Known Issues with IdeateApps for Revit

This topic includes up-to-date information about any known issues related to IdeateApps.

Ideate ReNumber

Unexpected elements

In some cases the list of elements to be renumbered may exclude/include elements that are unexpected. This condition can occur when using the Path, Vertex or Auto-Number methods. 

For example, in an elevation view, even though elements may be hidden, they would still be included as long as they exist within the view. This can be fixed by adjusting the far clip value of the view. This condition is demonstrated within this advanced numbering video.

Another example, that might occur more typically within a plan view when a equipment family or door family has an access area or ADA clearance area that makes the family much larger than otherwise expected. In these cases the Path methods might unexpectedly intersect those families. In this case you may need to adjust the vertex of the 2d path to avoid the family.

Ideate QuickSelect

There are no Known Issues yet. 

Ideate SmartDelete

Ideate XRay

Visibility Reasons

Ideate SpellCheck

.NET error on SpellCheck Launch — Resolved in June 2022 release.

This issue seems surface occasionally when the user is simultaneously running two Revit sessions (Note: Not two projects within the same Revit session!). Some customers reported that closing one of the sessions then allows SpellCheck to run correctly. If you experience this issue, we recommend that you make sure to use the latest release of IdeateApps due to other improvements that may affect this condition.

Revit Spell Check Settings Ignored

Ideate SpellCheck will ignore the Revit spellcheck settings and will always do the following:

Dependent Views

Ideate SpellCheck does not yet check the text on a parent view when the dependent view is placed on the Sheet. Text that appears as part of a dependent view can therefore only be checked by selecting the parent view.

Performance in fields containing “underbar”

Ideate SpellCheck will be slower checking words that use the underbar (“_”) symbols. These characters are often used as part of a family or type naming system. In these cases you can use the Ignore button to skip spellchecking within that field.

Unsupported Data Categories

Ideate SpellCheck will be unable to check and correct errors in unsupported data categories, such as material takeoff or analytical data. Please see here for more info.

Ideate Annotate

Zero (0) Length Multi-string Dimensions

Multi-string dimensions can include segments that are hidden. If you see a 0 length dimension issue in the Annotate>Review tab, but do not see a 0 displayed, this is likely the cause. When this happens, you can use the right-click XRay option to learn more about why that segment is hidden. Most often it’s because the dimensioned element has been cropped. In this instance we recommend using the Dismiss option.

Annotation Clash - Unsupported Elements

On the Review tab of Ideate Annotate, the relationship between various annotative elements are analyzed and reported under the Annotation Clash issue type. These conditions are not supported:

Annotation Clash - Unexpected Issues

Annotative clash results are dependent upon an accurate calculation of the size of the elements as defined by a bounding box. For example, if family geometry is not drawn close to the origin you may get unexpected clash results because the bounding box will consider the origin. The workaround is to move family geometry close to the family origin.

Additionally, when a tag family is set to “rotate with component” the bounding box might be calculated to be slightly larger due to the angle. In this case the clash can be dismissed

Dependent Views — Hidden Elements

Annotative elements that exist on a dependent view can have a “Hidden by Element” setting that is different from the ‘version’ of that element that is displayed on the parent view. Meanwhile, Revit reports that these elements have the same element ID and the same view ID. This means that annotative elements never ‘belong’ to a dependent view. Due to this ambiguous state, Ideate Annotate will always report annotative elements that are both Hidden by Element and that belong to a child view under the “Other Not Visibile” issue type. This means that any element listed under the Hidden by Element issue type exists in only one view and can be safely deleted without potentially impacting any dependent views.

Tag Elements in linked view limitations

When the option under Selection is set to þInclude elements from linked files, Tag rules that are using customized Filters will only be applied to the elements the primary model and not to those in the linked model.
A good example of a tag rule like this can be found in the Getting Started Exercise. The built-in Rule named Room-Ignore_Small is designed to ONLY tag rooms that are larger than 100 SF in area. In the simplified example below, ALL OF the rooms in the linked model are tagged, rather than just the rooms that meet the criteria of the filter.

Blank Tags with Nested Calculated Parameters

Due to an API limitation, tags that contain a calculated parameter that references another calculated parameter within the same tag family are incorrectly returning a ‘blank value’. For this reason, these tags have been prevented from displaying as Blank Tags within the Ideate Annotate > Review list, regardless of whether they are blank or not. This is designed to prevent unintentional deletion of a useful tag.

Ideate Sheet and View Tools

Schedule Column Sizes on sheets not maintained if ‘Filter By Sheet’ is used  

Applies to Revit 2023+ and Ideate ViewCreator, Clone, SheetManager  

If the ‘Filter By Sheet’ option is checked, a schedule that is resized and then placed on a sheet will revert to its default column widths on any future sheets created by Clone or View Creator that would use or duplicate the same schedule. This is caused by a current Revit API limitation.

