As part of a very bad Cloud Model upgrade experience (a story I will tell some other time…) some models failed to upgrade.
I was trying to upgrade a file from Revit 2018 to Revit 2022. After upgrading, I was unable to save this file, even though I have a machine with 192GB RAM.
Revit reported this message:
“This computer does not have enough memory to save…”
“Increase the available memory or contact Autodesk Support for more information”
I contacted Autodesk Support, and eventually got this reponse:
Due to the “Multi-category Schedule”, the Revit file was failing to save in Revit 2021 or Revit 2022 version as the schedule view is large.
After deleting the schedule view we are successfully able to save the file. Attached is the fixed model…
Sounds good! Let’s give it a go:
Open the model in Revit 2018
Identify the Multi-Category Schedule
Let’s back it up while we can using “Save…”
Now delete the Multi-Category Schedule
And then Save the Revit 2018 File somewhere
Open Revit 2022
Manually upgrade using Revit 2022. Detach, Audit and Specify worksets (All Closed) on Revit 2022 open settings:
Does it save now – yes!
Initiate the Model into the correct folder on the (now upgraded) Revit 2022 BIM360 site.
Finally, I tried using “Insert Views from file” to load back the Revit 2018 Multi-Category Schedule into the upgraded project – but it still would not save if that schedule exists:
One day, when I recover from the experience, I will write about the overall Revit Cloud Model Upgrade experience when dealing with hundreds of models and trying to jump from Revit 2018 to Revit 2022…
You may have experienced this error when upgrading a file to Revit 2018:
One or more required internal settings are missing from the model. What do you want to do?
Autodesk Support has stated that “In R 2018 we added a “feature” that catches issues like this and repair the model for you, instead of causing problem down the line.”
This particular dialog may not be handled by automatic upgrading tools. The resolution of the problem is to open the file manually, and simply press “Repair and open”. You should get a success message like below:
I assume there are other things that this Revit 2018 feature looks for and tries to fix. As Project Info includes a few different things in Revit, my guess for the above error is that it appears that it will set project Location to Default? Or perhaps it reinstates a deleted Project Base Point or Survey Point.
Either way, data and model validation is a good thing. Thanks Revit 2018 🙂
Update: RTV Xporter Pro can define rules for dismissing dialog boxes, in the Task Dialog Settings. See below:
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:
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.
Open Xporter Pro link from Revit
Create Task Schedule
Import the Upgrade XML as a Batch Process
Set the Revit EXE location for the target version
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:
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…
RTV Xporter Pro is one of those addins that I can safely recommend to every Revit user. If you ever need to print more than one sheet, or export a model multiple times, or to multiple formats, this tool is going to save you time. In fact, I think a large percentage of Revit users probably already have it! So, what’s the latest?
As you probably realise, Collaboration for Revit (C4R), Autodesk’s ‘Revit Server in the Cloud’ solution, is gaining popularity globally. It is genuinely a good way to get a team of people in different places to work together in real-time on a Revit project… provided you have good internet that is! So, it is great to see that RTV have now supported batch exporting from C4R projects using the local desktop application. Nice work!
Another interesting feature is that you can now reference additional Revit projects to the current Document Issue / Transmittal record, which is pretty cool.
The latest build for Revit 2017 is 1.0.740.
Oh, and one final thought… if you haven’t tried RTV Xporter in a while (perhaps you recall the days of working with SQL Server and so on), I recommend you give the latest version a try. On almost every project I do, we do not need to use a SQL server because the addin just integrates so well with the information you already have in you Revit model.
How to Batch Upgrade Any Revit File Type
A while back, I posted about an admittedly circuitous method to upgrade Revit files for free using eTransmit.
However, this is a much quicker and easier way, and its pretty affordable too… using RTV Xporter Pro. It supports batch upgrading of every Revit file type: rvt, rte, rfa, rft
To use it, just click the File Upgrader button and fill out the dialog. Easy!
