How to calculate RAM required for a specific project size in Revit

Autodesk Support

Mar 13, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

How much RAM memory will Revit project require?

Causes:

In order to calculate the necessary RAM for a project, you need to understand that the RVT is a compressed file. For Revit to work with the data, it is uncompressed into the Windows Temporary folder.

The compression ratio is about 20 times, this means that the expanded RVT data will need approximately 20 times the RVT file size in storage space to open. Additionally, if Revit is not able to keep the model data in RAM then the performance is significantly impacted, so the same 20 times size should be available in RAM.

Solution:

RAM needed to work with Revit projects:

(File Size) X 20 = (Amount of RAM needed to load the file)
(Amount of RAM on your computer) / 20 = (The maximum size of file you can load on your computer) – so if you have 64 GB of RAM you can go up to 3.2 GB in file size.

Note 1: The operating system and other applications running on the computer also use RAM, so it's important to have sufficient RAM for these as well.

Note 2: When working with a specific Revit model, the size of the files linked to the model (RVT, DWG, IFC) should also be included in the estimation (When linking an IFC, a corresponding RVT file is created.)

Products:

Revit Product Family;

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