July

19

2023

We at Ideate Software sincerely thank Paul F Aubin for writing the following article on how he used Ideate StyleManager when he and other experts developed the Snowdon Towers sample model in Revit 2024.
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The 2024 release of Revit includes a collection of seven Revit files that together comprise the new Revit 2024 sample model, called “Snowdon Towers.” This project is a mixed-use project containing commercial, retail, residential and outdoor space. It is located on a real site in the town of Brownsville, PA. The project was designed and built by a team of experts across multiple disciplines and includes models for Site, Architecture, Structure, and MEP. Each of these is linked to one another and also makes use of georeferenced coordinates from the Brownsville location. 

Snowden Towers
 
Autodesk Software Expert Paul F Aubin and Snowdon Towers

My name is Paul F Aubin. I am an independent architectural consultant helping firms be successful with their Autodesk software. I am the author of numerous books and LinkedIn Learning video courses on Revit and other AEC industry tools. (You can learn more at: paulaubin.com). My background is in the architectural profession and I worked in architectural practice for many years before embarking on a career in consulting. Recently I was given the opportunity by Autodesk to assemble a team and devise what would become the Snowdon Towers project. The project was the perfect marriage of my various skills and interests.

Snowdon Towers was chosen for the name to pay homage to the buildings that previously stood on the site and as a way of thanking the various entities in the Brownsville community who worked with us to help make the project a success.

Ideate StyleManager Used Throughout Design and Into Delivery

The mixed use building in total encompasses about 52,000 sf which makes it a good mid-sized project example. Given the multidisciplinary nature of project, the various files and its size and scope, there were many styles of all kinds in use in the various project files throughout its development. Ideate StyleManager was one of the tools used throughout the process of design and into delivery of the project. 

Design Phase

During the design phase, Ideate StyleManager was useful in consolidating items when various types and styles would accumulate and/or become unused. 

The Challenge

If you consider the standard workflow in a typical project, it is common to start with a collection of standards that come from the Revit template file used to start the project. As design progresses, styles are modified, and more styles are added. Some of these are added intentionally, others end up in the project because of importing and working with other outside content items. Also factor in multiple team members and periods of weeks and/or months and it is not hard to understand how many unintended and unused styles can accumulate.

Revit does include some tools to help manage items like types, fill patterns and line styles; but admittedly these tools are not always well suited to the job. Consider tasks like renaming elements and types or deleting unused items. These are much harder to track down with out of the box tools. And if you have items that are duplicates and need to be consolidated, the process is quite manual. 

Tackling The Challenges with Ideate StyleManager

To tackle these issues with Ideate StyleManger is simple! You open the tool, choose the kind of style item you want, select one or more styles in the list on the left, and then click the Analyze button. This will reveal the pertinent information about the items selected, including handy color coding to identify those that are duplicates. With this information in hand, you can decide what you want to do. Actions include: renaming, deleting and merging of styles.

Ideate StyleManager and Snowden Tower

Using Ideate StyleManager Throughout the Project

It is advisable to run Ideate StyleManager on a regular basis to help combat these issues. Monthly can be a good interval for most projects, but for larger and more complex projects, more frequently might be warranted. You do not necessarily need to go through every style type each time you use the tool. Items like Line Styles and Patterns, Fill Patterns, and View Templates might need more frequent attention, while Object Styles and Scope Boxes might be less frequent. But naturally each project’s needs will be somewhat unique. 

In the case of Snowdon Towers, View Templates, Filters, and Line Styles were addressed regularly while a one-time change was made to fonts early on in the project. At the start of the project, a decision was made to change the default font used by all annotations in the new sample (and the new Revit Template files). The change is not radical; Trebuchet has replaced Arial, but it is just enough to give the project a fresh look. Making this change without Style Manager would have been ill-advised. This is because each annotation item must be edited individually. However, to make the change with Ideate StyleManger was much simpler. 

Ideate StyleManager and Snowdon Towers

Step-by-Step Instructions

First, a new file was created. 

Next, all annotation items (tags, etc.) in the out-of-the-box library were imported into this file. 

