Crash when editing groups externally

[Keith_Wilkinson]

We are currently developing our protocols for using external groups on residential projects with a view to defining and controlling different department types.

In principle it's all working fine with one exception - Areas.

Within the apartment type file we have an area scheme set up as Net Sales Area (NSA).  The problem comes when we try to edit the group externally - if the external file is already open then it works fine, however if not, Revit uses it's default metric template to create a new file into which it pastes the geometry from the group.  The problem here is that the NSA area scheme doesn't exist in this file and it ultimately causes a Fatal Error to occur.

Now we can put processes in place that instruct people not to do this and to only edit the external file and then reload but this in turn causes issues with keeping system families in sync.  

So my question is is the default 'Metric' template accessible and can we add Area Schemes to this to prevent Revit crashing?

[BIM.Consultant]

Open revit and click on new, then chose your template file (Default_Metric) and chose "new template". Do your modifications and then save the file. It will be saved as *.rte file which is revit template file.

[Keith_Wilkinson]

Thanks for the reply.  My problem is not editing an existing template it's getting access to whatever template Revit uses when you select '<None>' as the template file but it's not one of the templates in the template folder.

I know this might sound a bit daft but I figure it must be using some kind of template as there are elements in there that can be deleted such as the 'Rentable' area scheme (only Gross Building is permanent).  

If we could get Revit to use a specified template when externally editing a group then this would also provide a solution to the problem.

[BIM.Consultant · Accepted solution]

I did the same steps you explained in your first post in order to see the error. However, editing the group file externally did bring the NFS type. Make sure that when you first created the group, the area was placed inside the group. My revit version is 2016.

[Keith_Wilkinson]

hmmm... that's interesting.  

the groups are not created as groups they are created as an external file initially and then loaded in as a group.  I'm wondering if this might make a difference.  We're currently running this in 2015 but I'll try it again in 2017 (we're skipping 2016).

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

[BIM.Consultant]

You are welcome. Good luck!

[Keith_Wilkinson · Accepted solution]

I've just tested it in 2017 and it's fine so we'll put it down to a 2015 issue - thanks again.

Cheers

K.