Can't Obtain Permission to edit the Element

[Anonymous]

I am working in Revit 2015.

When I open my local Revit file I get an error message :

Can't obtain permission to edit the element: The Central Model is inaccessible.  You can check out worksets at risk, but consider carefully!  (I love the ! Autodesk puts in to emphasize the severity of the risk you are considering)

If I expand the warning I see it is a "Data Storage Elements" and I get the id #

I cancel out of the error message and continue working as normal.  This has been going on for some time and so I am pretty sure that I am not running that great of a risk by continuing working.

Anyways, I locate the item by its id # and the only information I can get from the properties menu under Identity Data is that it says the Workset is Data Storage Elements.  I don't get it since there isn't a Data Storage Elements Workset in the project, either my file or the Central File.  Is it telling me it is in the Data Storage Elements Workset or that it is the Data Storage Element Workset.  Visually when I isolate the selected element I don't see anything in the model.

So I hit delete and away it goes, problem solved...right...wrong.  While it is deleted from what I can tell (id # search shows it is no longer in the project) the next time I open my local file another one is created.  It is different in that it has a different id # but other than that, it appears to be the same.  This problem persists even though I have made both new local and central files since the problem started.  Nobody else working on the project seems to have this problem either.

It doesn't appear that this error is as critical as the error warning makes it out to be !!! but it is annoying and it would be nice to know what is going on.  It would be appreciated if anybody had an insight as to what is going on here.

I have posted this issue elsewhere and if you would like to see the string of dialoge about it you can check the tread out here:

http://www.revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=33788

But in short no solution has yet been found.

Thanks for any assistance anyone can offer.

[casquatch]

We are seeing this same issue on many of our projects (2014 and 2015). I'd be happy to help with any troubleshooting. It is very frustrating and seems to be something that just showed up recently.

Thanks,
Casey

[scott.a.green]

dblair, 

First make sure the users don't have any worksets checkout and that no one if working on the central file.
At this point you can try to impersonate the user (going to the options and changing the machine's name to match the owner of the element). Via the workset dialog box have the users make editable the whole workset to which the object belongs. Sign out the whole workset and relinquish all and all mine (Save to central menu).

If that doesn't work, you can recreate the central file to create a new file with no elements checked out.
- Have everyone clear their temp folders
- Open the file using the "Detach from Central" option.
- Create new locals

If the issue persists, disable 3rd party addins.

[Anonymous]

t_grees, In response to your suggestions:

 - It may be weird but we don’t use worksets, we just borrow everything in our office so nobody has worksets checked out.

 - This issue has been popping up sporadically for me and I haven’t noticed it recently so I can’t recreate it at the moment to see if the element even belongs to a workset. For some reason I was thinking it appeared to live on its own workset or workset “Data Storage Element” which wasn’t even a workset.

 - Since no worksets are ever checked out and often I am the first or only person to open their local file on a given day, nobody else should have control of the object.

 - This problem has persisted through several new central and local file iterations.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) this problem has become less persistent for me. I don’t know if it has finally resolved itself or is just waiting to pop up again.

Casey, if you are still having this happen frequently, maybe you can comment on some of t_grees' suggestions.

Thanks.

[casquatch]

I believe it is it's own workset, but I wanted to verify that I couldn't see it in the list of worksets. I haven't had time to do that yet.

It is something that seems to be happening on multiple new projects in 2014 and 2015.

I have run through the process of relinquishing the elements from all users that have them checked out. Sometimes it is multiple people with the same "data storage elements" checked out, so I open as them, sync and relinquish, then open as the next person, do the same, etc., etc. I have done this and cleared all "held" objects on a project. It popped up again after that on the same project.

I can try temp folders, I can also resave as a new central and see what comes of that.

Since we run our Revit from a Windows Server/Citrix setup and there are many users logged in, it's not ideal to have to clean up temp files. If this is the solution though, it may be worth the annoyance.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks,
Casey

[Anonymous]

I will comment that detaching from central, creating a new central and creating new local files did not fix the problem for me (at least not on the first or second try).  Also, I will comment that the “Data Storage Element” is not always the same element.  I think I commented that I was able to delete it and then it would reappear but with a different ID #.  This makes me think it isn’t an actual object that someone has “checked out”.

[Anonymous]

Casey, I would be curious if you move all the files out of our add-ins folder if the problem goes away.  I saw a thread to disable add-ins, just move them to a different folder temporarily.

[scott.a.green]

Another thing you could try is detach from central, "save as under" a new name while creating a new central model, and then reopen to see if you are still getting the relinquish ownsership messages. 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I create a new central file, I always save as a new name.  It usually cuts the file size down by 25%.

[Anonymous]

First, after not having the issue for a while, I was able to recreate it.  So, yes the element says it belongs to Workset, Data Storage Elements which isn't even a workset of the project.

