Drive Mapping and Central File Problems

[bmcdearman]

Has anyone else had a problem with the error, upon opening a workshared file, that "This central model has been copied or moved from..." - when in fact the central model has NOT been moved or copied?

We kept having that problem and I am convinced, but without proof (only circumstantial evidence), that it is caused by something inconsistent about the the ways our computers map to the server location. In this case, our projects are located on the "X:" drive, where "X" is actually a shortcut that refers to "<server name>/<directory>/...etc".

What happens is I can Detach/open a central model, save it as a new central file on this X: drive, and someone else in the office may or may not be able to open the new file without issue (i.e. when they navigate to the file through Revit, the "make local" check box is not greyed out and checks itself automatically). But sometimes the check box is greyed out and they get that error "..copied or moved..". I believe it has to do with the fact that we navigate to the location using our mapped "X:" shortcut. The error message does indeed say "moved from X:.... to //<server name>/..."

Just now, I did this: I Detach/opened the file and saved it as a new central file, but navigated to the location by going to "Network/<server name>/...etc" - the actual address in other words. I then told my associate to do the same and so far, the problem has not reappeared.

The real head scratcher is that everyone seems to be mapped to the same exact place with regard to this "X:" drive - the settings all appear to be identical. Can anyone shed some light on this?

[Steve_Stafford]

When you create a local file do you see the option "Create New Local" or is it disabled? If you can access it and it is checked then your computer is mapped to the central file location the "same" way as whoever created the central file to begin with. If you can't then your "mapping" is different somehow. Mapping your shared resources using the IP address versus the Share name is one possible culprit. The other is using the relatively new Named Network Location while others are using "Map Drives" either via IP address or share name.

The bottom line is that Revit and your team need to be "mapped" to the central file location exactly the same way.

[amorie]

I can tell you about our experience that seems to work without fail.

We have several offices, and the computers in each office are mapped to the same drive letter (I call this relative pathing); but in reality that mapping points to a different actual server within each office. We have found that if you save the central file using the "network path" (I call this the absolute path) method of browsing to and finding the server that the central file is to be hosted on, rather than through the mapped drive path designation, this path information becomes buried in the central file DNA. When you create a local file Revit will always know on which server the Central file lives. If you can keep your users from ever touching or opening a central file, life is good. However, if you use the "absolute path" system to save your central file, and someone browses to, and opens the central file through the mapped drive path, then your central file will instantly become a local file, and you will have to resave it.

We use the Local File Creator utility developed by Dave Baldacchino, and things really work well. (Not using Revit server as of yet) Even though this utility browses to, and uses the local server as a Central file copy source when creating the local file, the DNA in the central file allows our teams to work across our WAN without any central file connection problems.