Model Cleanup - Issue to consultants

A new project arrived in the last week, more and more Revit collaboration projects are coming through which is great

I know myself, when I am initially starting out collaborating with a new consultant, things are usually a little on edge until protocols are worked out and established, until everyone gets comfortable on what they expect and what is expected. So I might be a little bit extra diligent with things like model clean-up prior to sending

So the project we received this week was not expected to be a large project, and will probably be for us less than 10 sheets. It took a little while to receive the model and it arrived sometime after on CD couriered over. Receiving these models sometimes can be quite exciting, not knowing what will be in the model! But before even saving from the CD the first thing I notice is the file size. Over 150mb, wow!

So of course I did some investigation, first thing I looked at was the sheets, maybe there was more than just what I expected to be in the model. You get a feel for file size based on the amount of information shown on sheets. But nothing exciting there were only 25 odd sheets in the file

Step two for me in this case, was to check design options, particularly early in a project there may be entire other buildings and schemes hidden away in the model. But no not a single design option

Next step, was purge unused, on the manage panel for those who have lost it :)

Straight off, it took a good 10 minutes to compute, over 1000 unused elements! There is the problem!

So once the file was purged, then compacted. We had it down to 50mb, which when linked into a model along with other models like and MEP model can really make a difference to performance.

The general rules I would follow and encourage others for issuing models are;

Essential

• Detach from central and save the file somewhere on your system, it will still have to be detached at the other end, but to ensure you don't accidentally save any cleanup back to the central it just makes sense
• Review warnings and minimize where possible
• Purge unused, this is a must at the start of the project when there may be extra template junk
• Compact the file once purge is complete

Some examples of Project Specific Cleanup

• Remove design options if irrelevant to other consultants
• On larger projects, delete working views

Any other suggestions for good practice when issuing models?