We love it when customers ask us how to use our software to perform specific tasks. Many times, we quickly provide the answers. Sometimes, the questions lead to new feature requests. That was the case when Yoshida Kenichiro from Nihon Sekkei contacted us.

In addition to saying that Ideate BIMLink’s functionality is amazing, Yoshida asked if it could export a schedule header and parameter name at the same time, saying that it would be easy to see which parameter was being changed if both were written together. We agree! Currently, Ideate BIMLink can export either the name of the parameter name of the schedule header, but not both, because they are stored separately. However, we are exploring the possibility of adding this feature to future releases. 

Here’s a video that we created as part of our response to the question,  “Can Ideate BIMLink export both the schedule header and the parameter at the same time."

Thank you Yoshida!

Do you have a question about our software? Let us know. We are here to help. 
 

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.

Thank you Laura Kay Smith - BIM Manager Lead, Buildings and Facilities Western Canada, SNC Lavalin, for contributing the following post.

I want to thank Ideate Software for giving me the opportunity to write a blog post, so I can share how BIM is simplified by good tools. My main tool pallet has always involved Ideate Software, and I would like to share with you some of my processes and tips for successful implementation and usage.

I have previously discussed how BIM failure is due to complexity and lack of education (see my article, BIM is Simple), suggesting that BIM is most successful in companies that understand the value it provides. In this article, I provide some tips and tricks to get your firm’s BIM implementation and usage on the right track.

You will need buy-in from your whole team to keep the BIM process simple. The buy-in starts by making things easy to use. Here are some useful workflows that incorporate quality BIM tools I found to be useful:

Ideate BIMLink

My first major success in moving BIM forward in a firm came in 2013 when I stumbled  across Ideate BIMLink (Kasian Sets a New Facilities Planning Standard Using Ideate BIMLink). This is where I had an epiphany on the importance of BIM tools paving the way to success in BIM processes.

Ideate BIMLink allows everyone on a project to be involved with the data input of Revit. It’s a tool that allows the push and pull of data between Excel and Revit.

My main workflow for this tool is in health care. Because health care requirements are strict, it’s important to minimize the places that information must be corrected when projects change: if you ignore this, your project can spiral into endless rework cycles.

For example, each room in a hospital has a specific purpose and needs, size, equipment, location and finishes. You can track and update this information without manual entry by using Ideate BIMLink:

1. Set up your template file for health care with standard parameters used for operations and requiring checks.
2. Create an Ideate BIMLink link with those parameters.
3. Transition the received requirements onto the Ideate BIMlink Excel export and import into your project.
4. Pull the room sizes and requirements back into your Excel requirement check. Here you can set formulas to verify and check the numbers. You can also set up a parameter to color your rooms to make the requirements visual.
5. Organize your Ideate BIMLink data to produce Room Data Sheets.

Snapshot of Excel worksheet showing data extracted from Revit

Snapshot of Excel worksheet showing data extracted from Revit with color-coding added to emphasize variances

Ideate Sticky

The Ideate BIMLink tool is very powerful, but it only helps you manipulate information that is already in your model. If you need information on your pages that is not part of your file, you can use Ideate Sticky to ‘stick’ the data on a sheet.

Ideate Sticky allows users to show Excel in Revit without the additional parameter inputs. For example, your project may need you to include electrical conduit schedules. To add these to a page using Ideate Sticky, you can select the print area of a sheet and place it directly into your Revit sheet. This can be a live link, meaning any changes to the spreadsheet will also update in the BIM model. All the information in the original sheet, including equations, graphics, layout and coloring will translate to the print sheet. You can use this setup for those engineers that do not work inside the model.

If the project needs both the push and pull of data and the simple sticking of information on a sheet, both Ideate BIMLink and Ideate Sticky can be used in the same document.

Ideate Explorer

One of the most important parts of BIM management on a project is model maintenance and verifications. Ideate Explorer is a simple checkup tool for your model.

Ideate Explorer allows the model coordinator to accurately fill out the required Model Review checklist. Component and Subcomponent checks on Naming, Level Naming, Proper Dimension and Text styles used. The Warning checks inside of Ideate Explorer are also easier to understand and help you find the offending components.

