Current options to choose from, and upcoming future options
For managing multiple version of content in AVAIL, there are options to choose from.
Current Options:
1. Upgrade your content manually
- Upgrade your Revit content (e.g., families) using your preferred upgrade utility.
- Store different versions of content in different folders on your network, and
- index the new versions to version-specific channels
- Optionally, instead of version specific channels, you could index the different versions to a single channel, and filter them by version tags (and keycards if desired)
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If you opt for this, you could use version specific channels as staging channels, get the tag structure completed (see important tips below), add version tags as needed, and then "AVAIL copy" from the staging channel into the single main channel holding all versions.
- If you keep consistent with content names (Chair1 is Chair1 if every version), then Tag Import (from channel or spreadsheet) is the way to get all your tag structure copied onto the new versions of content.
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Important Tips
In the green box is an excerpt. More information is here: https://helpcenter.getavail.com/how-to-fix-broken-content-paths
There is an important difference between Tag IO and Tag Import.
Tag IO is for exporting tags from content in a channel to a spreadsheet, editing tag values in the spreadsheet, and uploading the edited tag values from the spreadsheet back to the content in the same channel.
The Tag IO workflow hinges on column A in the spreadsheet, the content ID number. The content ID number must match across the download and upload within the Tag IO workflow. Columns A (ID), B (path), and C (name) must not be edited in Tag IO.
Tag Import is different. Tag Import is designed to let you apply tags hinging on the content file name only (not content ID). The leftmost column in the sheet in Tag Import must be for content file names.
The spreadsheet you use for Import should omit columns A (ID) and B (path). You can prepare a sheet for use in Tag Import by downloading a sheet using Tag IO, deleting the cells in columns A and B, saving it, and then later using it with the Tag Import tool (not Tag IO).
You can also avoid use of a sheet altogether and just use the "Select Source Channel" option as shown here: How to use Tag Import
Please note:
Existing tags will not be removed from the content during this process. If you wish to remove tags, we recommend using the Channel Tool: Tag IO.
Therefore, if you have previous tags (for version) that need removal, then this is a two step workflow, first Tag Import to import all of the tag structure to the new versions of content, and after completion of the Tag Import, then a Tag IO workflow to remove obsolete version tags.
2. Let AVAIL upgrade your content for you automatically
AVAIL can automatically upgrade all Revit elements, and automatically serve the the correct version of, for example, "Chair1.rfa" depending on which version of Revit the content is loaded/dropped into.
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This is done quietly without announcing the version of the content. AVAIL just supplies the correct version automatically.
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Please see documentation about AVAIL's "Revit Application Versioning" here: https://helpcenter.getavail.com/avail-host-in-cloud-hic-and-revit-application-versioning
3. Future Options:
Application Versioning functionality will expand beyond Revit application versioning, to functional versioning. Different versions of content can be different in ways other than Revit version. For example, the same "Chair1.rfa" can have different parameters in different versions, or different material, or different geometry. The same applies to Drafting Views and all other content types, as well as to content types that are not Revit native.
Along with these changes in capability, version set creation will become increasingly flexible, powerful, and clear and easy to manage effectively.