AutoSync when opening file

[bamckenzie69]

We are using Revit 2014. We set up central files and two or three people at a time will create their local file to work on. We have on a few occasions had people forget to sync when they first open their local. After working for a while they sync only to mess things up and cause a bit of panic, require a new central to be created, loss of work, etc.

Bottom line, is there a way to set Revit to automatically sync when a local is opened? Why would you ever want to open your local and not sync?

Thanks,

[david_peterson]

Per Best Practice, you should always create a new local file every time you open.
I don't believe there's a way to "Autosync" upon open, but I'm guessing if you ask a developer there's a way to do it. But my guess is that it will basically function the same way, ie overwrite and create a new local file.

[DaveP]

I've been asking for years to just make the whole "Create a Local File" interface go away.
Not that there shouldn't BE a Local file. Just that the user should never see it.
Can you think of any other application where you open one file, but it's really connected to a different one?

I'd rather that you would ALWAYS open a file from the network and it would ALWAYS copy and open a Local file behind the scenes.
The way it is now, there are far too many way to either accidentally open the Central, or forget to Reload, or have a Local that's not compatible, or ....

Much, much simpler if you would just open the .rvt from the network - just like every other application you've ever used.

[MikeJarosz]

Can you think of any other application where you open one file, but it's really connected to a different one?


No, and for a reason. The ability for multiple users to update a single file simultaneously is a complicated concept in computer science, and is unlikely to appear in retail software intended for single users. The capability to save into a single central file is closer to airline reservation systems or radar detection from multiple inputs, more like military applications than say, Photoshop or Word.

Branch banks and credit card transactions are stored locally and then synced with the home office at set times. When I worked on the American Express Data Center building in NYC, we were told that there is one hour out of 24 when all businesses in the world transmit their daily transactions back to Amex, and the mainframe goes into high gear consolidating accounts. That means they have a local file for the first 23 hours. I asked them if they could lose an account (i.e. my own) once in a while.

The answer was NO.

[DaveP]

Oh, I'm completely in agreement that everyone needs to WORK on their own Local Copy.
I just want to see it so that the process of creating the Local Copy is hidden from the user.
They should not have to remember when to open a Local and when to open a Central, or if it's not workshared, or when they need to Reload, or Sync immediately after open IF they didn't open from Central, etc, etc, etc.
There are just too many opportunities for error.
Let everyone just open the "Central" file every single time - whether the project is Workshared or not.
Then Revit would recognize that the project is Workshared and - invisibly to the user - make a Local Copy.

Administrators would need a true "Open Central", but the average user shouldn't have to worry about all that.

[david_peterson]

I'm guessing there's a way to do that via the API.
I'd ask your buddies over at CTC. They seem to keep coming up with some cool tools for BIM Coordinators and Administrators.
Since at the end of the day it's just a dialog box and the UI, I'm guessing there's a way to remove the home screen so you can't see the last file you opened and forces a user to go out to the central file location. I'm guessing there's also a way to change that default so it always creates a new local and audits the file upon open. That's be really nice since that's what the recommend, but don't offer.

[irneb]

What you could do without too much "programming": Create a .BAT file somewhere which deletes all the RVT files in your local projects folder. Add it into your Start->All Programs->Startup so it runs every time the PC is booted / logged in. This should then make Revit not show these files in the start screen and rather show the central files - but for this reason I'd then turn Revit's start-screen off (else clicking on one of those opens the Central directly without creating a local). Even if you do that, the the bigR menu would still list the centrals and also directly open them - I can't see a simple way to get Revit to open it like it does through an open dialog.

This is something which I've seen a lot in ACad: Trying to make the program avoid user error. It's never a good solution, and (similar to above) usually creates extra problems which might even be worse than the original. My best advise: teach your users NOT to do that, and to AT LEAST open a new local copy once a day - it would also make such central file corruption much less prevalent.

As for other programs using local copies, this doesn't happen often in databases. Usually a DB would not transmit huge quantities of data to each and every client on a continual basis. Even in banks, the "local" would be a local LAN server which then syncs periodically across the WAN to another national / international server - the quantity of data in such case is usually a fraction of a typical RVT file. When there is a lot of data to work on at once, then the DBMS (DataBase Management System) is usually designed to use some form of local (i.e. on the client PC) caching mechanism - mostly direct in RAM, but some might also use a local file like Revit does. Though I've never seen one which forces the user to create such local cache manually - that's rather stupid IYAM.

