There are many free Revit plugins on the market. Based on our personal experience as well as conversations with hundreds of people who have tried free and inexpensive plugins, we strongly discourage people from using them. Although a plugin may have a low upfront cost, it may cost a fortune in terms of time spent trying to get it to perform as described. And often, it never does. Not only does this frustrate users, if they downloaded the software in hopes of solving a pressing issue, they may miss a deadline and frustrate customers as well.

The Monetary Cost of Ideate Software Plugins for Revit

Developing, marketing, and supporting Revit plugins is complicated, and Ideate Software does it extremely well. While we like to focus on the value of our software, we understand that the monetary cost is important for budgeting, plus it creates a basis from which to determine the cost savings achieved.

Please visit our Bundles page for current pricing on our standard one-year subscriptions for single users, multiple users, and enterprise licensing, as well as our special promotions, which at the time of this post, include six-month get-to-know-us bundles for single and multiple users as well as the option to add Ideate Automation. Subscriptions to individual products are also available. For pricing information, go to our online store and click on each product’s name.

The Reasons Ideate Software Products are Top Revit Plugins

The whole reason Ideate Software is in business is to help companies in the architecture, engineering, construction, and owner-operator industries get the most out of their Revit software. It’s not an add-on to our business. It’s not a secondary or tertiary area of focus. It’s what we do! We are an Autodesk Authorized Developer and a member of the Autodesk Developer Network, meaning that we adhere to strict guidelines established by Autodesk and that they trust us to deliver products and services that strengthen their products and their reputation.

Here are some factors that contribute to our designation as a top Revit plugin developer:

1. We create an atmosphere that attracts top talent. A people-first philosophy in which every person is treated with respect, encouraged to share their ideas, and recognized for their successes has led to several people staying with the company for decades as well as new people with outstanding skills joining us. For examples, read this press release about Rahul Verma, who celebrated his 20-year anniversary with Ideate in 2021, and this press release that announces three new hires who brought their talents to Ideate Software within the past year. 
    
2. We develop plugins that Revit users want. We don’t ever think we know what functionality to work on next. We know what to do because we listen to Revit users. Because we have been in business for so long, we have a solid base of customers who tell us what they are working on, describe limitations in Revit that they’d like addressed, and provide candid thoughts on our product development ideas before we get to software development. As a business, our goal of course is to attract new customers, so we don’t just rely on our existing customers for direction. We tune into Autodesk Revit forums, we attend industry events across the world, and we ask for thoughts on product development after each of our webinars, which are open to the public and free of charge. 
    
3. We put all our products and enhancements through rigorous testing. Our software development team takes great pride in their work. They test their work extensively before releasing new products or enhancements to existing products by providing them to the large group of people in our Beta Test Group who test them in real-world situations. We take their feedback to heart, making adjustments as needed to ensure each product works as described and performs a valuable function.
    
4. We provide meaningful updates at least once a year. We are not a one-and-done company. Every year, we align our software with the new version of Revit, and we make customer-requested and process-improvement enhancements that bring additional value to subscribers. We highlight the enhancements in press releases, lead webinars on the updates, post videos on our YouTube channel, and put step-by-step workflow instructions in our online help files. Of course our top support staff are always available to offer assistance. Here is a video highlighting the enhancements in our May 2023 release:
   
   

Ideate Software’s Revit Plugins – An Overview

Here are highlights of our BIM plugins for Revit. Click on the links for more information.

• Ideate BIMLink – Easily edit vast amounts of Revit data by using Ideate BIMLink to import/export Revit data to Microsoft Excel for editing. In addition to robust editing, you can create many Revit elements as well as manage workflows that just aren’t easy or even possible within standard Revit. A small sampling of these varied workflows includes the ability to swap Revit elements, easily manage Revit parameters, rename Revit elements, and flexibly manage Revit sheet revision workflows and sheet/view sets. Ideate BIMLink includes powerful filtering and sorting options to manage and extract the exact Revit data to modify. 
   
• Ideate Explorer – Decrease the time spent on model management by using Ideate Explorer to find and delete incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items, including DWGs. Ideate Explorer comes with four additional tools that allow you to manage warnings, navigate through view-based elements, search on parameters, and filter model elements based on specific parametric conditions. 
   
