Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 904 NOTE The reason we are making sure all the worksets are not edit- able is that, in the central model, everything needs to be turned off. Look at the central model as merely a hub that serves as a conduit for passing data as your team collaborates on the project. It is now time to create your local model. Luckily, you have done all the difficult work. Setting up the central file is the hardest part of the worksharing process, and is usually done by the BIM manager or at least the BIM lead person on the project. The act of creating a local file is as simple as issuing a Save As. Creating a Local File With the central file in place, you are ready for the rest of your team to have at it. Although I keep mentioning how easy most of this stuff is, there are some dangers to look out for. The first danger is to never open the central file and stay in it. When you are in the process of creating a local file, you open the central file, do a Save As, and work in your new file. NOTE Some firms also like to have their users physically copy the central file in Windows Explorer and rename it. I err on the side of caution, and have my users open the central file and choose Save As. You may be saying to yourself, “Self, why wouldn’t I just take the advice of the book’s author?” All I can say is, it only takes one time to have a user open the cen- tral model and start working. This generates errors and will cause the other users to be unable to make any edits. This section of the chapter will guide you through the process of creating a local file by opening the central model and saving the local copy as your own: 1. Make sure you are still in the central model. 2. Click the Application button, and choose Save As ➢ Project. 3. Find the folder where your central model is, and create a new folder. 4. Call the new folder Local User and open that folder. 5. In the Save As dialog, click the Options button. 6. In the File Save Options dialog, change the number of backups to 1, and click OK. 7. Save the model in this folder, naming it NER-LOCAL-ERIC.rvt (obviously you enter your name here). Working in the Revit Shared Environment 905 Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a new Revit file that knows your name and everything! Yes, it knows your name. You see, when you create the local file, it is yours to keep. As a matter of fact, if someone else opens your file from their computer, they will not be able to make any modifications. Not only does your local file keep a live link back to the cen- tral file, it actually knows who it belongs to. Revit does this for a good reason. This file now represents you within the team. Working in the Revit Shared Environment With the local model saved, you are free to work away. As you’ll recall, the central model was created with three worksets: Shared Levels And Grids, Workset1, and Site. You, as a local user, can just start working away! As you start making edits to the model, however, Revit is making a note that you are actually borrowing a workset. Revit is also making a note that you physically own the item you are editing. Borrowing? OK, let’s stop right there, and take a look at what this all means. In Revit worksharing, you can either be a borrower of a workset or an owner of a workset. If you are a borrower, the rest of the design team can make modifications to elements in the workset but not to the specific element you are working on. The objective of the next exercise is to make a modification to the site and to investigate what happens in the Worksets dialog: 1. Go to the default 3D view. 2. Delete one of the shrubs. (Remember, we put the shrubs on the Site workset.) 3. On the Collaborate tab, click the Worksets button. 4. In the Worksets dialog, notice that you are now borrowing the Site workset, as shown in Figure 22.11. Click OK. Since there is no good way to have you go through an exercise, you can take your hand off the mouse and read for a few paragraphs. If you are at work and have another willing participant, have them create their own local file, and ask them to start making edits to the model. Notice that the Site workset still says No for Editable. This means that if Cassidy comes along and starts working on the shrubs right next to the one you just deleted, she still can. You don’t own the workset—you are just borrowing it. Now, if you simply changed the shrub to a tree (or made any modifications what- soever to the shrub), Cassidy cannot make any edits to the new tree. When she tries to edit the tree, she will get the error shown in Figure 22.12. