Why a Revit model is sometimes downloaded as ZIP from BIM 360 or ACC?

Autodesk Support

Jun 24, 2024

Products and versions covered

Issue:

When downloading a Revit (RVT) model from BIM 360's Document Management or Autodesk Construction Cloud's Docs, the file is downloaded with different extensions:

  • .RVT

  • .ZIP

  • .ZIP.RVT

This article's "Cause" section explains why the file sometimes downloads in a format other than RVT.
The "Solution" section of this article explains how to extract the RVT file from a ZIP file and how to avoid creating ZIP and ZIP.RVT files.

Causes:

A ZIP file or ZIP.RVT file is created when using specific publishing or download workflows.

Revit checks if the linked files' latest (synced) versions have already been published when the host file is published from Revit to BIM 360 or Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC).

Then the following scenarios can be happens:

If a model has no links:

  • The model is published as an individual RVT file.

  • It can be downloaded from BIM 360 or ACC as an RVT file.

If the model contains links and the latest (synced) versions of all linked files have already been published:

  • The host file is published as an individual RVT file.

  • The model still contains the links to the other (published) models.

  • The host and linked files can be downloaded from BIM 360 or ACC as individual RVT files.

  • The current state of the data set in BIM 360 or ACC matches the published state of the host model in Revit.

If one or more linked models have not yet been published with their latest (synced) version while the host file is published:

  • The host and linked files' current (synced) versions are published to Autodesk Docs as a zipped data set.

  • When opening the host file in the Docs viewer, it represents the (current) status of the zipped data set. So, linked files appear in the host file in their latest (synced) state even if the latest state has not been published.

  • "Download Source File" downloads the host file as a zipped data set.

  • Opening the linked files individually in the BIM 360 viewer represents the latest published version. 

  • "Download Source File" downloads the linked files as RVT (if they are not themselves a host for other unpublished linked files).

Note: To confirm that the latest version of the linked models has been published to BIM 360, browse the individual models in "Revit Home." If one appears with the status "Update available," the latest (synced) version has not yet been published.

If the model is downloaded through Desktop Connector:

  • Models published as an RVT file will be downloaded as "*.rvt."

  • Models published as a zipped data set (see previous conditions) will download as "*.zip.rvt".

  • The ZIP.RVT file can be renamed to ZIP. Then, it can be unzipped (extracted).

Note: It is not recommended to download Revit Cloud Workshared files through the Desktop Connector.
 

When downloading multiple RVT files at once, all the files are downloaded as a ZIP package.

 When downloading multiple central files from BIM 360 at once:

  • If each central and its links are "published to latest," the download will be a ZIP file containing individual RVT files for the central. No links will be downloaded.

  • If each central has links that have not been "published to latest," a ZIP file containing archives of each central file with its liked files will be downloaded.

If the model contains nested links:

The host model is downloaded as a composite file (a ZIP file still called an RVT file) when the following applies:

  • The model to be downloaded has links that have been published with the latest version.

  • The linked files themselves contain links (so-called nested links). And at least one of the nested linked files has not been published.

Note: The downloaded ZIP file contains only the linked files, not the nested linked files.

Solution:

To extract the RVT model from the ZIP file:

  1. Download the ZIP file to a local folder (for example, Downloads).

  2. Right-click on the file.

  3. Select "Extract here".

  4. Open the extracted folder to find your RVT file besides linked or downloaded files.

To make sure that the download provides an RVT file instead of a ZIP file

Refer to the detailed explanation under "Causes" and the articles under "See Also" to find a workflow that produces an RVT file instead of a ZIP file.

Products:

Revit Product Family; Revit Cloud Worksharing; BIM 360; Construction Cloud; BIM Collaborate Products;

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