• Ideate Sticky – Easily link, import, integrate, and format non-BIM data into your Revit projects with Ideate Sticky. It combines the ease and flexibility of Excel, Word, and PDF editing with the convenience of a sticky note. Because the documents are live-linked, the Revit files automatically update when the original document is changed. 
   
• Ideate StyleManager - Address the challenges that arise when Revit users load or import content into the model and the corresponding styles automatically come with the content. While management of styles in Revit can be time consuming and risky, it’s easy with Ideate StyleManager, which allows users to analyze, merge, or delete non-standard styles. 
   
• IdeateApps – Streamline time-consuming repetitive tasks with the 10 tools that come with IdeateApps. Developed for both daily Revit users and BIM managers, IdeateApps will put hours back in your day while improving the quality of your Revit models.

In addition to developing the five plugins above to solve persistent problems in architecture, engineering, and construction, and owner-operator workflows, we developed Ideate Automation to boost the power of our Revit plugins by running time-intensive activities in the background. Learn more here. 

 

Stay Connected

Learn more about our top Revit addons.

Check us out on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

If you have any questions, reach out to us. We are here to help you understand and use our Revit plugin solutions. 
 

 

With five Revit plugins and an additional desktop application, including one plugin—IdeateApps—that come with 10 tools, we are often asked which of our products people find most useful. The truth is that there isn’t just one. We know that all the tools on our Revit plugins list are useful because we only develop ones that meet needs expressed by Revit users. 

1. We talk with our customers. Whether they have been with us since we first launched Ideate Explorer in 2008, recently partnered with us when we launched Ideate Automation to boost the power of our plugins, or anywhere in between, we talk with customers.
   • We take the time to understand their needs before selling them a product, and we follow up with them after they have had it for a while to make sure it meets those needs.
   • At the conclusion of every webinar we deliver, we ask attendees to tell us about any challenges they are having in Revit and if there are any features they’d like to see added to our products.
   • We track all calls that come into our Support team and note any issues that our products don’t currently address. Our Software Development team reviews all the data to determine if new functionality or even a completely new product is needed.
   • We work closely with a large group of beta testers who review our updates or new products while they are in the development stage, provide candid feedback, and then verify that everything works as expected before we launch them publicly
      
2. We are part of the Autodesk Community, which offers several ways to connect, find answers, share knowledge, build networks, and more, including the Community Forums, which are product discussion boards:
   • Revit Architecture Forum - Share knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular Revit Architecture topics.
   • Revit MEP Forum – Post questions and answers about Revit ducts, piping, plumbing, fire protection, electrical, and more.
   • Revit Structure Forum – Hear from users about how to use this tool to improve collaborations on structural design and engineering tasks.
   • Revit API Forum – Learn about this collection of programs and libraries that helps in building and integrating software to Revit to extend its functionality.
   • Revit Ideas Forum - Share ideas for future product features directly with the Revit team and collaborate on existing suggestions with peers
      
3. We know Revit. Our Software Developers, Support team, Business Development managers, and Customer Success managers know Revit. We are architects, engineers, designers, and others who worked in industry before joining Ideate Software. 
   
   We joined Ideate Software because we know and love BIM and Revit, and we want to help develop, sell, and support products that make them even better. 

Reasons our Revit Plugins are Useful

Here’s a quick overview of how our customers benefit from our addons for Revit. Architecture, engineering, and construction companies as well as owner-operators use our Revit addons to streamline activities, improve model health, and enhance model design. 

Quickly find and delete incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items—even imported or linked DWG’s. Find, refine, and revise elements, including those that aren’t in the Revit project browser. This functionality dramatically decreases the amount of time spent on model management and enhances model performance. Ideate Explorer comes with four additional features that will contribute to you models staying in top working order:

• Warnings Manager – Audit and address Revit warnings ranked by importance. Fix problems using tools in Revit while the Warnings Manager dialog box is open.
• Navigate – Navigate through view-based elements; find unused sheets and views; find and filter legends, schedules, sheets, or views by category and/or keyword; and customize working environments without altering the project browser.
• Query – Search within set parameters for elements like in-place usage, structure usage/area scheme, revisions, unused annotations, and design options. 
• Filters - A dynamic, customizable, and rule-based method to quickly filter Revit model elements based on your specified parametric conditions.

