I am very fascinated with Revit and I love using it for designing buildings simply because there is no other practical way... You can turn a napkin 'elevation overlay' sketch into a virtual building very quickly. I love it!!!
Recently. One thought that came across. Is it possible to create 'linked' network central database that organizes/contains wall types, details, families, materials, regular/shared parameters, company standards (annotation, view templates, those types of things....). This database would be managed by few with admin access. However, there should be a temp dump folder for new developing families/detail during earlier stages that can be accessed and updated the same way, however, this will be less strict and accessible to select people.
Overall. It would be nice to have a database of components that are created once, organized once, and updated once updating all the projects that depend on this without having to do transfer project standard or copy/load things manually. It is a HUGE hassle trying to organize certain things for multiple projects. There always seems to be things I don't want in the Revit file. In the end it creates a mess and it just bloats the file with junk and it slows down the performance...
The interface handling would be the most interesting workaround. How do you know what your database elements are versus everything else... There should be four possible subcategories in order to know which:
Database elements (used for standards/production).
Developing database elements (in the works/early design/or user defined)
Unreconciled elements (elements that are copied from foreign projects that live in the actual file itself/not organized correctly)
Then system family/element (non editable elements that are defaults by the software).
Now in order to see what each element is. There should be an automatic description labeled for each element, and an automatic filtering hierarchy once the element exists in the database. For example element would be something like '*6"Stud-Plaster (Material/Color)_*DATABASE ELEMENT*' This family would only exist inside the linked database, and once updated it will automatically update all instances in all projects. In order to choose and create from the drop down selection window. It will be in a category:
Basic Wall/*DATABASE ELEMENT*/(Wall Type)
This is just a thought. But, if anything like this exists please let me know. If it does not exist I am sure you can create in a day or two, I'll buy you a few beers =D.
Thanks,
Corbin
