BIM Managers Faced New Challenges During the Pandemic

As a BIM manager, you wear many hats. In addition to supervising and supporting your technical team, your responsibilities include:

• Developing BIM standards, protocols and templates
• Managing the collaboration between your team, clients, contractors and others
• Overseeing the production of project information models from design through handover

While the role of BIM manager has always involved a lot of moving parts, the pandemic-related challenges of disparate workforces, increased absences and talent shortages have put new and uncharted job duties on your plate.

Calmer Days Provide Time for Strategic Planning

Fortunately, companies around the world that have dealt with the urgency of the past two years’ challenges are starting to settle back into a routine. Now, with the raging fire down to embers, it is time to step back and make sure your team has the tools needed to enter this new phase seamlessly and position your company to succeed through increased employee and customer satisfaction.

One way to tackle employee and customer satisfaction at the same time is by investing in technology that allows employees to focus on more interesting activities while improving their designs and increasing the speed in which their designs are delivered to customers. 

Solutions for Revit Users

If your company uses Autodesk Revit software, we recommend that you spend a few minutes reading this post to learn how you, your team, your company and your customers can benefit from the leading Revit software plugins developed by Ideate Software.  
 
“We’ve been working with Ideate Software for years. Each one of their products tackles specific challenges we face with Revit software. They help us save time with a variety of model tasks, freeing up time for our designers to do what they do best, innovate and design. Ideate Software products also have a critical function in our model quality control process, giving us more control of our data in a way that Revit out-of-the-box cannot.”
~Jason Halaby, Senior Associate, Architect and BIM Manager, WRNS Studio
 

In it for the Long Haul

No doubt you are aware of Autodesk Revit plugins that are inexpensive or even free. We suggest that you ask yourself why they are free. Wouldn’t a company charge for a product it considered valuable? At Ideate Software, we invest significantly in understanding challenges faced by Revit users and developing Revit plugin solutions that stand up to the rigors of a complex dataset. 

For more than 12 years, we have successfully served the needs of the Revit community:  

• We stay connected to the architecture, engineering, construction and building-owner industries by attending and hosting events.
• We learn about Revit challenges through Autodesk forums, surveys, roundtable discussions and one-on-one conversations, and we develop tools that address those challenges.
• We leverage our beta testing program to ensure our tools achieve the desired results before we release them to the public. 

Because of our rigorous development and testing process, we know that all our Revit software plugins address specific requests from Revit users, streamlining workflows, reducing time spent on data management, and improving the quality of their Revit models.

What are the Five Must-Have Revit Plugin Solutions from Ideate Software?

Below are summaries of our products that BIM managers with teams ranging from small and local to large and global count on to help them achieve their goals. For details, visit our website. 

1. Move data from Revit to Excel for fast and easy editing and then move updated data back to Revit to instantly update your model – Ideate BIMLink 
   
   “[Ideate BIMLink] is an essential tool that we rely on regularly.”
   ~Peter Michealsen, Modulus Consulting
   
   Here are a few specific tasks you can perform with our Ideate BIMLink Revit software plugin:
    
   • Edit type and instance parameters in the same Excel workbook
   • Export custom revision cloud comment information
   • Ensure Revit model health
      
2. Find and delete hidden problem items including DWGs, find and refine elements including those excluded from the project browser, manage Revit warnings, and more – Ideate Explorer
   
   “[Ideate Explorer] puts the filter tool in Revit to absolute shame -it is simply THE tool for finding elements in Revit models.”
   ~Gavin Crump, BIM Guru
   
   See a few ways Ideate Explorer will save you time and increase the accuracy of your Revit models:
    
   • Review Revit warnings using Power BI
   • See both CAD links and CAD files
   • Audit your Revit projects
      
3. Elegantly connect non-BIM data from an Excel, Word or PDF document into Revit projects, enhancing cross-team workflows – Ideate Sticky
   
   “Ideate Sticky reduces the time we spend getting Excel schedules into Revit by a minimum of nine minutes per project per reload. It paid for itself in just one month.”
   ~Aimee Molleken, GLHN Architects & Engineers
   
   Learn more about Ideate Sticky:
    
   • Integrate non-BIM documentation into a Revit file
   • Avoid color fills when linking to Revit
   • See how we have improved Ideate Sticky since its launch in 2015
      
4. Analyze, delete or merge non-standard Revit styles that enter models along with imported content – Ideate StyleManager
   
   “After cleaning up a library of 1000+ families, I can safely say Ideate StyleManager is a must have. It saved me many days of work, if not weeks! I’m not sure how I would have kept my sanity without it.”
   ~Ann-Helen Wirtz, SERA Architects
   