Workaround: Resize and place the schedule on a sheet first, then check the ‘Filter by Schedule’ box. Future duplicated schedules will then retain the correct size when created.

Ideate SheetManager

Views and Sheets that are filtered by the Project Browser are not filtered by Ideate SheetManager. Instead, these Views are noted as < No Folder >.

When edits to Sheet Number are made in Sheet manager, these are not always shown in Project Browser until Project Browser is refreshed. This is a known Revit issue.
Workaround: Toggle back and forth between two projects or force a refresh by toggling the Sheet Browser choice.

Ideate Align

Rotation On Sheet (Viewports)

Viewports that have a ‘Rotated on Sheet’ value other than 0 will be aligned by the crop box boundary instead of by model coordinates.

Ideate Clone

Sheet Assemblies

Sheets that are part of Assemblies are not currently supported by Clone. An Assembly-based Sheet that is created via Clone will be duplicated, but will not be able to be filed within the Project Browser under the Assemblies as expected.

Split Schedules

Split schedules introduced in Revit 2022 are not supported. When cloning a split schedule, the ‘segment’ property will be lost.

View Titles

When cloning views together with the sheet, the relationships of the view titles to viewports are not maintained. This is due to Revit API limitation; Ideate Clone has no control over the view title.

Ideate ViewCreator

Assembly views

Ideate ViewCreator currently does not support Assembly views.

Copying Color Schemes — Fixed in May 2021 release. 

Due to Revit API limitation, the view property 'Color Scheme' is ignored by Plans to Levels and Apply Dependents methods. Use a template to apply or assign the correct value to this property. The Duplicate Views method is handling this property correctly.

Note: The issue persists in Revit 2019 and it is not expected to be fixed unless a future Autodesk API update includes 2019.

For more details about using a view template to apply properties, see the Copy to Option topic.

Copying Scope Box Visibility Settings

Scope box visibility is set per view and can vary on dependents. There is also an override property of the scope box views visibility, which is currently ignored by Plans to Levels and Apply Dependents methods. The Duplicate Views method is handling this property override correctly.

Copying Scope Box Visibility Settings in IdeateApps


Copying View References or Callouts

Revit API currently does not support copying and altering of view references, or copying of callouts.

As a result, the Plans Levels method does not copy view references or callouts to newly created views, and Apply Dependents does not copy view references to newly
created views.

Note: The Duplicate Views method mimics Revit behavior for Duplicate, Duplicate with Detailing and Duplicate as Dependent; and it is able to copy view references and callouts.

Duplicate to Other Family — Area Type Issue

The Duplicate to Families option does not properly set the Area Type value, due to an API limitation in Revit. As a result, Area plans that have been duplicated with Ideate View Creator will have a dependent relationship to the scheme from which they were created. This condition causes any area elements created from the new area scheme to be deleted IF the original area scheme is deleted. This bug will be fixed in the next published version of IdeateApps.

The workaround to prevent the deletion is to select all areas assigned to the newer schemes and set a different Area Type value, then delete the older scheme. After this has been done the areas can be reset to a different area type value if needed. Setting the Area Type value cannot be done in Ideate BIMLink due to this API limitation. We recommend using Ideate Explorer to make this change. Please contact support with any questions.

Global Parameters

Using Global Parameters in view properties, or to drive view properties is currently not supported.  

Room Views - Linked Files and Missing Room Name

When using the Room Views method to create new views from rooms in a linked file, the resulting view names may be missing the room name. To workaround this limitation you should use the view rule called *Rooms. This rule uses the default part to name the new views. The default part uses a different naming algorithm, getting around this known issue.This rule uses the default part to name the new views. The default part uses a different naming algorythm, getting around this known issue.

Room Views - Preview Creation Fails with Room Rule Containing Multiple Elevation Views

When using the Room Views method with the Room Rule option, multiple elevation views will fail on creation if the elevation type selected only has a single marker. The workaround is to edit the Room rule to use an Elevation type that has all 4 elevation markers, as shown below on the right. At the moment, it is not possible to create 4 elevations if the elevation type only has one marker (left).  

Room Views - Rooms in Design Options Filtered Out

Rooms in design options are incorrectly filtered out when using the Room Views method. To create views based on rooms that are in design options, uncheck the ‘Hide Rooms...’ checkbox, as shown below. 

Using Plans to Levels to copy shadows settings and VG for lighting, design options or linked files

Affects Revit 2019 and earlier.

Due to Revit API limitation, the following properties will not be directly copied over during the 'Plans to Levels' workflow, and need to be applied by a view template: shadows (On/Off); Visibility Graphics settings for: lighting, design options, linked files.

For more details about using a view template to apply these properties, see the Copy to Option topic.

ViewCreator fails to launch with Keynote Manager +

An issue has been identified when Keynote Manager + is installed on the system, it may prevent Ideate ViewCreator from launching. An update to Keynote Manager has been released to address this, please make sure to update KM to version 17.0.8075.0 of higher. If the issue is still present, please contact support.

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