Chapter 21 Troubleshooting and Optimizing Tips Throughout this book, our focus has been on using Revit as an architectural design and production tool; we’ve shown how to use the software for all of the core BIM operations. This chapter looks at the file-management aspect of a Revit project. As we’ve said, a Revit project is a single database file, usually a large one. Regular file maintenance and a well-built model will keep you from having problems down the road with file performance and stability. It’s worth being aware of best prac- tices. In this chapter, you’ll find tips and tricks for keeping your file running quickly and smoothly. We’ve included some pointers to keep you from getting into trouble and some solutions if you do. We’ll discuss performance issues, file corruption, and getting a project started and point you to some additional resources. You’ll learn how to do several things to make your work more efficient: ◆ Keep your files lean and keep file performance optimized ◆ Create best practices for project workflow ◆ Repair some of the problems that can happen in Revit files Performance It should make sense that a small file on a good network runs the quickest. Depending on your hardware configuration, typical file sizes can vary widely. We’ve seen them from 10MB to 150MB. Much of that variation depends on the level of detail you’ve put into your model, if you have any imported files (like other 3D files or CAD files), and the overall complexity of your model. However, there are a number of things you can do to be pro- active about keeping your model’s performance optimized. Here are a few we recommend: Use the /3GB switch. Revit now supports Microsoft XP’s SP2 /3GB switch. Windows XP allows any given application access to only 2GB of RAM at a given time; if the application needs more, it get the rest from virtual memory. Microsoft’s switch (which is available in XP Service Pack 2) allows you to change that 2GB limit to 3GB. To find out how to do this, visit www.autodesk.com/ support , choose Revit Architecture from the menu, and read the support article on enabling the /3GB switch. Of course, you need more than 2GB of RAM on your workstation for this switch to do you any good. More information on RAM and Virtual Memory can be found at the Autodesk knowledge web- site. See this link for details: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=8018971&linkID=9243099 Don’t explode imported CAD files. A CAD file imported into Revit is a collection of objects that is managed as a single entity. If you explode a CAD file, the single object immediately 44831c21.fm Page 635 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 636 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS becomes many—and becomes that much more data for Revit to track. If you’re unfortunate enough to explode a hatch pattern, one object becomes many thousands. If you’re importing DWG files, leave them unexploded as much as possible. If you need to hide lines, use the Visibility/ Graphic Overrides dialog to turn layers on and off. Explode only when you need to change the imported geometry, and start with a partial explode. The tools shown here are available in the Options bar when you select an imported or linked DWG file. Using Partial Explode will break down the CAD file into subgroups; any blocks within the file will be maintained, hatch will be maintained, and so on. Using Full Explode will break each of these components down into its individual lines. If the drawing is simple and you are looking to convert an old CAD detail into a Revit drafting view, this can be a desired effect. However, remember that exploding takes one object within the database and makes many many objects from it. Another option is to change the DWG file directly in the CAD application—delete lines and layers you don’t need, then re-import. Delete or unload unused DWGs. Often, you import a DWG as a reference but then you don’t need it later in the process. It’s easy to forget, but if you no longer need an import, go ahead and select it in the view and delete it. This will delete the import in all views. Close unused views. Keeping the number of open views to a minimum helps the model’s performance. Choose Window  Close Hidden Windows often, because it’s easy to have many views open at once, even if you’re concentrating on only a few views. Once you reduce your open views to just two or three, you can take advantage of the view switch toggle: Press Ctrl-Tab, and you’ll cycle through your open views. Press Ctrl-Shift-Tab to reverse the view cycle. Calculate room volumes only when necessary. You can turn on room volume calculation by choosing Settings  Room and Area Settings. Check the “Compute room volumes” box (shown in Figure 21.1) only if you need room tags or a schedule to display volumetric information. Don’t forget to switch off this option after you print or view the information. Otherwise, the volumes will recalculate each time you edit something in the model, and this can affect the overall per- formance of your file dramatically. Figure 21.1 Compute Room Vol- umes option should only be checked when reviewing volumes or when printing docu- ments that display volume information. 