Is Workset1 special?

[Steve_Stafford]

Workset1 is the original workset, you can't delete it, not without using Detach from Central to discard all worksets. It is special in that Autodesk has recommended in the past that we do not remove it. I don't know if they still stand by that anymore but I observe that practice and don't rename it either. If it gets renamed I find users are confused if it can't be eliminated later.

Linked models have two workset parameters, one for each instance (if there are more than one copy of the link in use) and one in the linked file's Type Parameters. When these are set to different worksets you get what you describe.

The project base and survey points are no longer assigned to Workset1, they have been changed to Project Info (a Project Standard) so they can't be deleted inadvertently if they are assigned to a workset that can be deleted (which happened at least once).

[stefan.l]

Linked models have two workset parameters, one for each instance (if there are more than one copy of the link in use) and one in the linked file's Type Parameters. When these are set to different worksets you get what you describe.

Steve,
Thanks! As usual your posts are very clarifying.
Everything you said else makes sense - I've solved my immediate problem in the model, but this just raises new questions!
Do you know WHY (to what purpose) would Autodesk smuggle a 2nd workset parameter into the Type Parameters? What is the use of the seemingly reduntant situation here, and how does the heirarchy between the two workset parameters resolve?

[Steve_Stafford]

...Do you know WHY (to what purpose) would Autodesk smuggle a 2nd workset parameter into the Type Parameters? What is the use of the seemingly reduntant situation here, and how does the heirarchy between the two workset parameters resolve?...

The type parameter governs the existence or definition of the link as being part of the project. The instance parameter is associated with the actual copy that is placed somewhere within your model. If you have ever deleted a linked model you may remember getting a warning message letting you know that the file is linked but there are no instances placed within the model anymore. It asks if you want to remove the definition of the link entirely or leave it for placement again later. If you choose the latter you'll find the link is still listed in the Project Browser. You can place it again by dragging and dropping it from the browser.

Each instance has its own Workset because you could place more than one copy of the link. Imagine a housing developement project where there are a dozen home designs to choose from which are distributed all over the site, multiple copies placed as needed. Each instance can be assigned to its own workset. They could be organized by communities and assigned to their own community workset. This means I could unload all of the homes associated with a specific community while I work on another one.

[stefan.l]

Steve,
Again, thanks for this info. I suppose that is good "real-life-example" for doubling that parameter.

It seems the key thing for linking each branch's linked model into our model, is to ensure both the type and instance parameters are set properly.