The Revit Clinic

Update to planned downtime for Collaboration for Revit this weekend

The Planned Collaboration for Revit update has been changed. The following e-mail was sent out to Collaboration for Revit users explaining change:

Planned downtime for update to A360 Collaboration for Revit® 2015 ***Postponed until March 13***

The update to the A360 platform scheduled for Saturday, March 7^th has been postponed until Saturday, March 14^th. This will coincide with a planned update to A360 Collaboration for Revit (C4R) beginning the evening of Friday, March 13. There will be no downtime March 6 or 7.

Repairing Revit Server can break Revit Server Administrator!

It has been reported that using the Repair function (in the Programs and Features Control Panel) for Revit Server will cause Revit Server Administrator to stop working, showing the following message:

We have found that the repair process is changing the Managed Pipeline mode for the Revit Server Application Pool from Integrated to Classic, and this change is leading to the error above.

Fortunately fixing this can be fairly fast:

1. Open IIS Manager (Microsoft link).

2. Change the Managed Pipeline mode for the Revit Server AppPool

from Classic -> Integrated

Note: In the image above, Revit Server 2014 was repaired (through the Control Panel), and the Managed Pipeline Mode was incorrectly set to Classic.

 

 

 

Revisions & Keynotes & Worksets & Revit 2014

I want to update and elaborate on our previous post:

When Adding a Keynote Tag the User Borrows a Sheet Workset

For Revit 2013 or earlier there are 2 common scenarios where sheet view worksets can be borrowed working with keynotes or revisions.  The first was mentioned in the original post:

1. There is a sheet in the project A101.
2. Several project views have been placed on this sheet.
3. UserA is in one of the views that appear on sheet A101.  UserA has not opened or edited sheet A101 directly.
4. In this view UserA adds a keynote.
5. Because this view appears on sheet A101, Revit needs to borrow the view workset for sheet A101 to update keynote data.  There could also be a keynote legend on this sheet for example.
6. If UserB attempts to add a keynote to one of these views before UserA syncs with central & relinquishes they would receive the expected “Can’t edit the element until UserA…” message.

The second is applicable only for Revit 2012 \ 2013, where tagging linked model geometry with keynotes is possible:

1. There is a host model containing a Revit link.
2. Keynotes are added (in the host) attached to link geometry.
3. At some point the link geometry changes (such as deleting a wall) causing the keynote tag to become orphaned.
4. When a keynote tag is orphaned, it is removed from keynote legends when filtering by sheet.
5. The next user to create a new local file, or reload the link will load those changes (which orphans the keynote tag).  This in turn borrows every sheet view workset that tag previously appeared in.

For Revit 2013 or earlier the original post provides some additional information around this behavior.

For Revit 2014 keynote and revision functionality has been improved.  Sheet view worksets are no longer borrowed during the same process, which should give larger project teams additional flexibility (especially during documentation-heavy project phases).

Model Elements on View Worksets

Revit has 4 main categories for worksets:

User-Created
Families
Project Standards
Views

The only category directly accessible to users (to change the workset assignment) is User-Created.

In Revit 2013 or earlier you may occasionally notice a model element (such as a wall, door, family, etc.) on a View workset.  View worksets are not user selectable and are instead managed by Revit internally.  So how did this happen?  This could occur under the following scenario: 

1. The user selects and enters an edit mode for an element on a view workset.  Some examples include plan regions, detail groups, or filled regions
2. Instead of using ‘Finish Edit Mode’ or ‘Cancel Edit Mode’ the user instead clicks Undo to exit edit mode
3. Now back in the project, the user starts adding model elements, such as walls.  The walls are placed on the current View workset instead of the active User-Created workset (until the user opens the workset dialog or changes the active workset):

This behavior was improved in Revit 2014.  Using Undo to exit edit mode will correctly reset the active workset.

For earlier releases you can easily isolate elements that may be on an incorrect View workset and assign them to a specific User-Created workset.

First to isolate model elements on view worksets:

1. Create a new 3D View and turn on all categories in Visibility / Graphic Overrides
2. Set the view ‘Discipline’ to ‘Coordination’
3. In Visibility/Graphic Overrides > 'Worksets' tab, set every workset ‘Visibility Setting’ to ‘Hide’ > OK to close the dialog
4. Any element that is visible should be on view workset.  This makes it easy to identify inconsistencies in workset assignment

To move the elements to the desired User-Created workset:

1. Set the Active Workset to the workset you wish the model element onto
2. Cut to Clipboard
3. Paste Aligned to Same Place.  The model element should now be on the active workset.  If it worked correctly you should not see the element again until you adjust the Visibility / Graphic Overrides > Worksets tab, and set ‘Visibility Setting’ back to not use ‘Hide’

RSN.ini and File Extensions

As the RSN.ini provides the Revit application workstation  which Hosts are visible during file navigation, as well as determines which Hosts can be accessed through the Revit Server Administrator from an Admin Server, it is one of the more important files in the Revit Server Network.