 

Don’t work inside of Revit to verify and/or edit data one element at a time. Instead, use Ideate BIMLink to export the data you need to review into Microsoft Excel where you can quickly view and accurately manipulate massive amounts of data in seconds. You can then use Ideate BIMLink to import the verified or updated data back into Revit, and the model will immediately update.  

 

Share accurate and formatted non-BIM data with your Revit teams by live-linking Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and PDF documents to the Revit file with Ideate Sticky. These “stickies” are easy to read, look nice, and can be easily updated within Revit when changes are made to the original files. Whether it’s building codes, consultant data, abbreviation lists, general notes, or any of the many other non-BIM data critical to a project’s success, you can be sure your team always has the current information. 

 

Eliminate problems caused by copying/pasting data from one Revit file to another when styles associated with the original file get copied along with the data. This can clog up the model with incorrect information that can take a long time to remove if working in Revit. You have to remove it, because extraneous data can create model performance problems. With Ideate StyleManager, you can quickly analyze, merge, and delete non-standard Revit styles, and you can use it to see view filters applied to views and to clean object and line styles and patterns, text, fonts, parameters, and more. 

 

Stop spending so much time on tedious tasks in Revit that, when performed on large complex models, can contribute to mistakes, rework, and frustrations. Automate hundreds of common tasks with the 10 tools that come in the IdeateApps collection: Ideate SpellCheck, Ideate Align, Ideate Clone, Ideate ViewCreator, Ideate SheetManager, Ideate Annotate, Ideate XRay, Ideate ReNumber, Ideate SmartDelete, and Ideate QuickSelect. 

 

Run time-intensive BIM tasks silently in the background on this desktop application while you spend your time on more meaningful work with Ideate Automation. Start it manually or schedule it to run at a convenient time, even overnight. Ideate Automation can increase your productivity, eliminate the need to train staff on repetitive tasks, and ensure task outcomes are highly predictable, free of user errors, and standardized. Use Ideate Automation to: 

• Export key Revit model health data
• Create document issue records
• Prepare COBie data drops
• Generate quantity take-off data 
• Generate regular, automated PDF exports
• Deliver CSV reports on key Revit family and project metrics

Stay Connected

Learn more about our top Revit addons.

Check us out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

If you have any questions, reach out to us. We are here to help you understand and use our Revit plugin solutions. 
 

 

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.
     
      
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.
   
   
   
   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.
   
   
    
3. IdeateApps
    
   • 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:
      
   • 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
   
   

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

Every year, Autodesk adds new features and functionalities to Revit software, and this year is no exception. This year’s enhancements include interface modernizations and upgrades that will help users:

• Design more creatively
• Document more efficiently
• Manage projects more effectively in BIM

Here are 10 Examples

1. Dark Theme – Interface enhancements that allow users to work more comfortably and intuitively
2. “My Insights” Panel – Aggregates usage data and finds workflow trends to help users quantify common commands and keystrokes; offers ideas on how to streamline design tasks  
3. Interdisciplinary Imperial and Metric Template – Replaces discipline-specific templates
4. Sample Content – Provides a learning resource and a good examples of documentation best practices 
5. Toposolids – Improves the quality of site designs
6. Enhanced Visualizations – Enables architects and designers to tell a more compelling story
7. Auto Sync with Twinmotion – Live links Revit and Twinmotion
8. New Capabilities for Energy Analysis – Simplifies workflows when working in linked architectural models in Revit 
9. Enhanced Electrical Load Analysis Capabilities – Supports the use of demand factors and manage load sets for non-coincident backup equipment loads
10. Powerful Rebar Documentation Features – Allows detailers to create more complete shop drawings 

Ideate Software’s Top Revit Plugins

One reason Ideate Software tools are at the top of Revit Plugins lists is because every year, when Autodesk releases their new version of Revit, we quickly align our software to the new version and deliver meaningful enhancements. Most enhancements are based on user requests, and all are tested rigorously, so users can upgrade to the newest version of Revit with no issues and jump right into the new functionalities to streamline Revit workflows and improve the quality of their Revit models. 

