Re-Syncing to Central after Detaching from Central??

[RJK42]

I needed to work from home and opened the model I am currently working with others in Revit.  I checked "Detach from Central" under work sharing and was able to save it on a USB to take home.  I have to open it through Revit and again check the "Detach from Central" so I don't receive and errors or annoyances when working in the model.  I always select "Detach and preserve work sets" after I open it.  When I'm working on the model at home, I notice the Sync has green arrows instead of the bolt symbol in the menu bar and have to save the project by "Saving As" and constantly writing over the file each time, which isn't a problem.  I'm able to complete my work at home and always keep working in my specific work set even though I now have access in all of them.  I brought my model back to work and now notice the bolt on the Sync button.  I haven't tried it yet but will the model sync back to the original when I sync.  I would like to sync back into the central model at work but I'm afraid I may cause some issues within the original central model.  Nothing has changed besides my discipline.  Is this possible to do??

Thanks!!

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

When you open a Revit Model and select "Detach from Central", a copy of that Project is created that is permanently separated from the original file. When you select the following option "Preserve Worksets", you are simply opting to duplicate the same Workset configuration for this new file - again, it does not maintain any actual connection to the original file.

The ideal method would be to establish some kind of continuous access to the network on which the Central File resides, but it is possible to "take home" a portion of the Project to work on. Create a new Local File as normal. Check out the Worksets that you intent to work on. Also, you should check out any Views that you plan to work on, as well, since Views and their annotations have their own Workset. Now you can close you Local, but keep ownership of your elements. Now you can take this file home, work on it, come back and synch.

Note that there are a number of problems that can spring up from doing it this way, for example, it's actually easy to accidentally take ownership of something you didn't mean to so that no one else can edit it. Other problems may crop up like your local file becoming out of date. Prior to attempting this on a real project, experiment with a blank test Project. Also, search this forum for information about this topic - this is a topic that has been discussed before.

[jmattoni]

I know this is an older post but for use today...

If you don't have internet access at home or if the collaboration is server-based and not cloud-based, I can understand the desire to bring work home on a thumb drive, but if you have internet access and the project is already being collaborated on BIM 360, then I strongly suggest you just use the same Autodesk ID you use at work for your personal machine at home and access the model via BIM 360's cloud.  This will ensure you reduce the risk of developing errors or create any gremlins in your project.

***  Also, MUY IMPORTANTE *** Make certain your version of Revit (not just the year version) is the same as what you are using at work for the project.  If all end users of each discipline are not on the same build number, i.e. Revit 2019.2.2, you can develop serious issues with the model even if you are detaching and taking it home, your home PC should match the version at work.

Also for collaborating at home, make certain you download BIM 360 Desktop Connector as well.

[s.borello]

You will need to re-save the model you took home as a new central model.  If you discarded worksets you will need to re-create them.