Here is the full list of the latest updates, from the newsletter:
We have been busy working hard to integrate Collaborate for Revit (C4R) with our RTV Xporter PRO App for Revit. It is our pleasure that we are now able to provide C4R access via the desktop application (only). At this time our Remote Processing (Server) doesn’t support C4R but we are working hard to get this functionality added as soon as possible.
The following is a list of new features, updates and fixes included in the above software updates.
Updates:
1. Scanning for PDF printers will only be performed on Export start up, if no registry printer or xml printer list is empty;
2. Multi-line parameter used for the export filename, New Line replaced with a Space;
3. Separate group for Title block Revision schedules in Views list;
Resolved:
1. Fixed DWG layer mapping file selection dialog displaying twice and multiple mapping files added to drop-down list;
2. Fixed Remote GUI when the root shared folder is defined as the watch folder;
New Features:
Export
1. Checkbox option to Reset Adobe PDF print queue prior to export;
2. Delete button added to Export Folder and Export Filename template drop-down lists;
Issue
3. Issue, Reference Projects option now added. Users now have the option to reference additional Revit projects to the current Document Issue/Transmittal record. User can browse to select the project or used an existing (loaded) linked Revit project;
Note: Issue Reference Projects support linked models including C4R and Revit Server.
Web Update
4. New registry key added to disable check for updates by the users (restricted to system administrators);
C4R
5. C4R Support added – limited to current model, not available with the Remote (Server) function;
Why does this happen? Because the Bulk File Upgrader doesn’t work if it is trying to upgrade a Local and it can’t find a Central (I believe this is a Revit API thing)… and you may get this error: filename.rvt could not be upgraded: The file-based central model could not be reached, because e.g. the network is down or the file server is down.
The core problem here is that someone has probably given you a Local copy, when they should have given you a Central or Detached copy to link into your project.
If we want to upgrade lots of these “local-type” linked files, how can we get around this batch upgrade limitation? We will need to to use eTransmit – twice. Let’s say we are upgrading from Revit 2013 to Revit 2015:
Make a blank 2013 RVT project
Link in all the 2013 version files you want to upgrade
Save the host file in 2013 and close it
Transmit the host using Revit 2013, including Links and tick the ‘Open and Save models in the active version of Revit’ option (this places the newly saved linked models into a transitory state, where you can choose to save as central or work with this model temporarily)
Open Revit 2015
Addins – Transmit a Model
Choose the output eTransmitted 2013 host file from step 4
Make sure to tick the “Linked Revit models” and “Cleanup” boxes
Click Transmit Model and wait for all of the files to be upgraded (yay)
Remember to discard the host file before transmitting or copying the files
Note: using the “Add Files” option in eTransmit and adding RVTs manually will not upgrade them.
I previously posted about the ADN file upgrader here. Since then Harry has created a more powerful upgrader for Revit 2014 available on Exchange, and he has also released a 2015 version which is not on Exchange yet – see his post with direct download link below.
I wanted to grab a list of files so I could check if I had reviewed the contents of some MEP training videos. You can easily do this using a Windows Powershell script.
I saw this message from Revit today and I wanted to share it with you:
RVG files used to be Revit’s way of saving Groups out, until RVT became the standard for saving Groups. From the message, it looks like this occurred circa version 9.
Text-only: The .rvg file you have attempted to load is no longer supported by Revit. If you wish to use the data in this file, you need to load it as a group into release 2008, where it can be saved out as an .rvt, or load it into release 9.1, where it can be saved out as an upgraded .rvg file. If you need help, please contact Autodesk Support.
So, if you have any old-school RVG files kicking around, you probably should upgrade them before it becomes too much of a pain to do so!
Railings: When you create a railing in an Autodesk Revit 2013 project, new railing types are available that include top rail and handrail properties. When you upgrade a project, if the new rail (top rail and handrail) properties do not display in the railing Type Property dialog, duplicate the existing railing type, and the new rail properties will be available in the duplicated type.
