Creating Local File

[Anonymous]

Good morning. I've been working with Revit for 7 years as manager, user and designer and as with everything there are multiple ways of doing things. With creating a new local file there is the option of while in Revit browsing to the central model, selecting it and specifying with the check box to create a new local file. However a practice I've always done is through Windows Explorer just copying the central model to where I want my local file to be and after I paste it I will rename it placing my name at the end. And in Revit when you open that new file for the first time it will give you a message saying that after you sync with central it will become a local user copy. I have had zero issues with this however my new company is stating that they absolutely do not want this done this way because it can cause issues with syncing or other possible issues. Has anyone else experienced any issues at all doing it this way? I helped train my entire office previously on Revit and our Revit leads in our headquarters office would do this with no issues. So is there argument justified in any way and can this cause any issues once so ever? With exception to user error where someone may move the central model rather than creating a copy. Even in that user error case the moment someone else would try to access the project they would find out right away that the central model is no longer there which is easily fixed by that original user saving there local back as the central on the network. Other than that Revit even tells you that it's creating a local copy and that it's fine.

The reason I do it this way is rather than letting Revit dump the new local into My Documents I feel I have more control over where it lives. Within My Documents I have a folder named _Revit Projects that houses folders for each project I work on and my local copy is saved there. It helps me keep things very clean and organized.

Any experience light shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I'v never done quite that way.........but as in the early days of creating the local, in the newer versions of when I had the Central Open, I always uncheck the "automatic" create local at the bottom, and navigate to where i want my Local, and then save.....thus establishing the link.....I really don't like some things "automatically" located for me................I'm funny that way sometimes.

M

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

No, do it the same way, copying with explorer. Every project in its own local (sub) folder. As it is not unusal to work on several projects I can easily do a quick copy of several central files, even use a small script to do the copying for me.

Never experienced any problems. I would not know what the possible 'problems' should be?

You mention possible error of moving central file instead of copying. Similar issue can be raised with the other method. It would be possible to open the central file and work in there if the user is not careful.

I only think that using the copying method can be seen as suitable for the more 'advanced' computer user. 

Depending on the user both methods can be valid.

Of course above only applies to file based work-sharing. Copying will not work on server based work-sharing.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for your responses. I'm very glad the way I've been doing it wasn't actually causing issues that I was unaware of. I'm just able to keep things organized a lot easier but I had 3 higher up Revit guys at my new company tell me things such as you can lose synchronicity from the central model doing it this way, or my favorite response is I know it can cause issues but I just can't remember what they are, lol. Anyways thanks again and I hope you have a wonderful day and an even better holidays!