We are continuing our monthly Ideate Software blog series entitled Wishlist Granted. Each blog article features real user requests from Autodesk forums and discussions plus many Ideate Software customer requests.
Warren Buffet, a fellow Nebraskan once wrote:
“Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.”
When you delete something in Revit, you are taking a certain amount of risk. Is Revit telling you truly everything that will be deleted? There are many complex relationships within the Revit model, and it’s not always intuitive to understand how a simple removal of a floor element might impact many other related elements.
For many years, Revit had no additional warnings if you deleted a level. In Revit 2019, Autodesk introduced an added pop-up warning that would show elements that would be removed if you deleted a level. This enhancement was a direct response to this Revit Ideas Forum Request.
The Revit Delete Warning dialog, available for level deletion only.
However, the Autodesk implementation only addressed part of the problem. The pop-up warning is only for Revit levels. There are still many requests for additional features such as this one from a good Ideate Software customer:
David Plumb of BWBR writes a request to be able to expand and collapse the different categories of elements to be deleted. This important summary data makes it much easier to understand and browse the relevant changes before they happen.
This is just one of the many reasons Ideate Software developed Ideate SmartDelete. Ideate SmartDelete is part of the IdeateApps collection, a set of nine tools we developed to streamline activities that daily Revit users perform most often.
Ideate SmartDelete allows you to expand and collapse all the information about a level deletion in Revit.
In addition, the Autodesk Revit delete pop-up warning only appears when deleting levels. What about the hundreds of other relationships that you may not be aware exist within your Revit model?
Here is an example selecting a floor element and Ideate SmartDelete is reporting that there is an Element Keynote attached to that floor that will indeed be removed if you delete the floor. This is certainly not always known. How many times have text, dimensions, keynotes, or other elements gone missing and nobody knows why?
Review this video to learn more about how Ideate SmartDelete can reduce your liability issues. Plus, our IdeateApps online Help topic has detailed information on Ideate SmartDelete as well as a Getting Started Guide.
Arm yourself with the knowledge to mitigate any risk!
We love ideas from Revit users. Feel free to contact our team via [email protected] to share yours.
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.