Worksets - basics

[kstephens]

I'm new to worksets. So far I've been able to creat a central file and work/synchronize from my local file. This is a design showroom project. There is a main building and site that are designated to default worksets. I have created a new workset for the interior display I am working on. As new displays are added, I hope to create additional worksets for each of those displays. My hope is that 1) multiple users in the office can work on different displays at one time and 2) that by only working on a specific workset locally, the computer performance is increased.

However, I'm not sure if I'm really doing this correctly. For example, when I open my local copy, I am asked which worksets to make editable. I only select my display workset. The two default worksets are "non-editable" but "open" (so I can see the surrounding space). I can gray-out the non-editable worksets. However, it appears that I can still make changes and move these "non-editable" elements (main building walls, ceilings, etc). I would prefer for the non-editable elements to be fixed to avoid errors and (I would think) speed up the computer by not regenerating unnecessary modeling. If I want to make a change to these non-editable worksets, I could do that in the Central file or change that workset to "edit" in local file.

I guess I'm not clear on what I'm "checking out" or making "active" and what is "element borrowing".

Any thoughts or best practices?

Thanks

Kevin Stephens

[ijnicholas]

Typically you dont have to check out a workset to work on elements. You can just start working and individual elements (not entire worksets) are checked out for you by revit. This means, eventhought there are only 2 worksets in the project, any number of people can work on the project at the same time.
When you check out a workset, others in the team, cannot edit elements in that workset, so, it is kind of locked for them. However, when a workset is set to 'non-editable' that means it can be edited by anyone in the team!!!! (autodesk cannot come up with a better terminology for this for the past 5 years!)
Your preference for the non-editable workset elements to be fixed to avoid errors does not happen. If you want to lock those worksets, you need open the central file as a 'x' user and to make them 'editable' for that particiular user! Bit complex!
hth

[Dimitri Harvalias]

What you're looking to do is 'demand load' the worksets to improve file performance. When you open a workshare enabled project you are given the option of loading only the worksets you want to open.
When you are in the file you can 'unload' or 'load' a workset on the fly by changing the status of the Opened column.
Users should very rarely need to check out an entire workset and should use element borrowing instead

[Ning Zhou]

What you're looking to do is 'demand load' the worksets to improve file performance. When you open a workshare enabled project you are given the option of loading only the worksets you want to open.
When you are in the file you can 'unload' or 'load' a workset on the fly by changing the status of the Opened column.
Users should very rarely need to check out an entire workset and should use element borrowing instead

hi Dimitri, i'm trying to use demand load to improve performance, for instance, user 1 will only load level 1 workset to work on it, similarly user 2 will only load level 2 workset to work on it, the problem is that selective loading won't "stay" after SWC or RL, do i miss something obvious or maybe it's just Revit limitation? any solution / workaround? thanks.

GO CANUCKS, GO!

[IamIan33]

I like this approach for demand-loading, it works very well so long as users have put everything on the correct workset.

The issue I'm seeing is that many of the worksets are closed by default - this is not what I want. I've had some success in controlling the open/closed for the worksets in the central model and then in the local file, and even re-saved the local as a central. But I cannot seem to maintain good control over the initial (default) demand load.jpg.

My preference would be that all (or most) worksets are open when the model is being opened, and the user can choose to close worksets as desired. Since most users do not pay attention to this dialogue when they are opening a model, they often are confused when most of the model does not show.

What is the magic potion?? )

[Steve_Stafford]

The magic potion is people not ignoring the Specify Worksets dialog when it opens