Once this was done, Ideal StyleManager was run. The first step there is to choose Fonts. Select all fonts in the list, and then, next to the Analyze button are three checkboxes. Check all three. This allows Ideate StyleManger to analyze the families and schedules in the file as well. Click the Analyze button and let it process. Once the analysis is complete, you can select the font(s) you wish to replace, click the Merge button. A dialog will appear showing all fonts on your system. Pick the one you want and then click OK. Let it process. 

When it is done, you can use the Save As > Library > Family command from the file menu to save copies of all loaded families that have been updated with Ideate StyleManager. 

Ideate StyleManager and Snowdon Tower
 
Keep in mind that many annotation families and styles include the name of the font in their name. This means that you will also need to rename these items.

A few other things to note:

  • Ideate StyleManager looks at the actual settings of each style when performing its analysis. This means you might identify several styles with different names that are actually identical. The merge function is designed to help you consolidate such items. You will be prompted as to which name to keep when merging, the other(s) will be deleted.
  • Analysis can take some time, so plan accordingly and be patient. There are performance tips in the tool. But even though it can take time, the process is far faster than it would be to attempt it manually. 
  • Many style types have an edit icon near the top of the list. Use this to get to the standard Revit interface for that type of item. 
  • Many style types will show a nice preview on the right side of the selected item. This is helpful in identifying the correct style to keep or merge. 

    Ideate StyleManager and Snowdon Towers

 
Delivering a Higher Quality Product with Ideate StyleManager

Managing project files and adhering to office standards can be an ongoing headache for project teams. Ideate StyleManger is a fantastic tool to help alleviate some of this stress. While it would have been possible to deliver Snowdon Towers without its use, I am grateful to have had the tool at my disposal as it enabled me to deliver a higher quality product than would have been possible with it.

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July

14

2023

Environmental Systems Design’s Digital Practice Leader Samir Abdelmawla delivered an engaging session called, “Arsenal of Revit Tools for the MEP Team” at the 2023 BILT North America Conference in Dallas, Texas. He featured several Revit add-on tools for the MEP team, and many of those tools were from Ideate Software!

“I am a strong believer of the tools developed by Ideate Software. A number of these tools are helping our engineers on their daily tasks. I am pleased to showcase how powerful they are for many MEP workflows and how easy they are to use,” said Samir.

Here is the information about Ideate Software tools that Samir featured in his presentation:

  1. Ideate Sticky 
    • Successfully get Excel spreadsheets to Revit
    • Starting with Revit 2020, Revit supported inserting PDFs to a model, however it only allows for one page at time. Ideate Sticky can place selected pages and maintain links to the source PDF.
      Environmental System Design - Ideate Sticky
       
  2. Ideate BIMLink – Edit various MEP data and schedules in Excel and then import the data back to Revit. Editing in Excel offers the speed of copy/paste, fill down/across, concatenate data, and easily search/replace.

    Environmental Systems Design - Ideate BIMLink

    Also, with Ideate BIMLink, users can create definitions from a wealth of provided Libraries by category or by schedule: Export the data to Excel, edit, then import it back to Revit. Ideate BIMLink highlights changes for review before making them in the Revit model.

    Environmental Systems Design - Ideate BIMLink
     
  3. IdeateApps
     
    • Environmental Systems Design - Ideate XRay
      Ideate XRay – Understand why a Revit element is not visible within a specific view.
      • Fix
      • Show how to fix
      • Get more information
         
    • Ideate XRay gives the options to:
       
    • Environmental Systems Design - Ideate ReNumber
      Ideate ReNumber – Use this tool to number Revit elements by:
       
      • Individual selection
      • Selecting a path
      • Numbering all elements within the active view
         
    • Ideate Align – Coordinate floor plans, legends, schedules, or any other view across multiple Sheets
       
  4. Ideate Explorer – Manage model warnings

    Environmental Systems Design - Ideate Explorer

Thank you, Samir! We are honored that you included our products in your presentation.

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July

12

2023

San Francisco, CA, July 12, 2023 – When appointed Information Manager on a major project that required weekly reports to demonstrate the development of Autodesk® Revit® models, Evolve Consultancy, a premier BIM consultancy in the UK, turned to a suite of tools, including Ideate BIMLink. Ideate BIMLink is a Revit productivity tool developed by Ideate Software, an Autodesk AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk Authorized Developer. 

