Issue:
Users reported file display issues when uploading Revit files to BIM 360 Document Management or Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) Docs. The files show a "broken" icon:
- In addition, the following message is displayed in the Status column when checking the Publish logs:
Extract
We couldn't process the following document(s):
[File name] Extraction failed
- In ACC, an alert mark (orange triangle) will be visible next to the Revit model file:
Causes:
The source file was uploaded successfully to BIM 360 (and can be downloaded without issues). But it could not be extracted to sheets or views (that would be viewable in the browser) due to one of the following reasons:
The published model or linked model is too large or too complex
- 3D Models, 2D views, or sheets are overloaded with too much detail.
- The model contains too many unused 2D and 3D views.
- The model contains unnecessary links.
- The level of detail (LOD) is too high.
- The model contains overly complex families (for example, families imported from mechanical engineering software).
Published models or linked models open locally with errors or warnings
- Model corruption within the hosting model or one or more of the linked models.
- Error messages or warnings are visible when opening the individual models.
- An Audit or manual repair of these errors or warnings is required.
- Special characters in the path or the file name of linked files.
The model contains corrupted or unused views or too many views have been selected for publishing
- Too many unnecessary or unused views in the project.
- One or more sheets or views have become corrupted.
- The viewing depth of specific views is too large.
- Special characters in a sheet or view name.
- The model contains hidden lines and the 'Hidden Line Views' in the Print Setup are set to 'Vector Processing'.
- Excessive use of "Transparent", "Shaded", or "Realistic" views.
The model contains parameters whose value cannot be empty (null)
- Scope Box parameter for Views may be with missing values.
The model was not saved and published with the latest Revit version
- Revit 2022 and newer uses the latest publishing technology which is faster and more reliable than the publishing engines of Revit 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The model was exported by another tool or is not a valid RVT Model.
- When opening the model the following message appears:
A 3D View is not included in the Publish or Publish settings
- When there is no 3D view included, the process is forced into using the default 3D view which includes everything. This causes a timeout and the publishing to fail.
The model is Missing Links
- When Revit cannot reconcile link paths for things such as DWGs, RVT files, images, etc. the process can fail.
The Revit model is missing default phase filters
Solution:
The following steps can be used to improve the model's health and performance. They positively affect the publishing reliability, the publishing performance, the model performance in Revit, and the sync performance.
Follow these steps and publish again after each step to check if the issue is resolved:
Tip: Avoid adding "Realistic view" into Sheets or including it in the publish settings. This will increase the likelihood of publish failure for Revit 2024 and 2025.
Step 1: Check if the models are large or complex
Refer to the article: Revit model file takes a long time to extract or publish to BIM 360 if one of the following applies:
- It takes longer than expected (up to 18 hours) for an RVT model to extract or publish to BIM 360.
- Extraction or publishing of an RVT model takes more than 18 hours and finally fails.
- The overall model size (including the linked models) is bigger than the recommended maximum size of 3.5 GB.
Step 2: Open all (linked) models individually in Revit.
- Open the affected RVT file and all linked files individually in Revit.
- Resolve any messages or warnings that come up while the model is opened: Revit: How to understand and address warnings.
- Once the models can be opened “in one go” without further messages or warnings, save the models and publish them again.
Step 3: Audit all (linked) models:
- Open Revit.
- Open the model in the BIM 360 area of Revit Home.
- Use the function “Open and Audit” for the affected RVT file and all files that are linked to it.
- Purge the files after the audit was performed.
- Save the models.
- Publish the latest version.
Step 4: Remove all broken and unnecessary views from the Publish Settings
- Identify all broken views or sheets: How to identify a broken Revit sheet or view in the BIM 360 Publish Log.
- Open the affected RVT file in Revit.
- Open the “Publish Settings”.
- Deactivate the broken views, sheets, or sets.
- Furthermore, deactivate all unnecessary views that do not need to be visible in BIM 360.
- Save the model and publish again.
The following approaches can be used to “repair” broken views:
- Change the view style from “Realistic”, “Transparent” or “Shaded” to “Wireframe”.
- To troubleshoot the issue, try switching between "Hidden" and "Wireframe" view styles to see if it resolves the problem.
- If the view style of one or more views is set to “Hidden Line Views”, make sure the Print Setup is set to “Vector Processing”.
