We continuously monitor Autodesk Forums, Revit user groups, industry blogs, newsletters, and other events to keep our pulse on AECO trends and discussions. Much of our team also subscribes to local business, real estate, construction and AEC design news from different regions around the world. So, it’s very easy for us to express that we feel very connected to the AECO community!

We would like our customers to know that we frequently monitor the Revit Public Roadmap plus the Revit Ideas Forums. We want to ensure our tools help fill some of the workflow gaps that may exist within the current Revit building information modeling ecosystem.

“We take great pride in developing tools that address persistent challenges faced by Revit users,” said Glynnis Patterson, Director of Ideate Software Development.

We are continuing our Ideate Software blog series entitled Wishlist Granted. Each blog article features real user requests and our responses to those requests. Last month we featured duplicating sheets. Now, let’s take a spin on another top Revit request!

If you search the Autodesk Revit Ideas Forum and general Revit Forums, you will find many questions and requests concerning Revit element visibility.

Revit has a Reveal Hidden Elements visualization mode. However, this mode is very limited. It ONLY shows Revit elements, as well as their dependent tags or dimensions, that have been hidden by category or by element override in the view. Every Revit element has a category, phase, discipline or workset that could impact whether that element displays within a selected view. In addition, there are scope boxes, crop regions, view filters, design options, level and grid extents and view ranges that impact visibility! These are all difficult to diagnose. In fact, there are at least 50 different ways to hide an element in Revit!

Here are a few Revit visibility problems:

 
Have you ever encountered this Revit Warning?

It’s no wonder there are MANY requests on the Autodesk Revit forums to address this confusion. Here are just a few:

• Why is an element hidden?
• Can I find why an element is hidden in a view?
• Request for hidden element Navigator

Ideate XRay to the Rescue!

Ideate Software introduced Ideate XRay as part of IdeateApps in 2016, and we have continually made improvements to the feature over the years! Ideate XRay allows you to use a powerful selection wizard to easily find the Revit element within the view. Because, if the element is hidden, how do you select the element in order to find why it’s not visible?  

Ideate XRay gives you several options to easily find elements:

The BEST way to see the selection wizard in action is to review this short video on Ideate XRay and the Ideate XRay Selection Wizard.

It’s always a good idea to review the Help topic on Ideate XRay and be sure to check out the Frequently Asked Questions page.

You can also watch a recording of a 30-minute webinar that covers many examples of using Ideate XRay when Revit elements go missing. It’s certainly a game of Hide and Seek! Ideate XRay gives you the winning advantage.

At Ideate Software, we are focused on delighting our customers. With Ideate Software there is no need to wait for future Revit releases to see your idea turned into a reality.

Wishlist Granted!

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Please review our other Wishlist Granted posts.

About the Author

Richard W. Taylor, Associate AIA – Technical Evangelist 
Richard has more than 30 years of experience working for companies that develop architectural and engineering software solutions, such as Intergraph, Bentley, and Autodesk. He has over 20 years of Revit experience, and he was part of the original development of Revit while at Revit Technology Corporation. He worked for 12 years at Autodesk, where he presented, taught, and worked to improve features in Revit. Richard holds both a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies and Master of Architecture from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. As Technical Evangelist, Richard works with AECO clients worldwide, developing and consulting on BIM solutions. Find Richard on Twitter and LinkedIn.

We continuously monitor Autodesk Forums, Revit user groups, industry blogs, newsletters, and other events to keep our pulse on AECO trends and discussions. Much of our team also subscribes to local business, real estate, construction and AEC design news from different regions around the world. So, it’s very easy for us to express that we feel very connected to the AECO community!

We would like our customers to know that we frequently monitor the Revit Public Roadmap plus the Revit Ideas Forums. We want to ensure our tools help fill some of the workflow gaps that may exist within the current Revit building information modeling ecosystem.

“We take great pride in developing tools that address persistent challenges faced by Revit users,” said Glynnis Patterson, Director of Ideate Software Development.

So today, we are launching an Ideate Software blog series entitled Wishlist Granted. Each blog article will feature real user requests and our responses to those requests. So, let’s kick things off with a top request and one of our most beloved features.

If you search the Autodesk Revit Ideas Forum, you will see many requests for sheet and view improvements and features. A top request is the ability to duplicate or copy a Revit sheet. Currently, there is no work-around to accomplish this within Revit. As you can see below, the right-click duplicate options are grayed out when trying to duplicate a Revit sheet.

This duplicate ability has been a long-standing request. The request on the Revit Ideas Forum has almost 500 votes. It was recently requested again in 2020, so we can see that it is still very much a valuable and needed workflow.

• Duplicate a Sheet from 2017 with almost 500 votes
• Duplication of Sheets from 2020

Ideate Clone to the Rescue!

Ideate Software introduced Ideate Clone as part of IdeateApps in 2017, shortly after the initial Revit ideas request listed above. Ideate Clone allows you to copy a sheet with viewports. The new sheet will match all the title block and sheet properties. Additionally, Ideate Clone lets you place unplaced views onto the newly created sheet so that they align with the previous viewports.

• You can swap one viewport for another viewport and keep them aligned from the existing sheet to the cloned sheet.
• You can duplicate or duplicate with detailing any viewport on the existing sheet while also enabling a search and replace or adding a prefix or suffix during the process.
• If you choose none, the viewport will not be duplicated or swapped to the newly cloned sheet.
• You can place the same schedule or legend from the existing sheet to the cloned sheet, since Revit allows schedules and legends to appear on multiple sheets.
• You can select a placeholder sheet as the basis for your cloned sheet.

Please review this comprehensive overview video on Ideate Clone. Astute viewers will see that we have added the ability to search and replace information for the duplicated view same since this video was created. It’s always a good idea to review the Help topic on Ideate Clone, and be sure to check out the Frequently Asked Questions.

Ideate Clone is only one tool in a series of sheet and view tools within IdeateApps. Please review the recording of this recent webinar to see all the powerful tools in action.

At Ideate Software, we are focused on delighting our customers. With Ideate Software there is no need to wait for future Revit releases to see your idea turned into a reality.

Wishlist Granted!

----------------------------------------------------------

Please review our other Wishlist Granted posts.

About the Author

Richard W. Taylor, Associate AIA – Technical Evangelist 
Richard has more than 30 years of experience working for companies that develop architectural and engineering software solutions, such as Intergraph, Bentley, and Autodesk. He has over 20 years of Revit experience, and he was part of the original development of Revit while at Revit Technology Corporation. He worked for 12 years at Autodesk, where he presented, taught, and worked to improve features in Revit. Richard holds both a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies and Master of Architecture from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. As Technical Evangelist, Richard works with AECO clients worldwide, developing and consulting on BIM solutions. Find Richard on Twitter and LinkedIn.