Using BIM tools that are simple and allow the team to focus on the actual BIM data rather than model maintenance will help in the simplification of BIM. Ideate Software offers a great tool base for that step into 3D modeling. 

When quickly describing Ideate BIMLink, we say that it’s a BIM data management tool that lets you move data from a Revit model to an Excel spreadsheet for easy editing, and then push the updated data back into the model with speed, ease, and accuracy. 

It is so much more than that.

Below is a list of ways you can use Ideate BIMLink to leverage the data in your Revit model as well as links to the related Help files that have more details and step-by-step instructions:

• Create New Revit Elements
• Perform Quality Control Checks
• Manage Revit Key Schedule Data
• Manage Revit Sheet-based Revisions
• Manage Revit Project Standards
• Set Up New Projects
• Swap One Revit Element for Another
• Manage Calculated Values 
• Import Linked Revit File Data
• Assign Space Types
• Create Construction Tasks
• Import Re-formatted Ideate BIMLink Data Via Ideate Sticky

You can also check out our Instructional Videos that demonstrate some of the many uses of Ideate BIMLink for Revit. A recent addition to our video library explains some of the new Project Setup tasks that are easily automated by Ideate BIMLink. You can review it here:

Have any questions about how to use Ideate BIMLink? Let us know. We are here to help you get the most out of our Revit productivity applications. 

Visit our website for more information on our Revit productivity tools. Give them a try with a free trial version, or subscribe today. 

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 18 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.

Those of you who use Revit software will appreciate the lessons in this 30-minute webinar on some of the new element creation features in Ideate BIMLink. Ideate BIMLink is our productivity tool that allows you to extract data from a Revit model, send it to Microsoft Excel where you can review and modify it, and then import it back into Revit with speed, ease, and accuracy. 

In November 2019, we updated Ideate BIMLink for Revit 2017 – 2020 to streamline the user interface, making it easier to use and discover specific functions. In this webinar, I discuss the 300+ link definitions that are included with our library and concentrate on the ability to create new Revit elements such as levels, sheets, views, and viewports. Here’s a link to the recording. 

I encourage you to also check out our What’s New in Ideate BIMLink video, where we cover additional new features. 

Visit our website for more information on our Revit productivity tools. Give them a try with a free trial version, or subscribe today. 

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 18 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.

CBT Architects is a leading design firm headquartered in Boston, MA. Its 230 professionals create tomorrow’s landmarks through a broad range of local, national and international projects in architecture, interior design and urban design.

The CBT Design Technology Team uses Ideate Software applications to help project teams validate their project data and resolve individual model issues, and they proactively support all projects by incorporating the applications into model management processes.

Nirva Fereshetian, CBT’s Chief Information Officer and Associate Principal said, “Revit software is one of our Design Technology Team’s primary tools, and we use add-ons, including those from Ideate Software, to make Revit processes more efficient.”

Here are some examples of how they use our tools:

• Fix Visibility Issues with Ideate XRay
  Rood Vincent, from the Design Technology Team, said, “We get a lot of calls from Revit users who place an object into a view in Revit and then can’t find it anywhere. With Ideate XRay, the solution is fast and simple.”
   
• Ensure Accuracy with Ideate BIMLink
  When the Design Technology Team’s Lynn Quagliato talked about a hotel project that included six buildings, 700 guest rooms, and furniture counts for all the rooms, she said, “Getting the furniture data through Revit wasn’t ideal, because the software can’t show it all. It was easy with Ideate BIMLink.”
   
• Keep Models Stable with Ideate Explorer
  “Ideate Explorer give us deeper insight into Revit model elements and allows for enhanced selection options,” said William Paquette, CBT Design Technology Team. “This significantly aids in model management, allowing us to quickly identify where issues may be and areas that can be cleaned up.” 

“We appreciate Ideate Software’s tools as well as its support,” said Nirva. “They help us ensure our people get the most of out their software by providing training, how-to videos and Help files that our Design Technology Team can dig into, and then showcase highlights to our designers using one of our real projects.”  

Read more about how CBT Architects uses Ideate Software tools.