Explore the intricate steps involved in saving a file for distribution to other design consultants in the Revit Project Management system. This article provides a comprehensive guide on creating, saving, and reopening a new central file for effective project management.
Key Insights
- The article details the process of saving a project file for distribution by creating a new central file that is disconnected from the current one on the server, ensuring that all local files and permissions are disconnected and ownership of model elements is relinquished.
- A new folder is created within the project folder, and it is recommended to use dated folders for organization. The file name should be predetermined by the project team and maintained throughout the life of the project.
- Prior to saving, it is necessary to go to the options and select the option to make a new central file. After saving, it is advised to close the model and reopen the user local file to avoid making changes in a different environment than the rest of the design team.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Hello and welcome to the CAD Teacher VDCI video series for Revit Project Management. In this video, we're going to take a look at the steps necessary to save our file to be distributed to our other design consultants. So the first thing we're going to want to do is we're going to want to Save to Central.
That way we'll pick up all the changes from the other team members. We also might want to contact them and make sure they haven't made any changes as well so we can make sure we have their current versions also. Now that we have the most recent model, what we're going to do is we're going to create a new central file that's disconnected from the current one on our server.
And we want to do that so that we can disconnect our local files and any permissions that we have and relinquish our ownership of any of the model elements. So I'm going to go to the Application Menu > Save As > Project. Within our project folder, for this class it's BIM 304, let's go ahead and create a new folder.
We'll call that folder "Export." And within the Export folder, it's a good idea to have dated folders. So I'll create a new folder and I'm going to date it with the year (four digits), followed by two digits for the month and two digits for the day.
And if necessary, I can say "Revit Export" as a kind of descriptor so that we know exactly what's being exported, so it's not just many dates. We can kind of have an idea of what we're sending out. And then we want to use a file name that's been predetermined by the project team.
%20(1).png)
Learn Revit
- Nationally accredited
- Create your own portfolio
- Free student software
- Learn at your convenience
- Authorized Autodesk training center
So for this project we're using BIM 304, which is our project number, a space, and then the discipline. And so I'm going to remove any of the extra characters that we have there so that I'm just using that same name. And it'll be important to maintain that throughout the life of the project.
Now that we're ready to save, we don't want to just go ahead and hit save. We want to go to Options, and within here this is where we need to tell it to make a new central file. So I'll go ahead and check "Make this a Central File after Save, " and hit OK.
And now we're ready to hit Save. Now that that's saved, what we have now is an independent central file of everything else that we've been working on. We don't want to go in and start modifying this model, because if we do, what'll happen is we'll be making changes in a completely different environment than the rest of the design team.
So what I always do, and this is a really good tip here, is to close this model and then reopen. And you should see it in your recent files here. Reopen your user-local file so that you can get back into that environment, because you don't want to end up in a situation where you've made many changes into the file that was only meant for export and not be able to save that back to the other team.
