March

12

2024

San Francisco, CA, March 12, 2024 - Ideate Software, an Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk Authorized Developer, is pleased to announce that Ideate Automation now integrates with Autodesk Construction Cloud®, a portfolio of software and services that combines advanced technology, a builders network and predictive insights for construction teams.

With the new no-cost Ideate Cloud Connector, project teams can now seamlessly integrate with Revit® models managed in Autodesk® Build, Autodesk® Docs, or BIM 360®, enabling Ideate Automation’s powerful scripting capabilities to run time-intensive BIM tasks in the background. Examples of tasks that can be started in Ideate Automation manually or scheduled to run at regular intervals include:

  • Opening large Revit software files
  • Running the Revit “audit and compact” process
  • Exporting data from Revit into PDF, DWG, NWC, and IFC file formats
  • Publishing files to Autodesk Construction Cloud

Existing Ideate Automation customers that have completed their BIM 360/ACC integration do not need to take any action. The new Ideate Cloud Connector app should only be used by those who have not yet completed the (previously) manual integration process.

“Since we started developing add-ins for Revit software in 2007, we have focused on helping companies spend less time on data management and more on their areas of expertise,” said Glynnis Patterson, Director of Software Development, Ideate Software. “Now, our customers and their consultants who store Revit models in Autodesk Construction Cloud can use Ideate Automation to save even more time while reducing the chance of human error and ensuring the delivery of consistent and predictable outcomes.”

To drive efficiency, construction teams must constantly look for ways to automate repetitive tasks,” said James Cook, Director of Integrations and Technology Partnerships at Autodesk. “Now, customers use Ideate Automation to save time and reduce errors and rest assured that they are running these automations on the most up-to-date 3D models in Autodesk Construction Cloud.”

In addition to Ideate Automation integrating with Autodesk Construction Cloud, all Ideate Software Revit add-ins (Ideate Explorer, Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager) are designed to be integrated with Autodesk Desktop Connector, where possible, to provide the best possible collaborative environment between ACC Revit models and other non-Revit documentation.For more information about Ideate Software products, visit www.ideatesoftware.com.


About Ideate Software – Ideate Software, an Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk® Authorized Developer, empowers Revit users to gain unprecedented control over their data. They developed Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager to solve persistent problems in architecture, engineering, and construction, and owner-operator (AECO) workflows. They developed Ideate Automation as a scripting solution to easily automate repetitive Revit and Ideate Software tasks for consistent and repeatable results.

Autodesk, Revit, and Autodesk Construction Cloud are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Read More

March

8

2024

As we continue our newly launched bi-weekly, 15-minute sessions on specific workflows, we will amass quite a collection of recordings of training sessions that deliver demonstrations on how to use our tools to address challenges faced by BIM managers and Revit users in all disciplines.

To make it easy for customers to find the information they need, we are giving each session a descriptive title and housing all recordings together in a playlist on our YouTube channel called 15@15 Recordings.  

15@15 Training Sessions - Ideate Software

Have a workflow you’d like featured? Contact [email protected]
 

Read More

January

24

2024

San Francisco, CA, January 24, 2024 – On the recommendation of a staff member who spoke highly of Ideate Software, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners (BBB) reached out to learn more about the Autodesk® Revit® software add-ins developed by Ideate Software, an Autodesk Authorized Developer and member of the Autodesk Developer Network. 

“To get to know the software, we started with Ideate Sticky,” said Matthew Breau, Design Technology Specialist at BBB. “We were impressed that it did just what it was supposed to do, and it was easy to learn and use. We added another Ideate Software product, then another. We now subscribe to the entire Ideate suite and encourage all designers at BBB to leverage those offerings in their day-to-day work.”

In 2022, BBB added Ideate Automation to their toolkit, and in 2023, they started to explore ways to customize several of the scripts that ship with the software to meet their specific needs. When discussing these customizations, Matthew mentioned:

  • Structuring PDF Exports to Meet Teams’ Requests – People from various teams across BBB requested one PDF per type of drawing series. “Although Ideate Automation does not come with a script that can structure PDFs in that particular way, it comes with a lot of editable examples. We were able to study the many scripts as references and then we pulled in the pieces we needed and created a hybrid script that performs perfectly,” said Matthew. 
     
  • Model Health Reports – BBB developed a firm-standard model health dashboard by customizing several of the Data Export scripts that ship with Ideate Software tools. The exported data includes information about file-open times, model-in-place families, component family size and naming conventions, view organization, and model warnings.
     
  • Scaling Overnight Automations – To fully integrate Ideate Automation into BBB’s data-centered processes, BBB developed a workflow using Microsoft Power Automate to capture front-end Ideate Automation command line arguments and send them to the backend to run on a specific schedule. This allows for additional tasks to happen before or after Ideate Automation’s data export, beyond the Revit environment. “The flexibility of Ideate Automation’s task engine and its ability to work independently of the front-end UI is a huge plus for us,” said Matthew.

Read Spotlight on BBB for more information.

Visit www.ideatesoftware.com to learn how Ideate Software add-ins for Revit help users save time, increase model accuracy, improve deliverables, and elevate design. Give them a try by downloading trial versions or purchasing the bundle.


About Ideate Software - Ideate Software, Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk® Authorized Developer, empowers Revit users to gain unprecedented control over their data. They developed Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager to solve persistent problems in architecture, engineering, and construction, and owner-operator (AECO) workflows. They developed Ideate Automation as a scripting solution to easily automate repetitive Revit and Ideate Software tasks for consistent and repeatable results.

