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Internally Re-Centralizing (Sent and Received) Central Models

Before one can get to work with other disciplines’ central models there is an obvious need to obtain and then use their files. Easy so far… but to use we need to save them to our networks. If we are on a different network than the original file author then we need to do a bit of housekeeping first. Or else!

Well, as life has it, and with everything in BIM being distinct from drafting processes (digital drafting included), there need to be some special procedures used to ensure we are working with files that won’t break our internal file setups: namely creating new central files of all Revit® worksharing files from every “player” we collaborate with, then saving on our internal networks, then synchronizing, then getting to our work ;)

This is an imperative whenever files are transferred off-site to or on-site from others.

WHY?

Revit central files know (yeah, scary but they “know” ;) when they are moved, copied, renamed, etc. More than that, they are no longer central models!

If any of the above actions occur the model will try to find the now non-existent central… cyclical-redundancy, or better, cyclical-non-existence will become the rule of the day and we don’t want to see errors or corruptions due to lazy, er, uh, improper file handling. Without further ado, use the text below and copy/share at will ;)

When models and ancillary Revit files are updated by others and shared with distributed teams there is a need for each recipient to create new Central Models—only if worksharing has been enabled in them obviously ;)

1. Download all of the files into approved network locations

• Revit (.rvt)
• AutoCAD (.dwg)
• Others

      2. Open “detached” per image below

• Tap into the drop-down next to the “Open” button (ensure that “All” is the choice)
• Check the box for “Audit”
• Click “Open”
• Choose “Detach and Preserve Worksets”

Figure 1

     3. Save-As

• Choose the proper network location
  • Place all files to be linked into the live project into one subfolder for all of these copies
    • This will ensure streamlined updates in the future
    • Always save future updated files on top of these
    • Follow all of these procedures herein each time—each and every time updates are shared
• Tap into “Options” (see Figure 2)
  • Ensure that Maximum Backups is at the very least 20 (50 is recommended)
  • Change the “Open Workset Default” to “All” (not shown below)
  • Name the files the same as the original name from downloads
  • Click OK
  • Click Save

     4.  Once the “Save” is complete

• “Synchronize with Central”
  • Relinquish EVERYTHING
    • Ensure all five boxes under “After synchronizing…” are checked if available to be checked. (In other words, if they are NOT grayed out, then check them!)
    • Check “Save Local file before and after synchronizing with central”
    • Check “Compact Central model” whenever closing the file (this cleans the database of now null entries)

Figure 2

     5.  Repeat this process for each and every Revit file

Now the files are ready to link into the project file and we are ready to get to the fun stuff ;)