Revit gets a new version every year, and every year we theoretically have to upgrade our Revit files. If you are a pro-active BIM Manager, you also have to upgrade a bunch of families and other files. If you are working on certain large projects, maybe the updates are deferred for a year or two, and then you find that you have to upgrade about 800 Revit files from Revit 2015 to 2018. Obviously, they all have to upgraded at once to maintain the integrity of the data and the workflows. What is the best way to do it?

I investigated a few different options and my notes and links are list below. In my case, I decided to go with RTV Xporter Pro and its File Upgrader option. It is an extremely affordable addin (currently $49USD), considering the amount of batch processing functionality that it provides.

The very first thing to do is ensure you have a backup. In my case, I had a complete offline mirror of the Revit files, and I ran the upgrade against that mirror. Then, I could just overwrite the live network location once I confirm that everything works as expected.

I would say that another thing to do is to create some form of data snapshot of your Revit models prior to upgrade. I have a method of doing this which is pretty powerful, but its a secret (for now).

Here are the steps to upgrade a Revit dataset using RTV Xporter Pro 2018:

  1. Set up a File Upgrader XML file (my settings shown below). As you can see, I chose to Detach and Audit and then Save the file over the top of the current file in the same location. This way, all of the Revit links should be maintained once the whole dataset is upgraded to the new version.
  2. Open Xporter Pro link from Revit
  3. Create Task Schedule
  4. Import the Upgrade XML as a Batch Process
  5. Set the Revit EXE location for the target version
  6. After saving the task, open in Windows Task Scheduler and you can run it immediately.

The screenshots below show the important stuff from the above steps.

1) My RTV Xporter Pro Settings:

3) Creating the Scheduled Task:

4 and 5) Load Batch Process XML and Set Revit Application, like for 2018:

6) Running the Scheduled Task:

Tip: During a typical file upgrade, Revit will often come up with warnings. If you run the RTV File Upgrader task in Interactive mode, you will get the dialog box which requires user interaction (export warnings and proceed past the Revit warnings). However, if you run the upgrade from the Task Scheduler, it will automatically dismiss the warnings for you as it upgrades. Some examples are warning dialog including errors like ‘could not cut instance out of wall’. In the Scheduled Mode, this process will all happen unattended.

This is what it looks like as it upgrades (scheduled mode):

This is what it looks like as it upgrades (interactive mode):

Update 10/1/18: RTV Xporter Pro can define rules for dismissing dialog boxes, in the Task Dialog Settings. See below:

end Update 10/1/18

You can get RTV Xporter Pro here

There are other addins and ways to upgrade. Here is a pretty comprehensive list:

Paid Revit Addins:

  • Harry Mattison has built a powerful Bulk File Upgrader addin that has a lot of good reviews on the App Store. You can find it here.
    Current price: $99USD
  • BIMWERX Batch File Upgrader. Very simple UI and good reviews. You can get it here.
    Current price: $10USD
  • NTI Tools have a File Upgrader. You can get a trial at this link. You have to register and then get an email with the download.

Previous posts:

These previous posts show some other pretty useful methods to keep in mind…

Upgrading with RTV Xporter

Upgrading with eTransmit

Upgrading with File Upgrader (previously provided by Autodesk)

Batch Upgrade Family Templates by Renaming Hack

 

Batch Upgrade Families with Dynamo

Using this definition or the Rhythm node, as per this forum post.

Content Batch Utility Help Link:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Upgrading-old-families.html

Old Maller tweet:

Aaron Maller

http://t.co/O0eqcPo8t1
Upgraded Batch utility and journal for Fam upgrades. Does TPS of OS/LW/LT, and does Parameter Re-order in 2015.

Dead link?

