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Browse Annotation
Within the Browse tab of Annotate, you can view and edit Revit annotation elements on a per project, per view or per sheet basis to ensure documentation meets the project standards for the deliverable.
Topics in this Section
Options ▲ ▼
The Options portion of the UI is where the selection set can be refined by sorting and filtering Views and Categories.
Display:, Sort by:, Filter:, and Search: are the four Options that are described in more detail below.
Display
The Display drop-down controls the scope of annotative elements displayed, with options of Entire Project, Placed Views and Sheets, Open Views, Active View, or Current Selection.
At the bottom of the list is an option to create a new filter of your own.
Placed Views and Sheets includes:
- Annotative elements that are on a view that is placed on a sheet.
- Annotative elements that are on a sheet.
- Annotative elements that are on a dependent view, when either the parent or the dependent is placed on a sheet.
- Elevation markers (because they can exist on multiple views/sheets).
Sort by
The Sort by drop-down controls the order in which the results are displayed.
- When sorting by Category, the results are grouped by the Revit Category and Subcategories.
- When sorting by View, any view that contains Revit Annotations is identified and the results are grouped into either Views, Sheets, or ???.
- The ??? group contains datum elements like Grids and Levels that may exist on multiple views/sheets as well as Elevation Marks.
Filter
The list of annotation elements can also be further refined via the Filter option drop-down.
Ideate Filters provide a dynamic, customizable, and rule-based method to quickly filter Revit model elements based on your specified parametric conditions. Ideate Filter rules can utilize the power of the data model to create dynamic filtered selection sets. These rules can be saved in the project and re-used in other project or even saved as standards within your Revit templates.
Read more about Ideate Filters in Annotate.
Search
The Search tool bar will isolate the selection set to only include elements that have the search term found within one of these fields:
- Category
- Family
- Type
- Name
- Level
- Text Value
- Tag Text
The search supports multiple terms (in any order) and the use of quotes “” to look for terms in a specific order. As you type, the search is narrowing down the results displayed below in the Element List.
Element List ▲ ▼
The main body of the Browse tab displays a structured list of annotative elements.
The tree structure of the list can be expanded or collapsed using the + and - buttons.
There is a right-click menu for additional control of the tree as well as to provide direct access to other tools such as Ideate Xray.
Within the element list you can Select Elements or Zoom to Elements
Select Elements
Select elements by picking one or more of the check boxes. Additional elements can be pre-selected independently by clicking on the element name instead of the check box.
- Any element that is part of the selection set can now be modified within the Revit environment while Ideate Annotate remains open. This means you can change line styles, filled region types, etc. to match your standards or find all revision clouds per their issuance number.
Zoom to Elements
Double-clicking on an element name will open a view where the element exists and zoom to the element. In some cases the element may be invisible, in which case Ideate XRay can be launched from the Annotate Tools or the Right-Click menu.
Tools ▲ ▼
There are several tools that are shared across the three tabs in Ideate Annotate. For this section we are focusing on those that are unique to the Browse tab.
Ideate Query
Ideate Query is a powerful search tool that lets you browse through your selected Revit elements and make a selection based on the parameters' values. Ideate Query is an integral part of Ideate Annotate. Read more about Ideate Query
Read more about Ideate Query in Annotate.
Ideate XRay
Helps you find annotative elements that exist in the view but are currently not visible.
To use this option, select one element in the Selection Window. If the element is visible in a view you can double-click on the element to open the view and zoom to it (some versions of Revit require using the double-click 2x).
- If the reason for the invisibility is that the element is hidden in the view, Annotate will display a message offering to temporarily show hidden elements.
- If the annotation crop is active in the view and the element is not hidden, the option to turn off the crop will be offered instead.
- When the ‘zoom to element’ function does not work, XRay is most helpful. Select the element from the Element List and click on the XRay button.
Read more about Ideate Xray.
Delete
The Delete button and right-click option are offered within Annotate as a safer way to delete elements.
Click the delete button and a list of currently selected elements, grouped by Revit Category, is presented. You have the option to toggle the state of the checkbox per Revit Category in the event of inadvertently selecting a Category that is not to be deleted.
- If any non-annotative elements are selected, they will be excluded from the list and will not be deleted. In the image below, for example, a selection window was used to pick both model and annotative elements.
- The total selection count, noted in both Revit and Ideate Annotate at the bottom right, is 15. However, Annotate ignores the model elements, and lists only 3 elements. When Delete is used, the dialog displays only these three annotative elements.
Refresh
Annotate will change the display of elements as needed when the project or view is changed. When new annotative elements are added, or are deleted without using Delete then the Refresh button can be used to update the list.
Distribute
Distribute allows you to evenly space multiple Text, Tag, Material and Keynote annotations vertically or horizontally. With three or more elements selected in the active view, pick the drop-down arrow to choose from the following distribution options.
Align
Align allows you to evenly justify multiple Text, Tag, Material and Keynote annotations in all directions. With one or more elements selected in the active view, pick the drop-down arrow to choose from the following distribution options.
Pro Tip: Using the built-in Selection Filter named ‘Align and Distribute’ will capture only Tags and Text in your selection, filtering out any unwanted Model Elements. Enabling this Filter prior to selecting elements in both Distribute and Align is a big help.
With just a few clicks, a messy detail can be transformed into clear and legible documentation.
Information Pane ▲ Top of Page
At the bottom of Ideate Annotate is the information pane where common properties can be reviewed.
When an element is pre-selected, details about that element will display within the information pane.
This enables you to preview an elements properties before adding it to the selection set. In our example, an Elevation Mark is pre-selected, and three instances of a Linear Dimension are selected. What we see in the information pane are the properties of the Elevation Mark.
