Revit MEP Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Revit MEP Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular Revit MEP topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Speed and Performance

16 REPLIES 16
Reply
Message 1 of 17
dennis
572 Views, 16 Replies

Speed and Performance

I wanted to try to bring all the threads together to see if we can find any setups that prove demonstrable in increasing the performance and speed of REVIT MEP.
From what I have found, hardware and a 64bit OS is not the answer. Many have spent money with no significant change in speed and performance.
Some things that MAY help:
1)Purge/Audit the arch model prior to linking.
2)Simplify the arch model, ie:replace custom doors with single panel doors, etc. (Seems to defeat the purpose of having a true-to-life BIM model, but "oh well".)
3)When possible during design work, use the VG to off the link arch model. Off anything not needed.
4)Shadows alway OFF, if u use the shaded mode
5)MEP has to use Copy/Monitor, but use as sparingly as possible (helps to use non-hosted families)

All these things will help...maybe, but only a little.

Workflow Ideas:
The conventional wisdom of the single database central doesn't work for the majority of MEP firms. Linking of the arch model became the "way" to do it, but produced it's own set of issues and limitations.
1) Many are resorting to the old AutoCAD XRef workflow and creating centrals for each discipline, linking in each others' models as needed. Unlinking when not needed. This workflow does help keep the designers' models smaller and easier to work with, but requires much more manual coordination and maintenance. Eventually the models will need to be brought together for final connectivity, wiring, etc.
2) I have a couple clients who have one seat of Revit Arch to put together the sections, elevations, enlarged views and sheets. The Revit Arch doesn't have the overhead of all the calcs going on, so setup of the views is faster than when inside of RMEP.

Please add any additions that have been found to help, even if just a little.
16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17
JacobJBB
in reply to: dennis

This suggestion was proposed by Autodesk: disconnect the duct from VAV boxes (from the medium pressure side) so that calculations don't propagate throughout your entire building. These strategic breaks will supposedly help tremendously. Alternatively, you can accomplish the same goals by creating systems of each VAV system. This keeps the "circulation" of calculations limited to each system.
Message 3 of 17
bas1
in reply to: dennis

After proposing that an option be provided to turn off calculations, I was told by AutoDesk that the calculations do not make a tremendous difference in system performance. I find this hard to believe.

I cannot believe we are all resorting to methods such as those outlined above to obtain a performance level that is merely usable. That equates to software that does not work in my opinion.
Message 4 of 17
JacobJBB
in reply to: dennis

There seems to be inconsistencies with what Autodesk is telling us. We were told that the calculations were the root of the cause for the performance issues.
Message 5 of 17
dennis
in reply to: dennis

I have seen the same from Autodesk as well. I logged in some performance issues for a client and posted their project. Support desk said the same thing that the culprit is primarily the calculations and made recommendations all around handling calcs.
Message 6 of 17
dennis
in reply to: dennis

From the Autodesk Support desk:
1) Finish out systems and move them from the Unassigned catagory.
2) Have no open ends of duct, pipe.
3) Break model up by discipline: M, E, P and FP. So much for the single database model, and back to the tried and true workflow of AutoCAD Xrefs.
Message 7 of 17
dennis
in reply to: dennis

Do you ever get the feeling that no one at Autodesk really knows?
Message 8 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: dennis

Hi Dennis;
This is Steven. I used to work at CMMI and TFG there in Atlanta if you remember. I am now at RTKL and we have a very large campus project in Revit with the main building at 1.2 million sf. Because of its size, complexity, and project team distribution, the campus is over 18 Revit project files all linked together. The main building is 3 Arch/Struct rvt files + 7 Interiors rvt files + 1 MEP rvt file. We also compress often to keep some of these files under 200 MB.

We have seen benefits on these very large projects by improving hardware and going with 64 bit OS (XP). The best gains in improvement came from using the 64 bit OS with 6 GB RAM, but only on these really large projects.

