Wednesday, January 21, 2009

It's all "Relative"....


Using Relative paths for Revit files is a common practice since most of us are sharing our files with consultants and the odds of them having the exact same network configuration is slim.

Unfortunately there is a problem with Relative paths. Revit will only consider a link to be relatively pathed if the linked file is in the same folder as its host.
So if you link a file from another folder and set the path to Relative, Revit will still remember the path to that file and look for it along that path when the host file is moved or copied.

This isn't the end of the world, but it will require reloading of linked files when they are shared with consultants, copied or moved.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About working the links: yhou have to maintain the integrity of the whole

Have you heard of database integrity? I think the same thinking should be applied here. If you carefully plan your structure, every linkage works easily. Conversely, if you do not plan it well, you will suffer.

The directory /file structure should be treated with the same extreme care and thinking as you would to any logical database. (Linking in this case, is really a networked database, but that's another story) If you keep it together, tinkering is not necessary, and you will be far far better off.

(the programmer in me speaking here)

PS This PE needs a job, and hes helping writing a book on Revit MEP, and he needs your opinions on it. See his web page.