Autodesk Revit is a powerful piece of design software that has revolutionized the modeling of buildings and structures. One reason this innovative modeling tool is so useful is because it gives users the ability to customize workflows through the Revit API (Application Programming Interface).

Ideate Software brings additional capabilities to Revit with a range of tools developed to increase data accuracy while saving users’ time and reducing their effort.

Ideate Software’s Autodesk Revit add-ins can help you work smarter by giving you access to more Revit data, allowing you to verify, correct, and update data quickly. It is a set of Revit tools that offers numerous benefits, including preventing double handling of data, which vastly reduces the chance of manual errors, making error-related delays less likely and helping to keep projects on time and on budget. 

Here are descriptions of the Ideate Software add-in tools that make Revit users more productive:

1.    Ideate Explorer

Ideate Explorer is a dedicated model browser, as opposed to the project browser in Revit, carefully engineered to reduce the time users spend on model management while at the same time increasing model accuracy. 

This Revit tool enables users to easily keep models clean, comply with standards, and develop a more complete view and understanding of all elements in the model by making it easy to find and delete incorrect, obsolete, and hidden problem items, including DWGs. Ideate Explorer also makes it easy to find, refine, and revise elements, even those excluded from the project browser.

In addition, the Ideate Explorer Revit tool can help users improve the accuracy of their models through these valuable features:

• A Warnings Manager, which, as the name implies, allows the user to review and manage Revit warnings with ease. It ranks warnings based on importance, notifies users when high ranking warnings appear in the models, and enables users to fix problems using tools in Revit when the Warnings Manager dialog box is open. 
• A Navigate function that allows users to navigate their way through the view-based elements in an Autodesk Revit project and customize their browsing experience. Use it to find unused sheets and views; find and filter legends, schedules, sheets or views by category and/or keyword; and to customize working environments without altering the project browser. 
• A Query function that permits searching within set parameters for elements such as unused annotations, design options, in-place usage, structure usage/area scheme, and revisions as just a few examples.

2.    Ideate BIMLink

Have you ever thought that controlling your Revit data would be faster and more precise if you had the capability to export the data to Microsoft Excel for editing and then import the updated data back into the Revit model for immediate updates? That is exactly what Ideate BIMLink allows users to do, which is why it is a favorite Revit tool of many professionals in the architecture, engineering, construction and building-owner industries. Whether you need to check to make sure naming conventions are used correctly throughout the model or update element numbering after adding or deleting some elements, or even create new Revit elements from a spreadsheet, Ideate BIMLink is the tool for you.

3.    Ideate Sticky

Project teams working in Autodesk Revit often have non-BIM data they need to share with team members or include in Revit projects by linking, importing or integrating. Ideate Sticky is the tool that should be selected from our range of Autodesk Revit add-ins for this purpose. It is always possible to use Revit schedules to show the data that sits behind your Revit elements, but it is also the case that formatting and organizing non-BIM data can take up a great deal of time, because there is limited text editing functionality built into Revit.

Ideate Sticky overcomes this issue by mixing the familiar flexibility of Word, Excel and PDF editing with the effortless convenience of a sticky note. Ideate Sticky is an elegantly straightforward way to link non-BIM data into a Revit project, whether that data is coming from a Microsoft source such as Excel or Word, or from an Adobe PDF document. And when the source document is updated, the linked “sticky” automatically updates as well. This easy-to-use effective tool can lead to immense improvement in workflows, saving time and improving project efficiency. 

4.    Ideate StyleManager

Pasting data from one model to another can save time, but it can also create issues, because the style information associated with that data can automatically transfer as well. It is important for Revit users to manage styles in their models to present designs that accurately reflect their brand and to reduce end-user confusion caused by publishing errors. Ideate StyleManager gives users the capability to analyze, merge or delete non-standard Revit styles more reliably, more quickly and more accurately than is possible with the built-in Revit style management system. 

Ideate StyleManager is a user-friendly and reliable Revit tool that gives users the ability to see clearly which view filters are being applied to which views, and then clean up object and line styles and patterns, text, fonts, and anything else that might require such attention. Users can also merge non-standard styles into standard styles and analyze forensically how all styles are used, an ability that can provide some extremely useful insight into the real effect of any deletions on the model.

5.    IdeateApps

IdeateApps is a comprehensive set of Revit tools that offers more functionality than Revit. We created and continue to enhance the collection to allow Autodesk Revit users to access and manipulate the data in their models with greater ease. Purposefully designed to take on common challenges identified by people who use Revit daily, these sophisticated MEP, architecture and structure Autodesk Revit add-ins automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows, freeing time for more interesting and valuable activities.  

This suite of intuitive and easy-to-use apps can help Autodesk Revit keep their projects on budget and on time by speeding the process of numerous tasks, including checking spelling, solving element visibility issues, identifying elements that will be deleted with a selected element, batch-creating multiple Revit views while complying with BIM standards, copying sheets with views, renumbering or renaming elements, and so much more.