44831c21.fm Page 636 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. BEST PRACTICES 637 Best Practices Another way to improve performance is to follow some simple, best practice guidelines for your workflow. These aren’t necessarily a list of do’s and don’ts or a list of potential hazards, they are suggestions to make a few, simple changes or additions to your workflow and buy yourself back some time in the long run. Many users get frustrated with long load times opening views in Revit. Follow these tips and it will keep things optimally humming along. Workshared files: Make a new local copy once a week. Sometimes in a worksharing envi- ronment, your local copy can begin to perform poorly but others on your team don’t have the same problems. If this is the case, we recommend that you make a new local file. Local files can become problematic for any of the reasons that commonly cause issues with large files in a net- worked environment. As a general practice, it’s a good idea to make a new local copy once a week. Use Graphics Card options to improve drawing performance. In the Settings  Options  Graphics tab, make sure you have both the Use OpenGL Hardware Acceleration and “Use over- lay planes to improve performance” check boxes marked (Figure 21.2). Unchecking the “Use overlay planes…” option can cause significant degradation in performance—we recommended you never uncheck it. Figure 21.2 Enable video card options for better performance. Import/Link DWGs in one view only. Importing in all views can seriously affect performance. Whenever possible, import in Current View only. Exception is when you wish to create a Topo- surface out of a CAD file—you will have to import the CAD file in all views. Note the “Link (instead of import)” check box in the Import or Link dialog box. Linking is better than importing if you don’t need to edit the geometry. Watch out for imported geometry. Although Revit has the ability to import files from a num- ber of other sources, you should exercise caution when doing so. If you’re importing a 60MB 44831c21.fm Page 637 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 638 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS NURBS-based file into your model, expect your Revit model to grow in size and react a bit slower than it did before. Delete unneeded imports to reduce file size and improve overall performance. Purge unused elements. Revit has a built-in tool that allows you to purge unused families and content. This is a good way to reduce file size, improve performance, and minimize the list of things you need to search through when adding content in the project. Loaded but unused families can make your file grow quickly. To purge, choose File  Purge Unused. If your file is very large, it may take a few minutes to run this command before you see the dialog box shown in Figure 21.3. Here, you can opt to keep or purge families individually. Figure 21.3 Use the “Purge unused” dialog to reduce file size. This is typically not a good idea at the beginning of a project because your template may contain families that you intend to use but haven’t yet inserted (such as wall types). Note that some Revit families can only be removed from the project with the Purge command. You will notice with elements such as dimensions and textnotes that there is no way to delete a family type from the Properties dialog. To get rid of unused types, use Purge Unused. Every- thing included in the Other Styles group falls into this category. Manage amount of information shown in views. Learn to manage the amount of information needed in your views. Don’t show more than you need to show in a view, in either the View Depth or level of detail you choose. Here are a few easy ways to keep your views opening and printing smoothly: Minimize the level of detail. Set your detail level (in the View Control bar) relative to the scale you’re viewing. For example, if you’re working on a 1 ⁄ 32 ˝ (1:50) plan, you probably don’t need Detail Level set to Fine—it will cause your view performance to suffer needlessly. Hide elements you don’t need to see. This goes along with the level of detail, but this tip is more manual than just changing a single setting such as level of detail. If you’re printing a 1 ⁄ 32 ˝ (1:50) drawing, make sure you’re showing the proper level of detail in the view. Even if Detail Level is set to Coarse, do you really need to show balusters in an elevation on your railing at that scale? They will print as a thick, black line. Turning them off in this view will help to not only improve your printing speed, but also the quality of the resulting printed sheet. 44831c21.fm Page 638 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. BEST PRACTICES 639 Minimizing View Depth. View Depth is a great tool to enhance performance. It’s especially valuable in section views. A typical wall section is shown in Figure 21.4. The default behavior (top) causes Revit to regenerate all of the model geometry the full depth of that view every time you open the view. To reduce the amount of geometry that needs to be redrawn, drag the section’s far clip plane (the green dashed line when you highlight the section) in close to the cutting plane (bottom). Figure 21.4 Depth of a section view can affect performance. Speeding Up Display by Correcting View Detail Level We had a project in which it was taking upwards of 20 minutes to open plan views. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating for the users, especially when those views were opened accidentally. As it turned out, the views were set to a 1 ⁄ 16 ˝ scale and were set to a fine level of detail. This was completely unnecessary because none of the elements in the plan showed any significant information at this level of detail. By setting View Detail to Coarse, we were able to reduce the time it took to open those views to under 2 minutes. We further optimized view performance by modifying complex families in the view to show less detail at a coarse level. The level of detail you need to show in a small scale view (like 1 ⁄ 16 ˝) is far different than what needs to be shown at a large scale (like 1 ⁄ 4 ˝). We can edit the family itself to “hide” certain elements or portions of the family at different detail levels. 