{"id":2516,"date":"2025-11-06T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalbbq.au\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2025-11-03T17:39:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T07:39:43","slug":"introducing-the-bim-cache-cleaner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalbbq.au\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/introducing-the-bim-cache-cleaner\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the BIM Cache Cleaner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in 2017, I wrote a post about cleaning up Autodesk Collaboration for Revit (C4R) cache files<\/a>. I then wrote a small windows application, C4R Cache Cleaner<\/a>, that helped the end user work through that process without having to trawl through the journal files manually. That application became one of the most downloaded tools on revit.com.au<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward eight years, C4R has evolved, my tool has too, and the BIM Cache Cleaner<\/strong> is finally ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the Update?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The original C4R Cache Cleaner<\/em> automated what you could already do manually, scanning journal files to find and remove corrupted files from your collaboration cache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It worked well, but had a few limitations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. You needed to know what file you were looking for<\/strong>
    There was no way to automatically tell which file was the problematic one. You needed someone with good problem-solving skills to figure out which file needed removing before removing it<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Revit only keeps a limited number of journal files<\/strong>.
    Once an old model dropped off the list, the cleaner simply couldn\u2019t \u201csee\u201d it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Unknown deletions made people nervous.<\/strong>
    While reading the journal files is perfect for resolving issues with corrupted cache files, people started to use the cache cleaner as a tool to recover space, which led to the addition of the \u201cdelete all not found in journals\u201d option. It was handy but too vague for comfort.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    A New Approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Rather than relying on journal files, the new tool digs straight into the cache itself using OpenMCDF<\/a> \u2014 a library that directly reads the files in the cache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    That change has unlocked a whole new layer of visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now the BIM Cache Cleaner can:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n