Autodesk and Autodesk Revit are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries

 

Read More

January

11

2024

San Francisco, CA, January 11, 2024 – Customers of Ideate Software will be pleased to learn that IdeateApps has been updated to include more customer-requested features as well as some fixes and improvements.

“The recent updates include several new workflows related to Ideate Annotate, the 10th tool added to the IdeateApps collection that streamline common Revit processes,” said Glynnis Patterson, Director of Software Development, Ideate Software. “Subscribers automatically get the updates at no additional cost.” 

New Workflows

Ideate Annotate - Tag tabWith the new version, users can now use the new “Tag” tab in Ideate Annotate to

  • Intelligently batch-add tags with customizable rules such as only tag rooms greater than a certain area
  • Control tag locations relative to the tagged element as a default or override
  • Tag the active view or all open views

Fixes and Improvements

In addition to the new workflows, Ideate Software added some fixes and improvements to Ideate Annotate and Ideate ViewCreator, another tool in the IdeateApps collection. 

  • Ideate Annotate
    • Added customizable display filter
    • Increased speed of review process
    • Added Ideate Query
    • Fixed bug related to tags with two calculated parameters that reference each other
  • Ideate ViewCreator
    • Improved elevation crop size for duplicate level or thick floor conditions
    • Fixed bug in the Room View method related to room names with colons
    • Improved handling of text casing within the Room View method
    • Added support for sequenced letters/numbers for elevation views within the Room View method

Subscribers can get the latest version of IdeateApps from the Download page. Non-subscribers can learn more on the Ideate Software website and download a free 30-day trial.


About Ideate Software - Ideate Software, Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk® Authorized Developer, empowers Revit users to gain unprecedented control over their data. They developed Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager to solve persistent problems in architecture, engineering, and construction, and owner-operator (AECO) workflows. They 
developed Ideate Automation as a scripting solution to easily automate repetitive Revit and Ideate Software tasks for consistent and repeatable results.

Autodesk and Autodesk Revit are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries

 

Read More

December

29

2023

2023 was an exciting year for us! We 1) once again achieved our goal of quickly aligning our solutions with the latest and three previous versions of Revit, 2) met with thousands of BIM enthusiasts in person and virtually, and 3) introduced dozens of new features and updates that deliver even more value to subscribers. Be sure you are taking advantage of all the hard work we completed in 2023 by visiting this page for the latest Ideate Software solutions!

Ideate Automation Takes the Spotlight!

We highlight details of our 2023 activities below, but we just have to start with the super-star of the year, Ideate Automation

Ideate AutomationOur latest updates created quite a buzz within the Revit community, even with people who don’t already have Ideate Software products. The partial reason for all the new excitement is because in October, we announced that without consuming any Autodesk Cloud Credits, Ideate Automation can now be used to schedule the opening of large Revit files at a convenient time, like overnight! And if that wasn’t enough, we also announced that Ideate Automation can be used to:

  • Export data from Revit into PDF, DWG, NWC, and IFC formats
  • Publish files to Autodesk BIM 360 as often as daily
  • Run the Revit “audit and compact” process
  • Save Revit models to a specified location
  • Schedule these tasks off-hours
  • …….and so much more!

Ideate Automation Workflow Chart

Ideate Software What's New Playlist

Many More Enhancements

Like every year, we added many customer-requested updates to our products when we aligned them with Revit in May, and we added even more later in the year. To make it easy for customers to learn about the updates, build them into their workflows, and share them with colleagues, we created a “What’s New in Ideate Software” playlist on our You Tube channel and posted several short videos.

There is also a What’s New Help topic under EACH Ideate Software solution. Here is just the latest example from IdeateApps that includes both May and November 2023 updates.  Be sure to read all about the latest features and enhancements within each unique Ideate Software solution by reviewing our latest HELP files.

Online Training & Presentations

Our webinars continue to be a favorite learning method for customers. This year we hit an all-time high of 1,500 registrants! We posted links to recordings under the Events tab in our blog posts. 

We continued our Training blog post and Support blog post series in 2023 with dozens of tips on getting the most out of Ideate Software solutions.

Our support team fielded hundreds of questions regarding everything from installation to new feature requests, and almost everything in-between.

Globetrotting

Our team discussed BIM challenges and Ideate Software solutions at many in-person events:

England
Women in BIM
NXT BLD
Revit Data Management Insights Group
Digital Construction Week

France
BIM World Paris

Germany
BIM World Munich

Ireland
BIM Coordinators Summit
Singapore
Build Tech Asia

Switzerland
BIM Day GVA

United States
Autodesk University
Lunch and Learn in San Francisco
Digital Built Week - Americas
San Francisco City Tour
San Francisco AIA Conference
2023 AIA San Francisco Design Awards     
NYC City Tour

 In Good Company 

We were honored that the following customers took time out of their busy schedules to share how our products help them achieve their goals. 

  1. Corstorphine & Wright
  2. Environmental Systems Design
  3. Evolve Consultancy – 1
  4. Evolve Consultancy - 2
  5. EwingCole
  6. Goettsch Partners
  7. HPP Architects
  8. Modmation
  9. Parkin Architects
  10. Stantec

Stronger Social Media Presence

We upped our social media game to get the attention of more customers and potential customers.

New videos on YouTube
Now on Instagram 
Fun and valuable prizes!  
Spotify Wrapped campaign

Thank you!

As we close out the year, we thank Ideate Software employees, customers, consultants, partners, and others who helped us achieve our 2023 goals. We look forward to 2024 being another year of collaboration, innovation, and success.

Stay current on all our activities in 2024 by following us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

 

Read More