Community
Accepted solution
The central model is managed in Revit Cloud Worksharing (RCW) services, along with the Element Borrowing records and the full model SWC history.
The Publish process from RCW to BIM 360 bundles the cloud workshared model + links into RVT files, and those are available to download in their entirety. The Views within the selected Sets in the published cloud workshared model are also translated for web & mobile viewing.
Beyond knowing that there's a dedicated service layer for cloud workshared models, are there any other questions we can help with?
Cheers,
Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
The central model is managed in Revit Cloud Worksharing (RCW) services, along with the Element Borrowing records and the full model SWC history.
The Publish process from RCW to BIM 360 bundles the cloud workshared model + links into RVT files, and those are available to download in their entirety. The Views within the selected Sets in the published cloud workshared model are also translated for web & mobile viewing.
Beyond knowing that there's a dedicated service layer for cloud workshared models, are there any other questions we can help with?
Cheers,
Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
Accepted solution
@Kev_D wrote:
Thank you.
Can we access the RWC Services? In other words, to keep a copy of the full central file as a back up, etc?
Sure. You and your team access them every time you interact with a Cloud Workshared Model. The service natively keeps backups of every SWC version, which can be rolled back as part of the out-of-the-box features in the BIM 360 Design product.
RCW services themselves do not actually transact in full RVT files. Instead, those services transact a bunch of much smaller files called Element Streams, which together can be bundled into an RVT file.
- That's what Revit actually does when opening a cloud workshared model -> it downloads a bunch of Element Streams in parallel and then assembles them into the RVTs you see in your collaboration cache.
- When you do a SWC, you are consuming the Element Streams from others who've recently made changes, while uploading the Element Stream deltas that you've changed.
- When data is published from RCW to BIM 360, then the services bundle the necessary Element Streams into a discrete RVT, which is then surfaced in BIM 360 + translated for Web & Mobile viewing.
I write the above detail to explain why "accessing" RCW services doesn't necessarily equate to having an RVT file "at the ready". Based on your desire to have backups, it sounds like you either 1) just want to use the built-in backup feature or 2) want to publish the models on a regular cadence. For 2), there's a Forge API to trigger publishing of Cloud Workshared Models. In addition, the Design Collaboration module has the "Update to Latest" button that triggers Publish for all models in a Team, and an in-development feature to schedule that publishing process at a set cadence.
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
@Kev_D wrote:
Thank you.
Can we access the RWC Services? In other words, to keep a copy of the full central file as a back up, etc?
Sure. You and your team access them every time you interact with a Cloud Workshared Model. The service natively keeps backups of every SWC version, which can be rolled back as part of the out-of-the-box features in the BIM 360 Design product.
RCW services themselves do not actually transact in full RVT files. Instead, those services transact a bunch of much smaller files called Element Streams, which together can be bundled into an RVT file.
- That's what Revit actually does when opening a cloud workshared model -> it downloads a bunch of Element Streams in parallel and then assembles them into the RVTs you see in your collaboration cache.
- When you do a SWC, you are consuming the Element Streams from others who've recently made changes, while uploading the Element Stream deltas that you've changed.
- When data is published from RCW to BIM 360, then the services bundle the necessary Element Streams into a discrete RVT, which is then surfaced in BIM 360 + translated for Web & Mobile viewing.
I write the above detail to explain why "accessing" RCW services doesn't necessarily equate to having an RVT file "at the ready". Based on your desire to have backups, it sounds like you either 1) just want to use the built-in backup feature or 2) want to publish the models on a regular cadence. For 2), there's a Forge API to trigger publishing of Cloud Workshared Models. In addition, the Design Collaboration module has the "Update to Latest" button that triggers Publish for all models in a Team, and an in-development feature to schedule that publishing process at a set cadence.
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
@Kev_D wrote:
Ok, beginning to make sense now.
So, worst case scenario hits. Internet or Cloud Server goes down. How do I continue to work on the model? I know I could log in by using my phone hotspot or something like that, but I am only wondering what the process is.
For example, BIM 360 was down earlier today. It was only back up and running in the last 30 minutes or so.
The BIM 360 website was indeed impacted with an incident this morning, but Revit Cloud Worksharing was unimpacted due to the resiliency patterns we've implemented, FYI.
