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Important Do's and Don'ts of Harvest Workflow

Harvest is easy and straightforward, but there are things you should know to keep it that way



  1. Project Name is a property in the Revit file(s) you Harvest from, in the Revit Ribbon at Project Information. You can change the name: 
    Project Name
  2. Harvest is designed currently to write Harvested content into subfolders organized within the Harvest destination folder that you select in Harvest's settings. The folder organization is:
    1. The Harvest Distribution folder that you selected in Harvest settings
      1. The value of the Project Name parameter (of rvt 1)
        1. Families
        2. Drafting Views
        3. Reference Views
        4. Schedules
        5. etc. by Revit element type...
      2. Value of the Project Name parameter (of rvt 2)
        1. Families
        2. Drafting Views
        3. Reference Views
        4. Schedules
        5. etc. by Revit element type...
  3. We recognize that AVAIL users have asked for more control over this structure. We are considering that in future development planning.
  4. While it is possible to manually move Harvested content out of the folders that Harvest placed them into, and use them however you wish without AVAIL, functional metadata then gets disconnected, and AVAIL functions are affected by the broken link.
  5. AVAIL recommends against moving Harvested content manually and instead, when you wish to move Harvested content to different folders, use Harvest to move it for you. We have a page here that explains why, and what to expect:
    1. Short article How Do I Move Harvested Content to a Different Network Folder After It's Been Harvested?
    2. Long article How AVAIL handles content re-pathing in 3 different scenarios
  6. When you let Harvest do the moving for you, Harvest heals the links for you, so the Harvest-published content points to the new location. You don't have to do any complicated repair yourself. This is covered in the long article above.
  7. There are other aspects of Harvest-managed content. Revit container files may be saved-as, their file name changed, their location changed, the Project Name value changed, they can be upgraded to a new Revit version, and so on. In those cases, Harvest acts with continuity, or breaks it, depending on the settings you set for Harvest before re-harvesting. We have a page that documents that here: How Does AVAIL Handle Changes in RVT Container Files? That page includes a table that summarizes what to expect:
    1. Harvest after Container File Changes SUMMARY
  8. As content is edited in container files repeatedly over months and years, re-harvesting is expected. Up until our current preview releases (August 2026) which are available for testing here (production release is coming very soon) https://app.getavail.com/preview, Harvest did not inform you about the status of things that have been harvested. That changes in AVAIL for Revit 5.8. Harvest now informs you:
    1. What items in the container file are already published
    2. What items in the container file are not yet published
    3. When each item was published to AVAIL
    4. Who published it
    5. What's new and changed in each published item since it's last Harvest
      1. Harvest gives a written change log that states in detail:
        1. what changed in family geometry and parameters since the last harvest
        2. what changed in drafting views since the last harvest
        3. etc.
          1. differencing for View Templates, Groups, and other Revit elements, is planned development
          2. Current preview releases do differencing between elements in a container file and their published state in AVAIL.
          3. Future releases will support differencing between active Revit projects, and published content in AVAIL.
      2. A visual differencing interface showing what changed visually is coming soon.
  9. Harvest generates high quality preview images (and vector PDF since version 5.8.3), but for situations where a custom preview is desired, that is supported:
    1. Place you preferred custom preview image in the same folder as the Harvested content, and name it to match the name of the harvested content.
    2. at the channel level in the three dots menu, or on individual content by Right-Click, go to: Manage Thumbnails > Virtualize Thumbnails
    3. then Manage Thumbnails > Delete Virtualized Thumbnail
    4. AVAIL will then correctly show your custom preview image
    5. Later, when you re-Harvest content, Harvest will overwrite the custom image, but the resolution is:

      (at the content or at the channel level) run Manage Thumbnails > Delete Virtualized Thumbnail

      AVAIL will then correctly show again your custom preview image.