Best PracticesThis is a featured page

Best Practices Project Startup:
  • Keep a "lean and appropriate" template file. Use project files for your standard system families. Try to rebuild the template file for every new major release of Revit.
  • Keep Structural, site, other campus buildings and other disciplines duties in separate linked files.
BIM maintenance:
  • Compacting Central and local files regularly (maybe once a week).
  • Optimize the file twice a month.
  • Purge unused families & Groups regularly.
  • Removing/unloading linked DWGs when they are not in use anymore.
  • Install the newest builds of Revit and service packs for your operating system.

Warnings:
These are important. Warnings can account for as high as 20% of Revit project slow down. Everytime a command is run, Revit goes through the complete warning list to check if the command that was just run, fixed any of the warnings.
  • Warnings are the yellow boxes that appear as you run commands in the lower right.
  • Regularly review and fix warnings
  • Keep warnings below 10 warnings
Geometry Speed up:
  • Turn off shadows (for all views, and especially during printing).
  • Start with generic types (walls, floors, etc.) and get more specific as necessary.
  • If you have curtain wall/store front then I suggest turning off the mullions in the visibility settings and turn them back on when its time to print.
  • Turn everything possible into a component that is loaded into the project. (Including linked DWGs). This will eliminate the need for Revit to constantly check up on the items "linked" or connected to the project.
  • Replace complex families with simpler families, until the complex families are needed by the design. For example, use Select All Instances in the browser, and change the 3D family instances to 2D family instances.
  • Make components instead of groups and in place families.
  • Disable visibility (by category or workset) of elements you don't need, such as furniture in elevation and in 3D views. Use the Visibility dialog box or Phasing functionality to disable visibility.
  • In section and elevation views, set the back clipping plane to exclude as much of the model as possible without changing the displayed image.
  • In plan and elevation views, disable the display of the 3D geometry of complex 3D families. Create simplified 2D representations for display in plan and elevation views.
Daily Use:
  • Always open from a fresh copy of the central file. – See Daily Quick Tips
  • Save local, then save to central every half hour. – See Daily Quick Tips
  • Save to central releasing worksets and close Revit when going to lunch or leaving your desk for an extend amount of time. – See Daily Quick Tips
  • Reduce the number of open view windows(Window>Close hidden windows), especially perspective views which require more system resources.
  • Use the Move command to move large numbers of objects, instead of dragging the objects.
  • Modify temp dims and use the align tool, instead of dragging components. CTRL+ Drag will copy objects more quickly than copying and then pasting the objects by using CTRL+C and CTRL+V.
  • Simplify sketches. The number of vertices in a sketch loop, as well as the number of entities in a sketch, affects performance when using lines. Use nested families instead.
  • Zoom in tightly around the part of the view where you are working. This will reduce snapping and display calculations.
  • Re-Start Revit at least 3 times a day. Programs don’t always unload memory space they are no longer using. By closing Revit, you free up these unloaded slots of memory.
  • Limit the locking of objects (unless necessary). Pin an element (with Edit - Pin) to keep it from moving, rather than creating a locked dimension or alignment. Locked dimensions or alignments don't keep an element from moving. Locked dimensions or alignments lock one element to another so that when one element moves, they both move. This can slow performance.
Links:
  • Only link DWGs into necessary views. This can be done by choosing “current view only” when linking.
  • Minimize the use of imported geometries (CAD or otherwise).
  • Once you're done with a link (i.e. CAD file for Placing Geometry), always remove it.
  • If you are going to import a large file, open the file in the software in which it was created and then simplify the file by removing all data that you will not need in your Autodesk® Revit® project.
Rendering:
  • Export rendered images to disk, instead of capturing them inside the project. Import the images into a separate rendering .rvt file.
  • Perform rendering and walkthroughs in a separate file and then link the project to that file. This will remove the overhead of the rendering and walkthrough data from project.


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sdub315 		Latest page update: made by sdub315 , Feb 9 2009, 7:02 PM EST (about this update About This Update sdub315 Edited by sdub315

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