SAN FRANCISCO, California - 05/15/2012 - Ideate, Inc., a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer and Autodesk solutions provider offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to the AEC industry, today announced an update to Ideate BIMLink, the popular application for Autodesk Revit software. Expanded content and improved performance give users of Ideate BIMLink 2013 unprecedented access to and control of BIM data.

With Ideate BIMLink 2013 the Revit project team and non-Revit using data contributors can access information appropriate to their needs within a platform that safeguards the BIM model against error. Ideate BIMLink is used for a wide variety of data management tasks and now in 2013 supports several new important workflows including the ability to automatically generate consultant sheet lists, automatically populate with unplaced spaces, export detailed information about parts and materials and assist with view template implementation.

"We recognize the importance of a timely product delivery and are pleased to be able to deliver both Ideate BIMLink and Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 within a few days of the official Autodesk Revit product launch this year," said Ideate Inc. president Bob Palioca.

"We've included many new features and improvements thanks to all the great customer input we've had," remarked Ideate director of Software Development Glynnis Patterson, "And we've also re-tooled Ideate BIMLink with significant performance improvements that will bump our customer's ROI even higher."

For current bundles and pricing visit our purchase page. Get started with a trial version of Ideate BIMLink today. For information on network pricing, contact [email protected]

Ideate BIMLink works with Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP, and Autodesk Revit Structure software in conjunction with all versions of Microsoft Excel. 

Ideate BIMLink and Ideate Explorer for Revit will be shown at the upcoming Revit Technology Conferences (RTC); one in North America on June 28-30, 2012 and another in Australia May 24-26, 2012.

About Ideate, Inc.

Ideate, Inc. is a member of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) with 25+ years experience in software development and specific focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Ideate BIMLink lets users pull data from an Autodesk Revit software file into user-friendly Microsoft Excel and push Excel data into Revit with equal ease.

Ideate, Inc. is a leading Autodesk solutions provider, offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to AEC professionals. Established in 1992 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ideate is recognized as an Autodesk Gold Partner for Architecture, Engineering and Construction, one of Autodesk's highest levels of authorization. Ideate, Inc. operates five Autodesk Authorized Training Centers (ATC): San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, California; Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Ideate facilities are Autodesk Authorized Certification Centers, providing globally recognized certification courses for professionals who sell, service and support Autodesk products and solutions.

Autodesk, ATC, and Revit, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

• Ideate Explorer for Revit will catalog or "index" all the elements within your project, including elements not found within the Project Browser and elements that are invisible.
• Information can be organized by Category, Workset, Room, Space or Level. Use the text-based search to dig into Family Name, Type Name, Part Materials, or any Text string for even more complex searching.
• Use Ideate Explorer for Revit to open views where elements are visible.
• Use Ideate Explorer for Revit to select all or some elements based on your criteria then exit and use Revit to make the changes you need such as: delete elements, swap elements for different types, edit element properties.

About the Author

Ron Palma - AEC Solutions Application Specialist Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC. This post was originally published on the Ideate Solutions Blog.

SAN FRANCISCO, California - 05/02/2012 - Ideate, Inc., a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer and Autodesk solutions provider offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to the AEC industry, today announced a 2013 update to Ideate Explorer for Autodesk Revit software. This new version is built for the Autodesk Revit 2013 suite of solutions and enhances the ability to search, select, and audit Revit building information models.

Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 includes new elements that directly correspond to Autodesk Revit 2013, including a number of stair elements, support for View References which permit scanning and zooming to any reference location. Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 also includes enhanced support for Parts.

"Ideate Explorer will help users more efficiently navigate entities in any BIM project, but it's been invaluable for cleaning up and standardizing conversions from AutoCAD," notes Ideate customer Crystal Pearson, CAD Lead at Tetra Tech. "Not only has Explorer saved us a great amount of time; it has also eliminated much of the frustration we would have experienced without it. Users of all levels will instantly see the benefits of this essential tool."

"We recognize the importance of a timely product delivery and are pleased to be able to deliver both Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 and Ideate BIMLink within a few days of the official Autodesk Revit product launch this year," said Ideate Inc. president Bob Palioca.