We have seen that even though the RSN.ini is in the proper location, the workstation cannot see any Host Servers in the Revit Server Network, or the Admin Server cannot access Host Servers through Revit Server Admin.

In a few of these cases, the issue was that in certain environments, Windows hides the file extension for known file types, Text documents being one of them.

Therefore, a user may think they have created an RSN.ini file, when in reality they have created an RSN.ini.txt file, which Revit does not recognize.  

 

 

 

 
The fix is to make sure the Type for the RSN.ini says "Configuration" as in the screenshot above.

To have Windows show the file extensions go to Control Panel  > Folder Options > View > Advanced Settings then make sure "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked, as in the screenshot below:

An Explanation of Multiple Host Support in Revit Server 2013

The following post comes from Mike in our QA group for Revit Server.

Revit Server 2013 supports the deployment of multiple host servers throughout the Revit Server Network.  Some users believe that these host servers function as mirrors to each other, such that a model stored on one host would be transparently mirrored to another, akin to a RAID 1 disk array.  However this is not the case.  A more accurate mental model is that of multiple file shares on a network.  Just as a network can be configured with several shared folders for the storage and organization of shared content, the Revit Server Network can be configured with several hosts for the storage and organization of Revit models.  Each host is independent of every other, and there is no mirroring or replication between host servers.

Using multiple host servers affords several benefits:

• Improved fault tolerance.  For instance, if one host server is disrupted by a power outage, the content at the other host servers is still available.

• Opportunities for performance optimization.  Models can be stored and moved throughout the network to keep them as close to the “center of activity” for a project as possible. Furthermore, server role configurations can be dynamically adjusted to accommodate project needs as they evolve.

• Improved utilization of network resources.  Using multiple host servers can help distribute and balance the network traffic required for effective collaboration.

When multiple hosts are deployed, each accelerator has the ability to cache content from any host server in use.  If a particular instance of Revit Server has host and accelerator roles enabled, the accelerator will not cache the content stored on that server as a host (there is no need to; it is already there) but it will cache content stored on any other host.

The Revit Server wiki help has a supplemental video on this topic, located here:

Revit Server Network Deployment

When Adding a Keynote Tag the User Borrows a Sheet Workset

You may on occasion notice a user becoming the borrower of a specific sheet workset in the project.  This user may never have opened or explicitly borrowed that particular sheet.  To confirm this navigate to Workset > Views > with the specific workset beginning with View “Sheet…

One common scenario where this will occur is as follows:

1. There is a sheet in the project A101.
2. Several project views have been placed on this sheet.
3. UserA is in one of the views that appear on sheet A101.  They have not opened or edited sheet A101 directly.
4. In this view UserA adds a keynote.
5. Because this view appears on sheet A101, Revit needs to borrow the view workset for sheet A101 to update keynote data.  There could also be a keynote legend on this sheet for example.

The next time UserA synchronizes with central, borrowed elements would be checked for relinquishment and the user would no longer be the borrower of the sheet workset.

However during the period when UserA is the borrower of sheet workset A101 [before they sync] UserB could potentially run into this message:

Because UserA initially borrowed the sheet workset by adding a keynote in one of the views, UserB cannot add a keynote in another view which appears on the same sheet.  UserA would have to synchronize with central to relinquish \ save the keynote changes first.

UserB would also be unable to add another project view to sheet A101 during this same period; if they tried they would receive the same message since UserA is borrowing the sheet.

A user may not understand why they are listed as the sheet borrower given they never opened or modified the sheet directly.  All users in the project should understand that when they place a keynote in a view, all sheet worksets will be borrowed which that keynote appears in.

In addition to keynotes, revisions added in views work in exactly the same manner.

A standard synchronize with central relinquishing the borrowed elements will clear the sheets that were borrowed; then the other user can simply reload latest \ or synchronize with central as needed.

Note that this behavior has been improved for Revit 2014.

