Delete unused worksets?

I have taken over a very large project that has been worked on by many different people. I am in the process of cleaning up the worksets. I am trying to simplify the worksets by creating new ones and changing all the Revit objects to their appropriate workset. Here is my process:

1. Open all worksets.
2. Make all worksets editable.
3. Open 3D view
4. Turn on all model annotation, imported categories and Revit links.
5. Turn off all worksets except one.
6. Select all items for the open workset and change to appropriate workset.
7. Open worksets and delete newly “emptied” workset.

This is were I run into problems. I have everything turned on and nothing hidden yet it still asked me “Elements that belonged to the workset being deleted should be:” deleted or moved to another workset.

I know in the past as I deleted worksets it would just ask if I wanted to delete it and not if I wanted to move items to another workset. This leads me to believe that there are still items in the workset.

How can this be if I am sure I have everything on and I don’t see any other objects?

That is the same process I use when first setting up a project with worksets that has had preliminary work done already, or when cleaning up items on the wrong workset.

You can try using a filter. Create a new filter, check to list items from all disciplines, check all, and then set the filter to "workset" does not equal the one you're trying to delete.

Now go to a 3D view, and make sure the phase of the view is set to the latest phase and set the Phase Filter to Show All. Now under V/G add the filter, and set it's visibility to Off. That should remove everything from the view that is not on that particular workset. Then if you see anything left in the view you can move those to the appropriate worksets.

Thanks for the response. I tried your solution for mutiple workset names and no more items showed up.

I think I figured it out. There are a bunch of groups associated with worksets. Once I change those I will see what happens...

Changing group worksets did not work.

Any other answers?

Alright, it is not just about 3D objects. There might be elements on 2D views that belong to user-created worksets such as model lines, rooms, spaces, room and space seperation lines, levels and grids, REVIT links, so on... these elements might have been assigned to user-created worksets by mistake. You need to make sure that all these elements in 2D views are assigned to proper worksets. Depending on the number of views that are already created, it may take either an hour or days.

Tip: Even though a REVIT link is assigned to a workset in the Properties Palette, it needs to be assigned to the same worksets under the Type Properties. Otherwise, it would be controlled by two different worksets and whenever you turn one of those worksets off, the link will disappear. So make sure in the Type Properties, REVIT links are not assigned to the worksets that you want to delete.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Talha Dikgitmez
BIM Specialist @CRS