February

27

2019

We love it when customers ask questions about using our applications for Revit software. 

Recently, I heard from a customer that wanted to manage both the text leader location and text alignment in Ideate BIMLink in order to comply with a company standard where all text has a left alignment and leaders at the left are at the top and leaders to the right are at the bottom. She explained that the challenge is when the text is moved to the other side of an element, it’s imperative that the leader placement moves as well. She wanted to select all the text in a project and set a default location for the leader that would stick even if someone moved the text. 

Managing Leader Location and Alignment

 

    
This workflow is currently possible in Ideate BIMLink via the use of these Text fields: Horizontal Alignment, Left Attachment, and Right Attachment as shown below. Note: The two Attachment fields are only referenced when a leader line is used with the text.

As we reviewed the workflow, we noticed that the values for the Left and Right Attachment were numbers, not the expected values of “Top, Middle, Bottom.” Agreeing that this would be a nice improvement, I filed a change order, which will be available in our next release. The improved values are shown below for reference.

Existing Ideate BIMLink customers can download a sample link today to try this out.


 

Have a question about how to use our software to achieve a specific goal? Let us know. If the solution exists, we’ll walk you through it. If it doesn’t, we’ll help you with a work-around and consider adding it in a future release. 

Visit our website for more information on Ideate Explorer and our other applications. Give them a try with a free trial version, or subscribe today


About the Author

Glynnis Patterson, NCARB – Director of Software Development
Glynnis is a registered architect and has worked within the building information modeling (BIM) industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis is the Director of Software Development Services and continues to work with AECO clients worldwide, developing, and consulting on solutions to BIM challenges. In her spare time, Glynnis volunteers for the local high school and with growitgreenmorristown.org. Find Glynnis on LinkedIn.