Locking elements

[Fred Blome]

Arrrrrrrgggghh. Is there a way to lock elements as in "can't move/can't delete"? I just had the "experience" of a user deleting some grid lines from an elevation rather than hiding them. So bye-bye dimensions all over the place. Yes, he should have known, but anyways.... Grid lines would be a perfect example of something needing a complete lock. And the same would be nice for views. It is just too easy to delete a view from the browser, as you don't get a confirmation dialog, with huge impact on losing all the 2D work for that view.

[cadclips81126]

.
In one word > WORKSETS

You have described one of the main purposes of using worksets and it is worth learning even in a small working environment. It totally eliminates the danger of someone deleting a view, moving or deleting a level or grid or what ever you decide.

Amongst other useful aspects, worksets are used to manage what CAN be edited and what CANNOT be edited > based on the user login !!

There are many posts in this forum on using worksets.

All you need to get started on setting up and using worksets is at:
http://www.dgcad.com/Revit8.htm
Lesson 15-18

[Steve_Stafford]

While it is possible to achieve some level of control over elements via worksets it is not what worksets are intended for or why they exist.


I like to say that worksets, as part of the editing permissions system, are meant as a "traffic cop" that prevents collisions (of edits), not a "security guard" enforcing strict property rights. Perhaps there will be demand for such a feature in Revit, but the use of worksets for that purpose, though it sorta-works, isn't really "supported."
You might want to review this post that Paul made (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?p=196585) as well the rest of the thread.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Fred,

were the gridlines 'pinned'? At the very least, the warning a user gets might be the deterrent they need to think twice about what they are about to do.

[Fred Blome]

were the gridlines 'pinned'? At the very least, the warning a user gets might be the deterrent they need to think twice about what they are about to do.Yes, they were pinned. There is no error message when you delete a pinned element.

[Fred Blome]

.
In one word > WORKSETS....The project is workset enabled. With 8.1, all editing requests, unless I am really missing something, are done on the fly. Thus there is no way to "lock" out a workset, unless you just turn it off, which is useless in this case.

[irwin]

The project is workset enabled. With 8.1, all editing requests, unless I am really missing something, are done on the fly. Thus there is no way to "lock" out a workset, unless you just turn it off, which is useless in this case.
While 8.1 allows editing requests on the fly, it doesn't require it to be done that way. You can still make worksets or individual elements editable explicitly. To accomplish what you are trying to do, one user should make all the grids editable. That will prevent any other users from changing or deleting them. To avoid the inconvenience of having to keep the elements editable on every save to central, it might be best to make up a user name that owns the grids but never does anything else.

[Fred Blome]

While 8.1 allows editing requests on the fly, it doesn't require it to be done that way. You can still make worksets or individual elements editable explicitly. To accomplish what you are trying to do, one user should make all the grids editable. That will prevent any other users from changing or deleting them. To avoid the inconvenience of having to keep the elements editable on every save to central, it might be best to make up a user name that owns the grids but never does anything else.Sounds workable - thanks!

[Fred Blome]

I checked deleting a pinned object again, and it DOES give you a message. So I have a user that ignored the message. I still think a true lock is needed, but the program can't protect us completely from dumb actions.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

You make a good point Fred. I know so many users who just fly by the warning pop-up, just because they can. As you said, you can only protect people from their own stupidity so much. The problem, of course, is that the one who suffers down the road is rarely the perpetrator of the offense.

[Steve Mintz]

I've had great success with locking everything I want in worksets. First I create all the worksets I want and save. Then I change my user name (in options) to SuperUser, own those worksets, save w/o relinquishing worksets, and change my user name back.

This makes it so that not even I can accidentally delete or move the grids. To do so, I simply change my user name back to SuperUser.

With RS3, APIs are supposed to be easier to write, so I'll just make a little set of buttons that changes the user name for me.

[irwin]

With RS3, APIs are supposed to be easier to write, so I'll just make a little set of buttons that changes the user name for me.

Of course, if you make it too easy to change user name that defeats the purpose!

Also, make sure that you never have a worksetted file open in your session when you are changing user name.

[markusb]

This way of locking out worksets is great! This should really be in the help contents for Revit!