Multiple Views from One CAD Link

[jlevitt6ASUX]

I've been tasked with figuring out a way to get multiple view callouts from a single CAD link and I'm not coming up with much that seems like much less work than splitting off each detail from the original CAD file.

We are a curtain wall design/fabrication company creating shop drawings and have very few standard details across projects (so a standard detail library in Revit would take years before it pays off time-wise).

Our current work flow involves drawing all our details in CAD, and draw our elevations and floor plan pages in Revit and drawing our details in Revit is not an option as we need CAD files for another department (something to do with fabrications... I'm not 100% sure but I know we have to do the details in CAD).

When we draw our details in CAD, the whole set of details is created in 1 file, all set up on pages with titleblocks and annotations. It is my understanding that in order to callout these details in Revit, each detail needs to be in a separate "view" in Revit.

My boss is looking for a way to avoid having to split these files up to avoid the time it takes, AND so that if corrections need to be made they only have to be made in one place, rather than in the master file as well as in the individual files that have been linked into our Revit file.

The best solution I've found so far would be to have each detail turned into a block in the CAD file, then assign each block a unique layer. Then when we link the CAD file into each "view" in Revit we only include the standard layers and the one that the detail is assigned to, essentially "turning off" all of the other details while still maintaining our standard drafting layers. This would solve the "only updating in one place" issue, but would still take time to implement.

I also proposed creating the separate CAD files for each detail by X-ref'ing the detail from the "master file", then linking that file into our Revit model, which would solve the "only updating in one place" issue, but again be time consuming, and I read somewhere that Revit may not read X-refs.

Soooooo, does anyone else have any viable solutions?

[RobDraw]

I would strongly recommend drawing them in Revit and, when the other department needs them in CAD, export them.

[ToanDN]

Link the DWG in a model view such as a floor plan so that you can create multiple views with different view crops.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You have to create dummy sheets with dummy drafting views applied to each sheet....

Name your drafting views according to the sheet and detail number...such as  9/A9.01 and maybe a keyword so you can find them a bit faster if you don't know the detail number right off.

Add these sheets and drafting views to your template so that it is always there.

[jcoatsHEV7P]

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