How to improve modeling speed using point clouds in Revit by 2x times?

Working with point clouds in Revit can be frustrating, especially with larger projects. Every time you zoom in, zoom out or pan, there is a lag while the point cloud is rendering. This has a significant negative impact on modeling time.

Undet decided to approach this problem from a different angle. Instead of loading heavy point cloud files, we generate dynamic images that contain only the information needed at the time.

With the help of the Undet database, we have better visibility and nearly eliminate lag. The result is a major improvement of modeling speed without changing any modeling habits and workflow.

 

“To test our work, we did an experiment and compared modeling speed between standard Revit functionality and the Undet plug-in.” – Marius Putrimas, Undet Project Manager

 

We opened two new projects and started from scratch. This process included loading, inspecting, and preparing the project for modeling. We modeled a small segment of the building which contained 78 elements ─ windows (15), doors (10), internal walls (18) and external walls (35).

The results were quite dramatic! Using the same workflow, the same accuracy, and modeling the same elements in this specific project we were able to improve our modeling speed by 2x times using the Undet plug-in.

It is worth mentioning that the first stage of preparing the project and generating a dynamic image with Undet took longer than simply adjusting the point cloud using a clipping box in Revit, but once the dynamic image was generated, we did not experience any performance drops and we had better visibility.

Also, once you have generated a dynamic image it will stay in your Revit file until deleted, so it will load instantly any time you want.

So let’s talk about results

Modeling 78 elements took us 28:02 minutes with standard Revit functionality; 3:25 minutes of the total was preparation for modeling. The same number of elements took only 15:21 minutes with Undet; 4:25 minutes of the total was for preparation. If we continued modeling the same building, the modeling speed gap between the two methods would increase even more. If we only look at pure modeling speed without preparation, the process difference is 2.5 times faster with Undet.

Find the right Undet solution for your needs