Ideate Software Product Descriptions and Recent Enhancements

Below is information about our products and recent enhancements. For video demonstrations, check out our What’s New playlist on YouTube.

ABOUT IDEATE EXPLORER

Where Revit comes with a project browser, Ideate Explorer is a model browser that makes it easy for users to: 

• Find and delete incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items, including DWGs
• Find, refine, and revise elements, even those excluded from the project browser

Ideate Explorer includes these valuable features: 

• A Warnings Manager that allows users to easily review and manage Revit warnings with ease. It:
  • Allows the user to rank warnings based on importance
  • Notifies users when high ranking warnings appear in the models
  • Enables users to fix problems using tools in Revit when the Warnings Manager dialog box is open 
• A Navigate function that allows users to steer through the view-based elements in a Revit project and customize their browsing experience. It is used to find unused sheets and views and filter legends, schedules, sheets or views by category and/or keyword. It is also used to customize working environments without altering the project browser. 
• A Query function that can be used to search within set parameters for elements such as unused annotations, design options, in-place usage, structure usage/area scheme, and revisions. These query functions can now be saved and used multiple times via our Dynamic Filters.

May 2023 Enhancements to Ideate Explorer

Ideate Explorer now includes the ability to create and save dynamic filters using expanded Revit properties exposed within Ideate Explorer that are not always available with the out-of-the-box Revit user interface. Users can search elements throughout a Revit model based on their parameter values, including parameter values in related data tables. Because this filtering system is dynamic, when parameter values in a model are updated, the list in Ideate Explorer will update as well. 

Learn more and watch a demonstration:

ABOUT IDEATE BIMLINK

Verifying or editing massive amounts of data in Revit can be incredibly time consuming. It’s easy with Ideate BIMLink. This powerful Revit plugin allows users to export the data they need to verify/update to Microsoft Excel, use its powerful editing capabilities, and then import verified or updated data back into the model. Whether you need to check to make sure naming conventions comply with customer standards or update a product manufacturer’s name, Ideate BIMLink is the tool. 

May 2023 Enhancements to Ideate BIMLink

New features include the ability to:

1. Create new shared project parameters
2. Create shared and unshared family parameters
3. Push parameter standards to multiple models
4. Batch edit the material assignment and thickness value for compound walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, and slab assemblies

Learn more and watch a demonstration:

Watch our What’s New video for information on the other enhancements to Ideate BIMLink capabilities:

• Support for MEP pipe and duct elevation properties
• New support for sheet and view sets 
• The ability to manage family type properties that may vary across family types
• The ability to edit the bounding boxes of views
• The ability to create new worksets 

ABOUT IDEATE STICKY

The limited text editing functionality in Revit makes it difficult for project managers to organize and format non-BIM data that their project teams need. Ideate Sticky overcomes this issue by combining the familiar flexibility of Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Word documents, and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with the convenience of a sticky note. This Revit plugin live-links non-BIM data into a Revit project, and when the source document is updated, the linked “sticky” automatically updates. 

Enhancements to Ideate Sticky

Recently, Autodesk updated its Desktop Connector from version 15 to version 16, which changed the location and path where non-Revit files are stored within the Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). The latest version of Ideate Sticky is compatible with both versions. 

The improvements to the Autodesk Desktop Connector solve a long-standing problem with the non-Revit data stored on the ACC not being actively refreshed. The latest version allows you to choose which folders are actively updating, which ensures that files linked via Ideate Sticky and stored on the ACC will be the most current. Ideate Sticky has a new “Show” button on the main dialog that highlights the selected sticky within the active view. 

Another enhancement reduces the initial size of the Ideate Sticky dialog on start-up, reducing the time it takes for Ideate Sticky to open. 

ABOUT IDEATE STYLEMANAGER

Pasting data from one model to another can create issues when style information associated with that data automatically transfers as well. With Ideate StyleManager, users can easily analyze, merge, or delete non-standard Revit styles more reliably, quickly, and accurately than possible with the built-in Revit style management system. 

