Workset confusion

[HVAC-Novice]

This is the 2nd time in modern times that I use a Central model with someone lese in the office. first time we didn't use Worksets, and that worked fine despite the potential danger of not using them. I'm doing MEP, other person(s) do Architecture. so it should be pretty easy to decide who should own what. 

But  for a new project I set up work sets. I created one for me, and one for the architect. The architect is very new to Revit and we are not in the office the same time a lot. I created the MEP  workset on my local model. Then I created the architect's works et on their PC (local copy). We see who is owner etc. Here the issues or questions:

- does it matter for permissions who created the workset? I mean, could I create the worksets, and the architect still could have full rights? 

- I noticed When I make a workset editable, I become the owner regardless of the workset was created under my name. Same for the architect. Is there a way to prevent that ability? It seems if I don't relinquish the worksets (when syncing with Central) the ownership stays with me. But if we both relinquish ownership, it seems whoever is the first person to make a workset editable, will be owner of that. Is there a way to permanently assign a workset to a person? 

- We may have 2 architects work on architecture on the same workset. How would 2 people be the owner? Or would they borrow? It seems one can request to edit single elements (and the owner grants the request). But can this be done for a whole workset? 

- Our work times on a model may be totally different. So a request for access may not be responded to forever (especially if the user is a newbie and may not realize what is going on)

- Since I created the project, my shared parameter text file is still referenced, which is good for me. But a the architect's copy there was no shared parameter file referenced and I wasn't sure if this should just be left blank since a newbie doesn't have shared parameters yet. What's the exact procedure to handle shared parameters? 

If someone could answer the above question, or suggest a better workflow I'd be grateful.  It is hard to just try out all the options when multiple people have to do something specific. I had to train the architect to use Revit on their computer, and then wasn't able to edit at their computer due to workset ownership, and had to run back and forth to my computer and to make changes and sync and then see if it worked. 

[ToanDN]

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@HVAC-Novice wrote:

This is the 2nd time in modern times that I use a Central model with someone lese in the office. first time we didn't use Worksets, and that worked fine despite the potential danger of not using them. I'm doing MEP, other person(s) do Architecture. so it should be pretty easy to decide who should own what. 

But  for a new project I set up work sets. I created one for me, and one for the architect. The architect is very new to Revit and we are not in the office the same time a lot. I created the MEP  workset on my local model. Then I created the architect's works et on their PC (local copy). We see who is owner etc. Here the issues or questions:

- does it matter for permissions who created the workset? I mean, could I create the worksets, and the architect still could have full rights?  Does not matter.  Anyone can have full rights.

- I noticed When I make a workset editable, I become the owner regardless of the workset was created under my name. Same for the architect. Is there a way to prevent that ability? It seems if I don't relinquish the worksets (when syncing with Central) the ownership stays with me. But if we both relinquish ownership, it seems whoever is the first person to make a workset editable, will be owner of that. Is there a way to permanently assign a workset to a person? Yes, when someone makes a workset Editable, he takes ownership of the workset.  Others will not be able to edit content of that workset until the owner grants permissions.

- We may have 2 architects work on architecture on the same workset. How would 2 people be the owner? Or would they borrow? It seems one can request to edit single elements (and the owner grants the request). But can this be done for a whole workset? It's best set the Arch workset Non-editable so that both architects can work without fighting each others (granting permissions).  The terms is borrowing a workset. *

- Our work times on a model may be totally different. So a request for access may not be responded to forever (especially if the user is a newbie and may not realize what is going on). See *

- Since I created the project, my shared parameter text file is still referenced, which is good for me. But a the architect's copy there was no shared parameter file referenced and I wasn't sure if this should just be left blank since a newbie doesn't have shared parameters yet. What's the exact procedure to handle shared parameters? Save the shared parameters txt file on a shared folder that everyone can access.  Each one needs to Manage > Shared Parameters > and set the file as his project's shared parameters file.

If someone could answer the above question, or suggest a better workflow I'd be grateful.  It is hard to just try out all the options when multiple people have to do something specific. I had to train the architect to use Revit on their computer, and then wasn't able to edit at their computer due to workset ownership, and had to run back and forth to my computer and to make changes and sync and then see if it worked. 

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[HVAC-Novice]

Thanks for the reply, that clears up some things. 

Maybe the wording is strange to me, but I thought if a workset is "not editable" one couldn't do anything in it (edit). But it seems "Not Editable" means there are no restriction. Or am I misunderstanding? I just created a wall in my workset while none of the worksets is editable. But I could create it and it in my workset. Then I created a wall in architect's workset (also not editable and no owner), and that also worked. So how do I then prevent myself from editing the Architectural model elements, or the Architects from editing mine? Because if we set the architecture workset as not editable as you suggest, both architects likely can work in it. But so can I. 

