February

29

2024

With a history of developing Revit addins that goes back to 2009, Ideate Software has a proven record of addressing real issues experienced by real Revit users. In addition to working tirelessly to ensure our products work as promised, we work hard to ensure they are easy to access, install, learn, and use. One way we do help interested parties find and try them is by making them all available at the Autodesk App Store.  

Ideate Software on the Autodesk App Store

Ideate Software on the Autodesk App StoreAutodesk App Store is an online marketplace provided by Autodesk where users of its products can, among other things, find and download third-party addins. As an Autodesk Authorized Developer, we make all our products available on the site, including our five Autodesk Revit addins, presented as a trial bundle. We also make available our desktop solution for automating Revit tasks, Ideate Automation, as well as our Cloud Connector to the Autodesk BIM360/ACC environment. You can access the Ideate Automation trial on the Autodesk App store page.

Keeping with our promise to make it easy for people to use our products, as we have expanded our presence around the world, we have also increased the number of languages in which we deliver our information. That includes the way in which we present our information on the Autodesk App Store. As of today, on the App Store, you can find information about Ideate Software products in English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese (simplified), Japanese, and Korean

To check out our products on the App store, we recommend that you go to the Ideate Software Bundle – Trial page. From there, you will get:

  1. Brief descriptions of all our Autodesk Revit addins. (Note: This page does not include information about Ideate Automation, which is our scripting solutions that runs time-consuming Revit tasks in the background. Find information on Ideate Automation):
     
    • Ideate BIMLink – Use it to push volumes of information from a Revit file into Microsoft Excel for easy editing, and then pull the updated information back into Revit with speed, ease, and accuracy.
    • Ideate Explorer – Get lightning-fast data discovery and manipulation features through its easy and intuitive way to search, filter, quantify and select elements in a Revit model. 
    • Ideate Sticky – Elegantly link and easily update non-BIM data into a Revit project from Excel to Revit, Word to Revit, or PDF to Revit. 
    • Ideate StyleManager –Addresses the challenges of unorganized and duplicate Revit styles that can cause publishing errors, end-user confusion, and even performance issues.  
    • IdeateApps – Streamlines common Revit tasks through set of applications that increase the productivity and efficiency of the entire project team. The IdeateApps collection includes Ideate Renumber, Ideate QuickSelect, Ideate SmartDelete, Ideate XRay, Ideate SpellCheck, Ideate Annotate, Ideate SheetManager, Ideate Clone, Ideate Align, and Ideate ViewCreator.
       
  2. A Description of the Trials
    • No cost
    • 30 days 
    • Includes access to each of the five products. Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, IdeateApps, Ideate StyleManager, and Ideate Sticky 
    • All are full functioning, except:
      • Ideate BIMLink has a 25-row limit to the data export
      • Ideate StyleManager is limited to testing these three styles: Line Patterns, Materials, and Material Appearance Asset styles
         
  3. Access to the Getting Started Guides for each of the five products included in the bundle. Click the link to “Read Help Document” to get to these guides.
     
  4. Links to Videos

    As of the date of the publishing of this document, we had links to these videos on the site:
     
  5. Customer 5-Star Reviews

    Ideate Software Five Star Reviews on Autodesk App StoreTitles include:
     
    • “Autodesk, Take Note”
    • “Can’t Revit Without It”
    • “Productivity Tools that Deliver on the Promise”
    • “Essential for Every Revit User”

Stay Connected

Want to learn more about our top Revit plugins? Visit our website

You can also check us out and follow us 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

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software tools 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 our addins for Revit, which includes Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps for six months. You can also get a free trial of Ideate Automation to experience how it can help you automate BIM tasks. 

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January

15

2024

Customers often comment on how easy we make it for them to download, learn, and use our software. This blog post makes looking up the answers to common workflow questions even easier!

Throughout 2023, we tracked the number of visits to each of our Help file pages. Below are the top Help pages sorted by product. You can bookmark this page, or simply search for “Most Viewed Help Files” for quick access to the content.

