Check before upload

Every file you add is checked before it is uploaded. When something needs your attention, a window called Check before upload opens. It tells you, for each family, whether it can go into the library and what to do about anything that cannot. When every file passes and there is no duplicate to decide about, the window does not appear and the upload simply starts.

The stages

While the window works you see one of two messages:

1. Parsing files with a counter. Each .rfa is opened in your browser to read its category, Revit version, size and parameters.
2. Checking duplicate family names and file rules. Your rules are run and, if the duplicate check is on, the names are compared with your library.

A file that cannot be read is stopped straight away:

• Not a valid Revit family file. Only .rfa files exported from Revit are accepted.
• Family data is not valid. Please re-export this family from Revit and try again.

Reading the result

At the top of the window, summary notices count the problems:

Each family then shows its own checks in a stack. A failed check says which rule it broke, and carries a Blocks upload label. For a name that breaks your filename rules, the check also shows a Suggested name: the corrected name the rule would produce. The window never renames your file; the change has to be made on your computer. (With Fix automatically a filename problem is corrected for you and does not stop the upload; see Filename rules.)

The naming check names the rule set that was used. It reads My families for your general rules, or the name of the saved convention when the destination folder has its own naming rule.

The upload button counts only what will really be sent. If three files are selected and two are blocked, it reads Upload 1 of 3 families.

The duplicate check

Open Settings, Family, Check before upload. There is one switch:

Check for duplicates. Enable duplicate detection during family upload. The system will automatically verify whether similar or identical entries already exist.

How it decides that a family is a duplicate:

• It compares the name. The contents of the file are not compared.
• If your filename rules fix names automatically, the corrected name is the one compared: with the default "Spaces and punctuation" setting, Door@vendor.rfa is compared as Door vendor.rfa.
• Upper and lower case do not matter: DOOR FRAME.rfa matches Door frame.rfa.
• It looks at all the families you already have in My families, not only the folder you are uploading into.

So two files with different names but identical contents are not reported as duplicates, and two different families that share a name are. A file that is already blocked by a file rule, for example its category, is reported for that reason first.

With the switch off, the rules still run. The comparison is skipped and each file is uploaded as a new family.

What to do with a duplicate

For each duplicate you choose one of three actions. New family is selected until you pick something else.

When several files are duplicates, an Apply to all line lets you set one action for all of them, and you can still change individual files afterwards.

At the bottom left of the window, Upload check settings opens the settings page for this check.