The only time you "might" want to have a true local copy is if you're going to travel with no means of directly linking to your server. Even then, I'd prefer something like GMail's off-line setting instead of Revit's local file - they both do the same thing, it's just that GMail doesn't screw the user up with unnecessary detail.

[patricks]

We are using Revit 2014. We set up central files and two or three people at a time will create their local file to work on. We have on a few occasions had people forget to sync when they first open their local. After working for a while they sync only to mess things up and cause a bit of panic, require a new central to be created, loss of work, etc.

Bottom line, is there a way to set Revit to automatically sync when a local is opened? Why would you ever want to open your local and not sync?

Thanks,

Nevermind all this talk about batch files and API's and such. Tell your users to ALWAYS navigate to the Central file on your server when opening a project file. ALWAYS! PERIOD! There should not be any manual accessing of local files, ever, except by very experienced user or IT personnel, and only for very specific reasons (i.e. to resolve conflicts or issues).

[anetace]

I disabled the "Enable Recent Files page at startup" under options. Helps, but users still can go to R and open the most recent file. ALWAYS open from central and create a new local, shame on users that do not and lose work.

[bamckenzie69]

Thanks for all the input, even though it poses more questions that actually answering my initial one... Our office has had a group of people working on Revit for a year now to try and get families and templates set up, and to work out the bugs. We are now transitioning the entire office to Revit. This thread is the first I have heard that we should create a new local every time we open the project. So if the majority of users are saying the ONLY way to do this is to create a new local every time you open a project, why dose Revit start with a dialog box that shows my local file as an option? AND, why is that not part of the training. I agree with DaveP, there are just too many opportunities for things to get messed up as it is now. Revit is a great program, but there should be a way to limit how everyday users access and sync files. I guess maybe we will get used to it...

[DaveP]

Tell your users to ALWAYS navigate to the Central file on your server when opening a project file. ALWAYS! PERIOD!
Does not equal

The users ALWAYS navigate to the Central file

:cry:

[irneb]

So if the majority of users are saying the ONLY way to do this is to create a new local every time you open a project, why dose Revit start with a dialog box that shows my local file as an option? AND, why is that not part of the training.It's not that Revit is designed to always need opening from the central and making a fresh local copy, designed as it is it "shouldn't" have needed such. The problem is there's many a factor which influences the local-central synchronization, e.g.: Network could have a hiccup, server might have rolled back some changes, work-share lock file might have been accessed at the exact same time (greater possibility the more people on the same project), someone might have taken work home and come back with an out-of-date local file, someone might not have synce'd in several hours, etc. etc. etc.

ADesk couldn't foresee all possibilities. But these issues have been cropping up for some years now, thus I feel they should've (at least) started to re-design just how users interact with local/central after these empirical tests have made users complain about it ad-nausea. It's been known for a while that making fresh locals regularly makes for less corruption - there's even a "saying": "A new local a day keeps bugs away"

IFYAM the default should have been to always open and copy the central to a new local, no matter if there was a local previously or not. The options in the open dialog should be the ONLY way any user can circumvent the default and either open the central directly or open a local file - it should never do either of these through ANY other method (start page / R-menu / explorer shortcut / etc.). Only exception might be when someone's opening a local file and the central cannot be found - i.e. they've taken a local on the road, in which case they need to be careful anyway.

Edit: BTW, one thing I've done for a while now is to modify shortcuts to include the Synchronize as something like Ctrl+Shift+S so it's easier for users to "quickly" sync - otherwise they tend to simply Ctrl+S save local only. It's difficult to make them click an obscure icon instead of what they're used to. So it's usually a problem to get syncing as the norm.

Another thing to ensure is that the network is as optimal as you can get it. If users find that syncing takes 2 times as long as saving locally - they'll only sync once a day (which is a big no-no). I've even setup situations where we placed one project on a small server (usually a NAS) linked direct to the switch between all the project members, that way they don't open the central file across the full network, this they get faster network sync's and the rest of the network isn't bogged down every time they sync either.