Can anyone explain to me why this happens? In an architecture model we will link an MEP model and set its visbility display settings to By Host View.
But WHY does it sometimes create these "sub-links"? And why does Revit do it in some models but not all models?
The first line is the "record" or "definition" of the link in the model, each line beneath represents an instance of the linked model placed in the model environment. That screen capture shows that you have three copies of the link in the model right now. The first line will govern all three copies appearance if you choose to override the display settings there. If you choose to edit the display settings of an individual instance of the link instead then those changes will only apply to that instance. The other two will be governed by the primary definition/record of the link.
Related, if you look closely, when using worksharing, you'll find that each instance of a link has an instance and type parameter for Workset. This permits a workset to govern all instances of the link and instance parameter allows each copy to be assigned to a different workset and controlled independent of the type parameter. So if each of your three instances were assigned to Bldg 1, 2 and 3 worksets respectively you would be able to close or open an individual workset to remove or show the link. If the type parameter is assigned to yet another workset such as Linked Bldg that workset could be used to hide or display all three instances by closing just one workset.
Steve Stafford
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@SteveKStafford explained it well.
You have three instances of the same link. Do you need all three?
Just like families, links also have a 'type' and an 'instance'.
This check we perform as part of troubleshooting of issues, or as a QAQC of models. It's common to see this problem when the support case is about "Revit is suddenly running very slow" ... where someone inadvertently made a second copy of a link.
