Detail Planning in Revit

[maxx.blake]

Good morning,

I wanted to get some insight into best practices for detailing in Revit. In my past I've tried a few strategies, and am unsure for our upcoming project which will work best.

Our project set up is made of 4 "Live" building models, all linked into a "Master Central" file for printing / scheduling etc. For our plan set (incl. Elevations and Sections) we are linking our "live" Models by "Linked View" so as to not do any dimensioning / tagging etc in the "Master Central" file.

For the purpose of detail planning, I'm wondering if it's best to;

1. Do the detail work in the Master Central file, so as to not rely on linked views for these drawings. Or,

2. Continue working with linked views, do the detail work in the "Live Models", so as to have an easier control over any necessary 3D changes that arise due to resolution at a smaller scale, and then linking these details views in our "Master Central" file as per our previous strategy.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Many thanks,

Max

[Alfredo_Medina · Accepted solution]

I recommend the opposite, even though I assume it is too late for you to make changes. However, let me explain: for projects with multiple buildings, it is better (based on succesful experience with large projects), to think of a building as an individual set of models (architecture + other disciplines), and produce all the necessary architectural details for each building in its own architectural model. This refers to specific details. For typical details, I have used a technique that I learned from Brian Mackey: common details are created in a Revit project as floor plans, one floor plan per detail, with detail components. Then, in each building you link the common details file, and use "by linked view" to refer to each detail. If you need to update a detail, you do that in the link, and then all the buildings that have the link will show the updated version. The reason for using floor plans is because "by linked view" does not work with drafting views.

The approach that you are using has some disadvantages: the container file can get very slow because it contains all the buildings. Also, if you want to edit something, the information is not there but in links. So you have to open the link and come back to the container file. Lots of time wasted in opening files. I have seen this approach in mid-size projects, and I've seen the problems: the more information you add to the projects, the longer you have to wait for the container file to open. You can't afford an employee to wait twenty minutes for a file to open.

With the other approach that I mentioned first, we have made two large portions of new theme parks with more than 30 buildings on the site. 

[barthbradley]

Aren't all the 4 Buildings permitted separately?  If so, I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the "Master Central" is this scenario you are describing.  Almost sounds like you are preparing the 4 Buildings' submittal packs this one "Master" project - especially when you mention that you are pulling in BY LINKED VIEWS.  Am I misreading?     

[maxx.blake]

Good morning, and thanks for your reply.

The four buildings are part of one development - so one submission.

We link everything into the Master Central file to keep the file-size slim and so that there is one "Container" for the prupose of printing / scheduling / visualisations ONLY. 

There are a number of other reasons why this is helpful for us in the early design phases, but I won't go into that now! The only reason this becomes tricky in the detailing stage is due to the fact that we'll soon have 300+ views in various models for the various 1:50, 1:25, 1:5 etc, so linking these views is not practical...

I think we've made the decision to carry out the detail planning in the individual models - the main disadvantage here is the inability to generate a single Plan list from the sheets in the linked models. Or is that old knowledge and this is now possible?

Cheers

[maxx.blake]

Many thanks Alfredo,

Your solution is the way we're going forward.

The larger scale drawings however (Plans, Sections, Elevations - @ 1:100) will be carried out in our original strategy; all the draiwng / annotation work done in the individual building files, then linked "by View" in the Master Central (container) file, so as to easily print the set of ~30 Sheets for the larger scale information. 

We'll also consider using this (your) strategy for the "standard" Details - i.e. linking floor plans "By Linked View" in our container file and printing from there.

For the Details that are related to a specific building, we'll set these up in the individual building files and print from there. I discovered after my initial post that it is in fact possible to generate Sheet Lists in the Master Central (container) file, pulling the information "from linked models" to be able to keep an overview of all the sheets in the project / various building models.

Thanks for your help,

Max

[ralphsRSQBJ]

Hi Alfredo, 

We're setting up a project that will have typical plan and section details across multiple buildings, and I believe your strategy is the way to go. I've been doing some testing and have a couple questions:

• The typical plan details, using detail components, are working fine. I've linked it to the Building file, and lined it up to the correct location on the building model. Issue is once I link another detail and move it, the details on the other view would also move and won't line up to the model. To resolve this, I had to copy the link so the 2nd detail lines up to the correct location without losing the 1st detail. Is copying the link the correct method? If yes, that would mean there will be multiple instances of the Details revit link in the building file. Is this correct?
• You mentioned floor plans only, but I'm assuming we need to use sections for section details so we can use linked views for the callouts. Is this correct? 

Your help on this is appreciated. Thanks!