Central File Permission Hell

[drubinoff]

Hi,

My colleague and I set up central files and then, for every element either of us tries to touch...even copying text...we have to give the other permission. This impossible workflow has been going on for years and is absurd and unproductive.

There should be a wizard which sets up central files so this nonsense doesn't happen.

Could someone please explain to us the proper way to set us a central file for a small team so that we can work with a normal workflow? It is not obvious to our office of experienced Revit users including myself.

Thanks,
Derek

[CAtDiva]

I have a few troubleshooting thoughts:

1) After you create & save the central file, but before you close it to open your own local file, do you SWC and check the "User Created Worksets" box to relinquish the worksets you just created? This box does not check automatically, so you have to be sure to check it or you will "own" everything in that workset.
2) Are all teammates creating a new local every time they open the project?
3) When your colleague or you SWC, do you relinquish everything?

[DaveP]

Regarding CAts #2:
Are you opening the project from Revit?
NEVER open a workshared Revit project by double-clicking on it from Windows Explorer.
For that matter, i recommend you never use the "Recent Files", either.
Always open Revit first, then click Open Project, then browse to the Central file.
Click (once) on the .rv file, make sure the "Create new Local" box is checked, and only then should you click the Open button.

Also, when saving and closing, set the QAT icon to "Synchronize and Modify Settings". That's the one with the little green arrows on it.
If your icon is set to "Synchronize Now" (with the yellow lightning bolt), it may not relinquish everything.

[david_peterson]

I've been using Revit for 10+yrs with worksharing enabled on projects with up to 15 team members working in it.
Create your new file, activate worksets, save it as a central. Open the file and create a new local, save to central and make sure you use the dialog box to relinquish all elements and worksets.

Follow the best practices as listed above.
Create new locals every time you open. Use the Audit box (this is just a good habit) every time you open. Relinquish All Mine before you save back to central.
Workflow works great as long as everyone follows it.

- - - Updated - - -

Regarding CAts #2:
Are you opening the project from Revit?
NEVER open a workshared Revit project by double-clicking on it from Windows Explorer.
For that matter, i recommend you never use the "Recent Files", either.
Always open Revit first, then click Open Project, then browse to the Central file.
Click (once) on the .rv file, make sure the "Create new Local" box is checked, and only then should you click the Open button.

Also, when saving and closing, set the QAT icon to "Synchronize and Modify Settings". That's the one with the little green arrows on it.
If your icon is set to "Synchronize Now" (with the yellow lightning bolt), it may not relinquish everything.

Yes, Yes and Yes

[drubinoff]

I've been using Revit for 10+yrs with worksharing enabled on projects with up to 15 team members working in it.
Create your new file, activate worksets, save it as a central. Open the file and create a new local, save to central and make sure you use the dialog box to relinquish all elements and worksets.

Follow the best practices as listed above.
Create new locals every time you open. Use the Audit box (this is just a good habit) every time you open. Relinquish All Mine before you save back to central.
Workflow works great as long as everyone follows it.

- - - Updated - - -



Yes, Yes and Yes

Hi David,

Thanks for your post. I think we did all the steps you mention. However, when I go to Synchronize with Central, all the boxes under "After synchronizing, relinquish the following worksets and elements:" are grayed out.

[david_peterson]

Are you on an A360 project using C4R by chance?
The only time I've ever seen that was when either the model was opened incorrectly, or you lost the network connection due to poor connectivity or you're opening across a WAN.
Can you provide a little more information on your exact process.
I've also seen these issues when people were trying to use Drop Box as a host for the Central File.
The more info you can provide on the setup of the network and your exact workflow the better answer we can get you.

[drubinoff]

Are you on an A360 project using C4R by chance?
The only time I've ever seen that was when either the model was opened incorrectly, or you lost the network connection due to poor connectivity or you're opening across a WAN.
Can you provide a little more information on your exact process.
I've also seen these issues when people were trying to use Drop Box as a host for the Central File.
The more info you can provide on the setup of the network and your exact workflow the better answer we can get you.

Thx for your post. I am not doing anything unusual. The central file is on our server here in the office. The server is a NAS drive.

[david_peterson]

Is the licence server located on the same LAN? Or is the revit license being pulled from somewhere else?
If everything is all in the same location and you have issues on every project then I'm at a loss.
Only other suggestion I can offer is to open the file detach and do a save as and create a new central file.
That also tends to clean thing up.
I do that about once a month.

Opps one other dumb question. Are you guys checking out worksets or just borrowing elements?
We tend to always borrow as this causes less issues.

[drubinoff]

Is the licence server located on the same LAN? Or is the revit license being pulled from somewhere else?
If everything is all in the same location and you have issues on every project then I'm at a loss.
Only other suggestion I can offer is to open the file detach and do a save as and create a new central file.
That also tends to clean thing up.
I do that about once a month.

Opps one other dumb question. Are you guys checking out worksets or just borrowing elements?
We tend to always borrow as this causes less issues.

There is no "licence server". Each desktop has its own license.
We have a simple LAN which connects the NAS to the desktops.
Looking at the Worksets dialog box, it looks like sometimes one of the other users is a borrower of a workset and other times is not. I'm not sure how to change that or if we need to. Thx.

[david_peterson]

When you are "Borrowing" worksets or items, it means you've pulled them of the book shelf to take a look at them. When you save and relinquish, you put them back.
When you check out a workset, you're taking the workset and all the elements that belong to it out of the "library".
This is one of the better ways I've seen it explained.
http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2005/0...o-library.html
Steve does a great job and breaking down worksets.
The key is to make sure you're are relinquishing when you save.
I hope this helps.