Are your Revit models taking FOREVER to open, process commands, or even save?

If so, you may have corrupted project files. ATG support can help!

If your Revit models take forever to open, process commands, switch views, sync and/or save, you may have corruption in your project file(s). Here are a few ways we can fix and prevent RVT model corruption and avoid loss of productivity.

• Update everyone’s Revit stations to the latest build (you can get this update/patch in the administrator’s Autodesk account or from the desktop app).
• Ensure ALL users are cleaning their TEMP folder regularly.
• Audit / Purge / Compact the model every week. This is an essential step. Make sure your team is auditing weekly at a minimum, purge selectively, Compacting the model when no one is in the model. This will reduce the amount of cache the model is carrying and fix any minor, surface level issues that the program may find. The audit function also has a much better reporting method that will give Autodesk a better understanding on any larger issues. The purging will release any unused items that may be bloating the project.
• Try to mitigate all errors and/or warnings that pop up as soon as possible. This step is very important, no matter how small the errors may seem. The impact of errors is both due to scope and quantity. The more errors accumulate, the more impact it has on model performance.
• Upgrade your RAM if working with large models with many links. Remember the “Rule of 20” if your projects are work-shared: Any central file will need approximately 20 times its file size in available RAM. (Using this rule, a 100MB Revit central file will consume approximately 2 GB of RAM)
• Have users change their work-sharing frequency to manual (if applicable).
• In multi-user work-shared Revit projects, avoid overlapping or concurrent syncing by users. For file-based Revit work-sharing, check the “work-sharing monitor” before attempting to sync, and wait to sync until others are done.
• Have people create new locals EVERY DAY.
• Publish the model every week.
• Audit and purge all linked files and reload them into the main model.
• Minimize or avoid the use of Model/Detail groups, including nested groups, in your workflows. Also, under no circumstance, groups should be MIRRORED.
  • It slows processing.
  • It sometimes causes corruption. We have seen Revit freak out with nested detail groups.
• Use “Hide element in view” extremely sparingly. It degrades performance and have known to corrupt views. It is best to use other methods filters, view templates controlling visibility.
• Please follow the guidelines below on CAD/DWG files:
  • Remove any/all circular references.
  • If any linked DWG files are not needed, unload it.
    • CAD files add a considerable bloat to Revit. IF CAD files are visible in the view, the view navigation performance is affected. Revit does not translate CAD very efficiently, so the less CAD we have in our models, the more efficient the software will run.
  • If it is needed, at least audit and purge the cad file and delete unneeded layers and then relink it in.
  • Make sure there are no dimensions or SPOT elevations that are reference to the cad file.
  • If it is needed for printing purposes, it is best to put cad files on its own workset and make that workset not visible in all views. Turn it on via visgrapics in the view it is needed. Better yet, unload it if not actively needed.
  • IMPORTING CAD then Exploding in an active project or a published family file can wreak havoc on the model leading to corruption. Avoid this at all costs.
  • Always use an interim file to convert CAD linework into Revit lines.
  • In a new project or family Import the CAD, Explode and then remap the lines, patterns to match your company standards or OTB types and styles. Then copy/paste the cleaned-up version into your actual project or family.
  • When linking CAD files, it is advisable that CAD files should be cleaned up (especially Civil files), purged, audited & PROXYGRAPHICS set to 1 before linking it into the RVT model.
  • Avoid AutoCAD objects in families.
• Verify everyone is on a hard wire connection. Wi-Fi is one of the causes for this error.
• Review memory usage on server which stores Revit files (if work-sharing over a network where the file is stored on your own server) and add more memory to server if needed.
• Always make sure you have the latest video card driver installed (control panel > device manager > expand “display adapters” section > double click on your video card > go to the “driver” tab > click “update driver” > check “search automatically for updated driver software”)
• Always make sure Windows is up to date.
• Always make sure that you have enough free space on your computer (at least 5 GBs on the local hard drive)
• If Revit is behaving strangely on all projects, try to run a “repair” on Revit via the Control Panel > Add Remove Programs
• Check your journal files on a regular basis for key words such as “error, warning, crash, exception, fail & missing”, and resolve any issues. Journal files can help you identify if any specific elements are referenced prior to the issue (this might help isolate problematic elements faster). Notepad ++ is free program that offers a great way to review a large amount of journal files quickly.
• Make sure the user has full control to the storage drives that Revit accesses.
• Always make sure you have a good backup copy of the model. Make sure you do automatic backups on a regular basis.
• Keep non-workshared files and local workshared files on the local hard drive — Writing directly to a network path increases the chance of a read/write failure.
• Avoid using the Undo command after synchronizing or canceling a synchronize process.
• Reduce the cloud density of point clouds in the authoring software (if applicable)
• Try disabling add-ins and restart Revit (Go here: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\[Version], create a new folder called “disable”, and then move all plugins into the disable folder. Note – Do not remove the collaboration add-ins if your files are workshared)
• Run only one Revit session at a time and keep other programs closed when not needed as well.
• If the above steps do not clear up the issue, delete all elements from the project by going through the following steps (and retest after each deletion to find when, or if, the issue is cleared):
  • Go to a default 3D view.
  • Draw a crossing selection box (from bottom right to top left) over all the visible elements and delete them.
  • Delete all but one level.
  • Delete all the project views, except for the default 3D view.
  • Delete all the schedules.
  • Delete all the sheets.
  • Delete all the loaded families.
  • Optional: Use the CTC BIM Batch Suite’s free Family Exporter tool to identify corrupt families
  • Delete any design options.
  • Disable work-sharing.
  • Delete loaded families from the project (select multiple family types in the Project Browser, right click and select Delete).
  • Purge Unused objects from the project (you may need to run this several times to clear all possible items).
• If the issue stops after removing “everything” from the project, then we know it is related to one of the items removed. Start removing less elements to find the group responsible. If you find that the issue is related to one of the elements deleted (instead of a sheet, schedule, or view), go through the following steps to isolate the family or family instance:
• After selecting all the elements, and before deleting them, filter your selection by category, removing groups of categories. This will allow you to find the category of the problematic elements.
• Once you know the category, use the project browser to find all the families associated with that category, expand the family, right click on it -> Select All Instances, and select In Entire Project. Remove groups of families within the category to find the specific family related to the issue.
• Once you have isolated the family related to the issue Select All Instances again, and then use the IDs of Selection command to get the Element ID for all the family instances. Copy these IDs, paste them into a text editor, Select by ID in groups to find the specific element(s) associated with the issue.
• Once you have identified the specific items causing the issue, try cutting to the clipboard (if possible) and then pasting back to the same place. If this does not work (or is not possible), remove the items and recreate them, but test to see if the issue returns at each stage (e.g., after drawing the object, after editing the profile, after changing parameters.)

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