scott Womack]

....where you could easily switch between the view showing the "final" and the " track changes" - so you could have duplicate views of say the floor plan - 1 "final" that is readable and 1 "tracked" so you can see all the changes. Would also need to be able to have it off or on or "reset" it at different issues perhaps - so you could have it off until all the internal design revisions are done then turn on once the scheme is issued and start tracking changes made by client etc. then reset once issued to contractor and track changes from there ?

I'm not sure it will get implemented anytime soon, since there is a rudimentary form of track changes that already exist in the 2010 projects. (It may also be in 2009, but I don't have it open), but almost no one uses it/enforces its use.

When you save to central, there is a comments box towards the bottom of the dialog box. You can type in something, and save to central. In 2010, under Collaborate, there is a Show History button. This will list each save to Central, even if nothing is entered. If every team member enters a comment about whats done, then you have a "track changes" list.