I have a question to the community, I’m doing a research about upgrading Revit files.
I need to upgrade several project files from Revit2016 to Revit2018.
I gather several opinions about upgrading version to version, but then I have to upgrade twice (2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018). It would be faster directly from 2016 to 2018. I assume that any of the options could originate some issues and even lost some info. Then, which option should be considered the best one?
The only possibility Revit offers is one by one with eTransmit. I read some other topics about Dynamo workflows, and I know there is also some plugins. Which method should I use?
Dynamo will definitely be your best bet, being able to run the process in the background while continuing your day is extremely helpful. And there’s a ton of topics here about upgrading workflows!
A few things to keep in mind when upgrading:
You should save the models to a different location (desktop is my go to spot). This will avoid interfering with any production models. (Also, look into batch upgrading where you can save all your models to a location, and the “upgrader” will go through the folder and upgrade each model saved there)
Revit’s word processing changed in 2017. Anytime I’ve seen a model upgraded to 2017 and up, a lot of the text elements had to be readjusted. I feel this is the closest to any issues you would be running into.
If you use windows 10, doing this process on the second desktop will keep your current work uncluttered and keep your desktop windows from freezing up on you.
archive each model in its Native version prior to upgrading.
upgrade them sequentially. 2016-2017-2018 don’t skip versions.
too many revisions and service packs to skip over will cause issues.
all associated links will need the same treatment (AutoCAD and Revit 2018 is a different file extension
[ .dwg ] in 2018 ) 2018 is not yet stable
The reasoning quoted above I find is sound enough to follow as a practice for upgrading. The less issues that could arise, the better!
Essentially you just need to have Dynamo open the file in the later version (performs upgrade), then quickly close it with a save option. Here is an example on just one file. (This process does take a while to run too though)
Ok, so definetely version by version and with Dynamo.
I know there is a node to open file on background, but I have some doubts about it:
Does it exist any possibility to open several projects at once?
Could Revit export a report like it does when we do it manually? This is the most important point because we assume that in every migration we will lose some info or element, so we will need some report with all the warnings and errors to solve it.
I have been able to get a similar script to work using this basic graph but I am trying to expand it so I can upgrade projects with linked files in them as well. I have been able to get close by having my linked models in a subdirectory inside the same directory that holds the host model. Then using the GetDirectoryContents node and reversing the output I get a list of .rvt files sorted by the ones in the deepest subdirectory so the linked files will be opened or upgraded first. It technically works as intended UNTIL it gets to the host model. When the host is being upgraded it does a temporary upgrade to all the linked models. It appears that it is opening and upgrading everything before saving and closing any of the links. Is there a way to make dynamo complete the save and close for each document before opening the next one on the list? Using the UpgradeFile node from Rhythm does save each file before opening the next but since it sorts the upgraded files into a different folder the host still ends up with the temporary upgrade issue and the links need to be moved back to the original folder or reloaded from the new location in the host. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
