Grids and Consultants

[SheriMacD]

We're working on a project in REVIT as are our mechanical, electrical and structural consultants. In the architectural model we have set the gridlines and levels. My question is, what is the proper practice for the consultants to use when it comes to the gridlines. Are they supposed to link our grids into their model or are they supposed to copy our grids to their model? The problem we have is that they copied our grids to their model and the structural have now moved grids and added grids to suit them, the architectural grids have adjusted as the floor plan has been modified and the MEP grids haven't updated with the architectrual grids so our project now has three sets of gridlines.

[CADastrophe]

I'm from an MEP firm, and we Copy/Monitor both the Grids and the Levels. The only reason we do that for the Grid Lines is to allow us to control the endpoints of the lines (They often run off the sheet and we can't adjust them otherwise because they belong to the link). Anyway, if your consultants did in fact Copy/Monitor the Grids (not just Copy) then then will also should make use of Coordination Review to keep up with the changes to the Monitored elements. See attached image.

[jseck]

The process CADastrophe explained is how it's supposed to work. Unfortunately, some people think they can manage the levels and grids themselves (or don't understand copy/monitor) and end up with uncoordinated models. This is a good topic to discuss at project/BIM kick-off meetings, if those are happening.

[JonathanHerrera]

I agree with jseck that this should be discussed in the project/BIM kickoff meeting, better yet why not include it in your BIM execution plan? Simply decide who is to have ownership of the grid lines & levels, document it, and proceed with the project. This will help avoid any discrepancies and keep the grid lines and levels coordinated.The one drawback to using Copy/Monitor is that it will not notify you if when new grid lines or levels are added. It'd be nice if there was something similar to 'batch copy' that is available for fixtures which actually lets you know that new fixtures are available and asks if you would like to copy/monitor them. But like everything else there's a workaround to this that I've been successfully using for quite some time. Create a dedicated floor plan view just for coordinating grid lines. Turn off everything but the grid lines in the current project as well as in the linked project. Then overwrite the grid lines in the current view to something you know will stand out. I use the color magenta with a lineweight of 7. Once that is done, just make sure to periodically check this view for any new grid lines that may have been added.
grid lines sample.jpg