Support Copy/Paste Between Separate Revit Sessions

[m.roefs]

Revit currently only allows copy and paste between projects open in the same session. This makes it difficult to transfer elements when working with multiple Revit windows or versions. Other design software supports clipboard operations across sessions, and adding this to Revit would:

• Improve productivity for users working on several projects at once
• Remove the need for time-consuming workarounds like exporting groups or linking files
• Make Revit more consistent with user expectations from other design tools

Please consider enabling copy/paste between separate Revit sessions to streamline workflows.

[Anonymous]

Revit is based on Windows.  You can copy/paste from program to program regardless of the program in Windows.

But for some weird reason you cannot copy/paste from two different sessions of Revit, only from within the same session.  When working on a memory intensive project, it is better to have another session of Revit running instead of the primary in case of a program crash and lose both projects.

Why?

It works for AutoCAD.  

While I know Revit is NOT Autocad.....Revit is based on Windows and we cannot do this simple task.

So....Why?  Please fix.

[Anonymous]

I agree!

[Anonymous]

So....I may have to say that this is implemented already.

I had a project in 2016 and a project in 2017 open.  I didn't want to retype a text note from the 2016 to 2017 so I tried to copy/paste.

OMG it worked!

Can anyone verify from 2016 to 2018 or 2017 to 2018?  I don't have 2018 yet.

[Anonymous]

it will be very great option if you allow the copy paste / between two different revit sessions specially from old version to new version

[Anonymous]

A better example.....I have items I wish to copy from an architectural model (not things that you can copy monitor).  I can't open the architectural model in the same session, since it is linked to mine (this is another idea in the making--let us open a file that is linked in the same session).  It would be nice if I could copy these sort of items into the system clipboard and then paste them in the other session.

[Anonymous]

yes really this will be great if Autodesk want to help

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous Text will copy between sessions and between different versions. The Idea is for all the other items in revit that will not copy like a schedule or a drafting view.

Autodesk Please merge this thread into...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/copy-paste-between-two-different-revit-sessions/idi-p/750...

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  What version does it work in?  2017 it does NOT work!

Text, lines, etc cannot be copied from two separate sessions of Revit.

I already mentioned that selecting text itself and pasting into another text object works.  I want to be able to grab an entire page of text objects from one to another in separate sessions, not the same.

Also, the post you are referring to merge should be merged with mine....I posted 5 months before the other one.

[Steve_Th]

I have been hoping for this for years now. We typically work in multiple sessions in Revit and before working within BIM Collaborate Pro one had to unload links if you were opening a link so the common practice for working on a linked file was to open it in a new session of Revit. This also became a best practice because if one file crashed it wouldn't take down all your open files, just the one sessions per file. 

[Crow_T_Robot]

I like having each project that I have open to be in its own session. This keeps things a bit more organized compared to having a whole bunch of views from various projects open in one session. It would be extremely useful if we could copy and paste between different sessions or instances of Revit.

[HVAC-Novice]

I can't believe R2024 still doesn't have this. I also can't believe this idea hasn't been voted on so many more times. 

[jmanse43JHQ]

THIS WOULD BE FANTASTIC. AUTODESK IS TOO BUSY MOVING TABS AND BUTTONS AROUND AND WORKING ON FEATURES NO ONE CARES ABOUT

[baby_kutty]

WHY THIS SIMPLE THING IS NOT THOUGHT OF , BY THE GREAT DEVELOPERS 😁😀😂😃

[sklimasWLLU5]

Here we are in 2026 and we still can't do what every other application out there can. THIS is the global standard for documentation???

Shame on you Autodesk.

[Scott_D_]

They should get rid of the ten thousand element limit for merging project files as well.

[ks2_wmb]

This is the one feature request where I think the community is being dumb.  Get over yourselves.  I want Revit Factory development time spent elsewhere.  How often are you really doing a copypaste between projects?

Revit has a special clipboard for model elements that isn't shared with the Windows global clipboard, and this is limited to your immediate Revit window.  You can copy and paste text between Revit versions because text uses the Windows global clipboard.  You have two clipboards when working in Revit (Revit elements window-specific and Windows global), and that's just how it is.

I think there are two use cases for copypasting elements between projects:

1) Grabbing element styles from another project.

2) Grabbing the actual elements from another project.

I would personally rather have a "<Transfer from File...>" option in the "Transfer Project Standards" menu, where I could pick a file that isn't currently open for my transfer operation.  I think that would solve use case 1 significantly.

[k_k_gorczakowski]

I think it would be a big win if the Revit clipboard was simply exposed in the public API - then we could create whatever custom copy/paste tool we want