Chapter 21 • Phasing and Design Options 894 aC C e p t i n g t h e pr i M a r y op t i o n You will notice that when you are working in design options, you can only edit items belonging to the current option. If your options set is set to None, then you are actually in the Main Model option. When you are finished with the options and an alternative has been accepted, you can make the accepted option the primary option and click Accept Primary. This deletes all other options, leaving just the one option. (Make sure you have a backup before you do this.) Are You Experienced? Now You Can… configure project phasing settings by adding new phases change and add phase filters, and create phasing graphical overrides create existing and demo plans organize the Project Browser to reflect your phasing create design options CHAPTER 22 Project Collaboration It is quite ironic that the second-to-last chapter of this book contains information that many of you will need to get your first Revit project off the ground. That is, how do we work on a project when multiple people need to be in the model? Revit is only one model, right? Enabling and utilizing worksharing Working in the Revit shared environment Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 896 Enabling and Utilizing Worksharing You may be surprised, but the answer, and the procedure, is not as difficult as some make it out to be. I have seen many explanations on the subject of proj- ect collaboration that are far-reaching and convoluted, thus causing an air of uneasiness. Collaboration is not as horrible as it sounds, and this chapter will explain project collaboration in the simplest terms possible. First we’ll establish exactly what we are trying to accomplish and how to go about doing it. The backbone of project collaboration is within the functionality of worksharing. The concept of worksharing in Revit, broken down into its simplest form, is this: 1. Open the model. 2. Issue a Save As command. Now you have two models. The model you just saved is linked to the original model. Any change made in your model is saved back to the original model. Subsequently, any changes from other users will be brought into your local model. Your coworker can now open the original model and choose Save As. Now there are three models. Any change you make is saved to the original model and to your coworker’s model. Any change your coworker makes is saved to the original model and to your model. The original model is to be considered the central model. The file you save is called a local copy. So to reiterate: you open the central model, and then choose Save As. The file you now have is the local copy (see Figure 22.1). Another good way to view this setup is as a basic computer network. You have a file server, along with several desktop computers that are networked to it. OK, so that’s the concept of worksharing. It’s now time to drill down and see how to activate this network of linked files. As mentioned before, Revit has a function called worksets. The worksets are the backbone of this entire concept. Enabling Worksets The worksets function in Revit influences your model and the way you go about working more than anything you can do. Worksets is a mode you literally have to enter into. After you enable worksets, there is no going back. Worksets are to the Undo button as Kryptonite is to Superman. Essentially, worksets are a way to divide your model. You can almost look at this like phasing. Every element in your model, once you activate worksharing, will have a workset associated with it. As you will see in a moment, levels and Enabling and Utilizing Worksharing 897 grids will be on their own workset while everything else in the model will auto- matically be assigned Workset 1. This assignment is in the form of a parameter that you can see in the Properties dialog, and you can change that parameter. FIGURE 22.1 The basic file-sharing configuration Why would you want to change it? Good question. Here’s an example: say you are modifying an interior partition and your coworker (who is working on her local model) tries to edit that same wall. Your coworker will be denied access to the wall. But there is nothing stopping her from working on another wall in the same area, one that you intended on making the same modifications to. This could get messy fast. To avoid this situation, you can add all your interior parti- tions to a workset called Interior Partitions and actually lock everybody else out of any item that has been placed on this workset. Now that’s the way to work! Obviously this process is not without its rules, quirks, and parts that need fur- ther explanation, so to get started, go to the book’s web page at www.sybex.com/ go/revit2011ner. From there you can browse to Chapter 22 and find the file called NER-38.rvt. To enable worksets and start the worksharing process, follow these steps: 1. Open the NER-38.rvt file. 2. On the Collaborate tab, click the Worksets button on the Worksets panel, as shown in Figure 22.2. 3. You will get a Worksharing dialog that welcomes you to the point of no return. Accept the defaults for Shared Levels And Grids and for Workset 1, as shown in Figure 22.3, and click OK. