Why NOT to click on Revit Home Recent Files Pictures

[simmonsEDP9W]

Is there a concise Answer/Reason as to why a user should NOT click on the Revit Home Recent files pictures when opening up a model?  Do's-Don'ts, potential problems, etc.

(incorporating the 3 Revit model file types). 

• Revit File 
• Revit Central Model
• Revit Cloud Model

Thank you!

David

 

[Sean_Page]

Maybe 3-4 years ago before Revit started automatically creating local files for you this could have been an issue where it could've been accidentally opening the Central model. This is why we created an add-in that would check the model and tell the user if they were opening a Central model. Now, even if you were to double click on a Central model to open it, the next time you open it from the Home menu it will prompt you to make a local.

In short, it MAY have been an issue in the past, and although technically someone could still open a central inadvertently, the chances are much less than they used to be. 

All this to say that I almost exclusively open models from the Home screen and I am in and out of multiple different projects every day including Locals, Centrals, ACC, and B360 without any issues and I haven't told someone to use the "Open" dialog for years, but you should do what works best for you and your teams.

[simmonsEDP9W]

understood. thank you.

i've had users in the office click on the pictures and they are NOT getting the latest updated models. therefore, they are working with outdated models. not exactly sure why.
i do know, that i've been opening models via the "open" dialog for over a decade and have never had issues.

i'm here to find a concise answer to help others in the office understand i think it's bad practice to use the pictures.

or, at least be able to explain why/when to use the pictures.

[Sean_Page]

Well, I don't think you are going to find "concise" reasons why not to use the UI as its built. If this approach was not viable then it wouldn't be what everyone is using. I have heard whispers of the same from time to time and generally speaking there has almost always been user and/or networking error somewhere, unless they are still working on a project in R19 or R20 maybe. It is true, past versions did have issues, but I really don't think there is any reason to still hold on to that angst, even if it is from old Revit crash anxiety 😂!

[simmonsEDP9W]

understood. 

Thank you sir! i appreciate it.

[simmonsEDP9W]

just to continue beating the horse. (it's ok, it's not dead yet). 🙂

many times a user hits save-as, or needs to make a copy of their model to send out.  now, that file is in the "recents".

they then may click on the picture (to do actual work) and believe they are opening the correct file which they are not. they could be opening the "save-as" file instead of the actual project file.

yes, this is obviously user error.  clicking on the pictures is too easy to click on the wrong file to work on.

File, Open and pathing to the correct file would be considered "best-practice". you know exactly which file you're opening because you took the time to navigate to the correct location.

thanks again!

[Sean_Page]

That is exactly why the file path is in the context menu that pops up when hovering over any model.

Obviously doing it through the open dialog won't hurt, but I don't agree with it being "best practice" to waste time digging through network paths when it could be one click. For me this is more about training than it is about "NOT" using Home / Recent files. There isn't a reason not to use it, but just like everything else with Revit or any software really, if you don't know what you're doing or aren't paying attention, there is always the possibility to muck something up.

[simmonsEDP9W]

Agreed.  Time to properly train users is the key!!