Approach for large scale housing masterplan model ?

[MKEllis]

I love Revit - every project throws up a new challenge.

We're putting together a large scale (2000+) development of various housing types. These are modular units, and there is a lot of repetition (obviously). In all there are probably 6 main types, each of which has mirrored alternatives. Whilst the houses are identical, the individual plots do vary to respond to topography and the infrastrucural layout.

What is the best way of organising this in Revit ?

Ideally we would like to schedule the types, walls, roofs as well as the ground works for each. I am not sure what the best approach to this will be.

Initially I had tried setting up a few house types as 'groups' then using individual building pads for each plot - this does not lend itself to scheduling overall numbers though.

I had also thought about modelling the house types as a separate file, and linking them into the masterplan, duplicating as necessary (not sure how this will work re. mirroring though). The level of detail needed in the masterplan isn't as detailed, so long as the external / internal plan is visually correct (annotations and drawings for individual houses can be kept in the relevant house type Revit file).

I'm still not sure that the linked model approach will allow scheduling though ?

We would really want to schedule the numbers of overall house types, as well as totals for materials (although that could be extrapolated from number of plots * materials for each type).

I'm also concerned over file size and performance. 2000+ houses in the single model is likely to be a pretty big hit.

Any ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated.

many thanks,

Martin

[AJA14]

Hi,

Best Option:
1- Create each unit separately
2- Create Master plan separately (Site Plan)
3- Link your units and use shared coordinates to organize their location. Any linked file has shared coordinates property in the instance properties, click on that and explore. Wikihelp explains this pretty well.


This way, a change to a single unit will change all units.

Good Luck.

Regards,

[MKEllis]

Many thanks for the quick response Ali.

A couple of queries on that approach:

Would you create a separate revit file for mirrored types - or mirror the linked file ? (can't try this at the moment - but do the annotations mirror - including text ?).

Because of the site topography, I am assuming that I would really need to use building pads for each plot (or step them).

How do you schedule the numbers of each house type ?

Thanks again,

Martin

[AJA14]

Hi again,

When you link the first file, select it, and click on shared site, and give it the correct type (A-1) for example.
Then tag the corresponding building in the host.
The following is a list of object types you cannot tag through a linked Revit project file:

Rooms
Areas
Zones
Spaces
Keynotes
Beam systems
Floor span symbols
Path reinforcement span symbols
Area reinforcement span symbols (From Autodesk Website directly)

Then, you can make a copy or mirror of the linked file and for each of those, use the shared site tool to give it a new name. (A-2, A-3, B-1, ...). If you open the original file, the links and tags will disappear, but if you reload, all tags will return. Additionally, if you remove or delete, the tags will be lost, but you can use reconcile hosting to get them back.

Regards,

[AJA14]

Hi,

I forgot to mention that you can use the VV and change the settings of the linked file from By host to By Link. This way you may be able to control visibility of some elements directly in the host file.

Regards,

[MKEllis]

Many thanks Ali,

I must admit - I dodn't follow the tag descriptions you gave there, but I don't have access to revit at the moment - I'll try that out later. It sounds as though that is the best approach.

All the best,

Martin

[cjgielens]

Is there a way to tag the units on the masterplan?

[AJA14]

Hi,

I don't think it's possible but worth checking out. Not sure if you'd want to use model text and provide a name for each viewable on plan, 3d, sections, and elevations.

Regards,

[cjgielens]

just thinking you have to put 2000 times a name in each house.....easy to make mistakes...

and how to schedule the different houses?

[MKEllis]

Sorry, didn't get time to revisit this yesterday, so I haven't been able to try the linked file approach yet.

If it is not possible to schedule total numbers of each type directly from a linked house type model (it may be, but I haven't tried it yet, but my experience of Revit has always been - have a back up plan) could I instead:

1. Link the house type model into the masterplan.
2. Create a generic family that contains data associated with a specific type (ie, Type Name, Total Net Area, ... etc.)
3. Group an instance of that family with a linked type - then copy that around the masterplan - and use the shared parameters of the family to provide the data and total numbers ?

That may be a bit convoluted, but I really need to be able to work on the overall masterplan whilst having access to a live schedule that can report of the total numbers of each house type. Manually adding Tags is prone to errors, and will also take a considerable amount of time.

Thanks for all your suggestions,

All the best,

Martin

[MKEllis]

Thought I'd post an update incase anyone else was following this post.

It may not be the best way of achieving what I was trying to do - but it is working:

I have brough the house types into the masterplan as linked Revit files (1 for each type).

I then created a generic family, that included a number of shared parameters including:

-House Type

-Net Area

-Cost per unit

Imported the family into the Masterplan, and created a Type for each House Type.

Placed an instance of the relevant House Type over the linked House Type Model - then grouped them to create a single group.

This group is then duplicated as necessary to populate the masterplan.

The schedule can be created from the family parameters and can provide a 'live' record of overall numbers, costs, total areas etc.

The only 'problem' is that the data has to be entered manually in the Family for each house type rather than it pulling data from the model. It's not really that much of a problem as it only has to be entered once for each type (of which there are only 6).

This seems to be working for the moment, not sure whether it is 'best practice' or whether I will hit a problem further down the line. One of my concerns is over duplicating the linked model hundreds of times.

Martin

[Scott-ey]

Im looking at creating something similar and was wondering what other problems or lessons learnt you might be able to share? 

Thanks, 

[erajapackiyam]

 Hi MKEllis                       ,

 how did  you go with that method. Any new problems/ difficulties. Could u pls share