Explore the process of setting up a Revit MEP project with a focus on linking a background file for reference. Delve into the in-depth steps to link an architectural model, keeping base points in mind, and learn how to 'copy monitor' certain levels from the model.
Key Insights
- The article provides detailed instructions on how to correctly link an architectural model in a Revit MEP project. This process is essential for providing key references like ceiling heights, floor to floors, mechanical wells, rooms, and spaces.
- It's crucial to ensure that the positioning is set to either 'Auto Internal Origin to Internal Origin' or 'Auto Project Base Point to Project Base Point' while linking the model. This ensures that the base points match, preventing potential alignment issues in other software like Navisworks.
- The 'copy monitor' feature allows the user to either copy or monitor elements from the linked model. In this scenario, the author demonstrates how to monitor levels one and two, and then copy and monitor additional levels for reference.
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Welcome back to the VDCI course material for the Revit MEP courses. Again, this is the introductory lesson talking about setting up our Revit MEP projects and making sure they're getting started off on the right foot. In the previous video, we talked about starting a new project, a little bit about the Revit interface.
You may have noticed that I wasn't able to get this properties docked in the last video. Before I started this one, I went ahead and got that docked. It just has to be in a very, very specific spot.
So to go ahead and get started in this video, we're going to be talking about how do we link in a background file, right as part of the MEP scope of work, we're not required to be modeling the walls, the floors, those kinds of things that's on the architect. We're going to go ahead and link in the architect's model as a background so that we have references for what are ceiling heights, what are the floor to floors, where is the roof, is there a mechanical well, what are the rooms, what are the spaces, those kind of things. So linking in a Revit file operates very similar if you're familiar with AutoCAD, like an XRef in AutoCAD.
But we're actually linking in the model, it'll come in, we want to bring it in at the correct base point, one will do some other items of how to get datum into our project, so that we can host to the levels that the architect or designer has defined, and also possibly the structural grids that the architect or the structural engineer has defined. So to go ahead and link in the architectural model, I'm going to come over here, I still have my BIM321 file open, or whatever MEP course you're currently taking, I have nothing on my drawing area, I'm going to go over to my Insert tab, I'm going to go to the Link Revit button, there are a lot of files that we can link into Revit, we're going to go ahead and link in a Revit file here. So I'm going to link Revit, I'm going to go ahead under my C drive, I have that VDCI folder, I'm going to go down to my VDCI folder, I have my Downloads folder that you downloaded from the course content.
In there, there should be a Linked Revit folder, I'm going to go ahead and click into there, and you'll see the VDCI MEP architectural, I'm going to go ahead and select that. A couple of things to check here, we want to make sure that the positioning is set Auto Internal Origin to Internal Origin. Okay, or we could go Auto Project Base Point to Project Base Point, those are really the ones you want to use, I actually tend to defer to Auto Project Base Point to Project Base Point.
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Setting this up right at the beginning of a project is one of the most important things you can do when you're linking this in. If your base point does not match up with the architect's base point, or the host model's base point, what can end up happening is that now if you take it to another software, say Navisworks, or some other clash coordination, those models may or may not line up. So make sure your positioning is set correctly.
I'm going to go ahead hit Open. It's going to bring that model in, and it's brought it in, I'm going to go ahead and zoom out. And I can see it.
When I hover over that linked model, you'll notice now that I have it when I select it, it's all one piece. The other thing that I found helpful to go ahead and do in these instances, is I'm going to go ahead select it, and I'm actually going to go ahead and pin it in place. A lot of times what happens is, is when you drag, say a window over and you're trying to select something, you might accidentally get that background model.
So I want to go ahead and pin that in place. So select it, I'm going to click on the pin here up at the top, it's going to lock that model in place. So I can't accidentally move it, I can't accidentally delete it, and it keeps it in that location.
Let's go ahead and take a look at our 3D view. I'm going to click on the little house up here on my quick access toolbar. And there we go.
So you can see I have my Revit file linked in, I have my datum elements. So I have levels that are there. And it seems that this particular project may or may not have grids, we'll have to kind of take a look and see if they're there.
So what I want to go ahead and do from this point is I want to copy monitor. Now I already have a couple of levels in my project. Notice that when I hover over these levels, it highlights the entire link.
But if I hover over these levels, these are already assigned to my project. These are part of my physical file. So I have a level one, that's part of the link and my level one.
And then I have a level two, and a level two, that's part of the link there. Well, I'm just going to match this number up first. So here under level two, I'm going to select it.
And I'm going to change this to 13 feet. And in the 3D view, it may not necessarily look like it lines up if we were to rotate maybe more to a view such as this, we would be able to see that. Now what I want to go ahead and do is I'm going to copy monitor.
Well, I already have level one and two in my project, I do not need to copy monitor, I just have to say I want to monitor the level one of the architect's model. So I'm going to go under collaborate. I'm going to go here to copy monitor and hit select link.
I'm going to pick the link that I want to either copy monitor or monitor from select link pick. And it brings me up into this contextual tab. I have some options here.
I have copy, monitor, coordination settings, batch copy, and other options that I can finish and cancel. For the first two for level one and level two, I'm just going to go ahead and monitor my level one to the architect's level one and my level two to the architect's level two. So I'm just going to select monitor.
I'm going to select my level first. And then I'm going to select the level one of the architect's model just if you need to zoom in to make sure you're getting the right one. You want to make sure you set this up properly.
I'm also going to now I'm going to go to level two. I'm going to pick level two. There we go.
Now I want to actually copy and monitor these other levels just so I have them as reference. So I'm going to go here to copy. I'm going to select wing roofs.
And again, what it's going to do is it's creating a current level. It's giving me a little warning saying that this level head circle one has been created to avoid conflicts with the existing element. That's fine.
I'm going to close that. I'm going to go here to library top. I'm going to pick that.
And so it creates me there and then parapet gem there. When I'm all done with my copy monitor, I'm going to go ahead hit finish. And there we go.
Now if I select here, you'll notice that if I hover here, I'm getting the full all the levels there. If I hover over these guys here, you'll see that I'm actually having levels that are part of my project. If I were to go create something, I could host an element to these levels.
If the level is not created in my model, I am not able to host to it. I'm going to go ahead and save my file. We're going to stop here and we'll see in the next video.