As for the "worse case scenario" topic, there's a few options. Before I go there, there's a key aspect to keep in mind -> Revit Cloud Worksharing involves both access to the Revit data and access to Element Borrowing service. This means that having access to an RVT is not going to allow teams to actually work in the "live" model, as you need to aforementioned connection to RCW services to access the Element Borrowing service. So in that worst case scenario, you wouldn't have access to Element Borrowing, so at best you'd be setting up an on-premise Central Model with a new Element Borrowing state.
With that in mind, there's two primary options:
- Open the locally cached RVTs detached from RCW services -> save as an on-premise Central Model.
- Download the latest published models from BIM 360 (if possible) -> open them -> save as on-premise Central Models.
After the incident, if you want migrate back to RCW, you take the on-premise Central Models, and onboard them back into RCW, while deleting the model that was previously up there (you cannot overwrite a cloud workshared model).
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
@Kev_D wrote:
Ok, beginning to make sense now.
So, worst case scenario hits. Internet or Cloud Server goes down. How do I continue to work on the model? I know I could log in by using my phone hotspot or something like that, but I am only wondering what the process is.
For example, BIM 360 was down earlier today. It was only back up and running in the last 30 minutes or so.
The BIM 360 website was indeed impacted with an incident this morning, but Revit Cloud Worksharing was unimpacted due to the resiliency patterns we've implemented, FYI.
As for the "worse case scenario" topic, there's a few options. Before I go there, there's a key aspect to keep in mind -> Revit Cloud Worksharing involves both access to the Revit data and access to Element Borrowing service. This means that having access to an RVT is not going to allow teams to actually work in the "live" model, as you need to aforementioned connection to RCW services to access the Element Borrowing service. So in that worst case scenario, you wouldn't have access to Element Borrowing, so at best you'd be setting up an on-premise Central Model with a new Element Borrowing state.
With that in mind, there's two primary options:
- Open the locally cached RVTs detached from RCW services -> save as an on-premise Central Model.
- Download the latest published models from BIM 360 (if possible) -> open them -> save as on-premise Central Models.
After the incident, if you want migrate back to RCW, you take the on-premise Central Models, and onboard them back into RCW, while deleting the model that was previously up there (you cannot overwrite a cloud workshared model).
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
@johnathan_ward wrote:
Reading through this post, my understanding is that the workset configuration of any given Revit cloud workshared model has no bearing upon the synchronisation process. Is this correct?
Regards,
Johnathan
I'm not sure I understand the question you are asking. Worksets are organizing containers of Elements in the Model, and have their own permissions and visibility controls, among other things. I'm not sure what you mean them having a "bearing upon the synchronization process". Can you give an example of a situation you are concerned about, or the underlying insight you're trying to gain here?
Cheers,
Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
@johnathan_ward wrote:
Reading through this post, my understanding is that the workset configuration of any given Revit cloud workshared model has no bearing upon the synchronisation process. Is this correct?
Regards,
Johnathan
I'm not sure I understand the question you are asking. Worksets are organizing containers of Elements in the Model, and have their own permissions and visibility controls, among other things. I'm not sure what you mean them having a "bearing upon the synchronization process". Can you give an example of a situation you are concerned about, or the underlying insight you're trying to gain here?
Cheers,
Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
Thanks for clarifying. I'm not aware of any situations where overall SWC performance is impacted by Workset organization. I'm sure things might could be impacted if there was 1,000s of Worksets, or something well outside the typical workflow. Under typical situations, the SWC operation performance is mainly dictated by the amount of changed Elements from other team members (the Reload Latest step at the start of the operation) combined with the hardware of the machine, as well as the internet bandwidth available to that machine.
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
Thanks for clarifying. I'm not aware of any situations where overall SWC performance is impacted by Workset organization. I'm sure things might could be impacted if there was 1,000s of Worksets, or something well outside the typical workflow. Under typical situations, the SWC operation performance is mainly dictated by the amount of changed Elements from other team members (the Reload Latest step at the start of the operation) combined with the hardware of the machine, as well as the internet bandwidth available to that machine.
-Kyle
Kyle Bernhardt
Director
Building Design Strategy
Autodesk, Inc.
Forums Links
Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.
Post to forums
