Error closes Revit: An error has occurred while drawing the contents of this window.

[chasen_forever]

I am getting this error message when trying to open a project. I have searched the forums and I have only found posts relating to open GL issues, this does not remedy the problem. At this point I am at a loss, I have tried audit, purge, managing AutoCad links all to no avail. So maybe someone else has encountered this problem and found a solution.

I am using Revit 2009 MEP.

[cliff collins]

Try opening the Central File and click the Audit box.

This will expose any corruption and attempt to resolve dependencies, etc.

Does this help?

[chasen_forever]

Same error occurs when opening with audit. It is very strange but another person in the office can open their local file then save to central, which then gets rid of the error and allows me to open the central file and save my own local file. However the next day I go to open the file again and then the error occurs again. Revit is weird.

[cliff collins]

Make sure all users are on the exact same build/service pack.

Have everyone create a new local each morning.

see if that helps?

cheers

[chasen_forever]

We will try that thank you!

[twiceroadsfool]

It sounds to me like the issue is related to one of the CAD links that is in the file, ive seen it many times. The other user being able to open and SWC remedying the problem may or may not support that theory, since when a user SWC's it resets the Linked files to their configurations.

A few things to try:

1. Move all of your autocad links so the revit model cannot find them (temporarily). Try to open the file again. Does it work? Also, are there Cad IMPORTS that arent linked? If so, youll have a tougher time diagnosing the problem, and i would suggesting detaching a copy and deleting all of the DWG IMPORTS that are in specific views.

2. Ive also seen it happen when items (Revit OR Cad) were a rediculous far distance from the Origin. Which computers would falter depended on various information, but check that. Locate the origin in your Revit model, and draw a circle with a radius of a mile. You shouldnt have anything near or outside that circle. If you do, youre going to have huge problems.

3. How much of your MEP content was downloaded from websites or manufacturers? Imported CAD geometry (3D DWG, SAT file or otherwise) have also caused these issues on various machines. Its why we prefer and use solely Revit based content. Unfortch, the only way to verify this as a problem is to delete the Cad imports from the families.

All of these solutions are predicated upon it NOT being a hardware issue, but every single different configuration of hardware and drivers behaves differently in Revit and with the above issues, which may or may not be the reason one machine is fine and the other isnt.

Machine specs for both, including graphics card, graphics card driver versions, OS's, etc would be a help, as well as (like Cliff mentioned) the Revit build and SP numbers...

[chasen_forever]

Thank you for your input. Its been awhile since this thread has been used but I thought I would post an update. It lloks like the problems were caused by a combination of cad drawings that were imported into the project. Thanks for that suggestion twice, manufacturers families are not the greatest. I will suggest that for anyone who also has these problems the backup/rollback tool for Revit is very handy.