For added convenience, we included links to other popular pages at the bottom.

Top Help Files in 2023

IDEATE AUTOMATION

IDEATE EXPLORER

IDEATE BIMLINK

IDEATE STICKY

IDEATEAPPS

IDEATE STYLEMANAGER

Other Frequently Viewed Pages

Have a question about a different workflow? Chances are the answer is on our website. You can also contact our Support team

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December

29

2023

Architects, designers, engineers, and others around the world use Autodesk Revit software to design amazing structures. Explore sample Revit projects on the Autodesk Website to see some working models. Samples on the website include:

This sample file showcases many commonly used Revit features, including:

  1. Architectural, Structural, and MEP models with detail typical in early construction documents
  2. A site model incorporating Civil design completed in Autodesk Civil 3D software
  3. Landscape Architectural design
  4. Commercial kitchen design
  5. The most standard Architecture, Structure, and MEP toolsets
  6. A point cloud file that was the basis for the façades model
  7. Phasing in the façades model that differentiates the existing to remain and demolition of the building elements from the point cloud
  8. Custom fill patterns in the façades model that represent historical bricks in the existing buildings
  9. New Construction phase that includes all work in the architectural, structural, and MEP models
  10. Level 1 set-up that involves three view ranges and the Plan Regions
  11. Three egress stairs and two elevators
  12. Groups used for repeating items
  13. Design options
  14. Customized floor shapes
  15. Solar panels that incorporate custom tapered wall types and a sloped curtain wall type
  16. Incorporated toposolids
  17. Additional views to showcase Revit software’s documentation features
  18. Custom view types and view templates to ensure graphical setting consistency
  19. All view types: Plans, Ceiling plans, Sections, Elevations, Callouts, Details, 3D Views, and a Walkthrough
  20. Area Plans 
  21. Many “Working” views
  22. A Variety of Schedules
  23. A complete set of sheets

Now that you are inspired, want to learn how you can spend more of your time on the exciting design activities possible with Revit and less time on tedious tasks or dealing with poorly performing models? 

Work Faster in Revit by Adding Ideate Software Applications to your Toolset

speedometerAs demonstrated in the Autodesk sample files, Revit has extensive capabilities that can help professionals in the architecture, engineering, construction, and owner-operator (AECO) industries design, build, and operate structures that address complex needs. The software also requires a great deal of manual, repetitive tasks and, when left unchecked, can lead to bloated files that don’t work well. That’s where Ideate Software comes in. 

Ideate Software is an Autodesk® Authorized Developer and a member of the Autodesk Developer Network. Our Revit addins help companies in the areas of building design, engineering, construction, and facilities management get the most out of their Revit. 

Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps are our Autodesk Revit addins that solve persistent problems in AECO workflows.

Ideate Automation is the newest tool in our suite. It is a scripting solution that easily automates repetitive Revit and Ideate Software tasks to deliver consistent and repeatable results. 

Here are some highlights of how these applications will help you reduce the time you spend on model management, so you can discover more ways to use Revit.

Ideate Explorer – Do you spend too much time searching for elements in your Revit model? You are not alone. It’s a common challenge, because Revit comes with a project browser, not a model browser. Ideate Explorer is a model browser that makes it fast and easy to find and delete incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items—including imported or linked DWG drawings. You can also find, refine, and revise elements that aren’t in the Revit project browser. The following four features included with Ideate Explorer will reduce the time you spend searching even more: 

  • Ideate Query – Search in parameters for elements like unused annotations, design options, in-place usage, structure usage/area scheme, and revisions
  • Ideate Filters - Filter model elements quickly based on your specified parametric conditions
  • Ideate Warnings Manager – Audit warnings ranked by importance; fix problems with Revit tools while the Ideate Warnings Manager dialog box is open
  • Ideate Navigate – Navigate view-based elements; find unused sheets and views; find and filter legends, schedules, sheets, or views by category and/or keyword; customize work environments without changing the project browser 

Ideate BIMLink – Do changes that require model updates make you cringe because you know you’ll need to spend hours changing elements one at a time? Use Ideate BIMLink instead. With this powerful Revit addin, you can export data from your Revit model into an Excel file, where you can easily view and manipulate large amounts of data. After updating the data, you simply use Ideate BIMLink to import the data back into Revit, and the model will automatically update. 

