A federated Revit model is a model containing many Revit links, and they can be quite slow to work with. There are a few steps you can take to speed things up, and one of them is creating a set of fast view types and a related view template.

Here’s how:

  1. Make a View Template called “No Model” and untick all the Model categories in that Template
  2. Make a set of View Types called “Fast Plan“, “Fast Section” and so on
  3. Set the View Template for those Types to the “No Model” template you created

Now, when cutting sections or making new floor plans using these ‘fast’ view types, the view will generate quickly without any model elements. Then, you can decide if you want to switch view templates / types to something more useful for coordination or documentation.

If you have a Navisworks crashing or Navisworks not starting up problem, you might try resetting Navisworks settings.

Here’s how:

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Type %appdata% in the address bar
  3. Rename the relevant Navisworks folder here with a .bak extension
  4. Start Navisworks

Note: You can actually get to the options from the start menu, even if Navis won’t launch…

 

There are other places that Navis may stash some settings. You may also want to check out:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/navisworks-forum/apply-simulate-manage-default-settings-automatically/td-p/2778014

Ok, two unrelated issues here, but both are along the lines of “weird stuff that happens in Revit that can be fixed but doesn’t always make sense”. If you use Revit long enough, you will certainly come across issues like this…

Firstly, certain Electrical penetration families were not tagging for height when using Spot elevations. These elements were in a model, which was linked into another model. The fix? Super weird one. Try turning on Lighting Fixtures in your View (in the host model). Then, those spot elevations worked… Even though the penetration family was a Generic Model with Nested Mechanical Equipment inside a link file. I’m thinking this one was either an upgrade error, or perhaps the families had some earlier history as a Lighting Fixture?!?

Secondly, I came across a Structural Consultant Design Model in Revit 2015 that doesn’t want to upgrade to Revit 2016. This is due to some corruption inside various families. Here are a few things to try… along with the ultimate solution.

1) Try opening the model in the newer version of Revit with Detach and Audit ticked, and choose Specify from the Worksets dialog dropdown. If the Opening Worksets dialog appears, Close all the Worksets and press OK. Then, Detach and preserve worksets. You should see the Model Upgrade progress dialog.

This fails with the following error:
The file cannot be opened. There are too many elements missing in it. Please contact Autodesk Support.

2) Next steps are more detailed and resulted in a successful upgrade:

1. Open in 2015, with Audit and Detach, no Worksets open
2. Save As
3. Open in 2016, with Audit and Detach, no Worksets open
a. Delete families when prompted (as you can see, it is one problem Rebar family)
b.

c. Ok to mass errors:
d.

e. Click to resolve Join errors
f. 

4. Save As
5. Setup starting view…

And here are some model tidy-up steps that I did, just #GoodRevit with some Dynamo:
6. Make these worksets:
a. Hide-CADs
b. Hide-Topo
c. Link-Control
7. Move DWGs to workset by:
a. Getting Ids in Dynamo
b.

c. Group
d. Change Workset
e. Set workset invisible
8. Move Topo to workset and set invisible

9. Acquire Coordinates from Control Model
a. Copy / paste control model from current ST file to this upgraded one
b. Link neutral coordinate file
i. Acquire
c. Then acquire from BMGR control file
d. Save

Finally, sharing with team:
10. Save to Box
11. Open in Fed
12. Glue