September

22

2022

IdeateApps users who weren’t able to attend this webinar will want to watch the recording to learn and see demonstrations of recent updates, including the newest addition to the IdeateApps collection, Ideate Annotate. Updates are available in Revit versions 2020 – 2023.


 
If you don’t yet use the IdeateApps collection and are curious about how it can help you streamline common Revit workflows, take 30 minutes to watch the recording. In addition to providing a detailed overview of Ideate Annotate, we also briefly discuss updates to other tools in the collection that are sure to grab your attention. 

About Ideate Annotate

Ideate Annotate, available to existing IdeateApps subscribers at no additional cost, allows the user to ensure the legibility of Revit tags, text dimensions, and other 2D annotative elements by reviewing clashes, and browsing through 2D annotative elements to understand usage throughout projects.  

About IdeateApps

IdeateApps is a collection of 10 focus-driven tools that decrease the time spent on common Revit tasks and increase the accuracy of BIM data in Revit models by allowing the users to quickly and easily:

  • Renumber anything
  • Select and review anything
  • Safely delete elements
  • Find hidden elements
  • Check project spelling
  • Place views on sheets
  • Align views on sheets
  • Copy sheets with aligned views
  • Bulk-create views
  • Review and check annotations on sheets and views

You can also review a short video for an overview of the previous collection of productivity tools contained with IdeateApps.

In addition, we will present the content again at a webinar for the UK and Europe on October 18. You can register here.

Visit our website to learn more about IdeateApps as well as our other Revit add-in tools. Download a free trial or subscribe today
 

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September

16

2022

“The BIM Coordinators Summit was our first in-person event in Ireland,” said Steve Deadman, Customer Success Manager – UK/EMEA. “We met with so many people in the AEC space that were new to Ideate Software and were impressed with the efficiencies our products deliver.”

Glynnis Patterson - BIM Coordinators Summit
Glynnis Patterson, Director of Software Development, discussed Revit challenges and demonstrated Ideate Software products. 

Attendees had several occasions to hear about Ideate Software tools:

  • Advanced Revit Model Health and Data Checks,” presented by Steve. Covered strategies and tactics to ensure models are in good health
     
  • Take Care of Your Revit Models,” written by Steve. Find it on pages 26 and 27 of the BIM Coordinators Summit – 2022 magazine
     
  • Product demonstrations led by Glynnis Patterson, Director of Software Development; Nick Johns, UK/EMEA Territory Lead; and Steve

In addition to learning about BIM needs and discussing our solutions, we were thrilled to nominate several people who made significant contributions to the AECO community for BIM Hero Awards. Winners were recognized in BIM Coordinator Summit LinkedIn and Twitter posts, were included in its Hero Register, and received a “Hero” token. 

Nick Johns and Steve Deadman - BIM Coordinators Summit
Nick Johns (L), UK/EMEA Territory Lead, and Steve Deadman (R), UK/EMEA  Customer Success Manager, enjoyed introducing our Revit add-ins to this market new to Ideate Software.

We were pleased to see that several friends of Ideate Software were also leading presentations at the summit, including Holger de Groot, CEO and Founder of Modmation, who gave a presentation called, “Distributed Workforce - How to Support a Remote BIM Team.

The Ideate Software team will attend several events across the globe throughout the rest of the year and lead several webinars. Keep an eye on our Events page for opportunities to connect with us about your BIM challenges or reach out to us at [email protected].

Browse our website for more information on our Revit addins. Download free trials or subscribe today. 

 

Here are some more pictures from the event:

 

 

 

 

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July

27

2022

The Ideate Software team has been getting many requests for information about Ideate Automation 2.0, which launched in June 2022. I was pleased to lead the first webinar on this new scripting solution designed to automate common or time-consuming tasks in Revit by using the Ideate Software plugins, such as Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, IdeateApps, and Ideate StyleManager. Glynnis Patterson, our Director of Software Development, was also there answering questions.


