Division of Labor

[bbacker]

I have this nagging question in the back of my head...

How do you divide the building model into parts that others can work on? I have this vision in my head of one gigantic building model that only one person can access and modify...but I KNOW it doesn't work that way. So how is a building model usually broken out? How are your projects set up?

Basic question for most of you but my little 2D drafting brain is stuck on this.

[david_peterson]

Break it up the same way you do now. Or, even more. For example I have a 2 story building. I have a construct for: Footing, below grade walls, above grade concrete walls, foundation walls, basement cmu wall, ground floor framing, ground floor walls, roof framing, high roof framing, existing basement, existing ground floor wall, existing roof framing......
Break it up into an many pieces as you need.
We set up levels for basement, ground floor and roof. So when I need to model stuff, I place my objects in realtion to each level ie z elevation of my footings in -4'-0"
you could also break up exterior walls from interior wall. Assuming your on 2005 or above, the walls should clean up with the x-refs that are being added to each construct to make up your view files.
Hope this helps.

[Chuckyd67]

In the project navigator there are two groups of settings: Levels and Divisions. David has explained the Levels division quite well. The divisions setting allows for the same concept on a horizontal basis. I have a project in CDs now that easily lends itself to the Division concept, so I tried it. There is an existing building, with additions at 3 different locations. It was a breeze to create 4 divisions and go from there. With the ability for walls to clean up through Xrefs, this concept is invisible to the end product.

I also segregated the single story building into 3 levels: floor plan, roof framing plan, and roof deck plan. It took people a while to understand that elevation "0" on a roof framing plan will appear as 12'-9" in a composite view.

For multi story buildings, the recommendation from the gurus is to create spanning constructs separate from floor constructs, as David alluded to. For example, Walls and shafts that span through two or more levels should be created in a construct separate from walls and doors created for a single level.

Hope this helps.

[david_peterson]

Just another note on that.
I do mostly structural drawings, so for me, when I have a 4 story col, I tend to draw them as a four story col. I've tried both methods, splitting them into 2 different levels, and drawing my structure as it would be built (all in one shot). I do pull out horiz. framing into separate plans, but vertically I would tend to say it almost works better to draw the 22' cmu bearing wall as a 22' cmu bearing wall. Let the cut plans take care of when and where they show up. This also helps with consistency between drawings. If you only draw the wall once, it's either wrong in all locations, or 100% correct.
I will say on the other project I'm working on (which is more complex) I did split everything up by level, as most of my cols did not start and stop of the same level (Lot of gymnastics going on) the more complex of a building you get, the more pieces you will want.
Think of it like a pizza hut pizza, they take it out of the pan, cut it up, and put it all back together in the pan before they serve it. The bigger the pizza, the more pieces you have.

[bbacker]

Break it up the same way you do now. Or, even more. For example I have a 2 story building. I have a construct for: Footing, below grade walls, above grade concrete walls, foundation walls, basement cmu wall, ground floor framing, ground floor walls, roof framing, high roof framing, existing basement, existing ground floor wall, existing roof framing......
Break it up into an many pieces as you need.
We set up levels for basement, ground floor and roof. So when I need to model stuff, I place my objects in realtion to each level ie z elevation of my footings in -4'-0"
you could also break up exterior walls from interior wall. Assuming your on 2005 or above, the walls should clean up with the x-refs that are being added to each construct to make up your view files.
Hope this helps.

Yes, it helps. Alot! My office has the software (2005) but it has not been installed. I have taken one ADT class at our local community college. Our projects were small. The more I learn from the folks who are using the better off I will be.

Now do you (or can you) break up the plans according to content as well? Casework, plumbing fixtures etc?

[david_peterson]

Makes perfect sense to me.
We've done it.
We just stated getting in to using ADT. We've took the KISS apporch. Walls, doors and widows. We already have about 4000 2d blocks for lab equipment, so we made an element that just contained the lab equipment.
Our method was to use what we already had created in 2d as an element.
If it wasn't an ADT object, we didn't consider it a construct.

[bbacker]

In the project navigator there are two groups of settings: Levels and Divisions. David has explained the Levels division quite well. The divisions setting allows for the same concept on a horizontal basis. I have a project in CDs now that easily lends itself to the Division concept, so I tried it. There is an existing building, with additions at 3 different locations. It was a breeze to create 4 divisions and go from there. With the ability for walls to clean up through Xrefs, this concept is invisible to the end product.

I also segregated the single story building into 3 levels: floor plan, roof framing plan, and roof deck plan. It took people a while to understand that elevation "0" on a roof framing plan will appear as 12'-9" in a composite view.

For multi story buildings, the recommendation from the gurus is to create spanning constructs separate from floor constructs, as David alluded to. For example, Walls and shafts that span through two or more levels should be created in a construct separate from walls and doors created for a single level.

Hope this helps.

We will certainly have a use for divisions and levels. We do alot of school and hospitality work. I am sure we will have the same difficulty though. "0" is not necessarily "0".

[bbacker]

Makes perfect sense to me.
We've done it.
We just stated getting in to using ADT. We've took the KISS apporch. Walls, doors and widows. We already have about 4000 2d blocks for lab equipment, so we made an element that just contained the lab equipment.
Our method was to use what we already had created in 2d as an element.
If it wasn't an ADT object, we didn't consider it a construct.

We are hopefully, go to do the same thing. I need to speak with the boss man about that very subject. How are we going to start? My instructor recommended the KISS method too. Start slow.

Most of our equipment and fixtures comes from Design Center. We have 3.3 in the office but have never used it other than for blocks. We have a few standard details that would probably be elements. 2D like yours.

This whole process is overwhelming and has fallen on my not so broad shoulders. The more I can learn for the gurus and users the better off I am. I love AUGI!

[david_peterson]

One thing to keep in mind.
Not sure if you are using .stb plotting or .ctb, but When using ADT objects. .stb is much better. You can create addition plot styles to correspond to current colors. Take your current templete and switch them to .stb. This will allow for more consistent plotting.
Also remember that if you don't get what you want, make your model simple. Dumb it down. If you need to add addidional level of detail, do it at the view level, and draw in 2d. Constructs are for 3d AEC object only. If you can't touch after it's built, it dosen't belong in a construct.
The small group I'm working with on the architechural side, has got one heck of a mess going on right now. Do to the need to get check sets out the door, they have a mix of .ctb files and .stb files. Makes for very difficult plotting and file management.
So if you have a bunch of 2d blocks that were set up to be done with .ctbs (color dependent) make sure that everything in them is set to by layer. If things are set to a color, style based won't recogonize it and with plot with the normal/screened plot style.