Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. You can review some of these recent question and answers via our Ideate Software support series blog category.

We recently were contacted by a customer that was trying to find empty Structural Framing Tags. Some of the tags were displaying correctly and some had the infamous question mark symbol (?) within the tag. They were trying to find those empty framing tags and delete them. While investigating, we utilized the Query function within Ideate Explorer and searched for the parameter “Tag Text” to be able to list all the tags that had a prefix and a suffix in this project. That’s when we realized the specific framing tag had a prefix and a suffix setup within the tag.

The prefix and suffix within that Structural Framing Tag was telling Revit that it had a value and it was not actually blank, although the tag wasn’t set to display the prefix or suffix. In this instance, the prefix was set to “T=” and suffix was set to “k”. So, we suggested using Ideate Explorer or Ideate QuickSelect to search for the non-displayed prefix and suffix because you can now also search on the “Tag Text” property. In this specific case, we were able to tell the customer to use either Ideate Explorer or Ideate QuickSelect to use the search string “T=k” to find the Structural Framing Tags that need to be deleted.

Use the Search field in either Ideate Explorer or Ideate QuickSelect to find information displaying within a tag. This is the Tag Text Parameter.

Ideate Explorer, in addition to the text displayed in the Results area, also searches within the tag text parameter value, which is not displayed but can be viewed within Ideate Query.   

Using Ideate Query within Ideate Explorer allows you to find all the Tag Text information.

Ideate QuickSelect also has the advanced search for text within the Tag Text parameter, but it does not have the additional power of Ideate Query to see additional details of the Tag Text.

You can learn more about Ideate Explorer Search by reviewing this online Help topic.

You can learn more about Ideate QuickSelect Search by reviewing this online Help topic.
 

Keep those amazing questions coming to [email protected], because this is critically important feedback allows us to continue to improve our software every release.
 

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. You can review some of these recent question and answers via our Ideate Software support series blog category.

We’ve been receiving excellent feedback on our latest tool within the IdeateApps collection, Ideate Annonate. If you don’t see the Ideate Annotate icon within your IdeateApps tool collection, it means you haven’t updated to the latest June 2022 release of IdeateApps. You can use our Ideate Software Installer to make sure you have the latest software.

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The most recent IdeateApps tool collection should now have 10 tools within the IdeateApps ribbon menu.

We recently received a nice question from a good customer:

“How do you control the sensitivity of the 2D annotation clash detections within Ideate Annotate?”

First, it’s always nice to review the workflows for using Ideate Annotate. We have a nice Help topic on using Ideate Annotate. Secondly, we are using the 2D annotation bounding boxes to pick up on 2D annotation clashes between elements. The sensitivity of the clash detection can be controlled via the Settings Menu on the main Ideate Annotate dialog.

Go to the Settings cog icon and choose the Settings option.

This is the Settings menu for Ideate Annotate

A dialog will appear allowing you to set the sensitivity of the clashes. You can also use this menu to clear all issues that you may have previously dismissed. Sliding the setting to the right will reduce 2D annotation clashes.

Each tag has a bounding box that is sized according to its geometry. Invisible lines in a tag family, for example, can create an unexpectedly large bounding box and may produce unexpected clash results. In that case, you might want to reduce the sensitivity.

This image shows why you might want to adjust the Clash Sensitivity setting.

Review the online Help article for Annotation Clashes and Clash Sensitivity.

This is the Clash Sensitivity Dialog

You may find this recent web article from AECbytes very informative as they showcase many of the exciting features and workflows supported by Ideate Annotate.

Keep those amazing questions coming to [email protected], because this is critically important feedback allows us to continue to improve our software every release.
 

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. You can review some of these recent question and answers via our Ideate Software Support Series blog category.

Thousands of users all around the world use Ideate Sticky every day to combine the ease and flexibility of Excel, Word, and PDF editing with the convenience of a sticky note. Ideate Sticky elegantly connects non-BIM data from an Excel, Word, or PDF document into Revit projects, enhancing cross-team workflows.

Over the past few years, we’ve had several support cases where a specific user updates the Ideate Sticky schedule, and the formatting width of the Sticky schedule changes. A Sticky schedule can change size unexpectedly when updated or auto-updated on a computer with a different display scaling than the display scaling value used on the computer that originally created the Sticky schedule. This issue is most commonly manifested when using remote desktop applications or laptops with docking stations, as well as with external devices such as projectors where display scaling could be changed during a Windows session.

 
Different computers might have different scaling and display resolutions that could potentially impact the width of a Sticky schedule, as shown in these images.

For our June 2022 release, we solved this condition with a new width calculation option.

Use this new project-based setting to use an improved width calculation for all Sticky schedules found within the project. This option is turned on for all new projects and off for any projects with Stickies created prior to the June 2022 release for Revit 2020-2023. Please refer to this online Help file for additional details.

The improved Sticky schedule width calculation is turned on for any new projects. This can be accessed via the Settings cog from the Ideate Sticky main dialog.