 

View the Recording

Here’s a link to the recorded webinar. Watch it and share it with others who would like to see:

  • An overview of the features and benefits:
    • Save time by automating Revit and Ideate Software application tasks
    • Reduce risk of human error by scripting tasks and ensuring predictable outcomes
    • Focus on other activities by running scripts silently in the background
       
  • Information on how to use Ideate Automation to:
    • Create PDF exports from Revit files
    • Audit Revit families
    • Check compliance with standards in Revit
       
  • Automate common tasks in Ideate Software applications for Revit to:
    • Create health check reports
    • Create document issue records
    • Manage COBie data
    • Generate quantity take-off data
    • Extract model warnings data
    • Review Revit model style information
    • Review annotation clashes on views and sheets
       
  • Licensing and pricing

Give it a Try

Visit our website to download a free 30-day trial of Ideate Automation.

Subscribe Today

Ideate Automation is included in Enterprise subscriptions at no extra change; contact your account manager to activate your subscription. It is also available from our website as a separate solution for other customers. 

Learn More

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software helps Revit users save time, increase model accuracy, improve deliverables and elevate design. 

Stay Connected

Check us out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

Contact Us

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


About the Author

Steve Deadman - Customer Success Manager - EMEA
Steve provides support to customers and helps them get a strong return on their software investment. He has a B.Eng (Hons) degree in Mechanical Engineering and various certifications in engineering. Before joining Ideate Software, he worked at several top architectural firm in the United Kingdom where he specialized in the implementation and management of BIM processes and technology. Find Steve on LinkedIn.

 

 

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July

25

2022

We were pleased to have once again had the opportunity to demonstrate the time-saving capabilities of our Revit plug-ins on a webinar hosted by The Architect’s Newspaper, which serves architects, designers, engineers, landscape architects, lighting designers, interior designers, academics, developers, contractors, and others interested in the built urban environment. 

In this latest webinar, we focused on managing Revit sheets and views; previous topics include managing Revit warnings and advanced Revit model health checks.

Ideate Software Revit Plugin Tool on Architect's Newspaper Webinar
 
Watch the recording of this one-hour webinar to learn about the sheet and view tools in our IdeateApps collection that decrease the time spent on common Revit tasks while increasing the accuracy of the BIM data in the Revit model. There are currently 10 tools in the collection, five of which we covered in the webinar:

  1. Ideate ViewCreator – Learn how easy it is to quickly bulk create views and how much time you will save by defining names for new views that match existing view crop, scope, scale, and dozens of other system and custom parameters, so you don’t have to manually apply the settings to each view.
     
  2. Ideate SheetManager – Often referred to as the Central Traffic Cop for the sheet and view workflows, this tool allows users to create new sheets and drag and drop views between sheets, as well as access Ideate Software’s other sheet and view tools, ViewCreator, Align, and Clone. 
     
  3. Ideate Align – See several examples of how to use this tool to align viewports, ensuring consistency across all sheets.
     
  4. Ideate Clone – Watch demonstrations on duplicating sheets. While Revit introduced the ability to duplicate sheets in version 2022.1 and to swap viewports between sheets in version 2023, Ideate Clone goes back to Revit version 2016 and provides greater functionality than in even the latest Revit release.
     
  5. Ideate Annotate – Understand the annotations on views and sheets and drill down further to ensure the legibility and consistency of Revit tags, text, dimensions, and other annotative elements; learn how to review annotation issues such as clashes between annotations, blank tags, hidden elements, or zero length dimensions.

Visit our website to learn more about how our plug-in tools can help you create better Revit models faster. Then get a free trial or purchase a subscription.  


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 20 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 and LinkedIn.


 

Highlights of the Other Tools in the IdeateApps Plugin for Revit Collection

Learn More About Ideate Software Plugins for RevitThe information above describes just a portion of the capabilities of the 10 tools with in the IdeateApps collection. Here are several other resources that can give you a deeper dive into the power of this Revit plugin that users in all disciplines, at all levels, and in all roles use to shorten the time they spend on model management and improve the look and performance of their Revit models.

