Copy Paste Family between different versions of revit? Struggling with the general concept vs autocad....

[payingtoomuch]

This is a most basic question but I'm struggling with it.

Have been trying to copy/ paste a family between 2024 & 2025. For whatever reason the paste button is greyed back "seems" like every time I try to do this.

So, as an experiment I decided to try copy pasting a similar family between two 2025 files. Everything worked as expected.

Recognizing that I can spend a LOT of time trying to get to the bottom of this decided to ask if there are some limitations to copy/ pasting between different versions.

I can't imagine that I wouldn't be able to copy between 2 different versions. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something so I can figure out how I'm approaching this wrong (if in fact I am)

Also, just want to make sure that there are no family types that show up in the tree that I will not be able to copy/ paste regardless.

I'm so use to just opening a cad file and copy/ pasting whatever I want to between projects that this is one of the most frustrating things for me with revit.

Any help with pointers as to where I need to draw the line in my brain for what can and cannot be done with copy pasting would be appreciated.

[payingtoomuch]

.... In one instance it's acting like I can copy/ paste from an older version to a newer version but I can't copy/paste from a newer version to an older version.....

I guess that could make some sense in a warped way.

Would mean that I would need to upgrade an older model to a newer model however to use the content from the older model.

[payingtoomuch · Accepted solution]

.... and guessing there is no way to copy/ paste multiple items at one time from the tree....

[Sleepingfish_Kuo · Accepted solution]

Only old version to new version is possible.

if you want to upgrade multiple family once, throw them into a project, upgrade the project, and get save all family in the project.

( And if you're not English version user, Revit shutdown when keyin anything while upgrading and after upgrade 😥. )

[Andrei-Pirlea · Accepted solution]

Hey Payingtoomuch,

As far as I know, Revit only supports copy/pasting within a single Revit session and therefore only within a single version of Revit (since you cant have 2 versions of a file open in the same session).

Copy/Pasting families is not really an ideal workflow either since it can cause duplicates of the family you are trying to paste in, if that family already exists in the project (adds a 1 to the end of the family name). That's why Revit uses the Edit family/Load into project more predominantly to force you to override a family.

Copy/Paste does have a place within Revit, but mainly inside of a single Revit session, and only within a single project. Say you wanted to copy all elements or detail items from one floor to another etc.

So the workflow would be something along the lines of... Have your project open in Revit 2025, open the family in the same session (which may or may not auto upgrade based on its version), and then load it into the project. 

If you had 2 projects and wanted to copy multiple items/families from one to another, you would need to open them both in the same session and then copy from one and paste in the other. But this will explode your library with duplicates so definitely not recommended. Also copying multiple items from the project browser doesn't work from memory, except maybe for schedules and notes etc?

Also backwards compatibility is not supported and Revit and likely never will be, so make sure you always keep backups of your files in case you are upgrading them. This is still limited by only being able to copy/paste within 1 session of Revit therefore it will be on the same version.

Hope this helps!

[RSomppi · Accepted solution]

^ This.

[payingtoomuch]

Thanks everyone. The good news is that I’m not bats***t crazy yet. I think. But thus just might take me over the edge!

More goid news is i actually like the fact that revit brings things in as duplicates with 1 etc at the ebd and straight up allows you to rename (or simply delete the originaal file as ippised to autocads “way” of pretending thatvyiu didnt oaste anything n in tge first place lol. And once you figure it iut gotta rebame the file in the project and start over. It’s always fun and by tge time you get everything sirted out you might as well draw tge block over again.

[payingtoomuch]

Some good spelling in there! I need better glasses and a bigger keypad on my phone. Geez. 

[payingtoomuch]

btw thanks sleepingfish and andrei for the thorough responses. I sometimes like to run separate sessions so that one comment alone explains a lot of some of the difficulty ive experience in the past….

and I won’t be working in 2025 again while a cluent us working in 2024…. Also explains a lotvof tge frief I experienced in the past!