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Revit 2013 Offline Help Not Working (Properly)

4 REPLIES 4
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Message 1 of 5
meeshu
1166 Views, 4 Replies

Revit 2013 Offline Help Not Working (Properly)

Can't get offline help for Revit 2013 to function properly.

 

During Revit 2013 installation, additonal files were downloaded (including the help files).

 

Downloaded help files are located (by default) here - C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Help\en-US\WBH

 

According to online help, "revit.ini" file(s) have to be manually edited to enable offline help. Under the 'Documentation' section of revit.ini file(s) two key parameters were set as - UseHelpServer=0 and HelpBrowser=0. This is supposed to enable offline help using the computers default browser and (presumably) using the default location of help files at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Help\en-US\WBH.

 

However, whenever offline help is called up (by pressing F1 key) while running Revit 2013, the browser (IE in my case) opens up with almost a completely blank screen with just the 'Revit Help' title block being displayed with the following text displayed under "Welcome to the Help for Revit." But no help index nor help contents are being displayed!?  It looks nothing like the online help.

 

What is wrong here? Why isn't the offline help displaying the contents/index?

4 REPLIES 4
Message 2 of 5
BIMologist_
in reply to: meeshu

According to the help and all you are following the instructions correctly Can you try set the default browser to Chrome or FFox? then try to launch it

 

seems like from your other post it looks like you are usng IE

http://s69.photobucket.com/user/pbahniuk/media/revit_2013_help_800.png.html

 

it seems like it may be an IE issue as revit is pulling up the right help file.

 

 

 

http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2013/ENU/?caas=caas/vhelp/help-dev-autodesk-com/v/Revit/enu/2013/H...

 

 

also what happens if you

In the WBH directory, double-click index.htm to open the landing page for the Help. ?

 

 



BIMologist / Dr. Revit
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Approved Autodesk Services Marketplace provider - BIM Consulting
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Message 3 of 5
meeshu
in reply to: BIMologist_

Thanks for your helpful response!

 

The default browser has been changed from IE to Firefox.

 

Tried calling up offline help again by pressing the F1 key and also clicking the "index.html" file. Unfortunately the offline help still doesn't work properly with similar results to that when using IE as the default browser (help screen just displays "Revit Help" title block plus "Welcome to the Help for Revit." text below the title block).

 

However! Firefox now displays an error message in the left panel that file "left_tab.html" can't be located at - C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Revit 2013/Program/Help/en-US/WBH/left_tab.html?query=

 

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i49/pbahniuk/revit_2013_help_firefox_800.png

 

Problem is that I don't have the file "left_tab.html" within the help directory ( C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Revit 2013/Program/Help/en-US/WBH/ )

 

The nearest 'left tab' files I have within the help directory are -

 

left_tabRVT_ADDINS.html

left_tabRVT_ADMIN.html

left_tabRVT_INSTALLALL.html

left_tabRVT_WORKFLOW.html

left_tabRVTONEHELP.html

 

 

There is a "left_tab.html" file located here - C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Revit 2013/Program/Setup/en-US/Documentation/InstallGuide/images/left_tab.html instead!

 

It seems that the offline help is looking for the file "left_tab.html" within the help directory but since it isn't located there the error message appears and presumably the rest of the relevant files are not loaded due to the error of not finding "left_tab.html" file!

 

Ideas?

Message 4 of 5
BIMologist_
in reply to: meeshu

I would try repairing your install

 

if not try this file and copy to your help folder then try. It must have gotten corrupted or something.

 

I have total 55 html files in my help folder , check the number in yours

 

 



BIMologist / Dr. Revit
Autodesk Expert Elite Member
Approved Autodesk Services Marketplace provider - BIM Consulting
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Message 5 of 5
meeshu
in reply to: BIMologist_

Some improvement in bringing up offline help, but it is still not working properly.Smiley Frustrated

 

In chronological order here is what I did.

 

1) Copied file "left_tab.html" from C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Setup\en-US\Documentation\InstallGuide\images\ to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Help\en-US\WBH\

 

2) Reran Revit 2013 and called up its offline help by pressing the F1 key. This time the help index and search function appeared in the left panel! Making progress! However, the "Contents" tab text is invisible until the mouse pointer hovers over it. Also there are no contents listed (there should be a contents list?).

 

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i49/pbahniuk/revit_2013_help_with_left_tab_annotated.png

 

Additional issues occur such as after selecting the Index tab, the Index text becomes invisible until the mouse pointer hovers over the text. Also selecting random help topics, most help topics appear within the right hand main panel area. However some topics do NOT appear! One example is the "Offline help" topic, there appears to be no help file associated with that topic and get error message displayed that the associated help topic file is not on my system!?

 

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i49/pbahniuk/revit_2013_help_left_tab_offline_help_annotated.png

 

3) Tried the "left_tab.html" file downloaded from previous post (thanks for the file!), but got similar results to that as in step 2 above!?

 

4) Number of .html files within the help directory (C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Help\en-US\WBH) was 41 (excluding the "left_tab.html" file), plus 7 .xml files.

 

5) Repaired Revit 2013 installation by clicking (Control Panel -> Uninstall a program -> Autodesk Revit 2013 -> Uninstall/Change -> Repair/Reinstall). Program re-downloaded files from the internet. After the repair was eventually completed, still have the same issue with the offline help not working properly. The number of .html files is still 41 with NO 'left_tab.html" file, and still 7 .xml files.

 

6) Tried copying the "left_tab.html" file from the Setup directory to the Help directory. But the results are just the same as in step 2 above!?

 

For some reason(s), the "left_tab.html" file is not being installed within the Help directory. And many help topic files (GUID-0 . . . . .html) are not being installed (downloaded?) within the help topic subdirectory (C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit 2013\Program\Help\en-US\WBH\filesRVTONEHELP). I have 3116 "GUID-0 . . . .html" files.

 

The offline search function seems to work, but again many help topics are not available/missing from the help topic subdirectory!

 

Although the offline help works to a degree, there are many missing help topics, and it seems the contents are not being listed either.

 

What is going on here?

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