May 2023 Enhancements to Ideate StyleManager

Ideate StyleManager can now expose both Family parameters and Nested parameters within the Family Editor environment, making it much easier to standardize parameters within Revit content. We’ve also introduced Quick Analysis and In-Depth Analysis options to increase performance.  

ABOUT IDEATEAPPS

IdeateApps is a set of tools that enhances the functionality of Revit. With it, Autodesk Revit users can access and manipulate the data in their models with greater ease. Designed to take on common challenges identified by people who use Revit daily, these Autodesk Revit add-ins automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows, freeing time for more interesting and valuable activities.  

May 2023 Enhancements to IdeateApps

• Ideate ReNumber
  • Skip a number within a numbering sequence by just selecting the element again
• Ideate SpellCheck
  • Support added for using SpellCheck within the Revit Family Editor environment
  • In the Project environment, you can now choose which views to spell check
• Ideate ViewCreator
  • Enhanced existing ability to automatically copy plan-based views to multiple levels by adding support for copying schedules from one level to many
  • When using the Rooms View method:
    • You can now choose rooms located in a Revit linked model
    • You can clone 2D linework and annotations if selecting a sheet to clone
    • We’ve added support for using more than one plan or ceiling plan view
• Ideate Annotate
  • New text align and distribute features
  • Additional issue reporting functionality
  • Watch these short videos for details:
     

Stay Connected

Learn more about our top Revit plugins.  Check us out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

If you have any questions, reach out to us. We are here to help you understand and use our Revit plugin solutions. 

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 questions and answers via our Ideate Software Support Series blog category.

An Ideate Software customer asked if they could find all hidden Detail Groups in the Revit model.

Finding Detail Groups that are hidden can be a tricky and challenging task, as they become invisible due to various reasons including:

• Hidden by Element
• Hidden by Category
• Cropped by View

Identifying these hidden detail groups is crucial for maintaining an accurate BIM model. However, the challenge here is that there is no specific property (on the Detail Group) that will flag most of these conditions.
Fortunately, there is a helpful solution available within IdeateApps > Annotate that can assist in this process, although it may require some time to complete, which makes running it at the end of a work day ideal.   

The complexity of identifying hidden detail groups arises from the fact that there is no specific property directly associated with the detail group that indicates these hidden conditions, unlike some other elements in Revit that have explicit properties like visibility settings or design options. The view-specific cropping for detail groups for example do not possess such attributes. Consequently, locating hidden detail groups requires a more comprehensive approach.

To address this challenge, thanks to our wonderful development team, Ideate Annotate, part of the IdeateApps collection, offers a powerful tool that can help uncover hidden detail groups within your Revit model. By leveraging this tool, you can streamline the process and save valuable time. Here's how you can use it:

1. Launch the May 2023 version of IdeateApps
2. Open Ideate Annotate
3. Select the Review tab
4. Change the Display to “Entire Project”
5. After it does the initial review, choose “Full Analysis” This is the part that potentially can take a long time.*
6. When that's done, type “Detail Group” in the Search bar 
7. Look for any Detail Groups listed under both issue types:
   • Hidden by Element – this includes any Detail Group that exists on a dependent view and is invisible due to the use of the right-click>Hide in View>Elements command.
   • Other Not Visible – this includes any other invisibility condition, including those caused by cropped views. 
8. Double click on each instance to open the view where they exist and decide which action to take: delete or change view crop

*After you complete the Full Analysis, the results can be saved and imported later for reviewing at another time. Learn more. 

This blog post is part of our Support Series. Access more here. 

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software’s Revit add-ins help 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 Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps for six months.

 

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About the Author

Nivin Nabeel, Customer Success Manager, Americas

Nivin has a background in architecture, visual arts, and computer science and has extensive experience in managing and manipulating BIM data, developing and implementing BIM standards and workflows, and applying BIM workflows to ancillary project components for improved efficiency. Before joining Ideate Software, Nivin worked at several architecture and design firms where she learned about Ideate Software products, used them, advocated for them, implemented them, and trained others on how to use them. She earned her Bachelor of Architectural Science degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. Follow Nivin on LinkedIn.