Thank you to those who attended the recent 30-minute Ideate Software webinar with step-by-step instructions on how to use:

•    Ideate BIMLink to coordinate revisions across linked files and create an issuance list
•    Ideate Sticky to display revision summary information on a sheet in Revit

This webinar covered Revit Revision Basics plus detailed information on using Ideate BIMLink and Ideate Sticky to improve the process. If you missed the presentation, would like to see it again, or know someone else that may enjoy it, here’s a link to the recording. 

In addition to the more detailed webinar recording, we have a 13-minute video that outlines the process.

Visit our website for more information on our applications. 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.

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. 

    
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.

We have had an Ideate BIMLink revision workflow for Revit for quite some time.  A recent blog post by my colleague Sash Kazeminejad explains the process quite well.

We even have an in-depth topic in our online Help that explains the process quite thoroughly. As a bonus to Ideate BIMLink customers, they can request an Excel macro template and dataset that supports the automation of a Document Issuance Record. The resultant Excel file is organized as a matrix with the Sheets as Rows with the Revision dates and per Sheet numbering as the Columns.

We recently had an excellent question from one of our customers, KEO International Consultants, regarding that specific Excel macro template. He was trying to add custom columns to the Excel template immediately to the left of the Ideate BIMLink generated sequence data. We have instructions and setup within the Excel document to explain that the number of columns needs to be set to the left of the sequence data. This number will be set based on the added columns or properties, but we failed to mention that the columns also need to be added to the DIR tab within the Excel spreadsheet. With that little tidbit of information, KEO International Consultants was in Revit Revision heaven, if there is such a place!

“I added the additional columns to the DIR sheet and now it is working as expected. Thank you for the great support and the fantastic software.”
~Robert L. Fernandez, BIM Manager – Design, KEO International Consultants

Thank you Robert for bringing this question to us! We have now added this important step to our process. 

Here’s the process:

On the setup tab of the Excel Macro, the columns left of Sequence Data will calculate the proper number based on the columns to the left of the sequence data.

In my example, I’ve added 4 properties before the sequence data, so the Columns Left of Sequence Data will automatically be set to 4.  (A quick way to think about this is that EACH property is a column within Excel.)

Now here is the critical part. For my example, the Sheet Number, Sheet Name, Checked By, and Current Owner MUST be added to the DIR Excel tab as columns in order for the Excel file to work properly.

For more in-depth information about managing Revit Sheet-based revisions with Ideate BIMLink, please sign up for my webinar on the topic on February 21st.

Visit our website for more information on our applications. 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.

We recently had a question at our BIM Superstar webinar with Laura Kay Smith about door hardware schedules. We dug through our vast archives and found an older video from 2012!

This shows that the power of Ideate BIMLink has been around for some time. Of course, we have improved the features considerably since the video was created, but the basic workflow is still valid and every bit as useful today as it was in 2012. You can review the video and check out a more recently updated workflow on our online help.

Visit our website for more information on our applications. 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.

Recently I had the honor of welcoming Laura Kay Smith to our first-in-a-series of customer-led webinars. Laura is the BIM Manager Lead, Complex Building Department at SNC Lavalin, one of the largest engineering firms in the world. She has more than 20 years of experience as an industry leader in the integration and implementation of BIM, and she is passionate about sharing her experiences to help others move forward and make BIM more prevalent in their firms. She is a frequent speaker at industry events such as Autodesk University and BIM User Groups across the U.S. and Canada, and she runs the BIMFreak blog and website.

At this webinar, Laura spoke about how to use Ideate Software applications to become a BIM manager superstar. She talked about the applications she uses, why she decided to use them, and where they fit into her workflow. She also provided examples of how she uses them.

 
The presentation was well-received; here are some quotes from attendees:

• “Laura's explanation of how to create a standard process made a lot of sense. That, with how she used Ideate tools to get productivity out of the workflow, helped me better understand what I can do to improve my own BIM process.”
• “I liked seeing how she combines both BIMLink and Sticky to get accurate information in the correct format.”
• “I found value in her problem-solving skills. She has given me ideas to further leverage Ideate Software.”
• “Managing large amount of data in big and complicated projects is always challenging and sometimes even tedious. It is encouraging to know from experienced BIM users that there is a way to do it properly.”

If you missed the presentation, would like to watch it again, or know someone that you think would enjoy it, here’s a link to a recording.

To hear more from Laura, visit her website, BIMFreak. Visit our website for more information on our applications. 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.