For current packages and pricing view our purchase page. Get started with a trial version of Ideate Explorer for Revit today. For information on network pricing, contact [email protected]  Ideate Explorer for Revit works with Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP, and Autodesk Revit Structure software in conjunction with all versions of Microsoft Excel. Ideate Explorer for Revit and Ideate BIMLink will be shown at the upcoming Revit Technology Conferences (RTC); one in North America on June 28-30, 2012 and another in Australia May 24-26, 2012.

About Ideate, Inc.

Ideate, Inc. is a member of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) with 25+ years experience in software development and specific focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Ideate Explorer for Revit is a simple, powerful Autodesk Revit project auditing software add-on to explore, quantify and manage the 100,000+ building elements in a Revit model. 

Ideate, Inc. is a leading Autodesk solutions provider, offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to AEC professionals. Established in 1992 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ideate is recognized as an Autodesk Gold Partner for Architecture, Engineering and Construction, one of Autodesk's highest levels of authorization. Ideate, Inc. operates five Autodesk Authorized Training Centers (ATC): San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, California; Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Ideate facilities are Autodesk Authorized Certification Centers, providing globally recognized certification courses for professionals who sell, service and support Autodesk products and solutions. For more information visit www.ideateinc.com.

Autodesk, ATC, AutoCAD and Revit, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Carpe Vista!; or Using View Templates in Revit 2013

My favorite new feature in Revit 2013 is the ability to persistently control views through the use of View Templates. In earlier versions of Revit there was a "Default View Template" field which didn't do a whole lot. Sure, you could grab a whole bunch of views through the Project Browser and manually force them to update per your View Template rules, but who has time to remember? Now in 2013 you can assign a View Template to a set of views and the elements within those Views will continually abide by the View Template rules! This goes a long way towards eliminating plotting errors by putting up a small roadblock for those who ponder setting overrides to a view's display settings. When a View Template is assigned in 2013, the corresponding Visibility Graphics (VG) dialog will appear as grayed out per this image. Initially this may cause some minor heartburn but in the long run, returning the visibility control over to the BIM Manager can only be a good thing!

My colleague, Shruti Harve, made this great video on how to manage the View Template settings in Excel using Ideate BIMLink 2013. All views will not need a View Template assignment, but taking the time to assign your floor and ceiling plans will be well worth the effort when it comes time to publish your project. Set aside some time today to look closely at this new Autodesk Revit 2013 feature. So with apologies my 8th grade Latin teacher - Carpe Vista! Post scriptum: for all you Windows Vista™ fans (?!) that's "seize the View"

This post was originally published on the Ideate Solutions Blog 04.26.2012

What You Need to Know About Level Hosted Elements in Revit: How could these (fill-in-the-blank) just disappear from the project? They were there yesterday, and now they're gone! We don't see this happening too often, perhaps once per month, but when it does, it's a disaster. The BIM Manager usually assumes that Revit has a serious defect and is responsible for trashing the project while our support staff is inclined to assume that some user, unbeknownst to the BIM Manager, decided to randomly delete things and then not fess up. The truth is typically halfway between the two. The culprit is the lowly level line which, when deleted, will take with it any object that it hosts. The kicker is that Revit won't even warn you. Losing elements in a project can create days of lost effort. This is why auditing your level lines is Tip #4 from our Revit Project Auditing process. Training staff to not create their own level lines (this should be the domain of the BIM Manager or Project Manager only) will help avoid this problem in the first place, but if you do encounter extraneous level lines, watch the below Ideate Explorer for Revit video before you delete any levels!

See a video of our popular online class, Auditing Your Revit Project with Ideate Explorer. Ideate Explorer for Revit is an essential tool for Revit BIM Managers and is the best way to audit your Revit projects. Learn more on our website.

About the Author

Glynnis Patterson, NCARB - Director of Software Development
Glynnis is a Registered Architect and has worked within the BIM industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis is currently the Director of Software Development Services at Ideate, Inc. and continues to work with AEC clients across the nation, developing, and consulting on solutions to Building Information Modeling challenges. In her spare time Glynnis does volunteer work for eclcofnj.org and growitgreenmorristown.org @GVPinNJ

This post was originally published on the Ideate Solutions Blog.