Re Path Fabrication Configuration

[steve]

I was wondering if it's possible to repath where Revit looks for fabrication content libraries? I wanted to save content folders to a shared location for my company, instead of having the folders local to my computer only. I can create and manage content through Fabrication CADMep, but I can't seem to get Revit to load the configurations from the new location. Any ideas? Thanks.

[RobDraw]

I don't have an answer for you other than, I would certainly hope so.

I know you can for design families. I'm not familiar with fabrication parts and a quick search did not reveal the default library location. Is there an actual library or do the parts get created according to the configuration file? it appears that does need to be located on each computer.

[Anonymous]

so after you created the new file path in FABmep, when you reload the configuration in Revit the new path isn't showing up? I have moved my Fab parts to a shared folder everyone can access but I also had to create a new pathway in FABmep for the new path to be accepted in Revit. 

[Jacob_United · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve,

Yes, you most certainly can. Ours is set up the way you describe with the database in a shared location.

Move/copy your database to the shared location, open CAMduct (or similar) and re-link the database with it's new location. Just make sure your linking it to CAMduct 2018 if your using Revit 2018.

That's it, Revit should be able to find the database without issue. I would recommend recording your databases' GUID before doing this so you can restore it if required.

[steve]

Hey Luke, 

I was able to make it work by copying the content folder over to the shared location. Opening up Fab and selecting "New" when prompted to select a configuration and browsing to the folder location. Fired up a new project in Revit and opened the fabrication panel, settings, and found the folder in the configuration drop down. All good. 

Maybe you can expound on this a bit for me but it seems that if you are using an existing Revit project that has  fabrication parts modeled from one database, you can't switch to a different database mid project. Once you've modeled content in you a stuck with that database and its original pathing. Is that your experience? Not a deal breaker but just good to know when starting a new project. 

Thanks again for the response.   

[Jacob_United]

Hi Steve,

Glad you were able to getting it working.

You are correct in regards to changing databases mid-project. All services need to be unloaded before you can change the database, but you cannot unload services that have been modeled in the project. If needed, you can get around this by linking the fabrication model into a new project.

What caused me real pain was when our server was upgraded, the GUID for the database was lost and I didn't have it recorded anywhere. This affected all my projects and template, making it impossible to unload any services or update the database. If this occurs and you don't have your GUID recorded, I found that you can use the purge function to unload any services (that aren't modeled) then reload the database.

Good luck.

[gdavis479JP]

It is possible to retreive the GUID. There are some Dynamo scripts out there, one from David Ronson of TD (presented at AU a few years ago), and the other Darren Young. Also, if you are familiar with building macros in Revit (C#), we got this code line from Martin Schmid of Autodesk, and added  a few things to the macro. (It will display GUID and Version number - you need to verify/ modify both in CADmep/ ESTmep), then place those in your windows clipboard:

                
        public void GetGuid()
        {
            Autodesk.Revit.DB.FabricationConfiguration fc = Autodesk.Revit.DB.FabricationConfiguration.GetFabricationConfiguration(this.ActiveUIDocument.Document);
            Autodesk.Revit.DB.FabricationConfigurationInfo fci = fc.GetFabricationConfigurationInfo();
            string FabGUID = fci.GUID.ToString();
            string FabVersion = fci.Version.ToString();
            TaskDialog.Show("Fabrication Configuration Details", "GUID\n" + FabGUID + "\nVersion\n" + FabVersion + "\n\nAfter closing this window, this data will be in your windows clipboard. To retrieve, paste to Notepad.");
            string guidAndVersion = string.Format("GUID {0}\nVersion {1}", fci.GUID.ToString(), fci.Version.ToString());
            System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText(guidAndVersion);
        }