R23-Could not find configured workset error

[bhardic]

Good morning. I've only been working with Revit for 6 months or so after I had our VDC department dropped in my lap. Luckily our previous VDC manager was pretty thorough. First post here and I'm wondering if anyone can help with a workset manager error I'm getting with our project template rvt. The error is "could not find the configured workset" followed by a string of numbers.

This is happening with both the default worksets. Since I upgraded the template from R22 to 23, 24, and 25 I'm getting the error in all versions. I don't get this error when starting a random fresh project with one of the oob templates and enabling worksharing. Only with our template project after worksharing has been enabled.

I have blank placeholder models linked in ACC, but it still pops up when they are unloaded. Am I going to have to rebuild our project template or is it safe to just check the don't show me again box? 

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EDITED TO ADD MY FINDINGS AND TO SAVE SOMEONE ELSE TIME READING THE WHOLE THREAD.

I wanted to take a minute and edit here for any future searches where this might pop up. I fixed my problem, but it wasn't a gentle path. TLDR at the bottom.

Quick summary. IT department sent me a laptop to use from home that the previous VDC Manager used. They "cleaned it up" but left all Autodesk apps installed. After setting up a project with our starter project and enabling worksets I would get workset errors every time I placed a new family type in the project. A few days after my last post here, all keyboard shortcuts started disappearing. Like, gone. Empty keyboard shortcut list. Restarting Revit would bring them back but after a couple hours they would disappear again. On top of all this, Revit was lagging and just not acting right in general.

After some research I started suspecting the issue might be with Revits' Unit Schemas. There's a lot of metadata that's stored in unit schemas that has to do with worksets, add-ins, and a ton of other things. It seems to be the heart and soul of Revit. If any of that is missing or gets corrupted it can cause some pretty serious issues in Revit.

When our IT department "cleaned up" the laptop by removing all the previous users files, I suspect that was the trigger that may have either corrupted or removed something within unit schemas. Now, my research found that you can fix this by uploading a new unit schemas from an existing uncorrupted Revit installation. I don't have access to one, and since I had no idea what our previous VDC manager had set up on the laptop (custom shortcuts, add-ins, etc...) I opted for a complete removal of Revit and every add-in I could find on the laptop. Following the instructions provided by Autodesk took me a half a day to complete the removal and re-installation but it was worth it. It's been 2 days since I've reinstalled Revit and the Add-ins I need and I haven't had any more problems.   

TLDR: If your IT department is "cleaning up" a PC for you that was previously used by someone else, tell them to just do a factory reset so you don't have to clean up their mess.

[RSomppi]

It sounds like it's time to rebuild the template instead of upgrading. Make sure to test worksharing frequently if you are transferring anything to the new template.

[bhardic]

Thanks for the response. I'm still learning best practices. Rebuilding the template is the answer I was afraid of.

One thing I forgot to mention that might be revelant. Right now I'm working from home with an episode of Vertigo, so I'm working off a laptop that our previous VDC manager used. Our IT department reset the laptop before they sent it to our office for me, but they kept all the Autodesk apps on here. He may have had some things set up on here that I'm not aware of.

I would normally be working on a desktop in the office and I don't remember getting these workset errors on there. I think I might a try full removal of Revit and all add-ins, then try a clean install of everything first. If that doesn't work, then I may have to resort to rebuilding the template. I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

[RSomppi · Accepted solution]

I would rebuild anyway. Out with the old, in with the new. There have been a lot of changes to Revit in recent years. It would be worth refreshing everything including content outside of the template.

[hmunsell]

I know @RSomppi  has already helped you, but something else to think about is not using templates 😱.

Set a project model up the way you want, with all your starter views, sheets, schedules, View Templates, etc... It can even be workshare enabled with your default worksets. Then, save it as a Default Project on your network. 

When you start a new project, copy the "default project" to your project folder, rename it, and recentralize it (open with Detach from Central selected).  It will already be workshare enabled with all your standard worksets. 

[bhardic]

I had thought about that as well and just transferring our view templates and other necessities over from the template. The problem is using a template is a necessity for us. The company I work for works across 2 states with somewhere between 10-15 offices. There are only 2 of us that do coordination and one other that helps us model for the entire company. Between that and all the different drawings we need to put out for the field guys, the time saved by using a template is huge for us.

The previous VDC manager was an overachiever and didn't delegate very well, so when he left he took most of his knowledge with him. That left me trying to learn as much as I could in a short amount of time so I could actually train the 2 guys he left behind in the things he didn't teach them (but should have) and get the previous guy off retainer. It's been nuts, but I'm getting there.

I haven't attempted to build a template yet, so this will be a good kick starter on that learning process. I just hope these workset errors won't affect the navis upload I need to have in to the GC by eod tomorrow.

[RSomppi]

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@bhardic wrote:

I had thought about that as well and just transferring our view templates and other necessities over from the template. The problem is using a template is a necessity for us. The company I work for works across 2 states with somewhere between 10-15 offices. There are only 2 of us that do coordination and one other that helps us model for the entire company. Between that and all the different drawings we need to put out for the field guys, the time saved by using a template is huge for us.

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Totally agree, but(!), there are things that can be saved in a starter project as described by @hmunsell that cannot be saved in a template file eliminating the need for a lot of transferring that's only partially successful.

[bhardic]

Yea, there’s really not a lot that’s useful that can be transferred besides the view templates.

Maybe I’m got my terminology wrong when I said project template. It’s not a rte, but a rvt we use to set up new projects. This is probably the starter project you’re referring to. I have the rte but don’t use it anymore since you can’t save families and worksets to it.

What would be the best approach when starting from scratch like this? Since I'm electrical would I open a new project with the oob electrical template and build on that?

[RSomppi]

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@bhardic wrote:

What would be the best approach when starting from scratch like this? Since I'm electrical would I open a new project with the oob electrical template and build on that?

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What about the rest of the team, are they also electrical or will you have multiple trades in the same model?

The best approach is to make a list of items that you want included in order of priority and start at the top.

[bhardic]

Yes, the rest of the team is also electrical. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

I appreciate the help on this.

[hmunsell]

I remake our Company's "starter Project" from scratch every 4-5yr. I would like to do it more often, but it is very time-consuming when you're doing it for 8 disciplines 😂.

When I do, I use the out-of-the-box discipline template to create a new project model and build on that until I have all the content I need in it. 

[RSomppi]

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@bhardic wrote:

Yes, the rest of the team is also electrical.

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I would start with the electrical template as it will have some stuff preloaded but take a look at it to vet the content before starting to load it up with your stuff to see if it will work or needs adjusting. 

[bhardic]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate all the help. I'll have to fit this in to whatever spare time I can manage to squeeze out of the day over the next couple weeks and get some input from the team during our next meeting. I just appended my NWC and everything seems fine so looks like I'll make my deadline today after all.