About Ideate Software

Ideate Software is a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer producing Autodesk Revit add-ins intended to solve persistent issues experienced by AECO companies. All the additional capabilities described above can be added to your Autodesk Revit software quickly and easily directly from our website. Whether you subscribe to one of the tools to address a certain issue or all of them to increase the overall productivity of your entire team, you will experience faster and simpler model creation, your models will contain more accurate data, and your models will function more smoothly.   

Hear from some of our customers as they talk about how they use Ideate Software tools for Revit:

 
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. 
 

This good request came from one of our beta testers this week.

As a general part of our surveys, we always like to say, “Let us know how we can improve Ideate Software.” Most often we get some really fantastic feedback, but every so often we get the opportunity to reach out and tell our customers that we’ve already implemented their idea.

• Beta tester feedback: “Maybe these already exist. Tool to list all unplaced legends. Tool to list all unplaced schedules. Include visibility to count and sheet location of place legends and schedules.”

This little gem is available in the newest version of Ideate Explorer, which supports Revit versions 2019-2022. In the image below you can see the process for selecting Legends and then, within the Query feature of Ideate Explorer, using the new ‘Sheet Count’ property to determine whether the legend has been placed. All supported views have this property, so this method can be used to find both unplaced legends and schedules. 

Learn more about using Query within Ideate Explorer.

About the Author

Glynnis Patterson, NCARB – Director of Software Development
Glynnis is a registered architect and has worked within the building information modeling (BIM) industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis is the Director of Software Development Services and continues to work with AECO clients worldwide, developing, and consulting on solutions to BIM challenges. In her spare time, Glynnis volunteers for the local high school and with growitgreenmorristown.org. Find Glynnis on LinkedIn.

Our webinars and blog posts featuring top ways Revit users benefit from our plug-in tools are very popular; both customers and prospective customers want to know specifically what they need to do to ensure the data in their Revit models is correct and the Revit model is tuned for the best performance possible.

Now, to get people quicker access to information requested often, we created a short video demonstrating how to use Ideate Explorer for Revit to perform 10 critical model auditing workflows. In just nine minutes, you will see step-by-step instructions on how to:

1. Scan for element count
2. Review model and detail lines
3. Clean up text and dimensions
4. Review revisions
5. Audit Revit families and groups
6. Review views and sheets
7. Check grids, levels and reference planes
8. Audit worksets
9. Review Revit model warnings
10. Review and delete CAD imports

Large Revit models can be difficult to understand and manage, but NOT with our Ideate Explorer add-in for Revit software. It delivers an easy-to-use interface that gives users many tools to display, sort, filter, search, and query data as well as review Revit warnings and fully understand the complex relationships of a Revit model. Ideate Explorer is an essential tool for ANY Revit user that will quickly become your most essential Revit add-in for Revit model health and model auditing.

 
Want to jump right to one of the demos? Visit our Top 10 Auditing Tips playlist on our YouTube channel, where the videos are also posted individually.  

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.

Everyone at Ideate Software is obsessed with building information modeling (BIM). The ability to create and manage a digital model of a building and all its elements, from large complex HVAC systems to the direction a door swings is not only fascinating, but BIM has also transformed the building design and construction industries. We love being a part of that transformation.

With a staff of designers, builders, engineers, architects, and others who have hands-on experience in the field, we know the incredible benefits of being able to work together to make sure everything in the building fits together, provides easy access to parts that require manual manipulation (e.g., electrical panels, gas valves, water valves), efficiently heats and cools, meets codes and regulatory requirements, is aesthetically pleasing, etc., etc., etc. … BEFORE the building is ever built!

Benefits of BIM

BIM is a process that supports the creation and management of information across the lifecycle of a building or structure. 

When people think of BIM, they often think of the design and preconstruction phases, but BIM is beneficial at every stage of a building’s life. At Ideate Software, we talk about providing leading Revit BIM tools to the architecture, engineering, construction and building-owner (AECO) community, because like those involved in the early stage of a building’s lifecycle, building owners and managers with digital models reap significant benefits.

Some of the benefits achieved by AECO companies that leverage BIM are:

1. Better collaboration. People in disciplines that once mainly worked independently now collaborate regularly, providing insights based on their experiences, sharing model updates, coordinating activities, verifying accuracy, and more. With everyone working together toward the same goal, many problems are avoided, and projects run more smoothly.
    
2. Improved win rates. By providing an impressive visual experience during the proposal stage, companies demonstrate their understanding of the project, how they plan to help the prospective client achieve their goals, and their ability to accurately estimate timing and costs.
    
3. Enhanced client relations. Using BIM throughout the building process keeps clients informed of how the building will look, how it fits into the existing environment, and how employees and visitors will interact with it. Design changes can be implemented quickly and communicated efficiently to all involved, reducing the chance of miscommunications and errors.  
    
