Solution:
Warning! To avoid accidentally making unwanted and irreversible changes to your (production) project file, before going through any of the steps below, make a copy of the project (and if necessary linked project files) and only work with the copied file.Overview:
- Delete everything from the model.
- Check if the unexpected behavior occurs (recreate elements to reproduce if necessary).
- If the issue is cleared, delete items by category in groups until the specific problematic element or elements are found.
Detailed Steps:
1. If you have particular elements that you suspect are causing the issue, delete them, and test if the issue continues.
2. Check the
journal file recorded by Revit, to see if any specific elements are referenced prior to the issue (this might help isolate problematic elements faster).
3. Delete all elements from the project by going through the following steps (and retesting after each deletion to find when, or if, the issue is cleared):
a. Go to a default 3D view.
b. Draw a crossing selection box (from bottom right to top left) over all the visible elements, and delete them.
c. Delete all but one level
d. Delete all of the project views, except for the default 3D view.
e. Delete all of the schedules.
f. Delete all of the sheets.
g. Delete all of the loaded families.
h. Delete any Design Options.
i.
Disable Worksharing.
j. Delete loaded families from the project (select multiple family types in the Project Browser, right click and select Delete).
k.
Purge Unused objects from the project (you may need to run this several times to clear all possible items).
4. If the issue stops after removing "everything" from the project, then we know it is related to one of the items removed. Start removing less elements to find the group responsible.
5. If you find that the issue is related to one of the elements deleted (instead of a sheet, schedule, or view), go through the following steps to isolate the particular family or family instance:
a. After selecting all the elements, and before deleting them,
filter your selection by category, removing groups of categories. This will allow you to find the category of the problematic elements.
b. Once you know the category, use the project browser to find all of the families associated with that category, expand the family, right click on it -> Select All Instances, and select In Entire Project. Remove groups of families within the category to find the specific family related to the issue.
c. Once you have isolated the family related to the issue Select All Instances again, and then use the
IDs of Selection command to get the Element ID for all of the family instances. Copy these IDs, paste them into a text editor, Select by ID in groups to find the specific element(s) associated with the issue.
Note: When dealing with issues that lead to a crash in the program, I have found it faster to delete several groups of objects, test for the behavior, undo the last deletion, test again, and repeat.
6. Once you have identified the specific items causing the issue, try cutting to the clipboard (if possible) and then pasting back to the same place. If this does not work (or is not possible), remove the items and recreate them, but test to see if the issue returns at each stage (e.g. after drawing the object, after editing the profile, after changing parameters.)
