March

31

2022

There are HUNDREDS of ways to manage Revit data with Ideate BIMLink, and we really appreciate The Architect’s Newspaper giving us the opportunity to spend some time discussing a few of them during a webinar in their CE Strong series of AIA-approved courses on an online platform. 

To appeal to a broad audience, we selected six workflows that apply to Revit users in all industries:

  1. Manage Revit revision data with ease 
  2. Create new Revit elements from information added to Microsoft Excel files
  3. Perform comprehensive Revit model health checks
  4. Edit Revit schedule data with ease and efficiency using Microsoft Excel
  5. Easily review Revit project standards to keep data consistent
  6. Create a quantity take-off report of your Revit project

Watch the recorded webinar to see demonstrations of these six workflows and for more information about how Ideate BIMLink allows users to access the huge amounts of data in their Revit models, push it out to Microsoft Excel for review/editing, and then pull the updated data back into Revit to update the model. Companies in the architecture, engineering, construction, and building-owner communities around the world use Ideate BIMLink daily to:

  • Access large amounts of data including from linked files
  • Edit parameter data quickly
  • Manage data beyond schedules
  • Manage Revit model coordinate data
  • Create new model and data content

 

Visit our website to learn more. Download a free trial or subscribe today. 


About the Author

Sash Kazeminejad - AIA, LEED AP - Customer Success Manager
Sash earned his Master of Architecture from Montana State University and is a California registered architect, LEED Accredited Professional. He has extensive experience in project management; BIM management; design for architectural firms in California, Montana, and Oregon; and leading classroom and online BIM training. He provides consulting, sales, support, and training solutions to AECO customers around the globe. Find Sash on LinkedIn.

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Learn More About the Power of Ideate BIMLink

As mentioned in the introduction paragraph, there are hundreds of ways to use our Ideate BIMLink Revit plugin to streamline Revit workflows. For more examples, check out our Ideate BIMLink blog posts. Here are links and summaries of some of the most recent posts: 

Copy Room Data to Other Phases and Models – This blog post shows how we helped two customers with similar challenges.

  • One customer needed to copy Room data from hundreds of rooms in one phase to the same location in another phase where the rooms already existed. The customer hesitated to delete the new rooms and replace them with copy/pasted rooms, because they were worried that they would orphan hundreds of room tags in consultant models that already referenced the new rooms.
  • The other customer needed to copy room data from a linked architectural model into the rooms of an interiors model; the architectural model contained a lot of room data and the interiors consultant needed to match that data in their rooms to add additional room finish information to the rooms in their models. 

In addition to providing step-by-step instructions and screenshots that help convey the workflow, the post includes a tip on when a manual review may be needed.

Place Viewports on Sheets – Ideate BIMLink for Revit comes with more than 300 pre-loaded link definitions to help users transfer data from their Revit models to Microsoft Excel for easy reviewing and editing. In this blog post, we show how to use one of those links to place viewports on a sheet. The link definition contains data such as the view name, sheet number, coordinate point, and viewport title data. The coordinate and viewport title data is especially important as it allows users to accurately place the viewports and view titles on the sheets. The blog post describes and shows screenshots of the next steps, which are filling out the information in Excel and then importing the data back into Revit. 

Create New Revit Views – When people think of our Ideate BIMLink Revit addin tool, they generally think about its ability to move data from a Revit model to Excel for easy editing and then push the updated data back into the model. This blog post features another benefit of Ideate BIMLink: Easily creating new data. Read the post to see how to create new plan views using link definitions that come pre-loaded in the software. You’ll see an example with screenshots showing how easy it is to customize the properties by using Excel to enter the data about the new plan views you wish to create and then using Ideate BIMLink to import the data back into Revit.

Swap Revit Families While Preserving Instance Parameter Data – We have heard from some customers who have had trouble type swapping some of their older Revit families with new ones because some of the parameter data from the older families did not transfer. They then had to edit the data manually, which is very time consuming and prone to errors. We were pleased to tell them that they can the Ideate BIMLink addin for Revit. We show the steps in this blog post, which uses an example of a series of details using the out-of-the-box break line detail component and type swapping the detail components with a newer break line with more appropriate jag and a heavier line weight.  

Learn More about Ideate Software’s Full Suite of Revit Plugin Solutions

Contact us or visit 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.

Stay Connected

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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February

23

2022

The topic of Revit parameters never gets old. Whether you have questions about how to effectively use them or want a refresher of the positives and negatives, this one-hour high-level webinar is for you. For a deeper dive, watch the recordings of Parameter Primer Part 1 and Parameter Primer Part 2 or review our online Help topic on Instance vs. Type links.

The reason parameters are such an interesting and challenging topic is because there are so many of them! 

Project - System - Instance - Type - Shared - Global - Combined - Family - Reporting - Schedule Keys  

Understanding the situations in which to use one parameter over another can be quite challenging.

