Have you worked on a project in Revit and gone through the trouble of selecting a number of elements to be modified, then realized that you needed some additional information, or needed to check on something else before you modified the elements? Did you then clear the selection, checked on the information or reference, then went back and re-selected the same elements previously so that NOW you could modify it?

New to Revit 2013, you have the ability to save any selection of elements that you have selected, and recall those selections at any point.

In order to Save Selection Sets you must first select the elements that will be within the selection. Standard selection methods apply, [Cntrl] + Pick, Drag the cursor for Window and Crossing selections, or use Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013.

Once the elements have been selected, in the Modify| Xxxx tab, under the Selection panel, you can select the Save tool to create a Saved Selection. Enter a name for the desired selection. Later this selection set can be recalled at any time by accessing the Manage tab, and under the Selection panel selecting the Load tool. This will display the Retrieve Filters dialog where your saved selections can be recalled, selecting the elements within the filter.

As the Load button is placed in the Manage tab, I have found it advantageous for it to be placed in my Quick Access toolbar for quick retrieval of my saved selections. This has been something needed for quite some time and I am very excited to take advantage of saved selection sets in my models.

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.

1. While the view is active, turn on the crop boundary. Hover the cursor over the boundary to read the tooltip and status bar. This will tell you what the view name is.
2. In the Project Browser under the Sheets category, expand the [+] beside the Sheet name and a list of the views assigned to the sheet will be displayed.
3. My favorite option, especially if you have a number of views on a sheet such as a detail sheet is to use the Ideate Explorer for Revit. With this method, look at the Visible in Active View option. This will display a Viewports Result, expand the Viewports until you can see a list of views.

Now here is where using Ideate Explorer for Revit is cool. The other methods list out the views, so now you have the view names narrowed down, but you have to figure out which view you actually need. With the Ideate Explorer, you can select the view name, which will highlight the view on the sheet. With this method you get a visual of which view you are trying to find with the name listed in Ideate Explorer.

Locating views assigned to a sheet in Revit is just one of the ways that Ideate Explorer gives you command of the data in your Revit model. To find out more, download Ideate Explorer by visiting the Ideate Software download page.

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 - 05/15/2012 - 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.