Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Using Linked Revit Files... How many?

gibsonf1

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I'm working on a new way to structure very large projects on Revit using heavily nested linked Revit models and doing research on the ways Revit files are typically structured now. I'm curious what the current typical nesting strategy is for Revit projects. Is it a separate file per discipline (Arch/MEP/Structural) or some other way to separate files such as 1 file getting too difficult to work with and thus breaking it into more manageable pieces? If you could please chime in on your nesting strategy I would appreciate it.Thanks,Fred GibsonSenior ArchitectProject Planning & DevelopmentBechtel Civil

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TKennedy

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Joined: Wed, Oct 7, 2009
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Here is what I have seen. All disciplines have their own model. If it's a renovation, the existing building will be it's own model. If the building is large enough to cause performance issues each discipline may start splitting up their models. How that is done depends on the project, but the architects seem to split it up into exterior/interior/cores.

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WWHub

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What you didn't ask was how large does a model need to be before splitting other than discipline splitting.  We have yet to reach that threshold.  Our largest architectural only model was over 220 meg - and that was on a 2008 model.

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TKennedy

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WWHub, was everyone on the project able to use that file? Unfortunately, some of the smaller consulting offices don't have the hardware to keep up with the bigger architects. We had a problem with some larger files in our office until we could upgrade our machines.

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WWHub

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Those were only 32 bit, 4 gig machines - nothing special.  Because this file was so large for that type of machine, we learned how to use worksets and to use reduced loads.  All linked files in their own workset, interiors in a seperate workset, site in a seperate linked file.  And some more special worksets.

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alabaster2513

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you can easily have a massive single file if you manage your worksets. I've worked with some of the largest buildings around and my best practice is intelligent worksets. Setting your central file to specify what worksets to open is a massive help. It also works extremely well when linking and upgrading files. my favorite worksets is breaking up the building two ways. first by uniformat divisions and second is by area.

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TKennedy

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Cool, sounds like you went out of your way to make things work. The folks running the project I'm thinking of did not. At least not at first, they ended up splitting up the model. That still only went so far, we would still need everything linked in at once at some points.

Another question for you, were your worksets set up in a way that would do much for the folks linking in the models? I have seen architects models that have numerous worksets that I looked into turning off, but for the most part they have to all be on in my model because they were split up in ways that we couldn't use.

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WWHub

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When you do worksets by floor or area, then the worksets might not be useful to linked users.  We used logical worksets based on the work.  Interiors, building shell, owner equipment .... Ceilings and associated light fixtures would also be a good candidate for a separate workset.  And as I said, all linked components were in separate worksets.

We could only work in that large project using reduced loads.  Printing was troublesome because for some sheets we needed x workset but then had to unload before continuing.  NOT easy but we managed.  64 bit is curing all of that problem.

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