Local Save Does Not Work - Follow Up

 After speaking with an Autodesk developer we now know that our issue is related to past eTransmit use. Revit mistakenly retained a flag it uses to mark that file as such.

If we can successfully use Synchronize with Central and we get that message when we use Save then the correct response to the warning dialog is the top option: "Save this model as a central model in its current location - Revit will remove this message and allow users to create local copies of the model."

Remember, the message is accurate for files that have been created via eTransmit too. In our situation the files were working fine on BIM 360 but they retained the flag that should have been removed when they were added to the cloud.

Info Added 6/4/2021: The warning is triggered ONLY in the following scenario:

The warning is triggered ONLY in the following scenario: The model has been transmitted and then upload to BIM 360 from Revit using the option “Work temporarily”.

To eliminate this warning for future project, please make sure you choose “Save as a central model in its new location” when uploading the models to BIM 360 from Revit.

Revit has a Wblock Feature Too?

Read a post a couple days ago that AutoCAD has WBLOCK to write information out to a new file. It went on to say that Revit does not. Technically true, no Wblock command. It got me thinking that the "Save as Group" feature however does much the same thing, select elements, create group, Application Menu > Save As > Group. This takes your selected items (the group) and writes them to a new .rvt (project) file. In essence the "same" thing as Wblock.

The subject of the post I read was about splitting a project up. The method advocated is to use Save As to create a separate project and then clean out everything you don't want to keep. The Save as Group approach could/would/should work too. Regardless the hard part isn't Save as...it's carefully filtering/selecting everything.

As you were...

Backups: Save As is a Local File

With Worksets and Central/Local Files there are two options to restore from a Backup; Save As and Roll Back. I'm focusing on the first. To use it you have to open the backups folder of the project you are working on via the File menu > Backups...


Now you select the previous version and choose Save As: (yeah this image only has one previous version...I was lazy)


When you use Save As you are NOT creating a NEW Central File as might be expected. You are actually creating a NEW LOCAL FILE according to the conditions of the project at the time of that Saved Back Up. This means using Save to Central is NOT a good idea!

In order to protect the integrity of the current project file you should immediately use the File menu > Save As, provide a new name and folder location, Click Options and check the "Make this a Central file after Save" option, Click OK, Click OK.


Regarding 2010 there are some subtle changes. First there is a new location for the newly renamed "Restore Backup" feature.


There is a slightly different File Save Options dialog too:

The result of choosing the Specify option means that when a user makes a Local File the Specify Worksets dialog will appear, which enhances the new procedure available for making local files. Whichever selection is made is the one that Local file each user creates will exhibit.

Oh and Save to Central (STC) is now called Synchronize with Central (SWC).