   Check out some of the valuable ways our Ideate StyleManager Revit software plugin is used to keep Revit models clean:
    
   • Paul Aubin talks about Ideate StyleManager
   • Tips to keep Revit models clean and healthy with Ideate StyleManager
   • Project cleanup just got easier 
      
5. Streamline common tasks such as renumbering elements, determining which elements will be deleted along with a selected item, copying sheets with views, and more – IdeateApps 
   
   “All [IdeateApps] apps are big time savers, but from a BIM management standpoint, [Ideate XRay] is my favorite time saver.”
   ~Anne Gustavson, NBBJ
   
   The IdeateApps collection is made up of nine different tools. Here are just three of the many tasks it can automate for you:
    
   • Rename sheets to ISO 19650
   • Understand how deleting one element will impact the related elements
   • Control the placement of Revit views on sheets

Ready to Learn More about our Autodesk Revit Plugin Solutions?

You’ve taken the first step and read this blog post. Now it’s time to dig in a little deeper. You can contact us for a one-on-one conversation; check out our blog posts that feature product information, workflow demonstrations, frequent questions addressed by our Support team and more; attend an upcoming webinar or review a recording of a past event, or watch short how-to videos that provide demonstrations on how to perform specific tasks using our Revit software plugin tools. 

As you peruse the information, we are certain you will come to understand the value that these tools can bring to your team starting on the first day you launch your subscription. 

Subscribe Today!

Whether you have a small or large team and are ready to dip your toe in the water or take the plunge, we have a trial offer or subscription option for you.

• Trial – Try any or all our products for 30 days free of charge
• Get-to-know-us Bundle – Subscribe to all our products for six months
• Individual Products – Address immediate needs with 1, 5, or 10 licenses for the product(s) you need today
• Bundles – Set your team up for long-term success with a subscription to all our products

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. 
 

We are continuing our monthly Ideate Software Blog series entitled Wishlist Granted.  Each blog article features real user requests from Autodesk forums and discussions, plus many Ideate Software customer requests.

First, it’s important to have the most efficient Revit model possible. Elements that aren’t used can negatively impact Revit model performance. That’s a huge reason Autodesk developed the Purge Unused command within Revit. A page directly from the Autodesk Revit Help file states:

“Remove unused views, families, and other objects from the project to improve performance and reduce file size.”

However, Purge Unused doesn’t remove many styles that may be used within the Revit model. A Revit Ideas Forum request by Matthew Taylor at WSP is a perfect example of the problem, and the perfect summary for the following features requested by Matthew:

• Purge unused Fill Patterns
• Purge unused Line Patterns
• Purge unused Line Styles (and by association, this includes CAD import layers)
• Purge unused Subcategories

Manually purging these elements out of families is labor intensive

For this reason and many others, we developed Ideate StyleManager.   

Use Ideate StyleManager to:

• Safely delete styles that otherwise cannot be deleted or purged in Revit software 
• Merge non-standard styles into standard styles 
• Forensically analyze the usage of all styles to understand the true scope of a modification
• Clean up Object Styles, Line Styles, Line Patterns, Fill Patterns, Filled Regions, Materials, Material Appearance Assets, View Filters, View Templates, Viewports, Scope Boxes, Text, Fonts, Dimensions, and Arrowheads
• Understand which views are using which View Filters

 
Main Ideate StyleManager dialog showing the merge and purge of non-standard and duplicate styles into standard styles. We are merging all the Families, Materials and Elements that have “Dense Sand” to instead have “Sand - Dense” while at the same time deleting the “Dense Sand” definition from the Revit model.

There are at least a half dozen requests on the Revit Ideas Forum for managing all these different Revit Styles with an easier method. 

We love ideas from Revit users – feel free to contact our team via [email protected] to share yours.

Wishlist Granted!

Please review our other Wishlist Granted posts.

---

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.

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. A recent customer request came into our queue that asked about the ability of Ideate StyleManager to modify the color property of a CAD Import element:

“We have several imported [CAD] details from our façade consultants that require color to be edited to prevent an imported hatch from creating a large black area on our drawings.”

Revit manages CAD Imports as Object Styles unless they are exploded, in which case they become Line Styles. In the customer’s case, the CAD Import was not exploded, so Ideate StyleManager could absolutely be used to analyze, merge or delete these styles. However, the goal was to batch edit the colors of these object styles without exploding the CAD Import.

