Often Architectural models and MEP models are linked together in Revit projects . Usually when the Architect issues their model to a Services Consultant, it is linked in to the Services (host) model so that the Services Consultant can reference the Room extents to place the services related Family Instances / Systems accordingly. If the Rooms in the Architectural (linked) model have already been linked to Rooms in dRofus by the Architect, the Services Consultant can conveniently create and / or update the Spaces within their Services (host) model to correspond with the Rooms in the Architectural (linked) model. Additionally, if the services Item occurrences for these Rooms have been planned in dRofus, and the Family Types in the Services (host) model have been linked to Items in dRofus by the Services Consultant, then the Services Consultant can easily view and validate the Family Instances within their Revit Spaces using either the "Items in Room" or "Items in level/model (spaces)" Panel.
To Create / Update Spaces in the Services (host) model (based on Rooms in the Architectural (linked) model), select "Linked model Rooms - > Spaces" from the dRofus Add-On ribbon:
By default all linked models that are set as Room Bounding will be selected:
If you create Spaces by copying from Rooms in a linked model that is not room bounding, it will be set as Room Bounding when you copy them.
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If Rooms within the linked model have been allocated design options, you are able to restrict creation of Spaces by copying only Rooms that are in the primary design option by selecting the following check box:
Also, see: copy Working with Revit Design Options.
Click on "OK" to create the Spaces from the selected linked model(s), and then a message similar to the one below will then pop up, summarizing the total number of Spaces created / updated as well as the total number of Spaces that were not (due to the chosen key parameter within Rooms in the linked model being either not unique or empty):
When creating / updating Spaces from an Architectural (linked) model, the values of the following attributes will always (by default) be copied from Rooms within the Architectural (linked) model in to Spaces within the Services (host) model:
It is also important to take note of the active Room as well as Space Configurations:
The active Room Configuration will use the mapping of the "Key Attribute used for comparing" in order to find Rooms within the Architectural (linked) model which correspond to Rooms within dRofus, after which the active Space Configuration will then be used to populate the necessary values within the Attribute / Parameter chosen as the "Key attribute used for comparing" to then establish and maintain a link between Spaces in the Services (host) model and Rooms in dRofus:
In addition, the above process will also use the active Space configuration to push and pull values as per the mapping of other Attributes / Parameters.
In the example above, the active Space configuration called "Revit Spaces" uses dRofus' "Room ID" as the Key Attribute (the value of which gets pushed in to the host model's corresponding Space parameter), and in addition has been mapped to bring in values of "Note" and "Room Function #" from dRofus Rooms in to "Comments" and "drofus_room_func_no" respectively in Revit Spaces as follows:
Hence these are also listed in the section "Attribute values to be copied from Rooms to Spaces" as follows:
And the values have been brought in to a new / updated Space within the host model as follows:
Also note that during the above command, the "Number" and "Name" parameters within the host model's Spaces will always get values copied across from these parameters within the linked model's Rooms (even though these may not be mapped to be brought in from dRofus Rooms within the active Room configuration):
Often Rooms will change within the Architectural (linked) model - i.e. Rooms can be added, deleted, moved, changed in shape and size etc. Once the updated Architectural (linked) model has been re-issued and re-loaded as a link to the Services (host) model, the Services Consultant will again need to carry out the above process in order for the Revit Add-On to transfer all of the updates to the changed Spaces.
If there are any Spaces in the Services (host) model for which there are no longer any corresponding Rooms in the Architectural (linked) model - the next time the Architectural (linked) model is reloaded within the Services (host) model and when carrying out the above command to update Rooms within the host model, the Add-On will ask if you'd like to "Delete Superfluous Spaces".
Level Names Mismatch
If the host and linked Level names do not match when creating / updating Spaces in the host model, you will get the following message:
You will need to ensure that the Level names are consistent between the models.
Creating / Updating Spaces Based on Spaces within Linked Models
It is also possible to create or update Spaces within a host model based on Spaces within a linked model. It is possible that on certain projects Revit is only being used by the Services Consultants.
As an example, the Electrical Consultant is the lead consultant in a project and is responsibile for driving / maintaining Spaces, then once the Electrical Consultant issues their model to the other Services Consultants (such as Mechanical / Hydraulic / Fire etc.) then the Electrical model will be linked in to these other Services (host) models so that these other Services Consultants can then refer to the Space extents as defined by the Electrical (linked) model) to place their Family Instances / Systems accordingly. If the Spaces in the Electrical (linked) model have already been linked to Rooms in dRofus by the Electrical Consultant, then these other Services Consultants can conveniently create and / or update their Spaces within their Services (host) models based on the Spaces in the Electrical (linked) model. Furthermore, if there is information in regards to (planned) services Item occurrences for these Rooms in dRofus, and the Family Types in these other Services (host) models have already been linked to Items in dRofus by these other Services Consultants, the Services Consultants can then easily view as well as validate the Family Instances within their Revit Spaces against the (planned) occurrences of Items in the dRofus Rooms using either the "Items in room" or "Items in level/model (spaces)" window.
To create / update Spaces in the Services (host) model (based on Spaces in another Services (linked) model), select "Linked model spaces - > spaces":
