Upgrade Revit Model

File: CFG_UpgradeRevitModel

Objectives

To know the benefits and problems of upgrading a project, and to be ready to solve the issues that might appear.

Prerequisites

1. User has basic skills in BIM modelling with Revit Software, and understands the language used.

Description

Before upgrading a project to the current release of Revit, plan the process carefully to avoid issues with the model or with user access.

As a best practice, create a backup copy of the central model before beginning the upgrade process. The backup copy is for use only if the upgraded central model becomes corrupted.

Upgrade the file sequentially: 2016-2017-2018-2019-2020, don't skip versions.

You only need to upgrade the central model. Local copies for individual users will be discarded.

Before beginning to upgrade the central model, instruct all team members to  synchronize with the central model, relinquishing all elements and close local copies of the central model.

After the central model is upgraded, each user creates a new local copy using the same release of the software to which the central model was upgraded. Make sure that all users have access to the appropriate software release.

During the upgrade process for the central model, it is unavailable to users; they cannot Sync with Central or Reload Latest.

If the central model contains links to Revit models, upgrade the linked models before upgrading the central model.

If you upgrade a local copy of the central model and save the upgrade changes, you will no longer be able to Sync with Central.

Procedure

Install the supported versions of Revit, and make sure each version is fully updated.

Open each file in the original version of Revit with Audit checked.

Use Save As to save the file after auditing.

Open the file in the target version of Revit with Audit checked.

Use Save As to save the new version to a different location.

Once all the files are updated, reload and repath the linked files.

Make sure all users delete or archive/rename their old local files and their back up folder if the file has the same name as it did in the previous release.

Problems detected

Revit 2015

If you upgrade to 2015 without updating 2015 to UR 14 first, you can corrupt the families (Family Separation).

Revit 2016

When upgrading a project with family separation in the 2015 or 2016 version, a warning dialog may specify the families that need to be reloaded, and suggest that the user do this in the 2015 version (there is also an option to delete the families).

If you do end up with a file with corrupt families (Revit will cash when trying to edit the family, or you get a corrupt file error), the process below will fix them:

• Find good copies of the affected files.
• Create a separate folder to place the families that need to be reloaded.
• Open the Revit model. Click Insert -> Load Family.
• In the Load Family dialog browse to the folder you created in step 2.
• Select all of the families in the folder (Ctrl - A should do this).
• Click Open. You will need to click the overwrite option for each family.

Revit 2017

Text

The way text is measured in Revit 2017 is different than in previous versions, and this can cause issues with wrapping in Notes, Tags, and Annotations. After upgrading a model, please review all views and sheets to verify the changes to your text instances.

Toposurfaces

Related to toposurfaces, the behavior of additional contours is improved to adhere to the Additional Contours specifications in the Site Settings dialog.

Previously, additional contours started at the bottom of the toposurface regardless of the Start or Stop settings. As a result, when you upgrade a model, existing toposurface objects are not regenerated; the post-updated model looks the same.

However, the first time the toposurface regenerates, such as when you edit the boundary or perform other related operations, Revit uses the new contour behavior. If desired, you can adjust the start range for the Additional Contours settings to achieve the same visual effect as the pre-updated model.

Keynote Legends

The behavior of keynote legends is improved. When a keynote legend is set to By Sheet, Revit takes into account whether a keynote is visible in the view as a result of View Range settings, Design Option settings, or Depth Clipping/Far Clipping settings.

When you upgrade models that have keynote legends By Sheet, ensure that they display correctly. Note that a legend may have changed because it does not display keynotes that are not within the view range, depth clipping, or design option of the views on the sheet.

Railings

Enhancements to railings required changes to existing functionality. When you upgrade a model, railings hosted by floors will likely be slightly altered, as will railings sketched outside a host.

After upgrade, inspect all views to verify changes to railings.

Structural Connections

The new structural connection feature introduced in Autodesk Revit 2017 does not overwrite legacy connection elements in upgraded models.

Older connections will need to be replaced with the generic or add-in connections to be accessed by the new tools.

Render settings

When you upgrade models, render settings defined for the NVIDIA mental ray engine are mapped to Autodesk Raytracer settings to achieve a consistent rendering output. Settings specified in the model for the Autodesk Raytracer rendering engine are not maintained during upgrade.

You must define these settings upgrading a model to Autodesk Revit 2017.

MEP Fabrication

When you upgrade Autodesk Revit 2016 models to Autodesk Revit 2017, the model category for fabrication parts changes from a single Fabrication Parts category to separate categories for MEP Fabrication Ductwork, MEP Fabrication Pipework, MEP Fabrication Containment, and MEP Fabrication Hangers.

Existing fabrication parts schedules that contain ductwork are reused for MEP Fabrication Ductwork. Pipework, containment, and hangers in those schedules have been removed.

Existing tags for duct are reused as ductwork tags. Pipework, containment, and hangers tags have been removed.

Revit 2018

When trying to edit individual families upgraded to Revit 2018 within a project, if they have dimensions pointing to geometry instead of reference planes, a warning will arise telling that this is a problem that you have to manage, but you can skip this warning.

Possible issues / to check

The upgrade process will take a while.

Upgraded projects will be larger (file size) than previous versions – at least 10%

The most common problems are related to corrupted families.

Sometimes similar font types could generate a problem.

Sometimes you can lose phases. Use transfer project standards to get them back. If it happens, maybe some sections will be affected as well (sections that were present prior to the upgrade, but new sections do not appear in the floorplan).

Beam systems can cause problems because their boundaries do not form a closed loop. This is because they are automatically created between beams. To solve this problem, you can isolate these problematic elements and save them in a separate file. As it does not recognize the perimeter beams, this file allows you to upgrade it. Once we have the general file in the current version, and the temporary file in the same version, we can copy-paste those elements in their level.

Examples

Beam systems

Some elements need to be deleted in order to open the file. In this case Beam systems. Export the report in order to solve it. You can isolate those elements and save the model again. Then, if you update the file only with the tricky elements, the update is done without any problem. After that, you can copy-paste those elements.

Text notes

Check text notes. We can see the main problem here. The left image shows the element in 2016 version, which is 5 mm smaller than the other.

As the difference is 0.05mm, the texts are not affected by this modification. Therefore they cannot be exactly the same size.

The solution would be to change the width factor so that they at least the length is the same in their horizontal dimension.

Some text notes within symbol families have disappeared. To fix it, the text is deleted, reloaded, re-created, and reloaded.

Other elements

Some other elements as ceilings or railings have had some problems too:

Other issues

Possible warnings or issues that might appear are shown below. Warnings can be ignored based on their relevance to the project. As said, when certain elements are especially problematic, a good strategy is to isolate them, solve their relationship and copy-paste them back in the updated model.

Conclusion

To know the appropriate practices and workflow is key to control the upgrade process of a Revit model. This guideline explains such good practices and workflows, to upgrade Revit models from one release to the next one, in a successful way. It also explains some issues that might appear, organized by upgrades, and how to solve them.