Ideate Sticky – Is it difficult to communicate critical project details with team members in various locations? Do miscommunications create errors or delays? These are not problems with Ideate Sticky. Use it to live-link Excel, Word, and PDF documents into a Revit model. These “stickies” look nice, are easy to read, and can be updated easily when changes are made to the original source documents.

Ideate StyleManager – Do unused styles clog up your Revit models, cause them to perform poorly, and create documentation errors? That’s because it’s easy to accidentally bring unneeded styles into a model when pasting needed information. With Ideate StyleManager, you can easily analyze, merge, or delete non-standard Revit styles, and you can see the view filters applied to views and clean object and line styles and patterns, text, fonts, parameters, and more. 

IdeateApps – So many Revit tasks are repetitive. They take a lot of time, are boring to do, and open the door to errors. The 10 tools that come in the IdeateApps collection tackle the repetitive tasks performed by Revit users most often:  Ideate SpellCheck, Ideate Align, Ideate Clone, Ideate ViewCreator, Ideate SheetManager, Ideate Annotate, Ideate XRay, Ideate ReNumber, Ideate SmartDelete, and Ideate QuickSelect

Ideate Automation – You and your staff will have more time for interesting, meaningful work when Ideate Automation runs time-intensive BIM tasks silently in the background. You can start a script manually or schedule it to run at a convenient time, like during non-working hours or when you are occupied in a meeting or on a call. Here’s a new video we created with a short, technical overview of Ideate Automation:

 
 

Stay Connected

Connect with Ideate SoftwareLearn more about our top Revit plugins.

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

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

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software helps 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 our addins for Revit, which includes Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps for six months.

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September

29

2023

When learning how to use Autodesk Revit software, people get trained on the basics of how to use sample files, open and save Revit models, as well as several workflows, including how to create projects, walls, floors, roofs; and how to place doors, windows, and curtains. They also learn how to add dimensions and notes and to create sheets.

While appreciating the power of BIM tools, Revit users see how the software allows them to create accurate and precise designs, easily make changes, and see how the changes affect the building model. In addition, users also begin to discover some inefficiencies. Tasks, some that must be done hundreds of times during a project, need to be done manually. Plus, there are several complexities within the software that make model management time consuming and difficult, including the fact that some elements are not visible in certain views and that deletion sets can contain elements unknown to the user, who are then surprised and annoyed when they discover the elements are gone. 

Instead of investing in tackling the inefficiencies themselves, Autodesk turns to trusted partners to develop Revit plugins. They created the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) for software developers who want to develop tools that extend Autodesk products and technologies. ADN members are full-time professional software developers working with Autodesk technologies that can access Autodesk desktop software and get one-on-one direct support for software development based on virtually all Autodesk desktop technologies. They can also access confidential Autodesk information on technology futures, beta software, and basic marketing benefits. 

Ideate Software – An Autodesk Authorized Developer and Member of the Autodesk Developer Network

Since launching our first Autodesk Revit Plugin, Ideate Explorer, at Autodesk University in 2008, Ideate Software has been committed to helping Revit users unlock advanced functionality and efficiency in their BIM designs. Today, our suite of products includes five Revit plugins, and one of them—IdeateApps —is comprised of 10 different tools. We developed each of our BIM tools to address specific, persistent problems in architecture, engineering, construction, and owner-operator workflows by giving Revit users unprecedented access to and control over the data in their models. In addition to our five Revit plugins, we developed Ideate Automation to run time-intensive BIM tasks in the background, freeing staff to do more meaningful work. 