All customers are encouraged to deploy the latest version of Ideate Sticky for Revit versions 2020-2023 to take advantage of this improvement. Because this feature controls the size of text it is imperative that all users within the company are utilizing the same build version for Ideate Sticky. 

Keep those amazing questions coming to [email protected], because this is critically important feedback allows us to continue to improve our software every release.
 

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. You can review some of these recent question and answers via our Ideate Software Support Series blog category.

This question was asked by an Ideate Explorer customer:

“How do I find all Revit elements assigned to a Design Option within my Revit model?”

Well, the first instinct for Ideate Explorer users might be to review the Sort by: options on the main Ideate Explorer dialog. Ideate Explorer can sort model and annotation elements by Category, Level, Phase, Room, Space, Zone, Workset, or Edited by.  (The last two options will only appear if the Revit model is a workshared model.) However, Design Option is currently not one of the Sort by: selections.

Ideate Explorer users have several options to view model and annotation elements within the Revit model by choosing a specific Sort by: option.

So, how do we accomplish the task of reviewing Revit elements assigned to Design Options? We can use our trusted friend, Ideate Query.

First, you would want to select the data categories of elements you wish to review for the specific Design Option. I might suggest selecting only doors or walls to begin as an example. However, I have selected all categories within the Revit model since the model size and number of elements is manageable for my example. I selected all model and annotation categories, but most annotation categories can’t be associated with a Design Option. Annotations and details (such as keynotes, dimensions, and tags) are view-specific elements. They cannot be part of a design option. However, reference planes can indeed be assigned to a Design Option and those are annotation elements.

If more than one data category is selected within Ideate Query, the list of available properties will indicate "Multi-Category" as shown in the image below. In this mode, the list of properties will be narrowed and will be limited to Project, Project Shared, and System Parameters. To see more parameters, select only one of the data categories at the left. The Design Option is a property that is available for all instances of Revit elements.   

I foolishly selected all Revit elements in my model, but I can now review which elements have been assigned to a specific Design Option. In my example, 374 elements are assigned to the Office Suite Design Option.

I choose to select and review the 374 elements assigned to the Office Suite Design Option. This will return to the previous Ideate Explorer results tree, but the Display will read “Current Selection” to show ONLY those elements assigned to the Office Suite Design Option.

These are the 374 elements assigned to the Office Suite Design Option. 

It’s easy to select all model and annotation elements that are assigned to a Design Option within Ideate Explorer. However, we’ve also had customers ask if you can accomplish the same procedure with Revit Views.

The problem with views is that Revit doesn’t give us all the information we need to compile an accurate list of views assigned to each Design Option. Revit has a property for each view entitled “Visible in Option,” but this is actually referring to the tag or view reference and NOT all possible views. The Autodesk Revit Help on this topic refers to the view tag, which I would also call the view reference. The “Visible in Option” property will set whether the view tag or reference will display in ALL views or just a view assigned to a specific Design Option.

 
You can use Ideate Query to see which View Tags/References are assigned to a specific Design Option.  I have 3 view tags set to only display within the Office Suite Design Option and 1 view tag set to only display within the Balcony Configurations Design Option. Most views are set to all.

The information you want is the actual number of views that have been set to display the design option within the Visibility/Graphics dialog. However, this information is currently NOT easily accessible within Revit.

Each individual Revit view can have an override setting to display different options.

So, use Ideate Explorer to review model and annotation elements assigned to specific Design Options, but be careful with the “Visible in Option” property, because it may not provide the information you need.

There are many more examples of using Ideate Query that you can find online. Let us know how you use Ideate Query to find, select, and modify Revit elements.

If you have any comments on how we can improve our user interfaces, please let us know! Just send an email to [email protected].

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. You can review some of these recent question and answers via our Ideate Software Support Series blog category.

Recently, we heard from a customer who couldn’t save their Ideate BIMLink link definitions to their model. The log file informed us that another user had ownership of the storage data workset containing the Ideate BIMLink data.

This error message shows that the element is still owned within the central model.

To correct the problem, the customer needed to relinquish the data storage workset owned by the user.

A quick Google search revealed the four-step solution from Autodesk on how to relinquish the ownership of model elements:

1. Click the Collaborate tab > Manage Model panel > Mange Cloud Models
2. Select Autodesk Docs project
3. Select a model, click Actions, and then Relinquish
4. Select the user from whom you want to relinquish elements, and click Relinquish

Learn More

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software helps Revit users save time, increase model accuracy, improve deliverables and elevate design. You can give them a try by downloading trial versions or purchasing the bundle for access to the Revit plugin solutions (Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps) for six months.

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About the Author

Steve Deadman - Customer Success Manager - EMEA
Steve provides support to customers and helps them get a strong return on their software investment. He has a B.Eng (Hons) degree in Mechanical Engineering and various certifications in engineering. Before joining Ideate Software, he worked at several top architectural firm in the United Kingdom where he specialized in the implementation and management of BIM processes and technology. Find Steve on LinkedIn.