Revit Server: Alternate Project Upgrade Process

You may not be aware that there is an alternate way to upgrade your Revit Server models aside from creating the project folder through Revit Server admin and opening your models detached in the next release and saving up to the current release of Revit Server through Revit.

The alternate method involves physically copying the project folder from the current Revit Server projects folder to the new release of Revit Server projects.

I would like to point out that the models should be cleaned up before they are used in production in the new release of the software, please refer to the following blog for maintenance procedures.

NOTE:  This is only for upgrading projects from one version to another on the same host machine....this is not for copying to another host.  If you need to upgrade models to another host you will need to set up the project through Revit Server Admin and save the files through Revit to the new host server.

This is the ONLY workflow where model management through Windows Explorer rather than Revit Server Administrator is supported!

Process

On the Revit Server host machine open two instances of windows explorer.  One pointing to the current version of the Revit Server Projects folder you will be copying from and the second to the new version of Revit Server projects folder.  We will copy over the entire project folder which will include any subfolders and their models as well.

Note:  You will want to verify that the permissions didn't get changed on the copied folder during the copy process.

Copy the project folder from the current Revit Server projects folder into the new Revit Server projects folder.

If you open the Revit Server Admin for the new release of Revit you will see that the project folder and its contents now shows up

In order to make this a working copy of the central file in the new release you will need to open the file in Revit and synchronize.  Notice that you cannot open this file as a local copy until after is has been synchronized.

During the open process you will receive a couple of upgrade dialog boxes.

Once the model is open select Synchronize and Modify settings.  Project Standard Worksets is preselected.  Select Compact if you like and then OK.

If there are linked models they should still be visible in the project.

Once the file is saved you can close it.  Now you can create a new local file.

IMPORTANT:  Make sure that all users delete or archive their current local file and it's backup folder prior to pulling a new local file!

Linked Models

You will need to perform this process for all of the Revit files associated to this model as well, but it should have the correct path to the files in the new Revit Server environment.  I did receive the following dialog box when I opened the Structural model that was linked in.  

I closed the dialog made an obvious addition to the model and synchronized.  I then reopened the architectural model to confirm that it was pulling from the proper file.

There is an Autodesk video on the process in the Revit Help that you can access at this link

Revised 11/19/2019 to update Video Link

About the Author

Sr. Technical Support Specialist, Building<br><br>Sherry is a certified Autodesk Building Solutions Technical Support Specialist at IMAGINiT. She has been a speaker at several AUGI Cad Camps and a co-speaker at Autodesk University. She is also a certified expert in Revit Architecture. She has 30 plus years of experience in the Architectural field and supports all the Autodesk Building Solutions software. She began her career with us as an Application Engineer conducting training, product demonstrations, and implementation services. She now focuses her knowledge and dedication to the National Solution Center here at IMAGINiT.

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