topic Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet in Revit Architecture Forum

2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 21:58:06 GMT

Does anyone have a "best practice" scenario when you have 2 revit models/files (almost entirely the same model with subtle differences) and you want to share details for both projects? What would be the best way to go about this?

In the past, we've tried this and we end up making dummy sheets and details in the 2nd Revit model to tag details that really don't exist in that model. You then have to be cautious of renumbering those details in the first model to match the 2nd. It gets messy very quickly.

Would it be best to just put both models into 1 single file? Our only issue there is levels and their references between the 2 models. I know you can adjust the level contraints (3D), so that would probably solve that issue...but are they any other issues you would see us falling into? Schedules can be filtered and we'll just work out numberings for building A vs. building B....just trying to cover all of our bases here.

We're in Revit 2014 for this project and the two models are fairly simple designs.

Your thoughts are much appreciated!!!

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

ToanDN — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 22:07:55 GMT

If they belong to one master project then you can certainly link the two models into a host file, then create your documents from the host file. It is easier to manage project standards as well.

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 15:34:50 GMT

Can you elaborate on that a little more? I've never created a host file. Can you create details and reference sections/details from those linked models? We will be using very similar details in both projects - they are almost the exact same building, just ones larger than the other. Our issue is detailing mainly - not having to make "dummy" details for tags to reference is what we are trying to avoid. Thank you for your input!

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

cbcarch — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 16:17:58 GMT

The big question here is:

Are the Details "typical" ones which are contained in Drafting Views, created with 2D Detail Components, 2d annotations, etc?

If so, you can use "Insert 2d from File" and pull in details from one project to another.

Or--are they "live" details which are showing actual 3d model geometry?

This is a very important distinction, and has a profound affect on how to create details for the 2 different models/projects.

I would warn against trying to detail/annotate/sheet from a "master" file with the 2 models linked into it. There are a lot of problems such as tags

losing their "host" when a link is reloaded. You can't place sections in a link.

When in doubt, create live sections in the building model, create details "over" the 3d geometry, and place on sheets in the same model.

Then print your final documents form both models, and combine into a final set of PDFs.

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 17:24:36 GMT

Cliff,
I understand your points and agree with them. Our decision has been made to have both Revit files in separate central files. We will develop all of our details and wall sections in the first Central file and once we have those details finalized we will create a dummy sheet (that doesn't appear in the sheet list) and place dummy views on that sheet that correspond to the same numbers of the 1st central file. That way we can place detail call outs without having to do twice the amount of work. Hopefully that makes sense. I appreciate your help on this!

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

ToanDN — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 18:10:08 GMT

Well, if you have made your decision then I wish you good luck.

However, linking several models to a host file and creating documents in the host file is not at all uncommon. We have been doing that with core and shell projects, as well as multi-building campus projects. I can assure that there is no such thing as callouts disappear when reload linked models. Even dimensions and tags constrained to linked elements will re-appear when the unloaded link is reloaded.

Attached is a simple example with this approach.

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

cbcarch — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:24:41 GMT

Toan,

I have seen Tags and dimensions ( not callouts?) lose their host quite a bit when trying to annotate via linked models when the link gets unloaded

or reloaded. The infamous "?" appears in the tag. Quite a pain when you have to "nudge" 100's of tags on 100's of views/sheets so they re-gain there proper annotation.

However, I have not tried this in Revit 2016, and perhaps there have been stability improvements with annotating Linked files?

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

maciejwypych — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 23:48:47 GMT

Hi,

There are a few different ways of dealing with this issue.

1. If your two buildings are on completely different sites and details are based on model views you can detail Building A and link it into the Building B, create sections and callouts in Building B in the same places as Building A and in V/G - Revit Links use By linked view and set it to a corresponding detail in Building A.

2. If you have both buildings on the same site, you can either use the method above, or detail everything in the site/host file.

To avoid any issues with the dissapearing tags or keynotes that loose reference (it had been improved in the 2016 and 2015 R2(I think)), you need to place your links in to separate worksets so you never have to unload them. It's a good practice anyway, because closing a workset works per/user and unloading is global. Also, you can choose to close worksets on startup which massively improves performance.

If you ever get the infamous questionmark in your keynotes -Right click on a keynote, Select All instances in the project and nuge them one time to the left and one time to the right.

Re: 2 Revit Models - 1 Detail Sheet

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 13:55:21 GMT

I like your #1 option. Our buildings are on seperate sites, the buildings themselves are just very similar. I will give that a shot!

Thank you to the rest of the group for all of your help, it is greatly appreciated, I've learned a lot!