Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Securing links through worksets

In my projects, I typically create a workset for my consultant linked models and check that workset out permanently to prevent accidental deletion/movement of links (ex: to user "RevitCOP"). The username just needs to be a unique one to prevent anyone from accidentally making an undesired edit.

I have never been a fan of Copy/Monitor functionality but recently I started using it and am running into a problem. When I try to stop monitoring elements or go through coordination monitor to make changes, I'm told that “RevitCOP” has the workset for the links checked out and has to relinquish it before I can make changes. Why is this necessary? All I want to do is move my grids & rename them to match the link (through coordination review). Because of this, I have to open my file under the RevitCOP in order to do copy/monitor & review operations, which seems totally unnecessary. Or I have to quit "securing" my linked files altogether, which I’m really not ready to concede.

During a copy/monitor and when going through warnings, all you're doing is to change the elements in the host file (unless you reject changes, in which case nothing is physically changed), but nothing is being done to the linked project. So why is Revit being so inflexible about a permission that is (intuitively) not required?

I sincerely think that the current logic of having to own the element/workset in order to perform copy/monitor and coordination review is something that really needs to be looked at closely by the Factory. Probably Revit is writing some kind of tracking information to it, but since the only mechanism of securing links is through forcibly checking out worksets, this is causing undesirable consequences and related frustrations (and we don’t want that, right?)

angry[1]While we’re on the subject of Coordination Review, it would be really nice if we didn’t have to use the steering wheel in order to pan, and simply use the middle scroll button as we do in regular view navigation!


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11 comments:

J said...

Dear Autodesk Revit User,
We understand your frustration at these "Known Issues"; Please understand that we are grateful for the input and will do everything in our power to ignore it... Or simply put them behind the growing list of other core functionality that we continually ignore... (Low hanging fruit concept at ADSK Dev, you know)

Thank you for being so kind in your comments and not calling these inconveniences what they truly are (BS).

Sincerely,
(NOT) The Factory

Unknown said...

I'm guessing its 'necessary' because Coordination Monitor wants access to EVERYTHING in the model, and if something is checked out by RevitCOP, its not happy. I don't think it cares whether they are links or not? Just a guess...

Dave Baldacchino said...

Oh J, I love your sarcasm :)

J said...

That was "NOT" J saying that...

Dave Baldacchino said...

Luke, it clearly wants complete control. But that's my whole point...why? It's not like it is going to write data to the linked file. In most typical scenarios, linked consultant files don't make it back to them anyway; they're "disposable" in a way, unless the engineering disciplines are in-house and you're linking live files. All that's required is data reading, which should not require complete element and/or workset ownership.

Dave Baldacchino said...

OMG, cannot even generate an html report from Coordination Review!! How nuts is that? My hate for C/M is growing back.

EDIT: Wait, it DID write the html file, even after canceling the warning about Revit needing full control of the workset. If that's not proof that it doesn't really need full control, I don't know what is ;)

Antony McPhee said...

I found this from www.SmartRevit.com:
Tired of continuously highlighting or selecting your Linked Revit/CAD files?
Simply place your linked files into a Design-Option!
Of course it is not the purpose of using Design Options, but it won’t do any harm.
There is a little checkmark on your Design Options bar which allows you to Exclude Options, the marker is default active and will therefore prevent you from selecting elements in a Design Option.

Marc said...

Great article!.

Dave Baldacchino said...

Luigi was having trouble leaving a comment so here it goes:

"Dave..not sure if it helps at all...but have you tried assigning a workset for the "instance" of the linked file and one for the "type"? then take out the "instance" workset with the infamous RevitCop...and then try the copy monitor tool? Usually I create a "Revit Link" workset for all revit links' types..and then individual worksets for each linked file (i.e. Revit mep link, etc)...Not having tried what you’re suggesting and making an assumption...I’m assuming it won’t make a difference…probably it is the "instance" workset that will control the copy/monitor...but worth a try nonetheless...

Take care,

Luigi”

Dave Baldacchino said...

Luigi, actually the Type workset for the link is what Revit wants full access to. So with checking out the Instance workset, you can achieve some control: the link cannot be moved or deleted and you can still do coordination review and other C/M functions. However, the link can still be unloaded or removed, which was probably the main reason for wanting to control the link workset via checking it out. So once again, we can get some functionality based on your suggestion but lose another very important component. In the interim, I think I'll stick to checking out the Type workset and have to log in as RevitCOP to do the coordination review. The last thing I want is someone removing the link at the last minute and losing all the view edits! Too bad :(

I might also test out securing a link through Design Options although removing a link would not be protected against that way.

Dave Baldacchino said...

Anthony, due to the lack of knowledge of design options by most users, using them to secure links is also a great idea.

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