Even older links:

http://www.revitforum.org/architecture-general-revit-questions/1971-updating-content-2011-2012-a.html

http://www.revitforum.org/architecture-general-revit-questions/1976-revit-2012-a.html

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?83775-RVT-file-batch-Upgrade

 

Batch Utility

This Batch Utility is usually available on you Revit installation media:

“C:Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\en-US\Utilities\ContentBatchUtility\Upgrade_RFA.bat”

 

Old re-post:

Run this utility, then run the Family Categorizer – instant and up to date Family Library!

The Revit Jedi: Batch Upgrade Utility

 

Feel free to comment with your thoughts.

Here’s how:

The following command should successfully silent deploy Unifi 3.1.1 to your network.

msiexec /I Unifi-admin.msi /qn

Download the Unifi .msi at:

http://installer.discoverunifi.com/Unifi-admin.msi

 

Below is a GPO:

Install:
wusa.exe Windows6.1-KB2819745-x64-MultiPkg.msu /quiet /norestart

Detection Clause:
File Exists C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Powershell.exe
Version = 6.3.9600.16406

(via email)

Autodesk recently announced the retirement of the Building Performance Analysis Certificate (BPAC). You have 3 days left if you want to complete, as per this note:

Until December 15th 2017, you can enrolled in the Building Performance Analysis Certificate Course, earn the certificate and report your credits to AIA. If you are currently enrolled in the course, you’ll have until December 15th, 2017 to finish it. Any non-completion after December 15th, 2017 will be de-activated.

 

If you want to earn the BPAC while you still can, head over to: https://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/registering-bpa-certificate-program

 

The new home for the BPAC content is here:

https://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/bpac

 

 

 

Firefox 58 Quantum resulted in our old extensions not working anymore. But if you want to enable extensions and keep using them, here’s what you need to do:

  • Download and install Firefox Nightly from here.

  • Start Firefox
  • Type about:config in address bar
  • and set the preference ‘extensions.legacy.enabled‘ to true
  • Restart Firefox.

You should now be able to enable multi-process capable extensions:

Over the years I have posted a lot of workflows for PDF creation and management, including the use of CutePDF Writer and PDF Creator. I’m also a regular user of RTV Xporter Pro, as it is the quickest and easiest way to generate PDFs from Revit, and its pretty affordable too.

To automatically create PDFs with automatic naming from RTV Xporter, you need a PDF print driver that supports automatic naming. Adobe PDF can do this with the correct settings, but you can also do it with the correct version of the free PDF Creator print driver. CutePDF does not support automatic naming. You need a PDFCreator version equal to or older than 2.5.3.

What you need:

Below I will describe:

  • How to install PDF Creator without the bloatware
  • How to configure PDF Creator (thanks to Jason Howden at RTV for these slides)
  • Some basic settings of RTV Xporter for batch PDF printing

Installing PDF Creator:

Screenshots below show some suggested options to avoid getting things installed that you don’t want.

Accessing the Settings:

  1. Launch PDF Creator
  2. Skip any update prompts
  3. Click Profile Settings

RTV Tools PDF Creator 2.2 Configuration/Profile Settings

Printing to PDF automatically from Autodesk Revit with RTV Tools (Xporter/Xporter PRO/Drawing Manager) and PDF Creator (versions 2.5.3 and prior) can be enabled with the below settings.

Document (Tab) Settings

No changes required (optional)

Save (Tab) Settings

  • Tick Show progress during conversion
  • Tick Skip print dialog (directly proceed to the save dialog)
  • Add Token <InputFilename>
  • Tick Set default output folder (else the last saved location will be opened)
  • Add Token <InputFilePath>

Auto-Save (Tab) Settings

  • Tick Enable automatic saving
  • Un-Tick Ensure unique filenames (Do not overwrite existing files)
  • Add Token <InputFilePath>

Actions (Tab) Settings

  • Un-Tick Open Document

Image Formats (Tab) Settings

No changes required (optional)

PDF (Tab) Settings

No changes required (optional)

For more help and assistance with RTV Tools: http://help.rtvtools.com/

 

RTV Xporter Pro Settings:

The screenshot below shows the settings I use.