Central Model Setup

[drewbranson10]

Hello, I have been working with Revit for a while but still have trouble remembering how to set up central models for the first time. As far as I have gotten I have set up an Arch model because we are an MEP firm and we do our work on top of there model. Where I get stuck is that I have opened a template file with all of our families loaded, loaded the Arch model as a link, and now it has the worksets key grayed out. I believe that is the next step so that I can enable worksharing and save this as a project and not a template file. Can anyone help me complete the process? I am in 2016 by the way. Thanks in advance!

[drewbranson10]

Never mind, I figured it out. I had to open a new project and use the template file to set up the project. That way it would not be an actual template file that I was working in but it still would have all of our families.

[tzframpton]

Also, you have to enable Worksharing to create a Central Model. Until then, it's a "single user" file, which cannot be saved as a Central file for collaborative users to connect to it.

[drewbranson10]

Yes I was having trouble getting to that point lol I did the same thing about 6 months ago which was the last time I had to start a project in Revit and I had to stumble through all the steps again. Last time I was able to get help in the office but the rest of our Revit people happened to be gone today.

[tzframpton]

Just start using Revit all the time. Problem solved.

[drewbranson10]

I actually would not mind doing Revit all the time, we actually have to match whatever the architects we work with use though. So sometimes it is Revit and sometimes it is CAD. Revit is starting to pick up some steam with our jobs though.

[RobDraw]

It is possible to do Revit with AutoCAD backgrounds and then export to Revit for when the architect wants files. Several MEP firms in this area have all but dropped AutoCAD and the company I work for is heading in that direction.

[drewbranson10]

It would probably be possible in some cases for us. We do work for different firms, but we share a building with one architectural firm that are solely CAD and we do all of the MEP work for the apartments they put out. They have so many old plans in CAD that they kind of copy and paste quite a bit for the floor plans so to do work with them it is actually faster for us to use CAD. Most other work that comes in from outside firms has been in Revit lately so we can see a definite shift happening in our local area now towards Revit.

[tzframpton]

All projects in Revit for my company, however, when a job is small enough, I mandate AutoCAD. Wham bam thank you ma'am for those small MEP projects. Just faster and easier. We usually do larger jobs though.

 

But... the more you use Revit on the small, easy jobs, the better you get without the cracking whip of a deadline looming. Great way to get good at Revit before the real stuff hits. That would be my advice.

 

 

-TZ