Casey, how are you opening your files?  Do you open them by selecting the files or as I did to recreate the problem by right clicking on the taskbar icon and selecting the correct file?  It may sound weird but try opening Revit first then open the file through the Revit program screen (or start screen or first page or whatever you call the screen that Revit has when you open it without opening a project).  I am guessing the problem goes away.  I remember reading a post that Revit has issues with opening files not directly through the Revit program so I have not been opening them through my task bar or desktop.  I think that is why I have not been seeing this problem lately and why I was able to just now recreate it.

[casquatch]

Being on a Citrix environment the users can really only open a file from within Revit. Almost all of our files are workshared files sometimes with many users working in them.

The open process is usually-->Open Revit-->hit Open from the application menu-->browse to the Central file on the server-->verify that the "Create new local" box is checked, then hit Open. Revit will create a new local from the central model and the user is on their way.

Dblair, if you select the rest of the boxes at the bottom of the worksets dialog, do you see any listed as "data storage elements"? That was my plan when I had some time. It should be listed there (if it is a real workset to be checked out), and then you could see all users in the Central file that have it checked out.

So to answer your question about how we open file, all users are opening through Revit's Open dialog. So that doesn't solve this issue, since that is all we do.

[scott.a.green]

@dblair, are you opening the Revit files by double clicking on the file and opening directly from the file folder?  That is one thing to avoid, you would want to open the files only through Revit, If you detach from central is the error still coming up?  Or due to your method of sharing is that option greyed out? I would try using our recomended method of worksharing. Also you can refer to our Multi-User Collobaration white paper for best practices:

White Paper:

http://images.autodesk.com/latin_am_main/files/Multi_User_Collaboration_Revit_8-10.pdf

[Anonymous]

@casquatch, yes the workset is there, it is just a Project Standard workset, my bad.

@ t_grees, like I mentioned, when I do open the file I am opening them through Revit.  When I want to recreate the problem I right click on the Revit Icon on my task bar and open it through the recent files listed in the right click menu.  I stopped doing that consistently and correspondingly this issue has decreased in frequency consistently.  I am pretty sure this is what it is for me at least as with the last couple of tries I have been able to create the error by opening up the file from the task bar or not have the error by opening up the file through Revit. 

Not sure if this was what you were asking but I opened the central file as detach from central and saved as in a different location.  Opened from task bar and got the error message.  Checked out the data storage element work set, saved, closed, reopened from the task bar and did not receive the error message.

I also opened a file that has never had worksharing enabled through the task bar and did not get the error (maybe this was a given though)

Don’t know if any of this helps to narrow down the cause of the problem though? 

[casquatch]

As a test I just did a couple things:

Test 1

1. Opened a problem file “detached from central”, saved it as the same name and overwrote the original. Closed the file.
2. Opened the file as a new local, checked in the worksets and saw that I had the “Data Storage Elements” checked out.
3. Fail

Test 2

1. Opened a problem file “detached from central”, saved it with a new name. Closed the file.
2. Opened the file as a new local. Checked in the worksets and saw that I had the “Data Storage Elements” checked out.
3. Fail

Test 3

1. Opened the original problem file, sync’d to central, verified that the “data storage elements” workset was NOT checked out by me. Closed the file and Revit
2. Disabled all user specific addin’s (not system addin’s).
3. Re-Opened Revit/the file as a new local. Checked the worksets and saw that I had the “Data Storage Elements” checked out.
4. Fail

Test 4

1. Opened the original problem file, sync’d to central, verified that the “data storage elements” workset was NOT checked out by me. Closed the file and Revit.
2. Disabled all user specific addin’s and the “LightThresholds” system addin.
3. Re-Opened Revit/the file as a new local. Checked the worksets and saw that I had the “Data Storage Elements” checked out.
4. What do you know!? No “data storage elements” checked out. Success!

So it appears that the Lighting Analysis addin from Autodesk is causing this issue for us. Hoping this is something that is being fixed, if not, maybe this post will help that out. Also, hoping this solves the issue for others, at least until a fix is implemented.

Thanks,
Casey

[scott.a.green]

@casquatch Thanks for bringing that to our attention, @Anonymous if you perform casquatch test #4 and reproduce the results I will like to contact you directly and get the affected file from you along with your journal files, then we can test to reproduce on our end and notify development about the add-in. 

[Anonymous]

I got similar results.  When I moved the Revit Daylighting Analysis Add-In folder to a different location and did the right click Revit Icon on my task bar to open the file, the result was I got a message about the Add-In not loading but no error message saying I couldn't obtain permission to edit the element.

[scott.a.green]

@Anonymous  I will need to contact you directly and get the journal files along with the Revit file from you. 

[gregamhale]

I came across this same issue today and removing the Daylighting Analysis fixed the issue.  The only difference with previous users is that this project is using a WAN to connect the users.  

[RichardBinning2010]

Ran into this today as well.  I downloaded the lighting analysis plugin for 2015 and ran the install.  The problem occurred when I created a new central model for a project that was transitioning into CD phase.  Until I uninstalled the plugin, I couldn't access the central model.  Let me know if you want the model and journal files for testing.

P.S.  I downloaded v1.25 of the lighting analysis addin

[RichardBinning2010]

This problem occurred in 2014, when I installed for 2015.  Addin removed, problem resolved