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Create a Power BI Dashboard

This help file outlines how to export model health data from a Revit file using Ideate Automation and display it in Power BI. This process will reduce the amount of hands-on time needed in order to ensure project stability and consistency across your Revit project files. The PowerBI template can be modified to suit your company’s needs.

Software Requirements

Before you begin, check that your setup can meet these requirements:

Power BI — October 2022 (or later)
Installed Ideate Software:

Ideate Automation — version 2.0 or later — download — Complete the Open File task first!
Ideate BIMLink — version 6.1 or later (July 2022). The Dashboard Files exe will also place an updated HC-Ideate.link file into C:\ProgramData\Ideate\Ideate BIMLink\en-US\Samples\05 Health Check folder. This link file will ensure your data loads correctly into Power BI.
Ideate Explorer — version 4.7 or later (July 2022)
IdeateApps — version 1.14 or later (July 2022)

Initial Setup

The PowerBI template and associated files can be requested by Ideate Software subscription customers. You will receive an email from Ideate Software support with a download link.

Download the zip file, unpack it and double click the Ideate Dashboard Files.exe. Pick ‘Unzip’ to place the contents in the default C:\<root> location.

The following folders will be created on your ‘C:\’ drive:

Ideate Health Check
- Data File folder (.xlsx files). These files can be replaced with your company’s Ideate Automation export files. Leave the directory location as-is for now. Later you may change the data location if you wish. When setting up the task in Automation, the resulting .xlsx files should be set to save into the data folder location.
Ideate Dashboard Files
- Metric.xlsx. This file sets the threshold values that change visualizations from black to red. Metric.xlsx file must not be moved into the Data Folder. You may modify this file to your company’s threshold values.
- Ideate Dashboard — v2_7.pbit — Power BI Dashboard Template. This Power BI template file references the exported data and shows the interactive dashboard visualizations. Important — the template file must not be moved to the Data Folder.

Ideate Automation

Create the Ideate Automation Task

Launch Ideate Automation, which runs outside of Revit. The shortcut can be found on your Desktop after installation.
Select Create to start a new task.
From the Ideate Software Scripts folder, select the subfolder called “02 Health Check”, then pick the script on the right pane called “ISW-Health_Check-PowerBI”.
Review the description of this task and note the product requirements, then pick Next.

Set the Script Variables

Fill in the script variables:
- Revit Files — select one or more Revit files to process for a health check. Go to ‘Manage’ if you have not added the files into your Automation list yet.
- Export Location — browse for a location to save the Excel data files. It should be your Data Folder, per the details in the File Setup section above. You can save the results to your local drive or to BIM 360 / ACC as well.
Select Next, review all inputs on the Confirm Task Selections page and select Next again.

Start the Automation Task

Check that Revit is not running. While it is OK to run Revit of a different year version than the one(s) needed by the Automation task, this is not recommended, especially if you use a single display.
Select Create and Run to start the task. Revit should open and the automated health check should begin. The process can take some time, especially on large and complex models.
Once the task is complete, you will see ‘Completed’ in the task Status field (Ideate Automation Home Page)
The result of this process is a uniquely named Excel file for each of the selected Revit files, located in the Data Folder.

Power BI

Loading Data into Power BI

The .pbit file contains the dashboard visualizations and references the data found in the folder called Ideate Health Check.

Open the .pbit file with Power BI, either by double-clicking on the file or in Power BI, select File>Open Report>Browse Reports. Be sure to change file type to Power BI template files (.pbit) when browsing for the template. After starting Power BI, a dialog appears
Select ‘Load’

If you see a pending change to queries, select Apply Changes.
It is a best practice to refresh the data in Power BI — Home Tab > Queries Panel > Refresh.

Visualizations

General
- Filters — File Name and Date are filters that are applied to the data visualizations. The underlying data is not affected.
- Thresholds — Metric.xlsx file is loaded in Power BI and is used to conditionally format the viz cards. You may modify the Metric.xlsx and the conditional formatting thresholds will change.
Project Information — Revit Version, File Size, Total Warnings, and Warnings per File Size filtered by date and file.
Model Groups — Sum of Model Groups on filtered date and filtered file.
Views Not Sheets — Dependent and Independent Views not on sheets (primary views not calculated) on filtered date/file.
Avg. Annotation Issues/Sheet — Issues (cropped annotations, annotation clashes, hidden annotations) divided by number of sheets on filtered date/file.
CAD Imports — Sum of CAD Imports on filtered date/file. Control + Click “Details” button to see details, including Created By.
In-Place Families — Sum of In-Place Families on filtered date/file. Control + Click “Details” button to see details, including Created By.
Warnings Over Time — Information on warnings change over time.
Revit Warning Descriptions — Filtered only High (Red) and Medium (Yellow) and filtered on date/file.
Detail Information Tab — This tab gives detailed information about CAD Imports and In-Place Families including ‘Created By’.

Customize Data Folder

To change the Data Folder location (local hard drive or cloud/network location):

Go to File > Options and Settings > Data source settings to adjust the data locations.
Select the data source, which in our sample content is the folder called C:\ideate health check, then use the Change Source…button to browse to the new file path.

Note: This new folder path must include an excel file that’s formatted to be read by Power BI template. You can either use the data we provide or place an export from Ideate Automation that’s been created from the ISW-Health_Check-PowerBI script into that folder directory.

Click OK to close, then select the option at the top to Apply Changes.
If you want your Power BI template to read from that new location all the time, you can save as Power BI template file (*.pbix) after redirecting to the data source file.

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