Demolition Package

[saeborne]

Hello all,

Strategy question for you Revit Experts...

We are about to start a large project, which must retain half of an existing building on site. We anticipate that this model will become quite complex, and it must serve us well for the next 4 years.

How should we structure the Demolition Package within our model?

Option 1: One Model with Phasing
Model the entire existing building. Use phasing to demolish half of the building. Model the New construction in a later phase.


Downsides to Option 1:
• We must retain all of the demolished stuff in our model for the life of the project.

• I've noticed problems in the past where demolished walls still affect join conditions of walls created in a later phase. Has anyone else encountered these issues?




Option 2: Two models, separating the Demolition Package
One model will be dedicated for the demolition package. The Second Model would contain Existing to Remain and New Construction.


Downsides to Option 2:
• We must manually coordinate any changes in the extent of demolition, between the two models.


Which would you recommend, and why?

Thanks in advance.

Bryan

[Scott Womack]

Option 1: One Model with Phasing
Model the entire existing building. Use phasing to demolish half of the building. Model the New construction in a later phase.

Downsides to Option 1:
• We must retain all of the demolished stuff in our model for the life of the project.

• I've noticed problems in the past where demolished walls still affect join conditions of walls created in a later phase. Has anyone else encountered these issues?

Option 2: Two models, separating the Demolition Package
One model will be dedicated for the demolition package. The Second Model would contain Existing to Remain and New Construction.

Downsides to Option 2:
• We must manually coordinate any changes in the extent of demolition, between the two models.


Personally, I'd use option one, unless the information in the existing building is going to be in-put in a super detailed manner. Using the existing building as a linked-in file adds a layer of complexity, that I try to avoid, unless all persons working on the project are VERY versed in the use of Revit on renovation projects. Keeping them together will also aid any consultants such as structural that may be using your model as well. Exporting a DWG with the linked file sometimes gets cranky after the main file gets so large.

[twiceroadsfool]

I agree with Scott, Option 1. The only thing i would amend, is that Demolition doesnt happen in a different phase than the new work.

If you have:

Existing
New Construction
New Construction 2 (or whatever)

The building is all modeled in Existing. Things get demolished in New Construction, and new work gets built in New Construction. There is no need to use another phase alltogether for the demo and new work...

[saeborne]

Thanks for your input, Arron and Scott.

Yes, I can imagine that dealing with a linked existing model will lead to another level of complexity. But I'm still having issues with walls joining with walls of previous phases. Please see this thread:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=83650

(I posted a screen capture down in post #12)

It seems like there is a way to manage the wall join conditions, but that is also another level of complexity.

So if I'm hearing your guys correctly, your opinion is that managing the visibility of a linked view is worse that managing existing wall join conditions.

[twiceroadsfool]

For me, i dont think its that linked views are harder to manage, i just dont think its the correct tool for Project Phasing. Using Links for Phasing (instead of phasing) will mean that youll have to set up the views manually to reflect different lineweights and stypes for "phasing" (unless you use phase mapping, at which point... youre using actual Phasing), and youre still going to have wall clean up issues. Walls wont clean up across linked files. They will only butt in to each other. And if they overlap, theyll run right through each other.

Linked Views and Linked files is how i break up large scale projects, but i use Phasing for Phasing. Ive done it on several large scale projects without incident.