Ideate StyleManager main dialog showing the DWG lines as Imported Object Styles

In this specific case, our support team advised that Ideate BIMLink would be a better fit for the requested task. Even though this customer was specifically asking about Ideate StyleManager, they have access to the full Ideate Software suite. When you have access to the Suite of Solutions from Ideate Software, you can use the best tool for the workflow or task.

Step-by-Step Instructions

To edit the color, line weight or material of Revit Object Styles:

1. Launch Ideate BIMLink
2. Select New
3. Pick the Category option at left
4. type 'object' in the search box to find Object Styles
5. Pick the sample link called "Project_Stds-Object_Styles"

 
Ideate BIMLink Dialog after selecting NEW and typing ‘object’ into the Search criteria

6. Optionally, you can limit the export to only edit the CAD Import Styles by setting the Link Definition Filter as shown:

 
Setting the Filter in BIMLink to only export CAD Imported Styles

7. Export to Excel
8. In Excel, change the line colors and patterns as needed
9. Import back into Revit using Ideate BIMLink

In this specific example, the combination of using both Ideate StyleManager and Ideate BIMLink was an excellent solution that delighted this customer.

“Wow, awesome workflow!

This is what I was looking for. Very easy to access all the properties there.

Thank you!”

It’s a good idea to review other Project Standards samples via the Ideate BIMLink library definitions by reviewing this online Help topic.

Let us know how you use Ideate Software solutions to create the most consistent project standards for your Revit models. We love to hear from our customers about how they are using our Ideate Software solutions to solve difficult and time-consuming Revit workflows.

This post is part of a series of real questions posed to our Support team and our solutions. View more. 

---

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.

Are you looking to reduce the time you spend on Revit model management? Start using Ideate BIMLink + Ideate Automation, Ideate Explorer and Ideate StyleManager to address your Revit model’s health and prevent:

• Slowness during opening, closing and while working in models
• Crashing
• “Save” issues
• Printing and exporting problems
• Model upgrade difficulties
• Noncompliance with company standards

With Ideate BIMLink, you can push large amounts of model health check and QA/QC-related data from your Revit model into Microsoft Excel for review in Excel and Power BI. 

Using Ideate Automation, you can export large amounts of data from multiple Revit files to Excel without being present, so you can run it overnight and the next day, your data will be ready for review. 

Use Ideate Explorer for on-demand reviews of QA/QC tasks such as finding and removing CAD imports, addressing group usage and querying a selection of elements to determine if they are pinned, flipped, modeled as in-place families and so much more. Going a step further, use features built into Ideate Explorer to help manage and address warnings, ensuring models are in good health.

Finally, with Ideate StyleManager, dive deeply into projects, templates and families for usage of styles, such as object styles, line patterns, fill patterns, materials, fonts, text and much more, to determine usage and if needed, remove unused styles and merge and purge unwanted styles, ensuring that Revit projects, templates, and families are lean, healthy, and in compliance with standards.

Here’s a link to a recording of our recent webinar in which we highlighted the importance of addressing Revit model health and demonstrated how our tools make the process easy and accurate.

 

Browse our website for more information on our Revit productivity tools. Give them a try with a free trial version, 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.

 

For those of you who are new to Ideate Software or need a refresher course on the capabilities our products, this webinar recording is for you. Spend one hour watching to get a high-level overview of all Ideate Software solutions and how they relate to BIM managers and BIM management.

• Ideate BIMLink – The industry standard for exporting information from a Revit model to Microsoft Excel, so you can modify the data and import it back into Revit to update the model
  • Ideate Automation for Ideate BIMLink – Script and run Ideate BIMLink on multiple models during non-business hours, so data is in Excel spreadsheets when you return
• Ideate Sticky – Live-link Excel data as schedules or Word, Excel and PDFs as images in your Revit projects, so they automatically update when changes are made to the original documents
• Ideate Explorer – See every element and instance of every element in the Revit model, so you can easily select and swap elements, audit the project, and review and manage warnings
• Ideate StyleManager – Review styles (e.g., object styles, line styles, fonts, and dimensions), so you can merge and purge unwanted styles and delete those not being used
• IdeateApps – Decrease the time spent on common Revit tasks and increase the accuracy of BIM data in a Revit model with these nine focus-driven tools

Watch the recording and share it with others who will benefit from its content.

 
This webinar was presented in three regions over a two-day period. This recording is of the presentation made in the Americas region. The content is the same as the other presentations, except for the specific attendee questions asked during the webinar.

Browse our website for more information on our Revit productivity tools. Give them a try with a free 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.