Use Ideate Explorer to Replace Detail Groups with Components

Every day, our Ideate Software Support team fields all types of questions from AECO professionals all around the world. 


At Ideate Software, we strongly encourage weekly Revit model audits to ensure that models run smoothly and adhere to project and office standards. 

One common issue we see during model audits is the way groups are used. In many cases, groups are over utilized and inappropriately named. Heavy group usage is known to cause performance issues, especially if they are part of an array. When groups are left as their default names, such as Group 1, Group 2, etc., the usage can be confusing, because no one knows the intended use of the group until it gets audited. 


I recently worked with a customer and showed them how to use the <Ideate Audit> filter to isolate Revit categories that should be part of weekly audits. When we reviewed group usage, we noticed that most of the groups mimicked detail components that ship with Revit, like the detail shown here:

Replace Detail Groups with Components

While it is not possible in Revit to select groups and swap them out with model or detail components, as shown here …

Screenshot showing it's not possible in Revit to select groups and swap them with model or detail components

… you can use Ideate Explorer to identify inappropriate group usage so you can edit the groups, swap out the content for similar model or detail components, finish the groups (which now have the model or detail components) and then ungroup the updated groups to ‘swap’ the groups with model or detail components.


To learn more about this process, be sure to watch this short video on how you can use Ideate Explorer to identify and fix groups that should be Type Swapped with model or detail components.

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