Who moved my Cheese (Files) ? - Important File location changes for Revit 2012

Some important files have moved for Revit 2012.  This is all part of making Revit 2012 products citrix ready.  With these changes, Revit also now supports the use of Roaming profiles.  

Journal files:

Revit now stores journal files in a user specific location instead of a machine specific one.  Check out the wiki help for the description of where journal files are now stored: Journal file location.

To make gathering Journal files a little easier, I wrote a little Vbscript to copy them to another location from the user directory.  It also works for versions back to 2008 (using the old journal file location) and lets you pick the location to copy them to if you want to (default being c:\Journals, but you can change it). 

Download REVIT - Journal File Gather

Let me know what you think of the script...

UserDataCache and the Revit.ini file...

The active revit.ini file is no longer located in the Program files directory. A number of files have been relocated to a new UserDataCache subfolder in the Program directory (C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit Architecture 2012\Program\UserDataCache). These files are "template" files and are copied into the user data "roaming" folder on the first launch of Revit, per user. From then on, these files will be loaded from and saved to the user data "roaming" folder. Revit.ini can be customized and pushed to users by an Administrator by editing or replacing the copy in the UserDataCache folder prior to the users launching Revit for the first time.

If you need to change the Revit.ini for all users on a machine after users have launched Revit for the first time, you can do this by making a specific change to the Revit.ini file in the UserDataCache folder plus whatever other changes you want to make.

The Revit.ini file now contains lines like:

InstallGUID={B7D5E866-E7EA-44A8-81F5-67B1D397EC83}
ReInstallGUID={0E46A091-BFE2-455A-8617-B983C73A0F21} 

Revit uses the numbers (GUIDs) after the equal signs to compare the Revit.ini file in the UserDataCache folder with the file in the Users directory (on my Windows 7 Machine its C:\Users\Harlan\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012)

If the GUIDs match, Revit does nothing, however, if they don't match (you change the GUID in the UserDataCache folder) then Revit will automatically replace the copy in the users folder with the copy in UserDataCache.  This is a way you can push Revit.ini changes to users after they have launched Revit.  I will leave the GUID part up to you.  

A special note:  Using this GUID trick will reset Revit UI and everything back to "out of the box" (QAT, Ribbon, etc back to default).  The GUID change will also re-write the entire ini file, not just the parts you changed.  Be careful! A special thanks to Jason Grant for pointing this out!  

There are a few other "template" files stored in UserDataCache as well:

• OmniClassTaxonomy.txt
• UniformatClassifications.txt
• shxfontmap.txt

Another file that moved:

•  UiState.dat

The UiState.dat (file that stores any changes you have made to the Revit ribbon or QAT) is now created in the user’s roaming folder upon exiting Revit after the first run and it will roam with the user's profile.  This means that your customization on the UI will come with you if you use Roaming profiles (or for Citrix).  For me the file is stored in Windows 7 its in C:\Users\Harlan\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012\.   Like previous releases with the Ribbon, renaming this (to whatever you want) or deleting it will reset your Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar. 

 

Comments

[James Bowtell-Harris]

Great. Have they moved the Keyboard Shortcut XML as well?

[Harlan Brumm]

Yes, if you make any changes to the default keyboard shortcuts, Revit will now store and create a KeyboardShortcuts.xml file in:

%appdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012\

Its in your roaming directory so that your shortcuts will "roam" with you.

[Zride91]

Harlan, if creating a network deployment is there a way to create/modify the .ini in the AdminImage folder of the deployment for corporate standards/customizations so it will take affect for all the installs by default rather than changing all the .ini files AFTER the installs?

Now that the 2012 deployment creation has slimmed down and limited what you can change in the deployment, .ini modification is more critical than ever, and I'd like to only have to do it once, rather than on EVERY machine.

Thank you.

[Harlan Brumm]

Check out this post we just published: http://revitclinic.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/05/deploying-revit-2012-with-a-customized-revitini-file.html

This post tells you how you can get Revit to create your custom Revit.ini file as part of your deployment.

[Nicholas Seibert]

I am trying to change the project path to go to a temp directory but it keeps defaulting back to my documents. Also i cannot get the Open family location to change.

Suggestions?

Thank you.

[Harlan Brumm]

1st make sure that both folders exist already and that you are not asking to create them. If it fails though, Revit should warn you.

Then, make sure that the Revit.ini file in your roaming directory is updated correctly.

To make this change, I simply updated the existing lines in my ini file with new path information like this for the Project path (when clicking open)

ProjectPath=%TEMP%\Documents\

and for when opening a family :
DataLibraryLocations=Metric Library=c:\Families\,Metric Detail Library=c:\Families\

Hope this helps,

[Nauman Mysorewala]

HArlan:
How do I copy a updated UISTATE.DAT during deployment. I copied the UIstate.dat to the %appdata% folder, but since it does not have the REvit.ini file yet, it gets reset (as you mentioned). how can I prevent it from being overritten during deployment?
Should I copy Revit.ini from userdatacache to %appdata% so it does not overrite.?

[Todd Hand]

Before Revit 2012, you use to be able to go into the Revit.ini file and delete the recent projects from the file and clear your Projects & Families on the Recent Files page when you first open Revit.

Now in 2012 the Revit.ini file no longer has the recent files listed within the Revit.ini file.

Does anyone know where that moved too? How do you clear the recent files page when Revit first opens?

Thanks