In this webinar, we:

  1. Discussed and demonstrated Revit parameter creation methods:
    • Key schedule changes
    • Global parameters
       
  2. Polled attendees. See how you compare to your peers on the answers to:
    • How are you currently using global parameters?
    • What is your biggest parameter management challenge?
    • How often do you create parameters?
       
  3. Shared insight on:
    • Recent changes to Revit parameters
    • Strategies to working with parameters across Revit versions
    • Shifting terms in Revit that cause confusion
    • Shared parameters that don’t behave as expected

 

Browse our website for more information on our Revit plugin tools. Give them a try with free 30-day trial versions 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 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.

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February

8

2022

Want to be entertained and even laugh a bit while learning what the hosts of BIMThoughts think of the Revit plugin tools developed by Ideate Software? Listen to this recording

In this 30-minute podcast, Bill Debevc, Carl Storms and Dana De Filippi talk about Ideate Software products, the consistent and easy-to-use interface, and Ideate Software support, which includes blog posts, how-to videos and Help files with step-by-step instructions. They dive a bit deeper into a few things, including the new way to create views by room using the Room Views Method in Ideate ViewCreator, one of the nine tools available in the IdeateApps collection. 

“I’m really excited about this addition,” said Dana. “It’s going to be huge for those of us in production.”

Carl shared a story from when he was working on a large hospital project where three people worked full time for three years creating all the room datasheets in AutoCAD based on exports from Revit.  He said, “With [Ideate ViewCreator], you can do the room data sheet, the placement on the sheet, interior elevations, everything, with one click of the button.” 

Their discussion continued into the benefits of using third-party applications and Dynamo, saying that there is room for both types in many firms. When talking about building a tool vs. using Ideate Software tools, Dana said, “If Ideate can get it done, I’m not going to create an automation tool or process to do it, because Ideate has already attacked the problem and they have done it incredibly well.” 

About BIMThoughts

BIMThoughts is a podcast about BIM technology and techniques. It delivers two types of episodes: 1) Panel discussions that dive into BIM, Revit, AutoCAD, Navisworks and other topics, and 2) Interviews where they talk with top BIM professionals about their views on BIM, Revit and the AECO industry. The podcasts are hosted by:

  • Bill Debevc, an expert in Autodesk software and information technology, specializing in technologies for the AEC marketplace
  • Carl Storms, a Technical Solutions Lead at BIM Track with 20+ years of experience in architecture, engineering and construction
  • Dana De Filippi, a BIM Technologist at SmithGroup, a national multi-disciplinary firm, in the Washington, DC office

Browse our website to learn more about our Revit software plugins. Give them a try with a free 30-day trial version or subscribe online.


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.

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February

4

2022

Thank you to everyone who attended our first webinar of 2022 and our first focused solely on Q&A about Ideate Software solutions! Based on the tremendous participation through questions asked during registration, live within the session, and through comments made in the post-webinar survey, I’m sure it will not be the last.

To learn from actual questions asked by people in the architecture, engineering, construction and building-owner communities who use our Revit software plugins, listen to and watch the recording. I’m certain you will hear some tips that will help you streamline your Revit data management activities, improve the health of your Revit models, and enhance your Revit designs.

Here is just a sample of the questions asked and answered:

  1. How can I transfer schedules/link definitions in Ideate BIMLink to other models/projects?
  2. Can you explain the Edit Rules dialog in Ideate ViewCreator?
  3. How does Ideate BIMLink work with Power BI?
  4. What are the steps to analyze parameters in families and project templates?
  5. How can I document and compare Revit template settings across multiple disciplines?

If this webinar sparked your interest in an Ideate Software plugin for Revit that you don’t yet have, be sure to give it a try with a free 30-day 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 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.

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January

10

2022

AECO companies that do business in the UK will be interested in the recording of BIMThoughts that aired on December 14, 2021. During this 40-minute chat, Ideate Software’s Nick Johns, UK/EMEA Territory Sales Lead; Steve Deadman, Customer Success Manager UK/EMEA and Richard Taylor, Technical Evangelist, discussed several topics geared toward a UK audience, including:

  • UK BIM vs. North America BIM
  • Insights gained from recent UK construction conferences
  • The benefits of standards, including:
    • ISO 19650 - Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including BIM        
    • BS8644 - Digital management of fire safety information (Due for publication during the first half of 2022) 
  • Upcoming “Golden Thread” initiative requiring building owners to store, manage and keep an up-to-date record of all data required to maintain and operate a built asset Ideate Software tools

Over the course of this call, BIMThoughts hosts, Bill Debevc, Carl Storms and Dana De Filippi complimented Ideate Software several times. Here are a few quotes:

  • “For me, Revit and Ideate go hand in hand.”
  • “Over the years, Ideate has added so many great things!”
  • “I just love Ideate tools.”

Browse our website to learn more about how Ideate Software tools for Revit streamline workflows, improve data quality, and enhance design. Give them a try with free trial versions or subscribe today

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