File size managing/ sheets in different file

[leetecture]

All,

I have this highrise residential Revit file about to hit 300 MB. It is already devided/linked into three different file and all the units are linked as separate file as well.
and I am freaking out little because File size is getting bigger and I am starting to see problems.
therefore, I am trying to separate the sheets to separate file. but i never done this before.


If anyone out there tried this before, please let me know How it went.

Thanks
Lee

[MPwuzhere]

I wouldn't worry about it...creating a separate model just for plotting would be a snafu waiting to happen.

300mb isn't that bad....my current project gets up to 400mb at times. Have you purged the model lately? Try saving it as another filename? Compress when saving??

[Dave Jones]

All,

I have this highrise residential Revit file about to hit 300 MB. It is already devided/linked into three different file and all the units are linked as separate file as well.
and I am freaking out little because File size is getting bigger and I am starting to see problems.
therefore, I am trying to separate the sheets to separate file. but i never done this before.


If anyone out there tried this before, please let me know How it went.

Thanks
Lee

I agree with Michael, don't do a separate model just for output, it'll bite you in the butt at some point. My current project with linked files is well over 1GB and I have no problems with it and have been at it for almost 6 months now. Size shouldn't cause problems in Revit unless you are running it on an under powered box.

Out of curiosity, what "problems" are you seeing?

[kommunalka]

I would also reccomend purging on a fairly regular basis.... I also like to detatch from central/ audit on a semi regular basis [then replace the original model file with a fresh central [compacting central file when saving]... this [on a weekly basis] has helped keep file size managable on a 300 mb+ high rise residential model.

[Gordon Price]

Lee,
how much RAM do your machines have? 300MB is big, but not gigantic. A machine with 8GB of RAM should be able to handle it, as long as a bunch of other programs are not also running.

Also, if you separate the sheets and link the main model, the sheets model is still going to be large in RAM, even if that single file is small on disk. So that approach isn't going to help much I think.

Gordon

[brinxb]

Do you guys suffer much performace slowdown due to file sizes approaching 300MB?

We're working on two projects that have topped out over a 100MB each and the on the one performance has degraded noticably. It has about 5 files linked into.

Any suggestions on what to do or what to avoid to reduce performance drop-off?

And before you ask, machine specs are i7 3.4 GHz CPU, 16GB RAM, NVidia Quadro 2000, Win 7 64 Bit.

[kommunalka]

I have found that items linked/ living in the Revit model [nested famlies/ cad imports and links] can often have a bigger impact on model performance than the explicit file size in MB.

I've had 300 MB models run better, stronger, and faster than their poorly streamlined 150 MB counterparts.

[sdbrownaia]

Links degrade performance more than anything I've seen. Try some experiments, unload the links, create some views, Then reload the links, create the same views. YOu will notice significant performance issues. this is due to revit having to figure out what to draw and it takes longer when its linked.