Advice sought re linked dwgs

[JohnCAVogt]

Situation in V8: 75Mb shared project with lots of linked dwgs - ALWAYS a message at beginning about links not updating because not editable. The message dialog sucks - will only show the list of files that show on one page, then will only bounce to below the bottom of list - can't see anything but the first 6 or so. So, I just attempt to manage links and reload all. Why would this take 45 minutes?

Situation in V8.1: Now that I don't have to make things editable, the first time I am opening the project in 8.1 it is now at least half an hour and it's still 99 on the CPU - ok, it just came up. Now it's stuck on a warning about a group type not upgrading, and still about 96 average on CPU. It's been about ten minutes so far on that. Ok, 12 minutes did it.

Anyway, while I wait for this to open, I hope it finally does, does anybody have any advice on the linked dwg issue? Anybody using lots of them, like for backgrounds of existing conditions to trace from (we'll take those out eventually but who knows when?) and library versions of details already drawn in acad (which we'll leave in permanently.) Are we expecting too much, should we not do this? Even with limited experience I already think drawing details is easier in Revit, but I can't convince project management to go down that path with our detail-type guys. I don't know how much anybody has complicated it by failing to do the "this view only" thing on the import. Any easy ways of tracking that down? Even if tracked down, does "this view only" mean that the dwg is actually only in the one view, or does it mean that for all other views the dwg is turned off in the the visibility settings? Is there any advantage, for ones not done "this view only," to go back, take them out, and put them back into just the view they're supposed to be in?

[Wes Macaulay]

Hmm -- this is definitely something Support should hear about. There's a new build coming out soon which may deal with some of your problems but I would head over to subscription center ASAP and get a support request going.

[JohnCAVogt]

You think it might be something only I am doing? Is no one else using a fair number of linked dwgs? If so, no appreciable slowdowns?


I have to confess too that I was experimenting - I copied the central file of the project, opened that copy for the first time in 8.1, and saved to another place as central. Maybe confusions over borrowing objects from the 8.0 central file before I could save as a different project complicated things. I think I'll reserve judgment on whether this particular 8.1 slowness was a real problem, and wait until we can get everybody on the project officially upgraded first.

[Fishmonger]

We have quite a few linked Autocad drawings in a Proto-type project for a chain
of stores that we do. The client has been with us since 2003 and the approved details are
linked to the prototype so updates are always live. We're in the process now of
trying to find the best way to keep this connection live (while working completely in Revit) to the proto-type and new projects as they kick-off, for as long as possible. At some point it becomes necessary to separate from the prototype and detail specifically to the geographic area we're building in.
Anyway, the open and close times we experience are minimal. The file is only 20 MB
and opens without error messages in about 10 seconds.
We did get the message you mentioned, about not updating in version 8, but we no longer have that problem with Version 8.1. I did use the update utility on all projects, any linked files and our customized content on our network.
And I believe the new "Detach from Central" option will allow us achieve the balance between staying connected to the prototype for as long as needed and then being able to
detach and create a separate project when it's time. Anyone see any problems with that?

We're loving the way 8.1 executes the edits you want without all those maddening dialogs
in workset projects.

Dick