Reduce time spent opening a Revit model.
The following considerations will help you reduce time spent opening a
Revit model:
- Upgrade to newer Revit versions: from our tests made on different projects saved in Revit 2021 or 2022, after upgrading to Revit 2025 or 2026, the model open time was reduced with almost 50% in some cases.
- Create a default starting view using a drafting view with general project information (text only, no 3D views or complex geometry) as it speeds up open time.
- RVT Links management: from our internal tests, we discovered that the total model open time is approximately the sum of opening time of each link. Some suggestions you can try:
- Place the links on separate worksets (e.g., group links by discipline and place them on a separate workset) and choose which worksets to enable when opening the model. Open the other worksets only when needed.
- Limit the number of nested links and circular links (link references itself), to prevent additional loading time.
- When using live linking, if a link is changed, a new version must be downloaded every time the host model is opened. This can increase the open time significantly if a lot of links need to be downloaded each time. What you can do:
- Install the latest version of Revit Personal Accelerator (PAC). The version needs to be at least v24.4.14.0. Newer versions increase the number of cloud models PAC manages by default to 200 and includes several performance improvements. You can download and install it from https://manage.autodesk.com/products/updates, search for Revit Personal Accelerator. See Revit Personal Accelerator FAQ
- Adopt Shared/Consumed workflows for cloud workshared models. See Share Revit Models.
- Linking non-RVT files (.dwg, .jpg, .pdf):
- Pre-process the DWG file in AutoCAD to import a simplified file. You can try deleting unnecessary parts and layers like hatching or AutoCAD-specific line work such as construction lines
- Rather than using large pictures, choose a more compact, reduced version for importing.
- Check for missing files, such as keynotes, images, PDFs, links. For each attachment, Revit checks if the file is available and retries the process several times. If a file is on an unreachable network location or linked from a local user folder, it can significantly impact model open time.
- Review and Fix Warnings: Revit processes warnings from both the main model and linked files by loading them into memory for quick access in case an update is necessary. This is a time and resource consuming operation which can cause slower model opening times.
- Add-ons: the use of add-ons which modify Revit elements or family parameters can affect the model open time. You can easily disable all add-ons from the Revit.ini. Add a section to your Revit.ini called - "[API]" with the line"DisableUserAddinsAndMacros=1". Set the 1 to a 0 to turn your add-ons back on. Both value changes require restarting Revit to take effect.
- Use the option Compact Central Model when syncing with central at least once a month.
If your model takes more than 30 min to open and is several years old: Detach from the central model and re-save as a new central model. This deletes the save history (which can get very large for models spanning on multiple years) and generates only a single partition in the model, which is processed faster by Revit. Keep in mind that this action will erase the version history of the cloud model.
Caution: Do this only as a test. Contact customer support if model open time is drastically reduced after this test.