General

The task server update is a patch to the existing version of the Clarity Task Server software.  Example 24.1.13

Always log onto the task server as the designated Clarity account.  For most that is the service account set up for Clarity, however, if you have switched to Autodesk SSO, you will sign in with those credentials.

Process

Exit the Clarity Task Tray

Open Services

Stop the Clarity Windows Task Server service

Running the Updater

Right click on the Update Clarity Task Server for Revit and Run as Administrator

If a Windows permission dialog comes up select Yes to allow.

For certain types of tasks, addins are required.

We recommend only installing the addins needed for tasks. 

Some Autodesk addins install automatically with the software, but others are a separate install.  If they are not on this list, please do not install them as they may interfere with the Clarity software.

Please also be aware that some addins can cause ownership issues when processing tasks.

Additionally, some addins are build specific and may vary by Clarity version.  Please refer to the information below.

Revit Addins

Additionally, you will need to install the necessary add ins per version as needed for

You want to know if you can enable FIPs on Clarity machines.

What is FIPS? FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing Standards These are standards and guidelines for federal computer systems that are developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and approved by the Secretary of Commerce.

If you are working on government projects, this is something that will likely apply to you.

You can find out more about FIPS at the link below. https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-federal-information-processing-standards-fips#2

Clarity General Information Clarity should sense that FIPS is enabled. This information will

Issue:

If you get an alert like this, that means that the Autodesk identity on the task server is no longer logged in.

ClarityRevitTaskServer: BIM360 Token Gone Bad TASKSERVER02

The Autodesk BIM360 Token on TASKSERVER02 has recently gone bad! 

This is the Revit/AutoCAD sign-in, which is used to keep Autodesk products running in a batch mode. Clarity tasks will attempt to continue, but will likely be impacted!

• Time Since the Last Change: 12.3 hours
• # of times it successfully refreshed before failing: 0
• Application that (we believe) made the last change: AdSSO.exe v13.7.7.1807
• Desktop Connector Version: 16.5.0.2083
• Autodesk AdSSO Version:

There are certain types of errors that will kill a Revit task.  Previously it was necessary to manually modify a config file.

In Clarity 2025, you can now just make the configuration changes in the Clarity task tray.

Make sure you log onto the task server as the designated Clarity account

Error Handling Overrides

• Open the Clarity task tray
• On the Revit tab

On the Revit tab, under Revit Error Handling Option, there are a few options, if you want to make selections you will want to set it to specified.

• None
  • No overrides
• Detached Only
  • This would only apply

This change is Revit version specific!

If you are running into issues with the Revit DBExport task and want to skip certain categories, you can modify a config file to do that.

Process

This change is Revit version specific!

• You will need to log onto the task server as the designated Clarity account
• Exit the Clarity task tray
• Make a copy of the highlighted config file for the version of Revit you want to change C:\Program Files\IMAGINiT Technologies\Clarity Task Server for Revit\202#\Plugins\RevitDBExport.dll.config
• Change the extension from .config to .orig so we have a backup copy of the original settings
• Modify

The AdminWebservice logs, with the default settings will roll over at 100kb. If you have a large amount of data you have may roll over too quickly for us to find the information we need for diagnostics.

On the host machine go to the folder below and edit the Log4net.config as follows:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\CentralWebservices

Change the value as shown below to increase the file size to 1mb.

<maximumFileSize value="1000000" />

You can also increase the quantity if you like.  

 You may get an error when trying to save the file, so Save As and make sure that the Save as Type

Issue:

Port changes with new email sending library called MailKit.

Cause:

Customers were starting to run into occasional issues where we had problem sending email with TLS/SSL, and because it was related to a Microsoft Component for sending mail that they’ve deprecated. In Clarity 2022 we brought in a new email sending library called “MailKit”.

It turns out that Mailkit behaves a bit differently than the original Microsoft component.

- It basically ignores the “Use SSL” option you specify, and infers the setting from the port number. MailKit said: “You do not have a valid certificate for this mail server”.

Issue

Error when trying to add a 360 project and prerequisites have already been done.

There are no BIM360 - Unified Projects found

Resolution

Check the following files on the host

• C:\Program Files\IMAGINiT Technologies\Clarity Monitoring Service\ClarityMonitoringService.exe.config
• C:\inetpub\wwwroot\CentralAdministrator\Web.config

  <system.net>

    <defaultProxy>

      <proxy bypassonlocal="True" usesystemdefault="False"/>

    </defaultProxy>

  </system.net>

Change the highlighted text above to “True”, and then restart the monitoring service.

Log Errors

Monitoring INFO [3] 2021-10-20 16:34:44,513 BIM360CachedProjects - Starting 1/1 token scan. Token Details: (1, OAUTHNAME (Primary)) INFO [3] 2021-10-20 16:34:44,528 BIM360Api - Initialize in-memory access token from database storage. (Token expired.) ERROR [3] 2021-10-20 16:35:05,579 OAuthTokenDataAccess

General

Updates are patches to the current version you have installed.  For example 24.1.5

You can see if an update is available from the Server tab, Central Host to the right of the Update Version value.

