"Open then Save to Central" button

[Haden]

It would save me a considerable amount of time if there was an option in the File -- Open dialogue to hit "Open, then Save to Central," since with our 100 Mb file size, it takes a few minutes to open the file, then a few minutes more to STC. This would be a single block of unsupervised time if I didn't have to watch and wait until the file is loaded before I hit STC. (Instead of having a second cup of coffee, I could get more non-Revit-related tasks taken care of in that single block of time!)

Does anyone else find this two-step process a time drain?

[dhurtubise]

In what context are you doing that series of action ? I don't see the need to open just for saving to central. Do it when closing the file.

[Phil Palmer]

If its the case where you are opening a file to then STC to get the latest information into your Local file and you KNOW damn sure you STC'd the previous Evening.
I would suggest you just re-create the Local file each morning.
I quite often will do this if I know that I have sucessfully STC'd in the evening.

I then come in next morning and drag and drop the Main central file onto my local hard drive and open that up instead.
This then ensures I get everyone else's STC's for that evening.

Seems to be a better option for us when you have lots of people updating the central file.

[Steve_Stafford]

What Phil said!

While Autodesk Revit Support will tell you that it is normal or fine to keep using the same local file from day to day I always encourage people to make a new file each day. The larger the team and the more erratic the participation the more strongly I encourage it.

Also, regarding making a local file, departing from the "norm" I encourage them to copy/paste using explorer instead of using File/SaveAS (so you don't forget to actually do it). It takes less time too, copy/paste takes seconds while open then saveAS is essentially two opening cycles.

Ideally Revit will just make the local file process less hassle.

[greg.mcdowell]

Why recreate the Local File each day? Wouldn't Reload Latest do the same thing without all the hassles? It seems that whenever I need to recopy the local file there are a bunch of things I need to "reset" to the way I want them.

[Steve_Stafford]

With several people working on the project you might find that several hours of work can occur when you are not around. Reload latest in some cases might take longer than just copy/pasting the file in the morning.

The larger the team the less predictable the routine of each team member. Meaning, "I" decided to work late but you didn't know it and you assumed that nobody worked after you left, then didn't bother to reload latest and were surprised when you finally did. The trouble with Reload Latest is getting people to remember to do it every morning, after lunch, after a meeting etc. Which is the same trouble with SaveAS to make a local file, it only takes one person forgetting to do the SaveAS, working in the central file for a couple hours...

If you find yourself restoring the appearance of certain views you'll find yourself doing that after a reload latest as well since any such change a person made will propagate to your local copy. It is a good idea to have a personal 3D view for each of you so you don't have to dance the Vis/Graphics on/off dance. True for other modelling views that users find they are overlapping in frequently too.

Your mileage may vary...

[Haden]

I hear all of you, and your points are well taken. The other thing we have found is that local copies can tend to creep up in size well beyond the size of the central file. There have been times where our central copy after I saved to central was around 90 Mb, and my local file was around 120 Mb. Obviously, re-making the local solves this, and I really like the explorer copy method idea, since it is one quick operation, (windows explorer copy and rename) followed by a single open file operation in Revit.

[Haden]

The only thing the Revit programmers could improve for me would be for the message to pop up sooner when you open your new local copy:

"You have created a copy...if you proceed this will be considered a local copy belonging to..."
Again, I would like to not have to wait until this message appears to go on and do other things (such as posting a message on AUGI) while the file is being opened

[DaveP]

I encourage them to copy/paste using explorer instead of using File/SaveAS (so you don't forget to actually do it). It takes less time too, copy/paste takes seconds while open then saveAS is essentially two opening cycles.

Ideally Revit will just make the local file process less hassle.

Hear, Hear!

Our rule is NEVER, EVER open the Central File.
Sooner or later, somebody's going to open that Central file "just for a minute" or to do a SaveAs, and then walk away before they close it, thus locking everybody else out.

Steve, do you guys rename your local copy, or just copy it? We rename to file on our C: drive to make doubly sure that no one is opening the Central.

[Haden]

Hear, Hear!
. . . do you guys rename your local copy, or just copy it? We rename to file on our C: drive to make doubly sure that no one is opening the Central.

We put our company abbreviation in the name of the central file, and replace it with the user's name or initials in his or her local file, which is always placed into a My Revit folder that sits under the My Documents folder. This makes for a clear consistent protocol for central vs. local files. We have also started suffixing the file names with a number for the version of Revit, so that as we upgrade project files, we don't loose track of what is what.