New Project Question

[brian_derrick]

Revit 2011
We're starting a new project. It's a housing project with 4 different buildings each with 5 or 6 floors. Due to file size (which has caused problems in the past), my first thought is to have each building in it's own project that are linked into a master project for sheets and annotations. Sounds like a lot of juggling back and forth between building and master files. OR... am I looking at this all wrong, should it all be in the same project? Thoughts?

[Revitaoist]

Each building's documents and annotations should be done in it's own project file. Link in the buildings to a site file. Do the site work sheets in this site file. You can create a sheet index with linked files to coordinate the plan set, but definitely do each building's documents in each building file. The intuitive way to do it is to put everything in one file so you can publish everything to one set with ease, but Revit just does not work this way. You can also "insert from file" to cross coordinate 2D details and legends.

[cdatechguy]

Depending on the size of the building I have heard some people will treat each floor as a separate model as well. I have a 5 story though that is getting by satisfactorily with 8 people on the project at once...

[antman]

You can also "insert from file" to cross coordinate 2D details and legends.

Can you expand on this a little bit? When you do that does it keep an active link, or if something changes do you have to re-insert? A method for how to link callouts to details that are common across multiple buildings is something I have yet to figure out.

[Revitaoist]

Can you expand on this a little bit? When you do that does it keep an active link, or if something changes do you have to re-insert? A method for how to link callouts to details that are common across multiple buildings is something I have yet to figure out.

Not an active link. Literally "inserted from file". This only works for 2D details, and most Revit details are done 3d Style. This also only gives you a drafting view, it does not insert to a sheet with a detail number, so cross coordinating details across projects will have to be done manually. I have not had to do it, but I think you would have to make a "Dummy" callout to reference a detail in another project. *Tip of hat* to Redding, I am over in Eureka.

[brian_derrick]

So that's what I was originally thinking as well. I hate the thought of opening up 5 different models to print an entire set but I guess it's not such a big deal. The only drawback I see is that the 4 different buildings are going to have the same details. So one model will need to call out details in another model. This means making views and placing them on a dummy sheet just to call out the same detail. Do I have this right? Any other suggestions?

[antman]

Not an active link. Literally "inserted from file". This only works for 2D details, and most Revit details are done 3d Style. This also only gives you a drafting view, it does not insert to a sheet with a detail number, so cross coordinating details across projects will have to be done manually. I have not had to do it, but I think you would have to make a "Dummy" callout to reference a detail in another project. *Tip of hat* to Redding, I am over in Eureka.

There are Revit users in Eureka? Cool! I came here from there in 04.

By 'Dummy' callout, I assume you mean a callout with instance parameters so the user just enters text and coordinates details manually, like in the olden days?

[brian_derrick]

By 'Dummy' callout, I assume you mean a callout with instance parameters so the user just enters text and coordinates details manually, like in the olden days?

I cringe at the thought of doing it but I guess that's exactly what we'd have to do. It's tempting to do it all in the one project since they're all on the same site though. Is it possible to go with one project and then break them into multiple projects if/when the file size gets too big?

[Revitaoist]

OK I just tested this in 2011, you can 'insert from file' a sheet with all 2d drafting views from another project, then do a callout referencing a detail on that sheet. So, you will only need dummy callouts for 3D details.