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 906 FIGURE 22.11 Borrowing a workset ge t in sy n C Now that you have created the local model, you can see what others are doing, as well as publish what you are doing for the other users. Just click the Synchronize Now button on the Quick Access toolbar, and you and your users are in sync. You may notice in Figure 22.12 that there is a button that allows Cassidy to place a request. When she clicks this button, a request to relinquish is sent to you (see Figure 22.13). Also, she can check to see if any team members have placed a request to her. Working in the Revit Shared Environment 907 FIGURE 22.12 Eric is modifying the element. er i C a .k .a. Ca s s i d y If Eric decides to not relinquish an item to Cassidy, then decides to close his model and leave to go on vacation (ignoring repeated warnings), then we have a situation, don’t we? His office door is locked, and we don’t know his password. What you can do in these trying times is click the Options button at the bottom of the Application menu. Select the General tab, and change the username to the offender’s name. You can now open Eric’s local file and relinquish the worksets. (See the following graphic.) On the other side of the fence, there is no notification to you that anyone is asking you to cough up some site! You can check, though, by clicking Editing Requests on the Collaborate tab. From there, you will be able to expand a list of requests, as shown in Figure 22.14. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 908 FIGURE 22.13 Requesting a relinquish FIGURE 22.14 Checking to see who is begging Now, once you see that Cassidy is begging you to release an item, you get to do the right thing and grant her the request. You do this by simply clicking the Relinquish All Mine button on the Collaborate tab, as shown in Figure 22.15. FIGURE 22.15 The Relinquish All Mine button Working in the Revit Shared Environment 909 See? We can all get along! Until you pull the next move. Suppose you didn’t want anybody else on the team to modify anything in the entire Site workset. There are times when this will occur. To figure out how to do this, follow along: 1. On the Collaborate tab, click the Worksets button. 2. In the Site workset, select Yes in the Editable field, as shown in Figure 22.16. Although Cassidy is a borrower, you can still take over the workset. 3. Click OK. FIGURE 22.16 Occupying the entire workset NOTE If Cassidy was in the middle of an active edit on any items in the workset, you would not have been able to take over. You would then have to place an editing request to her. See? You should have given her the shrub when she asked for it earlier! And so the workday goes in an environment of sharing and getting along. Speaking of environment, suppose you could not care less about the site? There is a good chance you don’t even want to see it. Well, you are in luck. Because you have worksets enabled, you can make it so Revit doesn’t even load the site into your local model. Chapter 22 • Project Collaboration 910 Loading or Not Loading a Workset I’m making a big deal out of a simple task only because this simple task can speed up your performance, and nothing can bog down a Revit model more than a huge site, complete with landscaping and maybe an image. Simply switching the Opened status to No in a workset will force Revit to not load it into your model. If you make an edit that has an influence on the site, don’t worry. Revit will take care of that in the central model. To turn off the site, follow this procedure: 1. Click the Worksets button on the Collaborate tab. 2. In the Site workset, change the Opened status to No, as shown in Figure 22.17. 3. Click OK. Notice something missing? FIGURE 22.17 Changing the Opened status to No Having the ability to turn off large portions of a model can be a tremendous advantage as you move forward in Revit. You do need to exercise caution, how- ever. You could easily deceive yourself into thinking that some portions of the model have not been created yet. Are You Experienced? 911 Are You Experienced? Now You Can… activate worksharing in a Revit project create a central file create a local file manipulate worksets CHAPTER 23 BIM Management Well, here we are: the last chapter. The ironic thing here is that the last chap- ter contains much of the information you will need to proceed with any of this BIM stuff. All too many times I have seen firms do poorly with Revit Architecture due to one fact: they weren’t prepared. “We did not find that Revit worked for us,” someone tells me. I ask them what they used for a template to get started with their first project. “The default one” is always the answer. Setting up the template Managing settings Creating and understanding shared parameters . naming it NER-LOCAL-ERIC.rvt (obviously you enter your name here). Working in the Revit Shared Environment 905 Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a new Revit file that knows your name. any modifications. Not only does your local file keep a live link back to the cen- tral file, it actually knows who it belongs to. Revit does this for a good reason. This file now represents you. As you start making edits to the model, however, Revit is making a note that you are actually borrowing a workset. Revit is also making a note that you physically own the item you are editing. Borrowing?