How can I increase the performance of my model and mitigate slow-downs?
You should "Audit" and "Compact the Central Model" on a regular basis. In-house we perform this task weekly on all active projects. This can be a lengthy process depending on the size of the model so plan accordingly. Another tactic to increase model health is to "Purge Unused" to eliminate unused content from the model which can reduce the file size.
Why should I be wary of pinning many elements in Revit?
Pinning elements in Revit prohibits users from accidentally moving or deleting said elements. This is a nice feature but should be used sparingly. Pinning many elements within your model will impact the performance of you model. Pinning grids and levels is always a good idea since any accidental movement of grids or levels could cause inadvertent movement of elements that are hosted to those grids or levels. Outside of that, pinning should be used sparingly to negate slow-downs in navigating your model.
“Overwrite the existing version” vs. “Overwrite the existing version and its parameter values”. What does this mean and which should I use?
When loading families into a project, you may be given the above options if the entire family or a portion of the family already exists in the model you are loading it into. It is important to make the correct selection here in order for the family to get loaded into the project with the anticipated parameter values. Choosing the “Overwrite the existing version” option means the family is overwritten in the project with the new version but the parameter values assigned in the project remain the same. Choosing the “Overwrite the existing version and its parameter values” option means the family is overwritten with the new version and the type parameter values only are overwritten by the parameter values of the family you are loading. The instance parameter values will not be overwritten.
How do you import drafting views, sheets, and/or schedules from another project into my current project?
First open the project that you want to copy sheets, drafting views, and/or schedules into. Then from the Insert tab, choose the Insert View from File tool. Once the tool is run, you will choose the project in which you wish to copy the sheets, drafting views, and/or schedules from. A new window will then appear where you will choose all elements that you want to transfer into your current project.
How do you export Revit schedules?
First, open the schedule that you want to export. Then go to File → Export → Reports → Schedule. You will then choose where to save the exported file and follow the remaining prompts in which you choose a Delimiter and Text Qualifier. After, the schedule will be exported and saved as a text file. If you need the schedule saved as an Excel file, that is possible at this point. To do so, open Excel and open the text file you just saved. In the following prompts, be sure to choose the same Delimiter and Text Qualifier that was used when you exported it from Revit. It is not possible to export a schedule to an Excel format directly from Revit.