44831c21.fm Page 639 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 640 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS Turn off shadows. Shadows can help you make beautiful presentations, give a sense of depth in façades, and show the effect of the sun in a site-plan view. Computing shadows, however, is performance intensive and can significantly slow down printing, panning, zooming, and selec- tion. Make sure you turn them off whenever you don’t need them. Open only what you need. One of the benefits of having worksets is that you don’t have to turn them all on at once. When you open the project, open the Workset dialog box. There, you can high- light any workset you won’t be working with and click the Close button (see Figure 21.5). Doing so drops that workset from active memory and gives you better performance. Remember, if worksets are closed, you can’t do anything with them. If a workset isn’t visible, it won’t print. To print a current copy of the whole model, you’ll need to turn the worksets back on. Break up your model. For larger projects, or campus-style projects, you can break up your model into smaller submodels that are referenced together. You can also do this on a single building. If you decide to divide your project, make your cuts are along lines that make sense from a holistic-building standpoint. Don’t think of the cuts as you would in CAD, but think about how the actual assemblies will interact in the building. So, for example, don’t cut between floors 2 and 3 on a multistory building unless you have a significant change in building form or program. Here’s a list of some good places to split a model (for example, Figure 21.6 represents one project split into the four models you see): ◆ At a significant change in building form or massing ◆ At a significant change in building program ◆ Between separate buildings on a site ◆ Creating the site as a separate model Figure 21.5 Worksets can be closed to reduce the amount of memory used to open a file. Print DWFs or PDFs before you print paper. Printing big Revit files can sometimes take a long time. Enabling raster printing speeds up printing, although there is a trade-off compared to the quality that vector printing offers. Depending on the printer, you may get better line qual- ity by creating a DWF or PDF first and then printing your physical sheets. It’s best to experiment on a few sheets to see what your printer responds to best before sending your entire set. Printing a digital set first will also give you a record copy of what you have just printed as well as a quick way to make additional copies later if needed. 44831c21.fm Page 640 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. BEST PRACTICES 641 Figure 21.6 Splitting up a model can improve performance. Model just what you need. Don’t fall into the trap of overmodeling. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should . Be smart about the level of detail you choose to model based on the complexity and size of your project. Some data is just easier and better to show in a 2D detail rather than as 3D model data. The amount of information you model or do not model should be based on your project size and complexity, your timeframe, and your comfort level with the software. Don’t overconstrain. User-defined relationships and constraints are important to embed in the design to help keep important dimensions constant. However, if you don’t need to lock a relationship, don’t. Even though the option to lock all alignments is available, it’s often not nec- essary to do so. Overconstraining the model can cause problems later in the project process when you want to move or modify an element and you need to figure out (or remember) what you locked or where to allow the particular element to be moved or modified. Fix overconstrained objects. If you keep encountering a dialog box telling you the model is overconstrained and this is impeding your workflow, you can unlock the constraint. If it is a simple element (such as a wall with no openings or sections), it might be easier to simply delete and re-add the troubled object. Open your project, not a new empty project file. Each time you launch Revit, it opens with a blank default template. This template is often rich with data, and your computer will need a minute or two to open it. However, once a project is under way, the need to open a default template is removed—you most likely just need to open the file you’re working on. Instead of opening Revit and then opening your project file, drag the project file over the Revit icon or double- click the file from Windows Explorer. Doing so launches Revit without first opening a template file. Also, if you do open Revit with the default template, close the file if you’re not using it for anything. Close Revit with an empty view. To avoid long opening times for really large files, establish an office standard that you always close your last view as a drafting view or Legend that is empty or maybe contains only some text with the project name. This way, when Revit first opens the project, it will need much less processing time. By default, Revit always opens with the view from when the project was last saved. We’ve seen some nice looking “project pages” made with a drafting view using text and some simple instructions (Figure 21.7). Warehouse Model IRS Processing Model Post Office Model Tunnel Model 44831c21.fm Page 641 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 