Excessive (?) overlays

[padamnaryj]

Hi,

I am trying to get rid of as many things as possible from a models (Linked Models - LM) I have linked to mine (Main Model - MM). There are multiple linked models overlayed to LM, I usually remove those links within LM, because I have them linked directly to MM. Do you think that makes any sense? Or am I just wasting my time? It was not much of an issue in a past when I had 4 or 5 Linked Models, but now I with the amount of Linked Models exceeding 20 I start wondering…
Thank you in advance for all your help!

Cheers,

sic

[Craig_L]

The only thing that will affect is your ability to manipulate the visibility.
If its all in LM only, you can only turn on/off the LM you can not hide for example 5 links out of your 20, you can only hide one.
If you have 20 linked seperately, then you can turn off any number of the links for visibility.

Thats the only difference I can see, other than the work involved in linking in 20 models seperately.

[padamnaryj]

Craig - thank you for your response!
What about this - let's assume I will leave overlayed links in LM (they are pretty much useless). Will it have negative impact on the performance of my Main Model? Please keep in mind that those links are not valid anymore, meaning those paths do not longer exist which may trigger some scanning for missing files (or not?). At the same time they are overlayed (not attached) to LM, meaning there should be no trace of it's existence in Main Model...

Cheers,
sic

[Craig_L]

To go back to your initial point "excessive". I would say in general its only excessive if its in there, and not required, or if it offers only information you already have. Then I would say its excessive. From the sounds of it, these secondary links are superfluous (ie no longer relevant) - Therefore I would say remove them, as you don't need them. We often ask co-ordination models that we recieve have all links stripped out of them, as it can be a pain to have to open someone elses model and clean it up - this is similar to asking someone to bind and purge CAD drawings before they issue them to you. Its just less work on the recieving end to clean up. Also often the other consultant has our model linked in to theirs, and trying to place a LM that references your own model actually will not link. It gives a feedback loop warning, saying that you can't link the current model to itself.

If the link is a phantom link, then its not doing anything anyway. This wont cause slow down in your MM but at the same time will most likely give you the "some links are missing" warning everytime you open that project, or reload the LM, and some places have a "zero warnings" model policy, or simply this will be annoying - however I dont see it causing slow down in your MM as its literally not loading in, nor reading any additional data than the LM only.

[david_peterson]

Just like cad if all of the models have links and all of those links are set to overlay, then they aren't making the trip and it's a waste of time.
I'm working on a project right now where I have 40+ linked models in my model. Each of those have their respective links (ie my model is linked to theirs). I haven't run into any issues yet, other than running out of ram.

[padamnaryj]

So that's the thing - I was hoping someone had a chance to do comparison - model performance with and without those links. I tend to agree with David, following "AutoCAD logic", those overlayed links should have zero impact on a main model. On the other hand, I have two models that are really slow (i.e. it takes about 45 seconds to create section) and want to make sure that they are stripped of all the unnecessary stuff. From now on, I will start ignoring overlayed links, I will let you know if there are any (noticeable!) changes. Anyway, thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!

Cheers,
sic

[MikeJarosz]

I'm working on a project right now where I have 40+ linked models in my model. Each of those have their respective links (ie my model is linked to theirs). I haven't run into any issues yet, other than running out of ram.

I have been concerned about the arch model linked into the consultant files as you mention. The plumber is hosting drinking fountains on the arch walls, which to him are a link. Removing the arch link from the plumbing model before linking into the architectural created orphan objects. There has been very little discussion about this topic and I would like to learn more, but there is no where to go.

Any experience out there with orphaned families hosted to linked objects?

[padamnaryj]

I may not be the best person to answer it. I don't remember precisely, but I think if the family (here: drinking fountain) is Face Based and you remove linked model (or particular element in the linked model) which is a host to this family it will become orphaned. This drinking fountain will stay in our plumbing model, but will not automatically attach to any new wall (or other object from linked model) even if this wall is in exactly same location. Families with a different type of host (wall, floor etc.) will be deleted from plumbing model as soon as they lose their host. That being said, I highly recommend double checking everything above