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 898 FIGURE 22.2 Once you pass this point, there is no turning back. FIGURE 22.3 The Worksharing dialog NOTE Turning on your worksets is a onetime activation process. You do not have to do this every time you want to work on the project. 4. The next dialog you arrive at is named Worksets, as shown in Figure 22.4. As you can see, your two worksets are present in a spreadsheet format. It says they are both Editable and that you own them. Congratulations. There is plenty to explain here: Active Workset indicates the workset where any new item will be either drawn on or inserted on (sort of like the current layer in AutoCAD). There is also a Gray Inactive Workset Graphics option. When checked, this will shade the items not on the cur- rent workset. The Show area at the bottom of the Worksets dialog will allow you to add specific families, project standards, and views to the workset list (see Figure 22.4). 5. Click OK to get back to the model. Enabling and Utilizing Worksharing 899 FIGURE 22.4 The Worksets dialog NOTE You can turn on additional items in the Show category. Unless there is a compelling reason to do so, don’t—especially if this is the first project your team is taking on in Revit. Try to keep your worksets as simple and painless as possible. Just because you can assume ultimate control over your users does not mean you have to. Now that you have activated the worksets and saved the model, it is time to create the central model. This will always be the next step in the process. Creating a Central Model Creating the central model generally will be a onetime deal. You create it imme- diately after you enable your worksets. Also, the individual who creates the cen- tral model needs to be your best Revit user. Okay, best Revit user, follow this procedure to learn how to create the central model: 1. Click the Application button and choose Save As ➢ Project, as shown in Figure 22.5. 2. In the Save As dialog, click the Options button in the lower-right corner. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 900 FIGURE 22.5 Saving the project using Save As 3. In the File Save Options dialog, change the Maximum Backups to 1 (see Figure 22.6). NOTE Notice that the Worksharing area is not active. This is because you are saving the file for the first time after activating worksharing. You have no choice but to make this the central model. 4. Click OK. 5. Call the file NER-CENTRAL.rvt. 6. Click Save. 7. On the Collaborate tab, click Synchronize With Central ➢ Synchronize Now, as shown in Figure 22.7. This saves any changes made. 8. On the Worksets panel in the Collaborate tab, click the Worksets button. Enabling and Utilizing Worksharing 901 FIGURE 22.6 Modifying the settings before you save the central file FIGURE 22.7 Clicking the Synchronize Now button 9. Change both worksets by choosing No for the Editable column (see Figure 22.8). 10. Click OK. (Don’t worry—I will explain what all this means in a moment.) 11. Click the Synchronize Now button. The reason we made these worksets not editable is because when you are working in the central file, you always want to leave it with no editable worksets. That way, users do not have access to these worksets in their local models. O Notice that on the Quick Access toolbar the Synchronize button is now avail- able. Since this is the central model, the actual Save icon is inactive. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 902 FIGURE 22.8 Releasing the worksets by clicking No for Editable The next task we need to tackle is how to make a new workset and move some components onto the new workset. The objective of the following procedure is to create a Site workset and to move the topography and the site components to this workset: 1. Click the Worksets button on the Collaborate tab. 2. In the Worksets dialog, click the New button, as shown in Figure 22.9. 3. In the New Workset dialog, call this workset Site, and then click OK. 4. Set Editable for Workset1 to Yes. 5. Click OK. 6. Go to the default 3D view. 7. Select the toposurface. 8. In the Properties dialog, find the Identity Data category, find the Workset row, and change the workset to Site. 9. Select the rest of the site components, including the split surfaces, the tree, and the shrubs. 10. Put these items on the Site workset. 11. On the Collaborate tab, click the Synchronize Now button. Enabling and Utilizing Worksharing 903 FIGURE 22.9 Creating a new workset 12. On the Collaborate tab, click the Worksets button. 13. Make all worksets not editable, as shown in Figure 22.10, and then click OK. FIGURE 22.10 Making all worksets not editable 14. Click the Synchronize Now button. O If you are finding that the workset parameter in the Properties dialog is inactive, make sure you set the Workset1 workset to Active. . Interior Partitions and actually lock everybody else out of any item that has been placed on this workset. Now that’s the way to work! Obviously this process is not without its rules, quirks, and parts. that need fur- ther explanation, so to get started, go to the book’s web page at www.sybex.com/ go /revit2 011ner. From there you can browse to Chapter 22 and find the file called NER-38.rvt. To. onetime deal. You create it imme- diately after you enable your worksets. Also, the individual who creates the cen- tral model needs to be your best Revit user. Okay, best Revit user, follow this procedure