642 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS Figure 21.7 An example of an “empty” view to STC, open, and close the Project File Corruption On the odd chance your file becomes corrupt and begins to crash frequently, there are a few things you can do to help fix the problem before you call Revit Support in a panic. All of these steps can be taken before you get into trouble. Remember, the best way to keep a file from having issues is to practice good modeling techniques and review warnings regularly (Tools  Review Warnings). Otherwise, here are some suggestions on what to do when you begin get into trouble. Audit the file. When a file is audited, the data structures are reviewed and problems that are found with the model are corrected. An audited file won’t look any different when the audit is completed; however, it should (ideally) not crash. This is not a cure-all, by any means, but it can help you get out of a tight spot when necessary. You (or the project manager) should first get everyone out of any worksets and local files and have them relinquish their permissions. Then take the following steps: 1. Open the file using File  Open. The resulting Open dialog box lets you browse to a project location. 2. Select your project and, before clicking the Open button to open the file, select the Audit check box in the lower-right corner. 3. Revit will give you a warning before performing an audit on your file. The audit itself can take several minutes to complete. 4. When this process is finished, save the project with a new name or in a new file location; don’t save this file over the old Revit file. Saving over an existing Revit file can some- times lead to instability. 5. When you’re finished, have everyone make a new local file, and the team can get back to work. Review warnings. Each time you make something that Revit considers a problem, a warning is issued. Warnings will accumulate if left unresolved. Think of all these errors as unresolved 44831c21.fm Page 642 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED IN REVIT 643 calculations. The more there are, the more your computer will have to struggle trying to resolve them. Revit provides an interface for reviewing all the warnings in the project and fixing problems. Try to read and react to the warnings that Revit sends. You don’t have to do it when you’re under a tight deadline or when doing so will interrupt your work. But once a week, you should spend 30 minutes reviewing the warnings because this can improve your model’s overall performance. You can find the list of warnings in your file under Tools  Review Warnings (Figure 21.8). Figure 21.8 The Review Warnings dialog Purge Unused. We referred to this earlier in the chapter, but it can also be used to get rid of poorly built families that might be causing havoc in your file. Tips for Getting Started in Revit Although this list isn’t complete by any means, it should help steer you in the right direction. Begin with your end in mind. When you begin any project, planning is always a good way to start. You can set yourself up for a successful implementation from the beginning by using a bit of forethought about your process, workflow, and desired outcome. Get your template and office standards in place first. As design professionals, we have a tendency to develop unique graphic conventions and styles for our documents. This is a specific area in which good planning leads to a good project. If possible, get your standards in place before you begin a project. Revit does an excellent job of getting you started with a good tem- plate of graphic standards to work with. However, if you’re like most architects, an application right out of the box is never quite nice enough. Revit provides a good starting point for custom- ization, and with some up-front time, you can soon have your project and office standards up and running. See chapters 4 and 5 for more information about standard project templates. Remember that the first project you do in Revit is a change in methodology. You’re lever- aging technology to help you change the way you approach design and documentation. Don’t expect the process to have the same workflow as it did in a CAD-based system. Try to stay flex- ible in your expectations and schedule, and allow yourself time to adapt to the change. Don’t try to conquer the world on the first project. There are many advantages to using BIM as a design and documentation methodology. As this process becomes more mainstream within the industry, those benefits will only increase. All of these things and more are possible with the 44831c21.fm Page 643 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 644 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS use of Revit, but it will take a couple of projects to get there. Tailor the use of BIM to the project, and use the features that will maximize the benefits of using BIM. Choose your goals realistically based on the expertise of your project team, and plan in advance so you can be successful. Model correctly from the beginning. One of the most important rules to follow as you begin your project is to model the building as it will be built. We can’t stress this enough. It’s critical to begin modeling correctly from the beginning, so that as the design is refined you don’t have to fix things later. What does this mean? If you can begin to think about how your project will be assembled, it will save you a lot of time at the end. Get information into the project as soon as it becomes known. A key advantage of using Revit is the ability to change your project schedule. In a traditional design process, most