Help with Worksharing

[leandrochiovetto554124]

Hello everyone ;)

Im having some trouble with Revit Worksharing. Me and my friend tryied to begin a project in Revit Architecture working with the Worksharing.

We create a Homegroup in Windows 7 and create a file, a central file, inside my friends notebook, in a shared folder. After that, i copied it and paste inside a shared folder in my notebook.

When i tryied to open it, a message appears, saying that its not a central file, Ok. After this, another message appears telling me that the path is not valid, the central model cannot be found!

When i open Revit and try to open a file, choose that central file, the option to create a local file is not allowed.

When my friend do the same thing, using just files on his notebook, everything works correctly. And both have access to all folders, in homegroup, the we are using.

So, we tryied a lot of things, and nothing works.
Can you help us, please?

My friends Windows is Professional and mine is a Home Basic.

Thanks

[Yman]

It works best if you have a network drive, named or drive letter the same on both machines.

Basically you have a server or ghost drive that is where the central file is stored/ saved. You then setup network drives on each local computer to that server or ghost drive network (I use Jungledisk as a ghost drive, cost $4/ month for 10 gig). The ghost drive works just like an actual server except thru the internet. I always make sure that the network drives are the same letter from each machine. Then each person opens the central file on each machine and then saves a local on their own computer.

DO NOT copy the central file. You have to open the central to create a local file.

One other tip, Go to Options under the Revit symbol (upper left corner) and select the option button. Under the General tab, you will see Worksharing Update Frequency, set that to all the way to the left so it is set to Manual Updates. The auto updates can throw errors while working on a project.

One last tip; always make sure you save to central and relinquish all worksets when done working on the project. This is a big one.

Good luck.

Yman

[Steve_Stafford]

...DO NOT copy the central file. You have to open the central to create a local file...

Fwiw, it's subtle but copying the central to a new location "creates" a local file. Revit regards a central file that has "moved" (could be moved, renamed, or copied) as a local file automatically. Assuming his computer can "see" the central file location it should be able to synchronize.

Revit changed the process starting with 2010 to give us the default option to create a local file when we select a central file in the Open dialog. No more Open, Save As to make local files. Revit just does that in the background now.

Once you've got the networking part sorted out, just make sure when you browse to select the file to open that the Create Local File option IS checked.

Peer to peer networking like you are trying to do can run into problems with synchronization, at least I've encountered some from time to time. A workstation's operating system isn't design to share files concurrently like a server's operating system is. Best to be clear with each other about what part of the model you are going to work on to avoid creating an opportunity for save errors.

[Yman]

Thanks Steve, something I didn't know about copying the central.

Yman

[Ning Zhou]

looks like in 2012 SWC will also do save local & relinguish for you, but why the highlighted from attached JPG are not checked? and why it's greyed out?

[Steve_Stafford]

Yes they added the Save Local file before. It always had the option to save after. This way your local file is "protected" before attempting to synchronize. If the network is going to fail you, it will be when you need to sync. :(

The workset types are gray, inaccessible when you haven't borrowed anything that applies to them. Revit only enables the check boxes when you've done something that applies to one or more of them.

Oh, I should have mentioned. If the check box for Create Local File is not enabled (can't check it) then something is wrong. If one of you can check it and the other can't it means that the person who can't check the option isn't "seeing" the central file the same way. For example Windows now has the option to define a named network location. This is different than "mapping" a drive to a letter like in the past. If one person does that and the other maps a drive Revit will think that one of them isn't really seeing the file properly. The person that creates the central file defines how the definition of the "path" must be. Clear as mud? ;)

One other reason the check box might be disabled... it isn't a central file.
Another reason...the file is an older version and will need to be upgraded.
Another reason...the file is a newer version and won't be able to open at all (except in the same version of Revit).

[Ning Zhou]

now i understand why it's un-checked & greyed, thanks Steve!

[markclarenzze]

hi here is my problem with our revit, I can create central file but when I got to used it in another computer to create local copy it says central file not found, or when I open central file there must appear check box saying create local copy, but unfortunately it won't go that way. we used windows 7 ultimate and the type of sharing is just Local area network, just doing right click on c drive or folder then sharing.

same problem started to this thread, any luck to thread starter if he manage to overcome his problem?

thanks

[jsteinhauer]

That's because you copied or moved the central file to the other computer, Revit knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sakes. If you're not work sharing this file, ie your the only one working in it, you don't need to enable work sharing. If this is not the case and you have multiple people needing to access the central file, they will need to create local files.. If you are in the central file, no one else will who is working from their locals will be able to save back to central.

I hope this helps,
Jeff S.

[dhurtubise]

Just to add to Steve's post. Servers are designed to handle multiple connections while workstation can handle only a handful. That said server comes with several services to handle such load like address attribution (DHCP) and name resolution (DNS). The biggest problem with peer-to-peer network is those missing services.
Revit revert everything to a UNC path, so you need every computer in the office to use the same UNC path hence the drive sharing comment.

[markclarenzze]

thanks for your advices, I found out that I need to set up a server in order to work this out. does VMware server applicable?