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Duplicate (almost) house plans workflow


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Heyo, about to start a 2 house job where they’re 99% identical. Slightly different prop lines and garage but otherwise same.

 

Am trying to visualize a minimal workflow, including down the line for plancheck corrections.


First thought was a model file, then a sheet file with all the DLVP references, then duplicate that sheet file to change titleblock/cover sheet etc…

 

second idea may be workable: same as above, but second sheet file has mostly referenced PDFs of the first file, with title locks cropped out. This way, we generate Plans A, then Plans B. Don’t have to change notes, or dims, or whatever the corrections are, twice?

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I have done this a couple times.
Method 1.

House 1. Model the house and set up all your normal sheets; site, plan, elevations, sections, schedules, typical notes. Save this file as ‘house 1 model"

Make a new file for the 2d construction details. Manually annotate the "house 1 model" sheets with the detail references

Copy "house 1 model" and rename it "house 2 model". Alter the garage and property lines, drainage, height restrictions.
The reason I did it this way is because of the way our ‘government building agency’ processes ‘permits’; the architect lodges the plans, the building inspector reviews the plans, then sends an email "requesting further information". In my experience, most of the difficult questions relate to the 2d details (we do high end custom houses). So changes made to the 2d file get easily incorporated into both houses. 
‘The drawback to this method is manually referencing the details (which we used to do a few years ago anyways). Also, any changes to the model files you’d need to conduct on both files. 
I had consider various design layer viewport options but I find it hard to go back a few years later and get my head around how I’d originally set it all up. Plus, if someone else were to try and work on it they’d be potentially confused. 

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Method 2;

Model both houses and draw all the details in one file.

Import the surveyor’s 3d model of both sites. 
Use design layer viewports to position the house model correctly on both sites.

Set up your sheets as usual, all identical except the site plan, and drainage plan sheets, elevations, and maybe sections if the terrain is different enough.

Use the publish command to save sheets for house 1, and sheets for house 2.  
I found my building inspector was unable to work on one file for both houses, so I had to lodge 2 separate files for the ‘permits’.

The drawback with this method in my case was the "99% the same" myth. In my case there were enough differences that the building inspector kept asking more and more questions it wasted months. There are other complicating factors in my case which may not apply to you.

 

I just felt method 1 was easier to understand. For my simple brain. 

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