Are you looking for a way to batch upgrade models in a folder? Here is a method to do it in Dynamo, although to be frank, it’s not the best. Read below to find out why.

TLDR

You may be better off manually upgrading the models one-by-one the old fashioned way (or two at a time, or more… if you are a pro) simply because this script can have unexpected results. Sorry model managers.

Rhythm

This script is care of the Rhythm team. Thank you guys for creating this script!

Preparing Models and Dynamo

Part 1: Prepare your models

1. Create a separate folder and name it the year you would like to upgrade your Revit models to (ie. 2022)
2. Copy all the models you would like to upgrade into that folder
   • Note 1: You can also choose to archive your models and run the upgrade on your working models, but that is not recommended. It is best to run the script on copied models and replace the working models when everything is done and good.
   • Note 2: Start with up to 3 models only to see if the script works for you, rather than trying 10 models on the first try.

Part 2: Download and run the script

1. Download the script at the link below
2. Open Revit in the version you would like to upgrade your models to (ie Revit 2022)
3. Start a new project using NO template. This is the fastest way to start a project.
4. Open Dynamo and open the downloaded script.
5. Use the directory node to find the folder where your models are, the ones you prepared in Part 1.
6. Run the script once to make sure you have the right files.
7. Switch the “RunMe” node to “True” and run the script again to begin the upgrade process.
8. View the results when the script is done.

What is happening in the script?

The script will open each model, upgrade the model, save the model back in the same folder, and close them. It basically runs through the same steps as if you were doing it yourself. Notice that some boolean nodes were added to specify what to do with the models.

Notes and Issues

As mentioned before, this is not the best user experience. The issue is that the script does not suppress error pop-ups. You must be present during the entire process to click “OK” or “disconnect” or “delete” or whatever the pop-up message says in order for the process to continue. This defeats the whole purpose of setting up automation. I tried looking online for a pop-up suppression solution but could not find one. The best discussion I found was on the forum.dynamoBIM.com here.

If anyone knows a way to suppress pop-ups in Dynamo to improve this script please reach out!

Second, the script may stall and may not work at all. It’s uncertain why the script stalls on some models but not on others regardless if the model is 60mb or 400mb. I tried upgrading 3 models that were less than 100mb, the script froze and did not work.

A neat thing about this script is that it appends a number “0001” to the original model, leaving the original model intact. Not sure why they went with 4 digits, but it works.

Other methods

You might think “why don’t we use BIM360 to mass upgrade all the models?” The thing is when you upgrade a BIM360 project to another version, it only upgrades the models that have been “collaborated” onto BIM360. This means you have to go through the process of manually “collaborating” each model onto BIM360 one by one. Since this is a manual process to begin with, you may as well upgrade each model one by one and not use BIM360 to mass upgrade. You cannot simply upload your models onto BIM360 through Document Management and hope that it works. I tried, BIM360 does not recognize uploaded models for the upgrading process, they must be collaborated.

That leaves us with another alternative method called Clarity. If you don’t know Clarity, Clarity is a server based solution that helps you automate things in Revit. This is a paid product and requires a server set up at your company to run tasks such as printing sheets in models, upgrading models, and running model health checks, just to name a few. Clarity can upgrade models without you being present since error pop-ups are suppressed during the process. It can take a few hours to upgrade over 10 models, but that can be automated overnight. This makes Clarity the most reliable method that to automate mass upgrading Revit models. Though the reason why this is not the number one suggested method is because it costs money and time to setup and this may not be a cost-effective solution for small companies.

Do you have a suggestion?

If anyone has a better suggestion on how to automate upgrading Revit models, please leave a comment below to get in touch. Thanks!