Circular STC error

[Wes Macaulay]

Check this out...

I'm working on a project where we get this error a few times a week...

User A does starts a STC, then gets a dialog saying they need to make elements editable to complete the STC. So user A puts in a request to user B, who owns the elements.

User B can't grant the request without doing a STC of their own. So user B starts a STC, and they get a dialog asking to make elements editable... elements that user A owns! But user A can't grant the request without doing a STC...

So ya see, they get locked up and locked out.

Anyone else have this problem? Anyone know how to avoid it?

Editing requests are becoming a dangerous thing in my mind on projects like this one; they can lock you out of the central file. And the whole process of editing requests and having to do a STC can blow all kinds of time.

I've been telling people: instead of putting in a request, if possible, tell the owner of the object to do what needs to be done. That saves minutes out of your busy day.

[luigi]

The last suggestion you posted IS the safest to do, and as long as the company is not too big (we had four people in one huge area working on the same time and we were all having fun yelling at eachother, and the owner was oblivious to our fun)

Can't say much more ;)

[irwin]

I would like to point out that the only time you need to STC in order to grant a borrowing request is if you have changed the particular element you are trying to lend since your last STC. One way to decrease the likelihood of that is to STC more often.

Having to make something editable in order to STC is expected to be a rare situation, only occurring in unusual circumstances. The fact that someone else has already changed that particular element since he last STC is also unlikely. The fact that both are happening together several times per week is surprising. Either there is something funny going on in your particular file, or something in your workflow is unexpected, or the software might not be working as intended.

[sbrown]

It doesn't seem to be uncommon at all, I too experience the message that something needs to be made editable for me to save to central. Sometimes it even happens when I'm the only one working on the job. I've also noticed it takes a minimum of 2 STC to actually give up all worksets you may have. I think this is the root of the problem. When you STC and check all the boxes revit DOES NOT ALWAYS give back all the worksets. I don't know why this is, it seems to be mainly retaining borrowed elements and view worksets, sometimes printer settings.

The other error I've been getting lately during a STC is that an item I've deleted had something done to it by another user and is being restored to the project. How can someone else do something to a workset I own?? Luckily I can usually just re delete the item.

[Wes Macaulay]

With a STC taking about 5-8 minutes, during which time other people find that making elements editable also takes some time, the appetite to do this is certainly reduced. This is a large project, and I haven't found much improvement using selective open of worksets...

[irwin]

The other error I've been getting lately during a STC is that an item I've deleted had something done to it by another user and is being restored to the project. How can someone else do something to a workset I own?? Luckily I can usually just re delete the item.
Scott, is the "item" you are deleting a workset or an element? If it is a workset then I can explain what's going on.

[sbrown]

It is a workset, a view workset to be exact. I had one view of portion of a room, it wasn't quite angled right, so I created a new one and deleted the old. When I saved to central I got that error message.

[JamesVan]

We've had the 'circular' STC problem before. It always just seemed to resolve itself after awhile. Another thing we've seen is that a user might get the message that the changes in the local file can't be reconciled with the central model. This would usually freak out a team, but I've found that in many cases, if you save locally and close Revit - when you re-open the local file you can usually save to central again.

[irwin]

It is a workset, a view workset to be exact. I had one view of portion of a room, it wasn't quite angled right, so I created a new one and deleted the old. When I saved to central I got that error message.
For user-created worksets, other users are allowed to add elements to worksets that you have editable. If you delete the workset and in the mean time someone has saved new elements in that workset to central, what should happen to these elements when you reload latest? It wouldn't be appropriate to just delete them, since you might have moved elements out of the workset before deleting it. So, Revit recreates the workset and leaves them there, letting you decide what to do with them.

For view worksets, any elements someone else added to the view workset should be children of the view -- so they will be deleted when the view is. In that case the message isn't very meaningful. Probably Revit is recreating the view workset to hold these new elements that someone else added, then deleting the elements, and the resulting workset is empty.

[sbrown]

That makes sense. I don't think anyone was working on that view though. Could the same thing happen if someone moved the elevation tag location that created that view. Just the tag not the blue line defining the extents? Thats the only thing I can think of that may have been done in association with this view.