Ideate Explorer - Considered by many firms worldwide the indispensable tool to investigate, clean-up, and manage the Revit building model, Ideate Explorer users easily search for, filter, quantify, index, and select all Revit model elements, even ‘missing’ and hard-to-find ones, and make selections based on filters or data sets.

It comes with four tools that increase its power: 

  • Warnings Manager - Review and manage Revit warnings
  • Navigate - Navigate through view-based elements within Revit—legends, schedules, sheets, and views—and quickly customize the browsing experience
  • Query - Search on parameters, such as elements assigned a certain size or modeled as in-place families, sheets based on Issuance numbers, and dimensions that have been overridden
  • Filters - Filter Revit model elements based on your specified parametric conditions

Ideate BIMLink – The powerful filtering and sorting options in Ideate BIMLink are used to manage and extract Revit data. Used to easily edit and update vast amounts of Revit data using Microsoft Excel, users can use the hundreds of library links included with Ideate BIMLink to immediately access the Revit data required. In addition to robust editing, users can create many Revit elements as well as manage workflows that just aren’t easy or even possible within standard Revit. For example, with Ideate BIMLink, users can: 

  • Swap Revit elements
  • Manage Revit Parameters
  • Rename Revit elements
  • Manage Revit Sheet Revision Workflows and Sheet/View Sets

Ideate Sticky – Originally developed to address customer comments, Ideate Sticky first allowed users to create and format tabular text in an Excel spreadsheet and then “stick” that spreadsheet on a Revit sheet as a Revit schedule. As we do with all products, we made meaningful updates to Ideate Sticky every year. Today, Ideate Sticky is used to:

  • Link Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF documents into Revit projects
  • Link multi-paged documents at once
  • Link Excel spreadsheets to Revit files as images or native Revit schedule data

Ideate StyleManager – Launched in 2019 to address challenges with Revit styles that arise when users import content, Ideate StyleManager simplifies the style management process which in Revit can be time consuming and risky. This powerful Revit plugin is used to:

  • Safely delete styles that can’t be easily deleted or purged in Revit software
  • Merge non-standard styles into standard styles
  • Analyze style usage to understand the scope of a deletion
  • Clean up Object Styles, Line Styles, Line Patterns, Fill Patterns, Materials, Material Appearance Assets, View Filters, Templates, and Scope Boxes
  • Understand which views use View Filters

IdeateApps – This collection of tools launched in the summer of 2016 with:

  • Ideate ReNumber to quickly update element numbers and names
  • Ideate XRay to determine the cause of element visibility issues and fix the problems
  • Ideate SmartDelete to understand and edit elements that will be deleted along with a selected element 
  • Ideate QuickSelect to view all instances of difficult-to-find items

Within one year, we added four more tools:

  • Ideate SpellCheck to check open sheets and views, sheets in a sheet list and all schedules
  • Ideate SheetManager to filter sheet and view lists, create sheets, and place views onto sheets
  • Ideate Clone to duplicate Sheets and manage viewports on those Sheets as well as to match title block family and parameters, sheet parameters and browser file location
  • Ideate Align to align plan views in a set so they synchronize perfectly across all sheets

In 2018, we added:

  • Ideate ViewCreator to batch-create multiple Revit views while complying with company BIM standards

And in 2022, we added:

  • Ideate Annotate to ensure the legibility of tags, text, dimensions, and other annotative elements

Ideate Automation – Launched in 2020, this scripting solution runs time-intensive BIM tasks in the background while your staff does more meaningful work. Use Ideate Automation to:

  • Open large Autodesk Revit files for data extraction
  • 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
  • Batch-export Revit sheets and/or views to DWG file format

Stay Connected

Learn more about our top Revit addons.

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

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

 

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August

30

2023

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 adIdeate Automation Logodition 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, FacebookYouTube, and Instagram.

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

 

Read More