If I see that right, if it is just one person per work set, that person just takes ownership of that workset (makes it editable). that way others are prevented from editing it. The problem comes in if we want 2 people being able to edit one workset. 

As for shared parameters, we don't have a centrally controlled set or a BIM manager. I basically have mine and everyone else doesn't really have any yet since most people are just very beginners. And mine are also very much MEP heavy and the architects may do completely different things. So maybe at some point I let them link their txt file if they want. But I fear if I link mine, it will get messed up. So any new families requiring shared parameters just have to be created in a separate project and the shared parameters just travel in with the families. Maybe not ideal, but this isn't my main problem before we really figured out worksets. But multiple people editing a shared parameter file sounds like a recipe for disaster. One would have to make the txt file not editable and then just have one person or BIM manager be in charge of editing them. 

[ToanDN]

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@HVAC-Novice wrote:

Thanks for the reply, that clears up some things. 

Maybe the wording is strange to me, but I thought if a workset is "not editable" one couldn't do anything in it (edit). But it seems "Not Editable" means there are no restriction. Or am I misunderstanding? I just created a wall in my workset while none of the worksets is editable. But I could create it and it in my workset. Then I created a wall in architect's workset (also not editable and no owner), and that also worked. So how do I then prevent myself from editing the Architectural model elements, or the Architects from editing mine? Because if we set the architecture workset as not editable as you suggest, both architects likely can work in it. But so can I. 

I agree the terms are confusing.  Editable to an user means only the user can rename or delete the workset itself and edit the content.  Non-editable means the user cannot rename or delete the workset, but he can still edit the content normally.

If I see that right, if it is just one person per work set, that person just takes ownership of that workset (makes it editable). that way others are prevented from editing it. The problem comes in if we want 2 people being able to edit one workset. 

Correct.

As for shared parameters, we don't have a centrally controlled set or a BIM manager. I basically have mine and everyone else doesn't really have any yet since most people are just very beginners. And mine are also very much MEP heavy and the architects may do completely different things. So maybe at some point I let them link their txt file if they want. But I fear if I link mine, it will get messed up. So any new families requiring shared parameters just have to be created in a separate project and the shared parameters just travel in with the families. Maybe not ideal, but this isn't my main problem before we really figured out worksets. But multiple people editing a shared parameter file sounds like a recipe for disaster. One would have to make the txt file not editable and then just have one person or BIM manager be in charge of editing them. 

The issue with more than one shared parameters txt file is that they can have the same parameter name but different GUID, and that cause a whole lot of confusion in the long run.  You can have one centralized file and create different parameter groups if you want to separate by disciplines.

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[HVAC-Novice]

Thanks again.

For now I'm not going to worry about shared parameters. Doing it for multiple people would require some BIM manager being in charge of the parameters (and probbaly family maintenance). That's a more general decision we have to make how to do that in our office, not just for the shared models. 

I think I'm clear on how one person per discipline/workset can work. Next time we both are in the office we can play a bit to get a 100% understanding in a real project. 

Somewhere above you mentioned borrowing a workset. I read about borrowing an element. but how to borrow an entire workset? and if that workset is borrowed by Architect B, architect A doesn't seem to be able to edit it for the time being. So I'm still not clear on how to solve the 2-person per workset issue. Placing requests will be an issue since people may have Revit open, but closes the screen and do other work. So the person receiving a request may not see it for hours. the request placing is more practical when all people work on the same project at the very same time.  Like if i need to go to a meeting, or home, I just leave REvit open (and keep all ownership)

Is it actually possible to revert back to before I created the worksets? It seems initially it seems easier not to deal with permissions. And the architect just learns Revit, so I may just jump in and edit an architectural item. On a previous project where we didn't set up worksets (outside of what was by default), it actually worked OK with some professional discipline the architect knowing not to touch my ducts etc. 

Sorry about the many questions. Usually I can resolve many problem by trial&error. But this one always requires multiple people to try out. So it is a bit shooting arrows into the dark if I can't be 2 different users at the same time. 

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

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@HVAC-Novice wrote:

Somewhere above you mentioned borrowing a workset. I read about borrowing an element. but how to borrow an entire workset? and if that workset is borrowed by Architect B, architect A doesn't seem to be able to edit it for the time being. So I'm still not clear on how to solve the 2-person per workset issue. Placing requests will be an issue since people may have Revit open, but closes the screen and do other work. So the person receiving a request may not see it for hours. the request placing is more practical when all people work on the same project at the very same time.  Like if i need to go to a meeting, or home, I just leave REvit open (and keep all ownership)

You are correct.  I meant borrowing elements in a workset.  When a workset is Non-editable, every user can edit elements in the workset and that is borrowing.  On the grand scheme, permissions are handled automatically by Revit, and users only are asked to sync occasionally when they edit the same element.

Is it actually possible to revert back to before I created the worksets?  

You can remove al worksets by re-open the central file Detached > Detach and and discard worksets.