Revit Tip – Unable to save Project due to background processes?

by Dennis Collin

I recently had a question from a Revit user who was working on a structures model, using Revit’s steel connection tools, and was prevented from saving due to an error message that appeared stating that it couldn’t be saved due to background calculations being performed.

Fig 1. Is this happening to you? If so don’t panic! We can fix this without losing any work!

The user waited some hours and tried saving again but the error dialogue persisted. Obviously, concerns were raised with lost work from having to ‘kill’ Revit via Windows task manager, but in fact, such drastic actions are hopefully unnecessary.

Fig 1a. Whilst killing this process does work, it’s not something for the ‘faint hearted’

Fig 2. Task Manager is the last resort!

This problem does occasionally occur when using certain tools like Steel Detailing, Route Analysis, and certain MEP performance analysis commands where Revit can get stuck in a loop even though the command may seem to have finished. Whilst the more technical savvy user can invoke task manager and kill the ‘Revitworker.exe’ process. There is an easier and less risky way!

Fig 3. To fix the problem create a simple tag family and save it! This should restore normal save functionality!

Instead, within Revit, create a new file, this can be a project or even just a simple family component. It doesn’t matter what kind of family is used whether it is a model, detail or tag component. The important part is to just create a new file add some geometry and save it.

Doing this task should give the background process a nudge which will then enable a save command to work on the troublesome project. With luck the save operation should now perform as expected.

Revit Tips and tricks, such as this and keyboard shortcuts etc are just some of the topics that we offer on our training and webinar sessions. Visit our Arkance UK site to get an overview of the courses on offer and talk to one of the team for dates and availability or if you have more bespoke requirements please get in touch, we’re here to help!