So, you made a woozy on your central (and local) workset file.  You were OK, until you found that there are no magic backup number files in the folder with your .rvt file like there were with your non workset files.  Now your heart has sunk, and well, lets face it: you probably aren’t here for my intros.  So let’s get right to it.

So there’s a few steps to be had here, but all in all it’s a relatively simple task to recover your central file work.  With no projects open (personal preference), head to the Collaborate tab on your Ribbon and find the Restore Backup tool below Show History.

This will launch a dialogue that can be a little confusing.  You’re not looking for a file, but instead the backup folder.  It should be located in the same location as your central file, and be titled something like youProjectFileName_backup.

Select that folder and click open… almost there!

Now you have something similar to the Show History Dialogue, except here you can select which step of your project you want to restore!.. COMPLETE WITH DATE AND TIMESTAMPS!!!  This screen in itself should be good enough reason for you to A) Save every hour and B)Leave comments when you save to central ;).

Before we get all excited let’s take a look at a what these options give us.

USE THIS OPTION.  This will save your central file out to a completely detached workset file that no longer has any attachments to any local files linked to the existing central file.  I can not even fathom a single scenario where you would not use this option

This saves the recovery file over the existing central file.  I can not fathom a single reason why you would rather use this over Save As… please tell me if you think of one.

Hopefully this one is self explanatory…

Hopefully you used this one before looking for help on google…

Choose the one that best suits you and follow the remainder of the dialogues.  You’ll be back up in no time!

Personally I’ve only had to visit this dialogue once since I started using Revit.  If you’ve found yourself in need of this, I hope it has helped you recover your project and that you too never have to visit this dialogue again.  As always, thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to comment and I hope to see you again for another Revit TotD!

-Carl