Even so, it is still medium-slow (still way better than AutoCAD) for the MEP file. We have tried some of the Autodesk suggestions including disconnecting the systems on the high/medium side of the VAVs and it does help, though we wished we didn't have to.
Message 9 of 17
dennis
in reply to: dennis

Hey Steven: Thanks for the confirmation that the 64bit does indeed help. That was one area where the theory seemed plausible, but I haven't actually tested. Are you saying tho, that it only helps on big projects and not small ones? Or is that just cuz the project you have worked with is a large one?
Message 10 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: dennis

To be honest, you wont see a noticeable difference in speed switching to 64 bit. I just got a new machine yesterday and they gay me crazy amounts of ram and processor. Not helping either. I have a quad core Xeon @ 2.66ghz with 16gb of ram. the best thing i've seen for speed is to use wireframe in plan view. that seems to be the view that slows the most.
Message 11 of 17
JacobJBB
in reply to: dennis

Revit is not a 64 bit application. Unless Autodesk develops a 64-bit version of Revit, all the processing cores and gigs of ram in the world won't do a thing. Its like purchasing a Bugatti Veyron for your 80-year old grandma who insists on adhering to the speed limit.
Message 12 of 17
dennis
in reply to: dennis

That is a disappointment
Message 13 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: dennis

Revit MEP is like an 80 year old grandma! i love it:)
wake up grandma, your 64bit is here!

Brian Earsley
Project Manager
areté 3, Ltd
18645 West Creek Drive
Tinley Park, Il 60477
708.342.1250 x.225
www.arete3.com

JacobJBB wrote:
> Revit is not a 64 bit application. Unless Autodesk develops a 64-bit version of Revit, all the processing cores and gigs of ram in the world won't do a thing. Its like purchasing a Bugatti Veyron for your 80-year old grandma who insists on adhering to the speed limit.
Message 14 of 17
JacobJBB
in reply to: dennis

No no no, RMEP isn't an 80 yr old grandma, its actually a state of the art BIM tool. I guess that was a bad analogy. Here it is again, revised and resubmitted.

A Quad Core Xeon with 16GB of RAM running Revit MEP is like a Bugatti Veyron with an electronic limiter set to 55mph.
Message 15 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: dennis

JacobJBB wrote:
> No no no, RMEP isn't an 80 yr old grandma, its actually a state of the art BIM tool. I guess that was a bad analogy. Here it is again, revised and resubmitted.
>
> A Quad Core Xeon with 16GB of RAM running Revit MEP is like a Bugatti Veyron with an electronic limiter set to 55mph.

can vista or any OS recognize 16gb of ram? Jacob hit the nail on the
head with that analogy. That would be a beast for 3d max or maya

--
Regards,
Bill Wright
http://ductductpipe.blogspot.com
Message 16 of 17
shelby003
in reply to: dennis

We have had a company come in to see if they can figure out where the bottle neck is for this fabulous software that we are all being forced to use!! We do not use any of the calculation features in Revit as of yet and still have a huge problem with performance. They found the video cards to be the weak link in our machines, so they brought in a high dollar card, sorry not a computer geak at all I know we have quad processors and 8gb of ram, and we had no luck. We did find if you lower the resoultion on your monitors you will see quite a bit of difference in graphic speed.

I did read somewhere on this forum that if you are worksharing with other workstations within a office, Revit can be slowed down by your slowest computer within the chain of workstations. Can anyone else shed some light on this???

Sorry for the not so techinical writing here, but I tend to be a user of Revit, but we can't even use this crap! Nice sell Autodesk, you are costing my company lots of money!!
Message 17 of 17
shelby003
in reply to: dennis

We have had a company come in to see if they can figure out where the bottle neck is for this fabulous software that we are all being forced to use!! We do not use any of the calculation features in Revit as of yet and still have a huge problem with performance. They found the video cards to be the weak link in our machines, so they brought in a high dollar card, sorry not a computer geak at all I know we have quad processors and 8gb of ram, and we had no luck. We did find if you lower the resoultion on your monitors you will see quite a bit of difference in graphic speed.

I did read somewhere on this forum that if you are worksharing with other workstations within a office, Revit can be slowed down by your slowest computer within the chain of workstations. Can anyone else shed some light on this???

Sorry for the not so techinical writing here, but I tend to be a user of Revit, but we can't even use this crap! Nice sell Autodesk, you are costing my company lots of money!!

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Rail Community


Autodesk Design & Make Report