Update Process

Log onto the Host server as the Clarity service account (application pool identity)

In Services, Stop the Clarity services

Right click on the desktop icon Update Clarity Host, Run as Administrator

The updater dialog will come up to determine if the update is needed, if so it will start downloading the files needed to update.

When the update completes, it will indicate

The Clarity Windows Task Server will process tasks that don’t require opening Revit. 

Some of the setup is inside of the Clarity Revit Task Tray, but since this runs as a service by default, the rest happens in the properties of the service itself.

Settings in the Clarity Task Tray for Revit

To limit the Windows tasks run on the task server, open the Clarity task tray, select the Server and Edit, go to the Tasks tab, expand Windows and Uncheck any tasks you don’t want processed on this task server.

Settings for the Service

Open the Services panel and select the

In order for tasks to run, the task servers must be online and logged in with the designated Clarity account at all times. 

For 360 projects, the Autodesk identity token must also be valid, both on the task server and in the Clarity web portal.

Task not Claimed Sat in New Status

1.     Task Timeout: Task sat in a 'New' status for too long, not moving! TASKSERVER3: TaskServerOffline: Task Server unresponsive to ping. Last checkin was 5/8/2024 1:36:10           TASKSERVER1(WIN): TaskDisabled: The UNIFIEDSYNC type task is not available on this task server.TASKSERVER2(WIN): Unknown: Not sure...

Most customers using Clarity, also have projects in 360, so your account administrator should have received an email from Autodesk stating that the Issues Version 1.0 will no longer be supported.

The example below is how the email starts.

Subject:  Action Required: BIM 360 Issues v.1.0 API Shutdown – FINAL ALERT

These integrations will not function properly after August 15

Dear BIM 360 Account Administrator,

The deprecation deadline for the BIM 360 Issues version 1.0 API has been extended to August 15, 2023. After August 15, the BIM 360 Issues version 1.0 API will no longer be available.

We noticed

If you are unable to use the updater tool to automatically download and install the updates due to network restrictions, you can download them and run them manually.

DOWNLOADS

First you will need to download the following into a folder on the machine or on your network… For example C:\Clarity\Updates

Host

• http://s3.amazonaws.com/IMAGINiTSoftware/Updates/ClarityHost2024.zip

Task Servers

• http://s3.amazonaws.com/IMAGINiTSoftware/Updates/ClarityTask2024.zip

Updater Files

Download the updater files from the links below and place them in the same folder as the content above.  For this it will just bring up a web page with that text so just right click on the page and save as to

There are cleanup options in the Clarity task tray, which if checked will try to run once a day about 24 hours after the task tray was started last. Note: We cannot do the cleanup if Revit is running, so if tasks are always running, the cleanup may not occur. There could also be permission issues with deleting things as well at times.

So, if you want to clean up things manually, I have listed the locations below where you can regain some drive space.

You may also want to consider using the Windows Task Scheduler to clean things up.

The RandRevit database is where all the information for projects, tasks and more is housed, so having a current backup on hand is always a good idea.

Setting an Automated Backup in Settings

There is a configuration for this in Settings on the General tab to Backup the System Database.

The system will attempt, once per week, to make a backup of the RandRevit centralized database to the Backups folder defined in settings.

Manually Backing up the Database

Connecting to the database

RDP into the machine where the SQL Database is installed, if you are using the SQL database installed with Clarity it will

Prior to running a Revit Database Export, there is no defined data for the parameters.  Once the first model is run, it sets those values, so all other models with the same parameter name, must have the same types of data set in the parameter or you will get errors.

What that means is, if I look at the first example below BoxSize is expecting an integer, but in the model that it is running on now, it is formatted as a text parameter.  The data type must be the same in all models.

Error Examples

• An error occurred during export

For those who are security-minded, there are some nuances to understand about the BIM360 Security Model, when used with Clarity or with any BIM360-enabled tool.

In the older BIM360 Teams-based approach, Clarity used what is called "Three-legged-Oauth" to connect to A360/BIM360. This meant that we requested access, and you supplied a user whose credentials would be used to access A360/BIM360. The Clarity server at your facility could see ONLY the hubs/projects that the designated user was able to see. 

In the new BIM360, Autodesk created an additional step - an application-based permission for Clarity. BIM360 administrators must enable access to

The following Windows update (see things to check) causes the ClarityWebAppPool and the ClarityWebServicesAppPool to fail to stay running.

Symptoms

• When accessing the web portal you get a 503 error Service Unavailable
• Web app pools above will not stay started.

Things to Check

• Were any Windows Updates installed?
  • Update for Microsoft Windows (KB4601555)
    • May 11, 2021-KB4601555 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server, version 2019 (microsoft.com)
  • Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5003243)
    • KB5003243: Servicing stack update for Windows 10, version 1809: May 11, 2021 (microsoft.com)

Event Logs

System Event Warning WAS

Please be aware:  If you have Clarity with Revit Server, the Clarity Host install will need to be done off hours when no one is accessing the models.  If you have Clarity with just file based and or 360 projects, then you can do the install at any time.

While the upgrade is not as easy as our “patching” updates, it’s not too hard. These are “setup.exe” installations, and if you follow the instructions below, you are unlikely to run into any issues.

If you don't feel comfortable doing the upgrade yourself and would like to have us assist you