- Sometimes, the 3D view selected in Publish Set should have Hidden Lines mode enabled.
- Remove any special characters from views, sheets, and family names.
- Reduce the Level of Details (LOD) of the views.
- Reduce the Viewing Depth.
- Duplicate corrupted views. Then delete the original view. Then rename the duplicate to replace the original view.
- If a view cannot be repaired, export it to DWFx (2D and 3D) or PDF (only 2D) and upload it to BIM 360 in this alternative file format.
- Check if the Scope Box parameter for all views contains at least the default value "None" (must not be empty!).
Step 5: Further basic items to check
- Recreate the view or sheet and publish again.
- Make sure that there is no model lock on the file in BIM 360 Document Management.
- Check the Autodesk Health Dashboard and look for scheduled maintenance or server degradations for "Revit Cloud Worksharing", "BIM 360 Docs" or "BIM 360 Design Collaboration" during the timeframe in question. Republish the file after the servers are up and running again.
- Make sure that a 3D view is included in the publish/publish settings.
Step 6: (Advanced) Identify the (linked) model that is causing the issue
Note: The following advanced troubleshooting steps shall not be performed in the productive “live” model. Instead, save local copies of the affected RVT file and all linked RVT files and “test” publish this copied data set to a test project. Contact your BIM 360 Project Admin when in doubt.
- Open the affected main model and unlink all linked models.
- Publish the affected main model individually without links to see if it publishes successfully individually.
- Open all linked models and remove all sublinks.
- Publish all the linked models individually without links.
- Remove all linked models that fail to publish from the main model and publish again.
- Also, check if the main model contains any unnecessary links or references and remove them to allow better publishing performance.
- After identifying one or more specific models that fail to publish individually, narrow down the troubleshooting to these affected models: Go through the outlined steps again, focusing on the affected models.
Step 7: (Advanced) Test-migrate the model to Revit 2022 or newer
Revit 2022 and newer uses new technology for publishing 2D views with increased stability and publishing performance.
Note: The following steps shall not be performed in the productive “live” model. Instead, save local copies of the affected RVT file and all linked RVT files and “test” migrate this copied data set to a test project. Contact your BIM 360 Project Admin when in doubt.
- Save local copies of the affected Revit files to the computer.
- Open the local copies in Revit 2022 or newer (this automatically triggers the migration).
- Save the local copies in Revit 2022.
- Publish or upload the Revit 2022 data set to a test project.
- If the publishing is successful, consider migrating the affected BIM project to Revit 2022 or newer. Make sure to include all project stakeholders in this decision because the Revit Cloud Migration is an irreversible process.
General Note: Narrowing down affected sheets, views, or links by publishing, again and again, can be time-consuming. Publishing sheets and views in BIM 360 is similar to Export To PDF for Revit 2022 and later. For Revit 2021 and Older, the process is similar to Export to DWF(x) files locally.
For Revit 2022 and Newer Versions:
- In Revit, Disable "Use Hardware Acceleration" in File->Options under the Hardware settings tab.
- Open the host model with all links loaded.
- Attempt to export each individual sheet/view in the set to PDF (the set that is failing to extract from "Publish Settings").
- If the export of any single sheet/view does not finish within 2 hours, exclude that view from the set in the publish settings.
- Alternatively, edit the sheet to reduce the level of details. Imported family types or excessive complexity can cause errors. Consider disabling Global Illumination (GI), shadows, and ambient shadows to improve performance.
For Revit 2021 and Older Versions:
Use the following process to "simulate" the publishing process for Revit 2019, 2020 or 2021.
- In Revit, open the host model with all links loaded.
- Try to export each individual Sheet/view in a set (the set that is failing to extract from "Publish Settings") to DWFx.
- If the export of any single sheet/view does not finish in 30 min, exclude the view from the set in the publish settings. Or try to edit the sheet with less level of detail. Imported family types or excessive complexity can cause errors.
Recommendation
Use the Autodesk Interoperability Tools such as Model Checker for Revit and Validation Tool for Docs, as they provide an easy, repeatable, reliable way to check the model health on a regular basis.
Products:
Construction Cloud; BIM 360; Revit Cloud Worksharing; Revit;
