Files

Ideate Automation provides easy access to your live Revit cloud model and local model files by caching a list of your preferred files that can be quickly searched and selected for use within select Ideate Automation tasks. For those that want to access the live cloud models, please first refer to the necessary Ideate Cloud Connector steps.

Topics in this Section

Manage Local Models ▲ ▼

Add Files

To use Ideate Automation with your local Revit models, follow these steps before creating any tasks.

From within Ideate Automation, select Files on the left.
Select the Local Models option as shown below.
Select Add Files from the bottom of the dialog to select one or more Revit files accessible from your local server or computer.
- Ideate Automation will read each file and determine the file version for future use with tasks.
- This process may take a few seconds per each file selected.

This partial list allows you to quickly access your relevant Revit files. To edit the file list see below.

Manage local Revit files with Ideate Automation

Manage Live Cloud Models ▲ ▼

To use Ideate Automation with your live cloud models on Autodesk’s BIM 360 / ACC hubs, follow these steps before creating any tasks.

Complete the Ideate Cloud Connector steps.
From within Ideate Automation, select Files on the left.
Select the Live Cloud Models option as shown below.
Login to your Autodesk BIM 360 account and follow the prompts to allow Ideate Automation access to read your list of accessible Revit files.
Select Refresh File List to connect with BIM 360 / ACC.
- Any Revit file to which you have permission should display here and will be listed along with the appropriate Revit version.
- This process may take a few minutes depending upon the Autodesk traffic.

You are now ready to create new tasks. The Manage files process needs to be repeated when new project or files are added to your Autodesk BIM 360 / ACC hubs.

Refresh File List ▲ ▼

Cloud models will remain synchronized at this point and the File List should only need to be refreshed in the following conditions:

A version older than Ideate Automation 3.1 was previously installed.
Critical information about the files changes such as:
- File Location.
- File Name.
- Revit Version.
- Accessing a new hub/account.

Edit the File List ▲ ▼

The list of files can be sorted by selecting on each of the column headers: Folder, File Name, Revit Version. Additionally, it can be filtered by using the Version drop-down list at the right.

To remove one or more files from the list, use your mouse to select the file(s) then use the Clear File Data button to remove only the selected ones. This will not delete the Revit files, only remove them from this list.

File List data is stored locally on your computer in this location
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Ideate\Ideate Software\CachedFileData
You should not need to view this or modify this folder under normal circumstances.

Local vs Central Files ▲ ▼

For workshared Revit models, only Central files will be displayed on the ‘Added’ or ‘Recent Files’ lists. When opening a model, the local cache contents (and any unsaved changes they may contain) will be treated as follows:

Cloud Model - Automation will create a new local copy, any unsaved changes in the local cache will be discarded.
Workshared model on a local network - Automation will create a new local copy of a central model.
Local copies of a central model: It is possible to add a local copy of a Cloud of Local Network workshared model into the ‘Local Models’ list by browsing to the file in the ‘ADD’ dialog. This is not supported nor recommended.
- For Cloud models, Revit will attempt to open the last published version of the model.
- For (local) network workshared models, the state of the local file may not be indicative of the state of the central model, leading to incorrect or outdated data outputs from the Automation task.

Recent Revit Files ▲

The list of files shown within the Files tab (and and Revit file browse dialog) will display a list of Recent Files.

When the Live Cloud Models option is selected, this list will be the default drop-drown, facilitating easy access to any of the Revit files you have recently accessed on that computer that are also hosted on Autodesk ACC/BIM 360. This list includes recently accessed files, regardless of the hub/account, and does not require the Ideate Cloud Connector process.

The list of Recent Revit Files is also available for Local Models, as shown below.

accessing Recent Revit Files with Ideate Automation

NOTE: These lists exclude files that are opened exclusively by Ideate Automation so as to not disrupt the Recent Files list within the Revit context.

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