4. Reduced on-site changes. By verifying design efficacy in the model and performing clash detections, fewer changes are needed at the construction site. This brings projects to a close faster and for less cost. Also, BIM can greatly reduce the chance of rework caused by teams working with different versions of the plans, ordering the wrong material, or incorrectly scheduling deliveries or work crews.   
    
5. Efficient building maintenance and updates. An accurate model of a building streamlines the process of handling emergencies, such as clogged drains or stalled elevators, or long-term projects such as reorganizing workstations, conference rooms and touchdown sites to accommodate more or fewer employees.
    
6. Better choices, not guesses. An accurate digital model allows the designer to test different layouts for optimum energy consumption, review code compliance, and explore multiple design schemes or scenarios, and be able to know the building design is the best solution for the specified input criteria. It’s no longer a guess at which design is the best for the thousands of input specifications. Instead, designers can say with confidence that the building meets the design criteria and choices were made based on empirical data.

What are BIM tools?

Several BIM tools have been built to help companies capitalize on the advantages of BIM through design, simulation, visualization and collaboration.

Autodesk is a leading developer of BIM tools, including:

• Revit – One of the most popular BIM authoring tools in the industry. It is used by architects, designers, MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) specialists, contractors and more. 
   
• Navisworks – The main difference between the Navisworks BIM tool and Revit is that Navisworks is more of a project review solution for AEC professionals rather than an authoring tool such as the Revit BIM tool.  It also works with other Autodesk 3D solutions to open, combine, review and navigate through models.
   
• BIM 360/Autodesk Construction Cloud – This cloud-based software unifies different processes of design, project and construction into one single process, avoiding delays by providing disparate teams access to relevant data.
   
• Civil 3D – Focused on developing civil engineering more accurately, this software also offers some BIM-related features and workflows. 

Ideate Software’s BIM Tools for Revit

While Autodesk Revit software is a powerful tool, some of its workflows are a bit unrefined, time consuming, or maybe even non-existent. Ideate Software was founded to address these workflow gaps and increase Revit productivity. Our experienced software engineers develop BIM tools for Revit workflows for companies in building design, engineering, construction and facilities management industries. By automating workflows that they perform over and over again as well as creating tools that fill gaps in Revit software workflows, our Revit BIM tools help users at large and small companies around the world get the most out of the software.

Why do we develop Revit BIM Tools?

We love BIM, we love Revit and we love making them better!

How do we do it?

Businesses and industries are constantly changing. To ensure we develop BIM tools that Revit users from across the AECO spectrum will find valuable, we stay connected to the Revit community throughout the world. We attend conferences, lead breakout sessions, serve as keynote speakers, survey users, track support requests, monitor Revit discussion boards, and talk with users in groups and individually.

Another critical way we stay connected to the Revit community is through our beta testing program. By asking people who use Revit and our Revit BIM tools for feature requests, running our early ideas by them, and involving them in rigorous testing, we ensure our solutions, whether new or enhancements, are wanted and work as expected.  

Ideate Software’s BIM Tools for Revit Users

In 2008, we launched our first BIM tool for Revit, Ideate Explorer. Since that time, we have made significant enhancements to Ideate Explorer and launched/improved four more tools that solve persistent problems in Revit workflows. Here’s a quick overview of each of our five tools:

1. Ideate BIMLink – Verifying or updating massive amounts of data in Revit is tedious, time consuming and frustrating. Every time you think you’re done, you realize that you missed something! Ideate BIMLink eliminates this problem by enabling you to move data from Revit into Excel, where you can use its powerful functions to quickly check, correct or change data. When you move the data back to Revit, your model automatically updates and everything is correct. Tasks that used to take hours now take just minutes.
    
2. Ideate Explorer – We developed Ideate Explorer to improve the browser within Revit, which is simply a project browser. Ideate Explorer is a model browser, which means you can easily search for and find hidden problem items including DWG imports or links, navigate through view-based elements within Revit, search on parameters such as elements assigned a certain size, and even review and manage Revit warnings. 
    
3. Ideate Sticky – How can you elegantly share non-BIM data associated with Revit projects with the entire team? Use Ideate Sticky! Use it to link data from Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and PDF documents into your Revit projects, ensuring everyone has the correct information at their fingertips at all times.
    
4. Ideate StyleManager – Copying/pasting data is a fast way to reuse information, but the process comes with challenges. Style information associated with the data often tags along, creating a mess that can cause publishing errors and end-user confusion. With Ideate StyleManager, this is never a problem, because it’s easy to analyze, delete or merge non-standard styles.
    
5. IdeateApps – This collection of nine tools streamlines tasks identified by Revit users as tedious, time consuming and error prone. By automating these common tasks, IdeateApps improves the quality of Revit models and frees the users’ time to do more interesting and valuable activities.

Visit our website to learn more about our Revit BIM Tools. When you’re ready to take the next step, contact us, get 30-day trial versions, or choose the subscription option that best meets your needs. 

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. 
 

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.