  • Ideate ReNumber – This tool within the IdeateApps collection makes it easy to keep up with design changes that alter numbering and naming. Watch this short demonstration video for an overview. Here are links to a few resources that provide more details:
     
    • Using Ideate ReNumber to Select Split-Level Rooms – This blog post is part of our Support Series where we highlight specific questions received by our Support team. In this instance, a customer with a series of rooms on different split levels where the rooms were visible in the same plan view was having trouble getting Ideate ReNumber to pick up the room on the Mezzanine level.
       
    • Renaming Sheets to ISO 19650 Using Ideate ReNumber – Read this short blog post to see how to use Ideate ReNumber to renumber sheets to the BS EN ISO 19650 standard using one of rules created and saved in the bonus rules that ship with IdeateApps.
       
  • Ideate SmartDelete – Who hasn’t deleted an item within a Revit model only to find that several other items were deleted with it? It’s such a common problem that many people posted about it on Revit forums. We did something about it! The Ideate SmartDelete tool shows you all the elements that will be deleted with your selection, and lets you select the items that you want to keep.
     
  • Ideate SpellCheck – Spelling errors in a Revit model can give the reader the impression that you don’t pay attention to details. However, finding all typos or errors in a Revit model can be incredibly difficult, because the spellchecker that comes in the software doesn’t check data found within schedules. Ideate SpellCheck does! 
     
    • Ideate SpellCheck Overview – Watch this short video to see how to use this powerful tool to define the range of sheets, views, and schedules within your project that you’d like to spellcheck. 
       
    • Recording of 03-25-20 Webinar: Learn the Simple ABCs of Ideate SpellCheck – Take a deeper dive by watching the recording of this webinar in which we covered:
       
      • An overview of Ideate SpellCheck
         
      • How to set up the dictionaries
         
      • The three selection methods for checking text
         
      • Demonstrations of each method
         
      • Tips and tricks
         
  • Ideate XRay – Do you spend a lot of time searching for elements that you know are there but can’t see? That’s because Revit allows a lot of option to display or hide elements within the model, and the out-of-the-box capabilities for diagnosing visibility issues within Revit are limited. Ideate XRay is the answer! 
     
  • Ideate QuickSelect - The fact that the Revit project browser doesn’t search all items in your model can create problems that are time consuming and frustrating to fix. With the Ideate QuickSelect model browser, you can increase your productivity by quickly locating, reviewing, and editing hard-to-find items, including model or annotation elements, inserted or linked CAD files, section boxes, scope boxes, elevation of section markers, schedule graphics, and view references.
     

See More Workflow Demonstrations

There are hundreds of ways to use Ideate Software plugins for Revit. Check out our Video Library to see how to streamline the Revit workflows causing you trouble. 

Stay Connected

Browse our website to explore Ideate Software’s range of Revit tools and see how they can make your Revit projects faster, simpler, and more accurate.

Check us out on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

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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June

27

2022

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with people who design, build, operate, and maintain our built environment at the BILT North Americas conference. The three-day event, which was held June 14 - 16 in Anaheim, California, featured many informative lectures, presentations, labs, and round-table discussions focused on the use of best-in-class tools, processes and workflows, behaviors, and leadership.

Craig H. Dodge, Director, Ideate Software Sales, and Richard Taylor, Technical Evangelist, met with BIM, Revit, and Ideate Software application users from around the world at our booth in the Exhibition Hall. In addition, Richard:

  • Presented a lecture on Revit templates featuring Ideate StyleManager, which allows for a clean and lean Revit template or project
  • Conducted a lab session on Revit datums featuring both Ideate StyleManager and Ideate XRay, one of the tools in the IdeateApps collection

BILT North AmericaRichard said, “It was especially nice to see many old colleagues and friends in person after an almost three-year absence. It was wonderful to catch up with so many influential people within the BIM and AECO industries, and we hope it’s a trend that continues throughout 2022 and beyond.”

Craig added, “We appreciated meeting new people at the Ideate Software booth and hearing about their software needs. We also heard from clients who provided continued feedback on how we can further enhance Ideate Software products to better meet their challenges with Revit.”

Learn about our upcoming online and in-person activities by visiting the Events page of our website. 

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software add-on products 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 the Revit plugin solutions Ideate BIMLink, Ideate Explorer, Ideate Sticky, Ideate StyleManager, and IdeateApps for six months.

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