Purge

[wadeshuey]

Can someone tell me why Purge is such a pain in the ***? Is there a better Plug in?

[jj mac]

Wade,

What specifically about the purge command is giving you trouble?

[eric.piotrowicz]

What is so difficult about purge? It lists and selects everything that is unused in the project, go through and unselect the stuff you don't want purged and then hit ok. Is reviewing the list the difficult part? I can't say that I agree with doing this but I've heard of people saving a pre-purge backup file so if they need something later they can open the backup and get it.

[jj mac]

I have had some situations where purging seems to take a really long time... My Revit session stops responding (on XP, Vista and 7), but eventually gives way. Sometimes it takes an HOUR! One time I just started it right before I went home for the night knowing by the morning it would be ready... Thats my only work around...

[eric.piotrowicz]

In some of our larger project or on some of the underpowered machines it can take a few minutes to analyze everything to create the list of unused items. The more unused stuff hanging out in a project also contributes to the delaying in opening the dialog box. An hour sounds pretty extreme though. What are your hardware specs, project size, and how much unused stuff is in it?

[wadeshuey]

Nothing is difficult, it just takes so long ... I rather hit my self with a pal-bing hammer than purge my file again. I have a file around 275mb file and its getting to large. I go to purge and I spend almost two hours selecting and deselecting family. I don't want to lose some annotation or components because I'm am not done with my CD's package yet and I don't want to send time reloading everything I might need if i get rid of every thing..... There need to be a better way. It is just frustrating. two hours wasted.

[jj mac]

What are your hardware specs, project size, and how much unused stuff is in it?

Using Windows 7 x64 with an Intel XeonX5460 (3.16 GHz), 12 GB RAM... File size is around 250, with 4 linked files. Excess families are minimal. I have been able to manage keeping families/groups etc not in use to a bare minimum. Less than 100 objects total. Same thing with all of the linked files.

It's a fairly large project though. 2 towers, one 45 storey's, the other 55 storey's; 13 storey podium; and 5 levels of underground. Both towers are separate files, and the structure of the building was done as its own model as well. Structure file is of the whole building. All of them are linked into one where we have created our sheets and miscellaneous architectural items relating to the site.

The file I am working with in question is about 1 1/2 years old. Started in RAC 2009 and now in RAC 2010. Have not upgraded to 2011 yet, because I am still testing for bugs.

I really have no explaination for why it takes so long. I think I have tried all of the recommended or typical approaches to solving the problem, such as auditing, making a new central file etc...

[eric.piotrowicz]

To the OP, better management of whats loaded in the project all along starting at the begining. Once its gets to the point that you are at its a nightmare to go thru everything one at a time. Hopefully though, now that you have spent those two hours you have a minimum of unused items left and continuing to monitor it should keep it from getting out of control like that again.

[eric.piotrowicz]

JJ, Is the warning list pretty clean also? From your description I am inclined to think that just the shear amount of stuff loaded in the project is giving Revit alot to review before it can create the list of unused items to purge.

[jj mac]

Its a good question with regards to warnings. I haven't looked in a while and I am kind of afraid! It defiantly needs to be done though.

There are a lot of objects in the model though. We began a quest to actually try and minimize the amount of objects, and it has helped with performance, but not with this purging issue. One of the things we did was create out curtain/window wall panels to include an extrusion that represents the mullion. This allowed us to basically eliminate all of the 'Revit' mullions in the project. It was one of the best things we could have done for the project in terms of performance because we eliminated all of those extra objects.

It's still a massive model, and I am beginning to accept this is just the way it is when they get this big... I would expect in the future this would not be the case, but hey... who knows.

Anyway, once I get around to sorting out the errors, I will try to report back to this thread and let you know if it helped. Thanks for the original post and the insight to follow.

[thomas.163390]

There need to be a better way. It is just frustrating. two hours wasted.

Why have you filled your project up with stuff you dont need in the first place?! I've never had a problem with purging on any of our big projects. Sounds like you want Revit to magically know what familys/settings you want to keep and which not to keep.... Revit dont read minds as of 2010.

[jj mac]

Revit dont read minds as of 2010.

Let's hope it never gets to that point either. ; )

[eric.piotrowicz]

Isn't that what the Ribbon UI was all about? Letting Revit try to predict what we are attempting to do...:lol:

[wadeshuey]

This project is a family intensive one ..... But I am going to need to just watch what I put in to this project from now on.

More control over purge would be nice. Selecting and toggling of categories rather than just each individual family and type would help. I'm going to just need to get I faster computer if I want to purge another project like this one again.....LOL. Thanks for the comments!

[wadeshuey]

Isn't that what the Ribbon UI was all about? Letting Revit try to predict what we are attempting to do...:lol:

2010 Yes but 2011 No .....they disassembled that feature..... LOL

[eric.piotrowicz]

This project is a family intensive one ..... But I am going to need to just watch what I put in to this project from now on.

More control over purge would be nice. Selecting and toggling of categories rather than just each individual family and type would help. I'm going to just need to get I faster computer if I want to purge another project like this one again.....LOL. Thanks for the comments!

If you want to unselect an entire category you can expand it and then highlight the first item, scroll to the bottom of that catergory, hold Shift and pick the last item. It will highlight every line (just like Windows) and then you can uncheck them all at once. It may hang for a little bit if there are alot of items but it will catch up if you give it time.

[eric.piotrowicz]

2010 Yes but 2011 No .....they disassembled that feature..... LOL

Yeah, I'll agree 11 has gotten much better. Or I'm just using keyboard shortcuts fro 90% of what I do :p

[wadeshuey]

If you want to unselect an entire category you can expand it and then highlight the first item, scroll to the bottom of that catergory, hold Shift and pick the last item. It will highlight every line (just like Windows) and then you can uncheck them all at once. It may hang for a little bit if there are alot of items but it will catch up if you give it time.

That is what took two hours ..... alwell its done now....

[sthedens]

Using a Type Catalog can help as well. That way if you have a Family with lots of Types and you only need a few of the Types in your project, you only load the ones you need.

BTW, it's a ball peen hammer, and please don't hit yourself in the head with it. I had one fall on my head once and it flippin' hurt. I switched from AutoCAD to Revit the next day. ;-)