Revit Tip: Isolate and Repair Corrupt Revit Elements

When Revit flags corrupt elements, act methodically to isolate and repair with minimal data loss.

• Recognize common symptoms
  • Crashes or “Unrecoverable error” when opening a view or printing.
  • Open with warnings about invalid or corrupt elements/geometry.
  • Can’t delete or select an object; element IDs appear in failure dialogs.
  • Specific commands (e.g., Dimension, Tag, Render) crash consistently in one model.
• Open and triage safely
  1. File > Open > check Audit.
  2. For workshared files: set Open workset default = Specify, then open with only minimal/none worksets.
  3. Unload all Links (Revit, CAD, IFC, Images) on open.
  4. If central is involved: Detach from Central and Preserve Worksets to test in isolation.
• Locate the bad actor
  • Note element IDs from any failure dialog; use Manage > Select by ID to highlight them.
  • Toggle Reveal Hidden Elements and VG category off/on to find invisible offenders.
  • Open a clean 3D view with a Section Box; progressively enable categories to trigger the fault and narrow scope.
  • Open suspect worksets one at a time to isolate where the crash occurs.
  • Check recently loaded families; test by removing/reloading with audited versions.
  • If a specific view crashes, duplicate it; if the duplicate works, delete and recreate the original.
• Targeted fixes
  • Delete and replace corrupt elements/families; purge types, then reload from vetted sources.
  • For hosted elements that won’t delete, temporarily unhost (if possible) or delete the host first.
  • Repair model geometry: resolve self-intersections, non-manifold forms, extreme import scales.
  • Remove or explode problematic DWG only in a disposable file; re-link a cleaned version.
  • Images and PDFs: unload/reload; replace high-res or corrupted assets.
• Salvage strategy (last resort)
  1. Create a new, clean project from your office template.
  2. In the corrupt file, create a clean 3D view with only safe categories visible.
  3. Copy to Clipboard (visible in view) and Paste Aligned to Same Place into the new file in batches by discipline/category.
  4. Rebuild views, sheets, and details incrementally to avoid bringing the corruption across.
• Worksharing-specific recovery
  • Have each user create a fresh local daily; delete stale locals.
  • If the central is suspect, promote the healthiest local to a new central (Detach > Save as new central), then remap team.
  • Compact on save and keep backups; synchronize in smaller, frequent increments.
• Preventive checklist
  • Open with Audit weekly; Purge Unused thoughtfully; keep Warnings low.
  • Vet families for quality; audit families before loading.
  • Avoid exploding CAD in production; maintain clean link files.
  • Maintain version parity across the team; standardize add-ins.
• When to escalate
  • Capture the Journal and Failure Report with element IDs.
  • Reproduce steps in a minimal model and share with support.
  • Consult trusted partners like NOVEDGE for licensing sanity checks, vetted Revit builds, and guidance on add-ins and model health workflows.
  • Explore training and best-practice resources from NOVEDGE to harden your standards.

You can find all the Revit products on the NOVEDGE web site at this page.