Linked Model Edited By Username changes after Synchronize with Central

Let’s look at a quick scenario that could potentially cause confusion after a synchronize with central:

1. UserB creates a new project > enables worksets > saves central model.
2. UserD creates a new local from central model > then creates a new Revit model.
3. UserD saves the model as Link.rvt > closes model.
4. UserD then places Link.rvt into their local model.  They move link.rvt to desired location in project.  Edited by reads UserD as expected.
5. UserD synchronizes with central and does not choose to relinquish any worksets.
6. The link instance Edited by changes from UserD to UserB.

It may not be immediately obvious why this occurs, since UserD created this model \ inserted it \ and did not choose to relinquish any ownerships at synchronize with central.

In this example UserB originally created the central model that UserD later created the local model from.

UserB has ownership of Workset1 in the central model.  They never relinquished and still own this workset. The link instance was placed on Workset1.

In Revit you can always add new elements to a workset that is owned by another user.  However when you synchronize with central you are publishing the new elements to that workset.  This would apply to linked models, individual elements, etc.  If another user owns that workset they will own the new elements as well until they subsequently relinquish or grant an element to another user.

File is being accessed by someone else and is not available

This post is contributed by Niranjan Kamath who supports Revit on our team in India.  

While working with a workshared file, Revit will report an error whereby the central file is not accessible.

 

This issue occurs only when the clients had a different OS version. We could not recreate the file access issue if the clients were both W7, or both XP for example.

The reason being:  Windows 7 client communicates with the server using SMB2, while the Windows XP client uses SMB. This difference in version may cause some file handling issues.

To resolve this issue disable SMB2 from Server and Win 7 users.

To disable SMB 2.0 for Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 systems that are the “client” systems, run the following commands:

sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi

sc config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

Note there's an extra " " (space) after the "=" sign.

To enable back SMB 2.0 for Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 systems that are the “client” systems, run the following commands:

sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsi

sc config mrxsmb20 start= auto

Again, there's an extra " " (space) after the "=" sign.

In order to disable SMB 2.0 on the server-side computer, follow these steps:

Warning!
This document contains instructions for editing the registry. If you make any error while editing the registry, you can potentially cause Windows to fail or be unable to boot, requiring you to reinstall Windows. Edit the registry at your own risk. Always back up the registry before making any changes. If you do not feel comfortable editing the registry, do not attempt these instructions. Instead, seek the help of a trained computer specialist.

• Run "regedit" on Windows Server 2008 based computer.
• Expand and locate the sub tree as follows.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

• Add a new REG_DWORD key with the name of "Smb2" (without quotation mark)
  
  Value name: Smb2
  Value type: REG_DWORD
  0 = disabled
  1 = enabled

• Set the value to 0 to disable SMB 2.0, or set it to 1 to re-enable SMB 2.0.
• Reboot the server.

Removing and Replacing Models on Revit Server

Should you need to remove and replace a model on Revit Server I have included the recommended process below for 2011 and 2012.  Special thanks to Michael Brian Lee for this process!

For both Revit Server 2011 and 2012:

[1a] Open Revit Server Administrator and place a lock on the model to be replaced.  This will give users notice that the model is under maintenance.

[1b] When the lock is successfully applied, in Revit Server Administrator, unlock the model.

[2] Immediately after unlocking the model, select the model and delete it.  This will remove the model from the Central server.

[Note: Steps 1a and 1b are not strictly necessary, but can be more user-friendly to the Revit end users]

For Revit Server 2011 Only:

For each local server…

[3] Shut down the Autosync service:

        [3a] Invoke the Administrative Tools dialog.

        [3b] Open the Services dialog.

        [3c] Locate the service “Revit Server Autosync” service.

        [3d] Stop the service.

        [3e] Invoke Windows Task Manager and confirm that there is no process         running DataStorageAutoSyncService.exe.  If there is, end the process.

[4] Locate the Cache root folder.

[5] Navigate to the folder corresponding to the deleted model and delete this as well.

[6] Restart Autosync from the Services panel.

For Revit Server 2012 only:

[3] Wait 5-10 minutes.

For each local server…

[4] Locate the Cache root folder.

[5] Verify that the folder corresponding to the deleted model has been deleted [cleaned up by Autosync].

[6] If it has not been deleted, perform the steps described above for “2011 only”.

For both Revit Server 2011 and 2012:

[7] At this point, the model will have been deleted from the Central server and the Caches cleared of any pre-existing state.  It is then safe to use Revit to save a new model with the same name to Revit Server.