Maintaining a Healthy and Speedy Revit Model

In an effort to help the BIM community with using efficient Revit models here are some tips that I've picked up along the way for maintaining a healthy and speedy Revit workshared model. Please make sure that these tasks are performed by an experienced Revit user.

• Re-Create the Central File
• Re-creating the central file on a weekly basis will help avoid a model's database from getting corrupted.
• Audit/Compact/Purge
• Auditing, compacting, and purging at least once a week are essential to keeping the model file size relatively small. 
• Warnings
• Review and fix warnings as soon as they appear. Ignoring them will just pile up to hundreds and maybe thousands of warnings that will eventually have to be resolved.
• In-Place Families
• Although in-place families may be a quick way for creating custom families on the go, be prepared of the toll it will take on the model's performance especially if placing multiple instances of the same in-place family.
• Content Detail
• Often times, Revit users tend to get carried away as to what needs to get modeled. The best method on avoiding this would be to decide on the LOD for the model and having only one user in charge of content development.
• Unused Views
• Creating views in Revit can be tempting due to the ease of creating them, but can also add to the model file size if they are not managed properly. Reusing views, like sections, is one of the best ways to help minimize the amount of views that need to be created. Creating a view list schedule is another great way to easily manage and expedite the process of removing any unnecessary views.
• Embedded CAD and Image files
• Check for and remove any unused image files that have been inserted and forgotten. Also, make sure that CAD files are LINKED and not IMPORTED. I can't think of a good reason why you would want to import CAD files into a Revit project. Details come to mind, but then again shouldn't these have been converted into Revit details to begin with?
• Imported Linestyles
• Imported linestyles can appear as a result when importing CAD files into a Revit model. Getting rid of theses linestyles can be a daunting task since they can't be purged out of a model and can cause havoc if any of the imported linestyles are still in use when deleted.
• Constraints
• Minimize the amount of constraints that reside in a Revit model. Trying to pin down all equipment in a project can be understandable but can also seriously hurt a model file's performance.
• Groups
• Be careful to only add non-hosted elements to groups. Adding elements like windows, which are wall hosted, will result in either warnings or errors when trying to place the group in areas where no walls exist.
• Design Options
• Limit the amount of design options within a Revit model and make sure to remove the remaining design options once one is agreed upon.
• Linked Models
• Place linked Revit models under their own workset.

Please feel free to contact me if there are any items that you feel should be added to this list.