revit patch

C4R – I’m Still Missing Too Many Elements! (Part 2)

So last week you went through how to fix the ‘too many missing elements’ error, but after clearing your cache and sourcing replacement files you’re still seeing the error.

This means things are a little more serious, but there is still a potential solution.

Search the Journal for Missing Element Warnings

This time around, you need to review the journal file and look for the error specifically related to missing elements.

The journal file is located in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 201x\Journals you need to be opening the journal file that will have recorded the error. If there error has just occured, it will be recorded in your most recent journal file.

The easiest way to find the most recent file is to change your file sorting by date modified with the newest files at the top.

Open the journal in a text editor (Notepad or Notepad++) and search for the name of the model causing the problem.

This time you want to search for the text missing elem within your journal file.

If you can’t find the text in your most recent journal file, don’t panic! Using Notepad++ you can actually search for a string in all files located in a folder.

The search results will appear at the bottom of Notepad++ showing which files it has found the search string in.

You will soon have a list of elements that are missing from your model. The numbers represent the element ID of the missing elements.

Repairing the damage

To recover your file, locate the most recent backup file that contains the missing elements. You can restore backups from your local cache in the same way you have always been able to restore backups with Revit, it’s just now there is an extra step in finding the GUID of the RVT file before you can restore a backup.

Search for the name of your Revit file in the journal. This will give you the GUID for the project and file.

Once you have found the name of the model,take the model GUID and search for it in your CollaborationCache folder. You need to find the folder named <revit model GUID>_backup

From the Collaborate tab of the ribbon, select Restore Backup

Paste your backup folder path into the folder name location, it should follow the format C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 201x\CollaborationCache\<local cache id>\<project GUID>\<model GUID>_backup

Select the most recent backup and work your way back until you find a working copy.

Save the file in a new location. Don’t open the file just yet.

Browse to where you have saved your backup file and then open the file with the audit box checked.

Once you have successfully opened the model, using the Select by ID tool, search for the elements in your backup model.

Make sure that all the elements display correctly and work as expected.

The audited model becomes your new central model. You need to run through the process of loading the model onto C4R.

If anyone else is working on the project, their local cache will no longer synchronise with the newly created cloud model. Others in the team will need to rename or delete the folders in both their CollaborationCache and PacCache folders.

And that’s it! You’re done!

One final note..

When speaking with Autodesk, they advised that the best way to prevent this missing elements error is to always open your C4R models with the audit check box ticked. It’s a little bit of extra pain, but if it saves you from having to manually recover models, then happy days!

Final note for real this time..

In addition to the above, both Revit 2017 and 2018 have had updates released since I originally wrote this post. Autodesk’s urge anyone that is experiencing too many missing element errors to update their entire team to Revit 2017.2.2 and/or 2018.1.1. The patches for both fix the problems that cause these errors.