2008 Journal Folder containg .rvt and .rfa files?

[Paul P.]

When I look in the Journals folder on my C drive rather than just containing the normal journal.txt and dump.txt files I am finding .rvt and .rfa files in there as well. This occurs on all the other workstations with 2008 installed, is this something new to 2008, can anyone else see this in there Journals folder or it just odd behaviour in this office.

[DaveP]

I've seen this problem, too.
I filed a Support Request (in June). Here's what I got for a response:

Thanks for the update. I will forward the additional information to development.
Best Regards,
The ticket has since been closed. I'm still getting extra files created.

[Paul P.]

Dave, thanks for the response. I will file a support request and see what happens, will let you know if I get any response.

[DaveP]

just stumbled across this entry on the DoRevit blog:
http://dorevit.blogspot.com/2007/07/backups-in-my-journals-what.html

Basically, he says the backup files are a new "feature" added in 2008. Here's the most pertinent sentence:

An inquiry to my contacts at Autodesk revealed the truth. Revit now creates backup files under the journals directory in c:\program files\revit 2008\journals, these backup files are only created when you're working on a file located on a network share or drive.

[Elmo]

Now that seems like an awesome idea! I'm glad they thought of it.

[Paul P.]

Dave, thanks for finding that bit of info.

[DaveP]

I've never been one to bash Autodesk - in fact I've been accused of being on apologist - but it's stuff like this that makes me understand their frustration.

Even if this is a great idea, it wasn't communicated anywhere. Not in the "What' New" & not in the Help files. In fact, not even Autodesk's own Support group didn't know about it. So everyone thinks its a bug & wastes time trying to find out what's going wrong.

A simple line of text explaining this new feature would have cleared this up for all.

It's kind of ironic - I tell all of our new teams that using Revit really forces your team to communicate better. I wish Autodesk would apply the same philosophy.

[cdatechguy]

Just when you thought that Revit didn't have a temporary file location (like Autocad) it happens to be right under your nose.... I found this out on Friday about there being extra files, didn't have a clue they were temp ones. Good to know if Revit crashes some time eh? Like that ever happens! ;)

[Rick Houle]

is there anything constructive an end user can do with a journal file.??? like repair stuff or rebuild content..???

[DaveP]

I was about to reply to you to tell you someone else had asked the same question.
When I went to create a link for you, I found out it was you that had asked in a different thread.

Please don't post the same question in different places.

[hand471037]

is there anything constructive an end user can do with a journal file.??? like repair stuff or rebuild content..???

Yes. I've used it several times to re-do something after a crash.

Also if you're brave and understand VB script you can make your own Revit Macros with them.

As for the RFA and RVT's in the journal file folder, I discovered that on a plane ride when I forgot a file on the server and found it in a search instead. It's come in handy, but it's also used up some hard-drive space so now I've got to remember to clear those out too from time to time.