Joseph Frame, an associate with Evolve Consultancy said, “Simplicity is the key. We need anyone to be able to produce and analyse these reports with a minimum of training, as quickly as possible. Ideate BIMLink gives us that ability.”

In the customer success story published by Ideate Software, Joseph Frame and Francesco Pirritano, a consultant with Evolve Consultancy, share the steps they follow to:

The process of reporting starts with a custom link created in Ideate BIMLink to extract the necessary property values from the model.
  • Use Ideate BIMLink to select the required properties and categories to be included in the report
     
  • Export that data, which includes data from linked Revit models, to an Excel spreadsheet
     
  • Calculate the number and percentage of elements against each key performance indicator
     
  • Create a summary sheet to show the progression of how the models are developing over time

Francesco Pirritano said, “Ideate BIMLink allows the selection of multiple Revit categories, including both system and loadable families into the scheduled export, something not possible with Autodesk Revit multi-category schedules.”

Read Spotlight on Evolve Consultancy for details and screenshots.

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 for access to Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager for six months.
 


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 to boost the power of their Revit plugins by running time-intensive activities in the background.

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

Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
 

 

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June

8

2023

San Francisco, CA, June 8, 2023 – When Corstorphine & Wright, an architectural practice with design studios across the United Kingdom, hired a new Head of Digital, it learned of the time savings possible with tools from Ideate Software, an Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk® Authorized Developer.

Corstorphine & Wright Project: Stockeld Park, Daniel Shearin

Neil Carter, head of digital at Corstorphine & Wright, said, “When I joined Corstorphine & Wright in April of 2022, I brought along experience with Ideate Software tools that I used in my previous role. I had used Ideate Explorer to keep models performing effectively by finding and deleting unused elements and fixing Revit warnings. I had used Ideate BIMLink to export data from Revit to Excel for editing as well as to create unplaced rooms, unplaced spaces, sheets, masses, and areas.” 

After talking with a representative from Ideate Software, the company decided on a three-year bundle subscription that includes:

  • Ideate Explorer for access to all elements, even those excluded from the Revit browser 
  • Ideate BIMLink to pull data from a Revit model into Microsoft Excel for editing, and then push volumes of updated data back into the model
  • Ideate Sticky to link Microsoft Word and Excel as well as PDF documents to Revit projects
  • IdeateApps to streamline the tasks that Revit users perform most often 
  • Ideate StyleManager to easily analyze, delete, and merge non-standard styles

They also subscribed to Ideate Automation, a scripting solution that runs time-intensive BIM tasks in the background.

Neil continued, “The value of each of the tools was clear, and access to all of them would enable our architects to quickly get through so many different tedious data management tasks that historically have taken a lot of time.”

Read Spotlight on Corstorphine & Wright.

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 for access to Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager for six months.
 


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 to boost the power of their Revit plugins by running time-intensive activities in the background.

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

Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

 

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May

17

2023

San Francisco, CA, May 17, 2023 – With steep competition for top talent, Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering services, knows that its work environment must be one in which its employees have the support they need to focus on the company’s mission of advancing the quality of life in communities across the globe. One way Stantec delivers that support is by using tools by Ideate Software, an Autodesk® AEC Industry Partner and Autodesk® Authorized Developer. 

“I have been a fan of Ideate Software tools since I first used them in 2015,” said Ben Holmes, Senior Technician, Stantec. “They help our team spend more time offering unique insight to every project by reducing the time needed to perform repetitive tasks, search for and update model elements, and ensure all deliverables meet our high standards.”

On the East Riverside project, Stantec used Ideate Software tools for auditing models and mentoring on best practices.

When providing examples of how the Stantec team uses Ideate Software tools, Ben mentioned:

  • Keeping model data clean with Ideate Explorer
  • Reducing the amount of time spent populating schedules with Ideate BIMLink
  • Updating drawing elements so line, hatching, text, and other families comply with their template with Ideate StyleManager
  • Creating and copying sheets with views with two tools in the IdeateApps collection

Read Spotlight on Stantec for more.

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 for access to Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate StickyIdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager for six months.
 


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 to boost the power of their Revit plugins by running time-intensive activities in the background.

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

Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

 

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