of the effort on a project is realized during the construction document phase. At that time, more people are typically working on the project, and it can be fairly difficult to implement major changes to the project design. By this time, the documents are complex, and it would require a great amount of effort for the team to redraw all the changed information. You’ll find that with Revit, design change is largely managed by the software itself, which gives you a great deal of flexibility in both your design and documentation. Take advantage of this shift in the process, and add infor- mation to your model early. It can be in the form of more detailed content or it can show the material construction of your wall system. Remember that you can change all this information much more quickly and easily than you ever could in CAD, so don’t assume you’re locked into the information you displayed early in the design process. Plan for better communication among team members early in the process. Communication within a team is critical for understanding a project and documenting it successfully. One of the limitations of a CAD-based system is that there is no direct connection between the different files that make up the drawing set. This phenomenon carries through to the project team and is inherent in the project workflow and management. In CAD, it’s possible for team members to work in some degree of isolation. They aren’t forced to immediately reconcile their changes with changes made by their teammates. Revit’s single-file environment forces a much higher degree of team communication. Don’t try to model everything. Most of us have drafted in a 2D environment until now. Moving to a 3D world is a significant change. Do you have to model every single screw? That’s a good question. Like any BIM system, Revit doesn’t require 100 percent 3D information. Typical workstations aren’t capable of handling all the data of a building in model form. Additionally, few projects have the time in their schedule to model the screws in a sheet of gypsum board or the sealant around all the windows; some of that information is best presented in 2D or in the specifications. This still leaves you with a wide range of options for modeling. In the beginning, err on the side of simplicity. It’s far easier to add complexity to your model later on as you gain experience and confidence than it is to troubleshoot overconstrained parameters early in the process. Start with the big ideas: walls, openings, roofs, and so forth. Work your way down to a comfortable level of detail for both you and your computer. Organize your team. A BIM project team includes three basic technical roles. These roles are interchangeable, especially on smaller projects with fewer team members. No matter how small the team, it’s useful to make sure all these roles are filled. 44831c21.fm Page 644 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... www.augi.com Revit City Looking for content and families? Revit City, another free online service, has a growing database of free families posted by other users Its address is www.revitcity.com Revit OpEd This blog is created and edited by Steve Stafford and is a great resource for discussions and Revit- related information The site also has an extensive list of national and international BIM- and Revit- based... Subscription Support If you have bought Revit on subscription, Revit Subscription Support offers an exemplary web-based support system Their responses are speedy, and their advice is top-notch If you need information more quickly, Revit also has an online knowledge base of FAQs that is available without a subscription Both of these resources can be accessed at www.autodesk.com /revit AUGI Autodesk User Group...44831c21.fm Page 645 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Content / Family Creator The Family Creator’s primary role is to create the parametric content in the Revit model This is typically someone with 3D experience who also has a firm understanding of Revit and Revit families The families, as you saw in Chapters 4 and 5, have... same thing before In our digital age, a wealth of information is available online, so before you spend hours trying to work through a particular problem, try tapping some of the existing resources Revit Help menu Your first stop, if or when you get stuck, should be the Revit Help menu It’s one of the easier and more robust Help menus out there, and it can give you a lot of useful information very quickly... Revit- related information The site also has an extensive list of national and international BIM- and Revit- based blogs: revitoped.blogspot.com Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 645 44831c21.fm Page 646 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:04 PM 646 CHAPTER 21 TROUBLESHOOTING AND OPTIMIZING TIPS The Bottom Line Knowing how to model correctly and keep your model running smoothly... understands the team’s preferred workflow, it makes things just that much easier Master It How do you create a best practice workflow for your project or office? Repair some of the errors that can happen in Revit files Working with a file that has become unstable can be a nightmare You are uncertain of whether it will crash or when and you spend more time than usual saving your work If a file does begin to . parametric content in the Revit model. This is typically someone with 3D experience who also has a firm understanding of Revit and Revit families. The families,. through a particular problem, try tapping some of the existing resources. Revit Help menu Your first stop, if or when you get stuck, should be the Revit Help