Detach from Central File – Confusing issue?
I usually get a question about this issue: Detach from Central (DFC).
Thru this blog, I will try to clarify what DFC really means.
Many Revit users ask himself, why I cannot detach the model from the Central file. It is an option during opening a Revit project file.
Every time one tried to detach the model from the central file and save it, it some how reverts itself back to a central file. If you read and fully understand the Revit manual, DFC will only Open Workshared Files Independent of the Central File. This allows anybody to open and use the file, as well as do a save as without destroying the original Central File. You just break the relationship with the original central file. If you save, it will be a “save-as”, and the file will be a new central file in the saved location.
The following is an excerpt from the Revit Manual:
After you open the file, it no longer has any path or permissions information. It is in a state similar to when worksharing was first enabled; all elements in the file can be modified, but no changes can be saved back to the central file. If you save the file, it is saved as a new central file.
Note: If a longer-lasting independent copy of the central file is needed, such as when the central file is suspected to be corrupt, detach from the central file and save it as a new central file. Note that existing local files cannot synchronize with this new central file and new local files created from the detached central file cannot synchronize with the old central file.
If a non-workshared file is opened with Detach from Central selected, Revit Structure ignores the option, and opens the file normally.
Summing up: You can never convert it back to a single-user file, if that’s what’s in your mind.
