When is a project lifecycle system not a lifecycle system?
Say you have a system which uses a single database and project management system, for multiple connected applications, spanning multiple phases of a project, from design to operation.
Say one of those products, in fact the primary one the system is promoted with, has a compulsory file format upgrade between annual versions. If the core collaboration database/project cannot handle that upgrade it is not a lifecycle system.
The Revit upgrade cycle defeats BIM 360
Upgrading Revit projects from year to year has always been rather tedious, especially with complex linked files and worksharing, but doable. Upgrading a BIM 360 Design Project which uses Revit (i.e. all of them) is currently, amazingly, impossible.
It was evident that moving from BIM 360 Team to BIM 360 Design had some limitations due to them being built on completely different infrastructure. Revit 2018.3+ could work with both Team & Design, Revit 2019 could only work with 360 Design. A blog post even cited:
"Note that data from BIM 360 Team will remain separate from the new BIM 360 platform. Projects and data created in one will not be visible in the other."
Even given that, it wasn't made clear you can't start a BIM 360 Design Project in 2018.3 and then upgrade it to 2019. If you can find it in the FAQ you are doing better than me:
BIM 360 Design can be used with Revit 2018.3 and later versions.
With Revit 2015 to Revit 2018.2, you can continue to use cloud worksharing with BIM 360 Team (as you have been doing in Collaboration for Revit). To set up a new BIM 360 Team hub or assign your new contract to an existing Team hub, go to the contract assignment page. You can learn more here.
With Revit 2018.3, you can use cloud worksharing with BIM 360 Team (as you have been doing in Collaboration for Revit), while also having the option of cloud worksharing with next generation BIM 360 (using the Document Management and Design Collaboration modules).*
(*However, projects and data in BIM 360 Team will remain separate from the new BIM 360 platform. Projects and data created in one will not be visible in the other.)
With Revit 2019, you can use cloud worksharing only with next-generation BIM 360 (using the Document Management and Design Collaboration modules).
Or this in the Revit 2019 Help:
Versions of Revit affected:
Revit 2018.3 (Works with both old system and new system)
Revit 2019 (Only works with new system)
Amir.Aroesti's query about this in the 360 Community Forum "Upgrade model from revit 2018 to 2019 in Bim 360 Docs" prompted this answer from Autodesk Support:
Please see this article on upgrading Revit models in BIM 360 Docs.
1. Open the model in the current version of Revit.
2. File > Save As > save the file locally on your computer
3. Open the saved model in the newer version of Revit.
4. When the upgrade is completed, save the file again.
5. In Document management, Create a new cloud project for the new version.
6. In Revit, initiate collaboration for the upgraded model.
In case you missed it the new files have to go into a completely new BIM 360 project. Step 5 is compulsory because once Revit 2018 Design has collaborated in a BIM 360 Project Revit 2019 will not be able to use, or even see, it. The opposite also applies with all Revit 2019 projects being invisible to Revit 2018 although that is more expected given the way Revit works.
Homeopathic project infection, just the memory of 2018 is enough
Don't bother trying to remove all the 2018 files from your project in the hope that the folders, users, permissions etc carefully crafted can be used with upgraded 2019 files. That doesn't work as, unlike homeopathy, the project’s memory of 2018, even though the content is no longer there, still stops 2019 seeing it.
This means migrating a BIM 360 Design/Docs project to a new Revit Version discards all the project history BIM 360 is supposed to be managing.
Don't upgrade a project?
Currently, for me, this is not a huge issue as all our old projects are still on Team and I will use 2019 for establishing Docs/Design but it prompted me to reply: "Step 5 is insane, is BIM360 a building life cycle platform?". That was later quoted in an "Upgrade BIM 360" Idea, which deserves a upvote and has been marked "Under Consideration".
I hope this is resolved within a year, or even better before 2020 arrives next year.
Updated 2019-02-05
Autodesk have added a preview upgrade feature to BIM 360. Currently only handles 2018>2019 but looks good for future updates. More details here
