Upgrading to 2013

[mcgregorl243981]

I have always been under the impression that it is not a good idea to upgrade your software part-way through a project but I have found no evidence to support this.

Does anybody have any negative experiences which support this or vice versa? We have 3 technicians working on the project full time so any slip ups and us having to revert to a backup could have large time/cost implications.

Revit 2013 has some features which would be really usefull in our current project and if there is no evidence to support my beliefs then I think i am going to go for it, obviously keeping a backup in 2012 of the project file and all linked files.

[Misteracad]

Best...correction, "COMMON" practice is to NOT upgrade a Revit project in the middle, and instead finish it in the version it was started in. However, it can be done, but you should follow proper steps. For one, you should detach any existing links and upgrade them first, before upgrading the host. Second, you should always click on the AUDIT button when opening Revit files in a newer version, so Revit will audit and hopefully correct any issues before upgrading. There are probably some other tips that I am missing, but maybe someone else will chime in and offer them up if I did.

Also, you should NOT upgrade your project unless ALL team members are upgrading as well. Revit is not backwards compatible, therefore EVERYONE has to be on the same version. Period.

[mcgregorl243981]

Thanks for your response.

We have gone ahead with the upgrade. We did all of the things you listed above and everything seems to be ok so far. Touch wood!!

One issue which we came accross was that revit did not like upgrading from the central file. I had to do it from a local model and then saved that file as the new central model. Not sure why this is but it worked ok.

Thanks again.

[DaveP]

I'm going to agree with most of what Tim said.
One clarification: not only should you NOT upgrade unless everyone does, but you CAN not upgrade unless the whole team does. Older versions will not be able to "see" an upgraded model.

My main disagreement, though, is the "best practice" comment.
We upgrade every active project in our office every year. That's currently about 80 projects.
It takes a look of coordination and cooperation, but I have never had a problem upgrading in 7 years of doing this.
OK, I lied. I had one problem upgrading, sent the file off to Autodesk, and they upgraded it for me.

I've found that keeping multiple versions around causes a lot of confusion. People have to keep track of which project is in which version.
Inevitably, someone will end up either wasting time trying to cancel out of an accidental upgrade, of opening an old Local file & working for an hour before getting the message that their Local is not longer compatible.

[Misteracad]

My main disagreement, though, is the "best practice" comment.
We upgrade every active project in our office every year. That's currently about 80 projects.
It takes a look of coordination and cooperation, but I have never had a problem upgrading in 7 years of doing this.
OK, I lied. I had one problem upgrading, sent the file off to Autodesk, and they upgraded it for me.

I've found that keeping multiple versions around causes a lot of confusion. People have to keep track of which project is in which version.
Inevitably, someone will end up either wasting time trying to cancel out of an accidental upgrade, of opening an old Local file & working for an hour before getting the message that their Local is not longer compatible.

Interesting. I honestly haven't heard of anyone taking the time to do this Dave, but I can certainly see your point...as well as the benefits...I just don't know that I could "sell" it lol.

So maybe I should clarify my initial comment and state that instead of "Best" practice, it should be "Common" practice