Revit 2024.2 PDF Printing Performance Issues – Large Project with Links

[Anitta_Boban]

Hi Everyone,

We are working on a large project in Revit 2024.2 at RIBA Stage 60% with 160+ linked models. We have noticed that PDF printing is extremely slow, even on a high-spec PC, and the issue persists despite multiple optimization attempts.

System Specs:

• CPU: 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-12900

• RAM: 128 GB

• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

• OS: Windows 11 (64-bit)

What we’ve tried so far:

• Unloading all unnecessary worksets and linked models

• Using DiRoots for PDF printing

• Printing one sheet at a time (since batch printing causes slowdowns or crashes)

Issues faced:

• Extremely long printing times even for single sheets

• System closing without warning during printing operations

• Blank pages generated in some cases

• Memory usage spikes significantly during the printing process

Questions:

1. Are there best practices for handling PDF printing with a large number of linked models?

2. Should we consider different tools or settings for batch printing large sets?

3. Are there any Revit settings or hardware optimizations to prevent system crashes and blank pages?

Any advice, workflows, or official Autodesk documentation links would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

@Anitta_Boban Your post title was modified to add the product name and version and moved to the Revit forum to increase findability - CGBenner

[Basam.Yousif]

I have worked on projects of this size and I feel your pain.

Projects of this size require a massive amount of free disk space on the C:\ drive.

How much do you have? 

I noticed the specs listed did not include the size of the C:\ drive - which is the most important item to Revit. Once you've provided the sufficient disk space for Revit to "breathe" then all of the above will work.

I usually tell people that 100GB free space is the minimum they should maintain. Larger projects need 200GB ... and 300GB free to PRINT an entire PDF set ... it sound like your project is even larger than "usual large project" and I will just suggest to get a new 2TB drive - at least to test it.

You may need 256GB RAM and verify cooling is sufficient.

I know a project team with 256GB RAM and 4TB C:\ drive workstations. They can open and print their massive models without issues.

Note: I'm always against the 'documentation model' because of this very issue. Revit was not intended to be used this way.

What you should also consider here is TRAFFIC - where many users have to be working in the model. Users might even be in different time zones, and so the model is always open and never gets a rest. You might want to limit work hours and number of users in the model - and make sure users do not leave model open overnight. Consider all users sync and close Revit prior to beginning to print.